One of the major goals of CyberianSoft is to help companies balance their efforts from technical to business-oriented decision making. Another goal is to bridge the gap between business and technology, while saving time and resources. "CyberianSoft CIO" helps our clients to achieve these goals. This service establishes an open dialogue between company management and our "CIO advisors".

Paul Maximov recently attended a panel discussion wherein CIOs and senior executives from leading companies described the critical challenges facing IT organizations in Corporate America. The roundtable discussion featured prominent local executives: Bob Spaid, vice president and CIO of Beckman Coulter, Doris Hall, senior vice president and CIO of BAX Global, Allan Lubitz, senior vice president and CIO of Option One and H&R Block Mortgage, Jon Krause, senior vice president of operations, Oakley and John P. Gilboy, CIO at AMCOR Sunclipse North America (ASNA).

"CyberianSoft CIO" exists to address these and other challenges facing many businesses as well as educating our clients on various aspects of IT and business strategies integration.

The Wynn Wraps Guests in Technology
By Jim Louderback
Steve Wynn's swanky new Las Vegas hotel pours on the tech, but doesn't quite bring it all together. Read interview with Karen Bozich, Wynn's CIO.

Wal-Mart CIO Describes How the Retailer Implements IT Programs
By Jack E. Gold
"We take a development approach to implementation," Wal-Mart CIO Linda Dillman told CIO Today. "Frankly, we don't believe anyone is a good enough designer to get any project absolutely perfect from the very first. So we learn a lot — and tweak accordingly along the way." Read the full interview here.

Survey: CIOs strive to improve business processes
By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
In a survey of 1,400 CIOs by Gartner Executive Programs, the top business priority for CIOs was business process improvement, while the top technology priority was business intelligence applications. Findings also reveal that IT budgets expected to increase in 2006. These and other findings of the survey are here.

In this issue our focus is CIO.
According to CEOs, CIOs and analysts, as the role of technology moves from a business supporter to an enabler, executives from outside technology department are expanding their roles, especially when operations and a company's business model are altered. The job of the chief information officer (CIO) — equals in rank to chief executive and chief financial officers — and it is up to the CIO to identify, collect, and manage information as a resource, set corporate information policy which impacts all office and distributed systems. Why are these issues so critical now? Because architecture, integrated infrastructure and business processes support the kind of growth companies seek today. Globalization requires standardized IT platforms and business processes, and acquisition strategies depend on standardization to eliminate redundancies and achieve economies of scale.

The Changing Role of CIO
By Allan E. Alter
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first time the phrase "chief information officer" was used in IT. Right from the start, people understood just how difficult the position was: It requires executives to be both outstanding technology managers and fully functional business leaders. Over the years, much of the debate about CIOs has focused on whether CIOs should come from the "business side" or the "IT side." It turns out just 9 percent of companies hire CIOs who come mostly from business backgrounds. But for many more, the answer is both.

Chart Your Course to Strategically Align Business and Technology
By Patrik Durbin
"Just as a captain charts each point of a long voyage to ensure efficient and safe passage, executives use business strategy to map their current business and to define new growth and revenue opportunities. What direction should a company take to ensure that it meets its corporate objectives? How can executives determine which initiatives require the most attention? Is there an effective way to select the investments that will bring the greatest returns?"

Why Governance Matters
By Marianne Broadbent
What is IT Governance? While the subject continues to be a hot topic, everyone seems to have a different notion about what it is. Good IT governance is the secret weapon of effective CIOs and agile organizations — but it has to be done right.

Gartner: CIOs should prepare for 'second' Internet
By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
During the next year, chief information officers (CIO) should pay acute attention to how technologies such as blogging and podcasting will affect their businesses and be ready for innovation with those technologies by their competitors, Gartner analyst said recently. While cost, control, security and concepts remain baseline guidance, the 10 recommendations for CIO strategy can be divided into three major themes. To learn more — please read the article.