Topics:
Interop
Chambers Prods CIOs: Add Business Value Now
Chambers seems to have good visibility into the role of the CIO, given all the CEOs -- of Wal-Mart, GE, and other titans -- whose names he dropped. Using his own "handpicked" CIO of seven months as an example, Chambers says he struggled for the first three months while he looked for insights into how IT could support his business vision, and his CIO talked about IT programs and architectures. For those CIOs or aspiring CIOs in attendance, it carries some weight to hear from a CEO of Chambers' stature that they must speak his language, not the language of techies. The need for CIOs to support business goals and move aggressively on business strategy is urgent, he notes, because the typical CEO is in place for only four to five years. Chambers himself has bucked that trend, having been at the helm of Cisco since the early '90s. Separately, Chambers cited dramatic examples of how Cisco is benefiting from the use of its own technology. Its $7 billion purchase of Scientific Atlanta in 2005 took 45 days, while this year's $3 billion acquisition of WebEx took eight days; he said unified communications and collaboration tools made it possible to shorten the process by not requiring all relevant parties to be physically present at all times. The PR campaign around the deal was managed by a Cisco employee on a remote basis. A demonstration of Cisco's unified communications technology reflected once again the Mac's growing momentum and cachet as a computing platform. Company employees who joined Chambers on stage made several quips about the superior functionality and usability of the Mac as part of their demonstration of software that ran across Mac and PC. Score another one for Apple. « How Do We Get To The World Of Seamless Mobility? | Main | High-Performance Wireless LAN Is Key To Business Mobility » |
| Sign Up Now For InformationWeek News Alerts |
This is a public forum. United Business Media and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. United Business Media makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers.
Community standards in this comment area do not permit hate language, excessive profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of United Business Media LLC and may be edited and republished in print or electronic format as outlined in United Business Media's Terms of Service.
Important Note: This comment area is NOT intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.
