Decision making and IT management

Understanding the decision points in the corporate world and knowing who makes those decisions can help to plan your career in IT management. In an article on the computing.co.uk website, the second of a two part series on ‘The business of IT decision-making’ looks at where the spending and decision power comes from – based on a survey of 755 UK IT decision makers. The research covers who allocates budgets, who deals with actual procurement and who initiates IT strategy. The study shows great variation depending on the size of project and the size of the company. The article suggests that those in computing management need to expand their skills into budgeting, strategy and wider areas. ‘IT decision-makers spend increasing amounts of time learning and keeping up to date with technology advancements. Those who wish for greater strategic involvement might need to expand their studies to include business issues as well.’ Read more at http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/analysis/2182823/computing-research-business-decision#ixzz1yp3VZLJw

The challenge of being CIO for the entire UK government

The role of chief information officer can be wide ranging covering many areas and departments in a large company. Andy Nelson has just taken over as the CIO for the whole of the UK government as well as maintaining his previous role of CIO for the Ministry of Justice. In an interview with Computer Weekly magazine, he talks about the challenges of both roles and luckily how there is a lot of overlap between them. The government’s key priorities are implementing ‘core infrastructure strands… the cloud, Public Services Network (PSN), data centre consolidation and end user device piece.’ Nelson believes these are the areas that will reduce costs. The detailed interview also covers leadership strategy, IT procurement and legislative issues. For more about how the man at the top sees the future of IT in a whole range of government departments, read the whole article at http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240149128/CIO-interview-Andy-Nelson-government-IT-head