This past New Years Eve marked the 100th anniversary of the first celebration in Times Square. The event has come a long way in several respects: On the plus side, millions of revelers from around the world partied as one. On the flip side, cops had to monitor the streets, skies, and waterways. Manhole covers were sealed. Mailboxes were searched. Dogs sniffed for bombs. Sensors were used to detect chemicals. Two subway stations closed early. Parking was prohibited in the area. And these were just the security measures that were announced.
Enter the insurance CIO. While this executive doesnt worry about crowd security, he or she loses sleep over the well-being of lots of private data and critical systems. And protecting these is equally daunting (see The Keys to the Kingdom, p. 12). According to the 2004 E-Crime Watch Survey conducted last April among security and law enforcement executives by CSO magazine, the CERT Coordination Center, and the U.S. Secret Service, 43 percent of 500 survey respondents reported an increase in e-crimes vs. the previous year and 70 percent reported at least one e-crime or intrusion at their organization. A Celent study conducted last spring revealed assessments of current vulnerabilities and overall strategy development were consistently cited by insurers as their highest security initiatives. The report projected carriers will spend an estimated $690 million in 2005 on security and increase to $772 million, or 3.4 percent of total IT budgets, by 2006.
But lets not forget some of the other hats CIOs must sport to be effective. They also have donned the bean counters visor, adopting some CFO skills, which include such decision-making talents as assessing the expense of, for example, maintenance vs. new projects; analyzing costs vs. benefits; calculating ROI; and unearthing hidden costs. In addition, there are IT portfolio management tools to leverage, systems to develop for financial reporting, and more. Also in the mix are the infrastructure improvements resulting from Sarbanes-Oxley.
The CIOs hat rack holds yet another chapeauone resembling what the CEO would wear. In CIO magazines State of the CIO 2004, results indicate IT executives and CEOs are on the same page regarding their top technology priorities for the coming year, with chief executives leaning on IT more than ever to gain a competitive edge. One key finding: Sixty-eight percent of CIOs responded IT should proactively envision business opportunities and apply technology to achieve them; 56 percent of CEOs agreed.
While its safe to assume there were no CIOs on the night of the first Times Square festivities, the changes in the job description during, say, just the last decade have been remarkable and made the job more challenging. Overall thats good because though the load is heavier, theres also greater experience and opportunity. Maybe what New Yorks Mayor Mike Bloomberg reportedly said about the plain-clothes cops in Times Square applies to todays CIO, too: Youll never know who that person standing next to you is, and thats exactly the way it should be.
Sharon S. Schwartzman
Editor-in-Chief
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