IT leaders see the rise of CIO-as-a-service

We explore the rising trend of the interim CIO

In the early ‘90s, ‘CIO' was the newest executive position. Confusion reigned: Do I need one? What are they responsible for? Who do they report to?

Today, the role is more established, but it's also changing. Freelance working is on the rise among IT professionals, and over the last year we've also observed several established IT leaders leave their posts to take on freelance roles, as well: CIO-as-a-service, if you will.

Terence Willis, founder of NeueDigital, is one of those exploring the opportunities for a freelance CIO, after working as Head of Information Systems at Age UK for five years. He managed the organisation's transition to completely cloud-native, which included migrating the charity to Office 365, and critical applications to MS Azure.

Willis told us, "During this time, I had observed that many SMEs (and some large corporates) had become stuck during similar transformations and often needed a fresh pair of eyes to take an impartial review of their situation, create an action plan that would resurrect the project and deliver the expected outcomes."

Full-time employees often can't step back far enough to see opportunities for change. Willis added: "It was all too easy, with the day to day tasks taking up most of the time, for the staff trying to run these programmes to become frustrated, lack agility, and then fail."

That is exactly the role that an IT leader should fulfil, but many smaller firms cannot afford the expense. Phil Jackman, who also works in a freelance role (and was formerly head of ICT at Durham County Council), acknowledged the same problem:

"There is a growing number of companies that need IT direction, but don't have the resources to deliver. A temporary arrangement is better."

Jackman noted that the same can apply to larger firms: "As organisations downsize they are under pressure to reduce cost. This leads to outsourcing or a diminution of the role of the IT team. Small team, no need for Head of," he added, bluntly.

Always looking forward

Some CIOs are passionate about taking on a new challenge as soon as they've finished one - like Ian Golding, an interim CIO whose last full-time post was in 2016; a glance at his LinkedIn shows no recent job lasting longer than two years. He said:

"I find it appealing to jump in and make sense of things that look complicated and unsolvable. If you have an appetite for that, it's very interesting… For me, it's the dynamic feeling of being involved in something more real, more active."

Jackman feels the same way. He told us, "The arrangement [of interim work] allows CIOs to get involved in a lot of emerging and interesting issues, which is what ultimately drives them forward."

Willis also agrees - in fact, this was part of the reason that he left his last role. He said: "After spending five very productive years at Age UK, where I had led the strategic transformation to a completely cloud native organisation… it was very much time for a change."

What about the permanent CIO?

This isn't to say that the role of full-time IT leader is disappearing; they are often key to having that deep understanding of business objectives and plans, always thinking of outcomes and where the business is going. Someone who, Golding said, "sees the interconnectedness of data, digital and IT across the organisation."

CIOs (or CDOs, or CTOs) who represent only part of an organisation tend to get stuck in place, he thinks, which means that they aren't performing that essential transformational function. Visibility of everything is crucial.

What does that mean for an interim CIO? Golding thinks that they are, if anything, at an advantage:

"An interim CIO can have that organisation-wide view, as you can talk to ppl with no foregone conclusions, preconceptions or particular outcome in mind. You can get a potted history, without baggage or politics. It's a great way of building trust very very quickly."

Like Golding, Willis thinks that an interim CIO can have real advantages over someone in a full-time role. He told us: "You just parachute in, do the work and then move off again. Sometimes that's a much easier way - you avoid some of the politics and other things that happen.

"It's all about that agility; you'll bounce in and there's no preconceptions about anything else, you're given a fairly strong brief about what's going to happen, and you can mold that into a way that's more efficient for that organisation."