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What CIOs Really Want for Christmas

The decorations are going up and the office party is the talk of the canteen -- yes, Christmas festivities are upon us. While kids everywhere are busy making lists of the toys and gear they want to see under the tree Christmas morning, we asked Australian CIOs what Santa could bring them to make their life easier in 2012.

For some CIOs, the sometimes rocky relationship with end users is at issue. Consumerisation should work both ways. Chris Yates, former CIO at Tennis Australia and now consultant in IT strategy and project management, for instance, suggested end users could do more to help themselves. He said they could find "solutions to their problems the same way IT does -- by looking it up on Google -- rather than calling the help desk".

William Wang, manager, IT/shared service at sass & bide, meanwhile hopes users embrace a trend ICT has focused on for some time now: Cloud computing. Wang's wishlist for this Christmas is "that users accept a browser Cloud interface as the norm".

Another ICT pro, Dave Adamson, said we should wish for "case management in government as infrastructure, not application", where information is shared by government agencies to make things easier for citizens. "Rather than a collection of loosely coupled, and therefore, out of sync, unique business solutions."

In terms of ICT management, David Elkin, CIO at the Queensland Audit Office, has on his wishlist "a mature Enterprise Architecture, centred around the Business Architecture. That'll give a nice piece of agility in my stocking."

Cerebral Palsy Alliance head of IT, Joe Perricone, wants to improve career management within the information systems and technology departments and provide pathways for succession planning.

"If you make a list of the type of things you learnt in order of date, then put them in order of how you think they should have occurred, would you be where you are today?" he asked.

Finally, when it comes to building and managing strong ICT teams, Matthew Bates, IT and creative technology manager at Y&R Brands, suggests "more of the 80-20 rule" for staff management. "It can work better than a bonus or payrise; it motivates and stimulates employees, and when structured right benefits the business and the individual. Not to mention less staff churn, which is the biggest cost of all."

Deanne McIntosh is editor of Information Age

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