CIO Assist

The challenge...

We typically see the challenges faced by our clients across 3 key areas

Leadership and Innovation

  • Your role is changing from overseeing technical solutions to one that will be more business-orientated?
  • Does the IT and wider organisation have the experience and skillset required to bring consistency to the delivery of your constantly evolving innovation and business transformation requirements?
  • Are you refining, reviewing and achieving the business performance you want?

    • Change Leadership

  • Are you optimising your portfolio to maximise results, and ensuring all your stakeholders are engaged?
  • Do you ensure that your portfolio is focused on establishing the value contributed by each project?
  • Have you mobilised your project management skills in the most cost-effective way, and ensured clarity in your budget forecasting and spend?

    • Security and Resilience

  • If you took a call from senior management tomorrow asking you to prepare a report on your information security readiness would you prepared?
  • How effectively do you evaluate your security plans, define objectives and outcomes, and resolve any problems before they start to concern you?
  • Securing the transactional and analytical data generated by customers a potential source of competitive advantage?
  • Is compliance with international data protection and GDPR creating a mandatory headache?

    • The background

    The IT Leadership role is changing – fast. The world of Information Technology is evolving with astonishing speed and that fast moving change poses a problem technology leaders trying to keep up, let alone stay ahead of the game. All businesses everywhere are going through some type of digital transformation as they set about improving their products and services. It’s a testing time – literally! - and as technology spending power starts to move away from IT with reporting lines towards the rest of the business the complexity increases

    Back in the 1990’s IT Leaders were mainly focused on building and delivering technology. Today, however, they need to determine if they will build or buy their Applications and then get them delivered, control the purchasing of technology, developing talent and fostering innovation across the business. The latest Gartner’s CIO Agenda Survey shows that 95% of CIOs expect their jobs to change or be remixed due to digitalisation. CEOs and SME business leaders with an eye on the bottom line, meanwhile, recognise that fast paced change is inevitable and are looking for strategic advice that doesn’t always need to come from a full time CIO role.

    Security and data protection has become part of the daily life of most CIOs, helping to keep an organization resilient against a rising tide of digital threats from within and without. Mobile and e-business form an increasing part of the business, and looking ahead the role will expand once again with the cloud, and as Infrastructure as a Service and Software as a Service replace traditional segments of Infrastructure and Business Applications.

    According to Gartner, “at least 84% of top CIOs surveyed have responsibility for areas of the business outside traditional IT. The most common are innovation and transformation.” These are exciting times.

    How Fifth Step helps

    At Fifth Step we have been offering CIO Assist and CIO Leadership support for over 10 years. This means that we have the experience, scale and flexibility to work with you to lead, manage and support your internal IT teams, or even create new ones. We understand the importance of bridging the gap between business and IT, and in addition to collaborating with your existing teams, we’re ready to provide resources on a full or part-time basis, on or off-site, interim or project-led. This means you can meet your
    strategic objectives while retaining full operational and financial control.

    So whether you’re working on on-going improvements or a complex transition programme, an ambitious merger and acquisition or a wider programme of work, we have the right people at the right time and the right cost to give you the support you need.

    Fifth Step resources

  • IT Leadership Borchure
  • Podcast Episode 59 - The Future is Flexible in the World of 4IR
  • Podcast Episode 56 - The Challenge of Improving Efficiency

    • Working together

    Combining your passion with our experience and expertise is a winning combination allowing the seemingly impossible to become a reality.

    Getting in contact

    Speak with one of our executive consultants now about how we can start working together - Click here for contact details