It's 1998: the millennium is on the horizon, just 23 months away. For Australians, the implications for "the Year 2000" are twofold. For most, the Year 2000 is synonymous with "Sydney 2000" and that city hosting the Olympic Games. But CIOs have their own special event to win - in fact, well before the celebrations start on December 31, 1999 - and that's the disruptive Year 2000 date-conversion problem.
Hot technologies create a buzz, but talk is cheap and IT isn't.
John Handby, former CIO of Glaxo Wellcome, National Power and the UK post office, has authored Ahead of the Game Real-life experience winning competitive advantage with information technology. Currently, a "strategic IT adviser", he spoke with CIO editor Linda Kennedy about the evolving role of the CIO.
Associate publisher Linda Kennedy on the changing role of the CIO
Editor/Publisher Linda Kennedy outlines CIO magazine's new role
The crux of CIO magazine is leadership: leading change and leading people. Unfortunately, too often in the past CIOs were more likely to be leading the charge as they battled the executive suite. It was CIOs versus CEOs, and CIOs versus CFOs.
Data warehousing makes a lot of sense: take information from your business transactions, store it where anyone who needs it can get it and provide analytical tools to use the data to make better business decisions.
The Wired Majority
A fair few of the stories in this month's CIO magazine deal with managing the software development process, for some at a time when organisational upheaval is rife.
"Leaders are people who do the right things. Managers are people who do things right." I wish I could claim credit for saying it, but I didn't.
What's all this noise about CIO? You cannot help but stumble over the term as it becomes the acronym of choice to describe the single most critical person in the corporate IT chain.