Clarifying the mission

WE'RE BEGINNING our annual planning process at InfoWorld, and as I look forward to our next fiscal year, I have paused to think about a mission statement for my department to put our work into the context of the business. A number of themes about the changing face of IT in the enterprise emerged. On a basic level, the technology group at InfoWorld does two things: 1. We enable employees to do their jobs more effectively through strategic implementation of technology solutions, and 2. We leverage innovations in technology to serve our existing customers better and build new revenue streams.

Free IT resource Hear how top CIOs turn change into a competitive advantage. Sponsored by HP Free IT resource Try Sun servers, workstations and storage products free for 60-days. Sponsored by Sun Microsystems

The vision for my department differs from the traditionally conservative vision of an IT department in a number of ways. For internal IT matters (and note that not all CTOs handle internal operations as well as externally-facing ones -- I happen to handle both), there are no internal "customers," only colleagues within the company with complementary roles. Everyone in the company is on one team and our common goal is serving our real customers -- readers and advertisers. The activities of sales support our department by providing dollars for our budget. Internal pressures on the IT department often reflect the external pressures of the market on the company. Our group understands this and leverages our abilities to help focus our sales team on selling. In return, we expect sales and others to treat us with the same respect they show other colleagues.

We also take informed risks because we know that a risk-free environment is a return-free environment with little potential for innovation. We realize that a culture of risk-aversion leads to stagnation, which hurts the long-term prospects of the company and the personal and career growth of employees. We work as a team with the CEO and CFO to properly analyze financial risk in our planning. We are frugal with company funds and fundamentally believe that the most effective technology solution is not always the most expensive one. We use Linux, Apache, and inexpensive servers whenever possible to keep costs down. We don't outsource our basic technology strategy to expensive consultants because we own the strategy.

We demonstrate vision to top management. As CTO, I am very visible within the company and work closely and consistently with others on our executive team to leverage technology to drive company strategy. Every other employee in the technology group should also feel empowered to approach upper management with new ideas to promote the overall vision for the company. Visionary ideas should come from all levels of the department, not just the CTO. We are active participants in driving revenue at the company through the creation of new products. We invest our energies in new ideas and help refine the ideas of our colleagues into workable products.

We know that process automation through effective implementation of technology solutions creates a positive work environment for employees and helps to serve our customers more effectively. Using technology to automate business processes is not a means to eliminate jobs. It is a vehicle to make the jobs of employees more enjoyable and more productive. Process automation demonstrates the true value of technology for the company, saves time and money, and frees our employees to focus on more important and challenging issues. At the same time, we don't believe in technology "silver bullets" -- we believe that technology is only effective when it is implemented based on sound business processes.

In the end, I don't want my staff thinking of themselves as a service bureau within the enterprise; we are businessmen and women leveraging our technology skills to help drive revenue.