NextGen CIO 2015 | cover story have negotiations around that with the vendor,” says Parikh. According to Parikh, portfolio management is given as ownership to senior IT managers, who should align it based on the requirement. For instance, they could align their strategy thus: about 20 per cent of resources allocated to internal business, 50 per cent towards projects that generate revenue, 20 per cent towards building strategies and so on. Besides, Parikh says, educating and mentoring the team also forms part of the portfolio management strategy which can help in vendor management. Sanjeev Kumar, Group CIO & PresidentBusiness Excellence, Adhunik Group of Industries says it is important to manage portfolio. “The prioritisation is done based on a scale of Vitals, Essentials and Desirables, and future CIOs need to spot the high business impact items for better alignment of the IT strategy to drive business growth,” points out Kumar. According to him, allocating the time for each item of the IT based on the criticality and those which are on top of the management agenda form a critical component of portfolio management, besides highlighting dependencies and risks on time. Kumar recommends keeping entry and exit aspects very clear; and if the project is big, setting success criteria and jointly agreeing to it is even more critical. “When the requirement is specific to a domain, set the qualifying criteria; bring a score card concept for selecting the right vendor and sign SLAs with those who have realistic terms to make it a win-win situation,” reiterates Kumar. Subhashish Saha, CTO, Apeejay Surendra Group, encourages future CIOs to understand that vendors are no more mere suppliers of products and services. Vendor management strategy, Saha says, also depends on the size and criticality of business. For instance, in a regulated industry, it is better to opt for proven solutions from well-known OEMs. However, it is a good idea to work with smaller partners on experimentation projects with newer technology. As part of the IT alignment, Saha argues that the definition of scope becomes much more complex and comprehensive, compared to project management. “Important skills that the future CIO needs to possess as part of the IT strategy are good communication skills which can help in increasing the scope and size of multiple teams working together, impacting multiple stakeholders,” says Saha. He mentions that besides monitoring of multiple projects and programmes under the portfolio, the future CIO should have knowledge of overseeing progress
“The need for an all-round exposure to technology: infrastructure, development, maintenance, services are important which can help in aligning the IT strategy perfectly” Pradeep Khanna, Senior Project Manager, Infosys
of multiple projects through good project management tools.
Skills Required for Strategising Pradeep Khanna, Senior Manager-IT, Infosys, feels the need for an all-round exposure to technology: infrastructure, development, maintenance, services which can help in aligning perfectly. Future CIOs should have some pertinent traits, such as:
A keen “non-nerdy” business sense Willingness to shatter old dogmas and keep revisiting their priorities and directions Constant ability and willingness to keep learning Networking and relationship building, both within.
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