Innovative Edge for Success By Ajit Arya, Deputy CIO, Arlington County

Innovative Edge for Success

Ajit Arya, Deputy CIO, Arlington County | Wednesday, 11 October 2017, 11:42 IST

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With the advent of impactful technology developments, CIOs have been facing a great variety of challenges than ever before. Today, the focus is more on how CIOs play a more pervasive role and scale their influence on the business rather than how they control IT. Every CIO is emerging as a significant business influencer. They are expected to bridge the technological gap in the organization by playing a much broader role. However, as the IT landscape is gradually shifting from traditional cost-centric approach to a business-centric approach and digital transformation is happening in all walks of life, enterprises are in need of CIOs who can act like a business-oriented C-level executive and efficiently drive business transformation.

Trending Technologies

Technology has advanced with years and we are in a really exciting time standing on the brink of a revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we work, live and communicate. Certain trends such as explosion of data, AI, advanced machine learning, intelligent apps such as virtual personal and customer assistants, intelligent things such as robots, drones and autonomous vehicles, virtual reality and augmented reality, and voice conversational systems such as AmazonEcho that are gaining excessive traction. Further, Technologies like deep learning, mobility, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be embedded into everything in the future. This facilitates the creation of intelligent physical and software based systems that are programmed to learn, predict, adopt and potentially operate with little or no human input or guidance. The digital transformation is proliferating across all departments reshaping every aspect of the business. Furthermore, explosion of data combined with analytic processing, BI, and advanced machine learning has made a huge impact in developing applications, solutions and services, which are smarter and intelligent than before.

Blending Business and Technology Strategies

The implementation of innovative technologies across various sectors has helped Arlington county to create a more streamlined, responsive and inclusive government. At Arlington County, we look at technology as an enabler in order to provide the best possible experience for residents and businesses when they interact with the County.

Furthermore, at our county government we focus on developing smart applications that enable people to find the appropriate information while enhancing interaction. By developing these innovative smart applications, we will be able to provide better services to our customers. We will be able to provide virtual customer assistance, seamless transaction within specified time, and share information in a more efficient manner. With the help of technology, we will be able to assist elderly people and proactively deliver services when they are in need.

In addition, as more people are getting conscious about diet and exercise these days, at county government, we could leverage intelligent applications that are more wearable based and help constituents in maintaining a balanced diet, exercise and psychological routine. Additionally, we will be able to create applications with advisory type of instructions that will not only boost the interaction with users but also helps in planning daily activities efficiently.

Overcoming the Challenges

With the implementation of new technologies, growing businesses face a range of challenges. Enterprises are looking forward to implement different kinds of delivery models and operational models to speed up delivery processes. The ability of trending technologies to be able to effectively collect and analyze data in a more predictive manner is what has helped us to deliver services quickly and efficiently.

As a business grows, security remains to be a major concern for CIOs that keeps them awake all night. It also depends on the way enterprises use applications and services and how they prepare themselves against the threats. With all these technological advancements and transition happening in digital world, smart security posture is something that is increasingly gaining more importance. For instance, performing vulnerability scanning and predicting vulnerable spots are some of the preventive measures that enterprises should take up to safeguard their IT assets.

Creating Value across the Business

Whether you have proficiency as an infrastructure engineer, app developer, or project manager, as a CIO, you would be expected to exhibit a very high degree of appreciation and comprehension for the functional area. For a CIO, having dynamic leadership skills and exhibiting sound business acumen is highly essential in order to transition from a technology leader to a business leader. Along with that, CIOs must have a good understanding about the impact of digital transformation happening in their respective industry. With their knowledge and view of technology hurdles around digital transformation, they should be able to fill the technological void as well as identify new opportunities for business continuity and growth. By doing so, they can present themselves as a business savvy and digital innovation leader which is the missing link in the equation to achieve digital transformation.

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