The Changing Role of the CIO in the World of Outsourcing: Lessons Learned from a CIO Roundtable

The increasing availability of readymade and supposedly ready to use IT packages is changing the way CIOs manage and the challenges they face. In this article we summarize the opinions of CIOs who attended a roundtable to discuss this issue. The CIOs report a shift in internal client attitude toward IT which, combined with the effects of budgetary cuts, is leading to a shift in the role of the CIO from IT service provider to business integrator. The description of what this sample of the industry actually does regarding outsourcing and what this means for CIOs presents a new picture compared with the current literature on outsourcing.