Dear Herb:
I've gotten experience in the IT industry from being an IS coordinator in a small manufacturing shop to being a data warehouse manager in a medium-sized organization. I want to position myself for a CIO slot in a medium to large company. I have a master's degree but am considering a Ph.D. in IS.

Seems to me this could only help. Do you agree?

M.

Dear M.
Depends on the company and the personality of the person who is doing the hiring. At the level of the CIO, who gets the job depends more on personal chemistry than on anything else. The Ph.D. may, however, help you get the interview, but not necessarily.

Finance is a support function, just like IS in most organizations, and should be subject to the same scrutiny. If a chief financial officer really wants to implement cost savings he or she should try outsourcing his or her department's systems and staff first.

Kathy

Dear Kathy:
I sense a feeling of frustration or perhaps of being unfairly singled out for outsouring scrutiny. Actually, I do know of chief financial officers who are outsourcing portions of their finance department, especially auditing or some of the mundane accounting functions.

In the modern business world, when it comes to improving the bottom line of the company, little is sacred and sentimentality about organizational structures is definitely not a valuable commodity.

I am currently 35 years old and a process reengineer and supervisor of a computing support team at Boeing. We are closely aligning IT to our group's business objectives with the goals of improving customer satisfaction, service revenue from the Web, and productivity. I have a 13-year background in systems engineering and sales at IBM and sales training management at two software startups. In January, I start an MBA with a focus on information systems. With that as background, I am interested your opinion on the shortest and best preparation to earn the right to be a successful CIO of a company.

What priority should I place on developing general business skills, IT project management experience, IT strategy, operations management, procurement, etc.? Also, what professional IT association do you re commend joining at my level that will help me obtain my goal of a CIO position?

Many thanks for your help.

David G.

Dear David:
In real estate, there is a saying that the three most important things about a property are location, location, and location.

In information technology, the three most important things are track record, track record, and track record. If you have experience that is even remotely relevant to the job and you have the personality that appeals to your potential boss, you are in the running for the job as CIO.

You have excellent credentials. To get some additional experience that will help in that equation, I would suggest learning about as much as the business of your company as you can, and, if given a choice, concentrate on the project- management opportunities that are available.

So far as professional organizations, I think that the Society for Information Management cha pter that exists in your hometown would be an excellent place to invest some time.

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Patrick M.

Dear Patrick:
Our first criterion was to identify any services that seemed to us as ones that were essentially a commodity and could be either easily switched to another external provider or brought back in-house if we were unsatisfied with the service we received by outsourcing. Next, we looked at the dollars.

Our methodology was to evaluate the hard dollar cost of providing the service internally and the associated headcount required to do so. We priced our internal staff at their salaries plus benefits and included the expense in replacing our actual staffing turnover. We compared the resulting total cost with the bids for equivalent service. When we were finished, we made our decision.

An important part of our implementation plan was to make sure that the people in the function were reassigned in the organization. We figured that over an acceptable time, attrition would take care of any excess headcount problems and we wanted to make sure that we did not damage morale in the organization. Interestingly, it seems as if the general mood of the organization has improved since, in fact, these jobs were ones that people never found exciting enough to view as desirable.

Before assuming the role of technical services manager, I served as a project manager, overseeing and participating in the design, development, and implementation of a variety of projects in the pharmaceutical, financial, and insurance fields. Client companies include ACTI, DuPont, Merck Pharmaceutical Company, Connaught Labora tories, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

This is a brief description of my experience. Could you point me in the direction of finding compensation information for my level.

Thanks,

Mac

Dear Mac:
Your letter sounds as if it were almost pulled from your resume (the tip-off is the use of "progressively increasing responsibilities"). If so, you are on the right track to find out your value in the marketplace. While there are a lot of surveys published, and even more offered to the Human Resources community, the only real way is to test the waters with other companies.

I have two suggestions, however, before you do that. If you are really, truly happy where you are and would not move for any amount of money, then don't waste your time or othersÕ by looking at other companies. In that case, your actions to get more money are more along the lines of pointing out to your boss your accomplishments and saying you would like higher compensation. Leave up to him or her to find out what they should pay you. After all, if they want to keep you relatively happy and avoid you finding out on your own what you should be paid, they'll make sure the salary is competitive.

On the other hand, if you are serious about moving for money, then go on interviews. My second suggestion is that you just make sure that you subtract about 20% from any salary offer to get a rough idea of your competitive worth. I'll let you in on a little secret. People will pay you a premium of about that much to get you to move if they assume they have to bid for your services, figuring that if they want you to stay in their organization, the raises they give you in the future will bring you back in line with the rest of the staff.

Thank You!

Dave

Dear Dave:
The big ones you always worry about are how to use the technology to: a) get the customer to love you more than the next guy b) keep the costs of the company low so that you can make a decent profit c) protect the business from having the competition do something which you cannot counter.

Peter C.

Dear Peter:
Most people I have met in business, including outsourcers, are honest people. Having said that, however, keep in mind that depending on the outsourcer's evaluations to make your outsourcing decision is like sending a hungry puppy into a butcher shop to decide whether to buy a bone. Chances are, you know the answer before you pose the question, if you go that route.

Waiting anxiously for a (hopefully uplifting) re ply.

Eugene G.

Dear Eugene:
I'm not so sure how uplifting my response is going to be to you, but at least I think you will find it is pragmatic.

My job is to provide information services to the company that support itÕs business direction and to ensure that we use technology to improve its bottom line. If that is best served through outsourcing, that is the way we will go. If it ultimately costs me my job, so be it. But, I think my attitude will not cost me my job, I think it will ensure that I keep it.