Being the Bridge

Because a growing number of businesses are embracing technology in many business processes

A chief information officer plays an important role in process improvement and automation (Kaarst-Brown, 2008). In this situation, a CIO is critical in linking the finance, sales, and marketing functions because the position requires incorporating people from other departments in determining the most effective information technology to meet corporate goals. The CIO, for example, can collaborate with the marketing manager to implement the most effective customer management system.

Due to a variety of factors, the CIO has made customer management a top focus

One of the reasons is competition due to the ever-increasing use of technology. In which case, a chief information officer needs to be aware of the current trends or techniques for attracting and retaining the customers. Comparatively, with the increase in technology, enterprises are finding it hard to manage the customers and the associated communication channels thus the need for CRM (Kaarst-Brown, 2008).

Service delivery lifecycle

Question 3

Service delivery life cycle consists of different stages including service strategy, design, transition, operation, and improvement (Sallé, 2004). The quality of service depends on the operation or rather execution stage since it is at this stage that the new technology is integrated into the existing system (Sallé, 2004). In that case, the IT professionals need to have a proper procedure to ensure proper transition while ensuring business continuity. Some of the important aspects of SDLC include training since the staff, as well as customers, need to be conversant with how the system works to eliminate doubts, unnecessary errors and resistance due to hesitant to change. Also, progressive maintenance is important to ensure the system runs in accordance with the user requirements and with minimal errors.

Question 4

Service delivery models are very important components of the enterprise level of an organization. Enterprise level, in this case, comprises of discrete departments with different objectives but with shared resources such as finances. Thus, service delivery is important since it gives a framework on how services are delivered to benefit the organization. First, it involves service level management that defines the service catalogue and service provided including the deliverables (Sallé, 2004). Also, it involves the use of capacity management where different business units come together to create infrastructure growth plan. In which case, it looks at future business growth, requirements, and resources from various infrastructure components.

Moreover, it gives the IT organization the capability to assess the requirements for availability of the necessary business systems. In doing so, the management is able to determine the redundant and high availability systems necessary for mission-critical applications. Lastly, service delivery model facilitates management of the system to ensure it continues providing the agreed services.

References

Kaarst-Brown, M. L. (2008). Understanding an organization’s view of the CIO: The role of assumptions about IT. Global Information Systems: The Implications of Culture for IS Management, 454.

Sallé, M. (2004). IT Service Management and IT Governance: review, comparative analysis and their impact on utility computing. Hewlett-Packard Company, 8-17.