CIOs and IT Departments Becoming Bigger Decision Makers

By Greg McNevin

December 4, 2007: According to AXS-One’s Bill Lyons, too many cooks could be spoiling decision making in records management.

Whereas the CIO once made all the IT decisions, Lyons says that in today’s corporate world IT is becoming more of a democracy, due in no small part to new or updated regulations dictating the management of corporate records and changing requirements for litigation readiness.

He says that these days, many non-IT workers, including corporate counsel and the entire legal team, HR and the CFO, have a say in corporate policies and technology purchasing decisions as well, forcing a team approach to be adopted for policy development and technology purchasing decisions.

The implications of this new decision-by-committee approach are, according to Lyons, shaking up traditional IT departments, with the CIO and the IT department as a whole playing a larger role within organisations.

“Records management is changing the corporate paradigm,” says Lyons. “For example, IT is increasingly reporting to general counsel and is concerned with a whole host of legal issues – as they relate to IT.”

The trouble with this changing situation, is that it could leave enterprises with decision making problems. While records management is more important than ever, with too many voices chiming in during discussions, it could indeed be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

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