CEO Perspective


	GrantWood.Net

	Welcome

The quick advancement of E-Commerce binds business strategies more closely to IT. The CIO needs to help guide the company’s technology strategy with an eye to business goals. One important quality for this new environment is the ability to understand the big picture. The CEO needs someone with a broad base of business experience, rather than a narrow technology focus. This can also be described as the ability to communicate with the “suits” as well as the “pony tails”. The CEO wants the CIO to have the ability to create a vision, as well as focus on details.

The CEO Perspective

Many CEO’s still do not understand what is happening with E-Commerce, or how technology is changing everything, even their current business models. But for those CEO’s who do understand, what do they require from the CIO? They still want them to spend one-third of their time ensuring that the best IT solutions are in place. That will never change. But now, the CIO will spend one-third of their time as a senior executive, meshing strategic directions and IT solutions. The CEO will need the CIO to bring business ideas to the table. To go even further, the CIO should spend the remaining one-third of their time interacting with customers. This gets to the heart of the enterprise.

Healthcare organizations of all types need to consider a host of ethical and legal issues regarding E-Commerce, as part of developing their eHealth strategy. The CIO needs to make the CEO aware of these issues. Referral and inurement laws might come into play with mergers, acquisitions, and partnering announcements happening at a frantic pace. What problems might arise if a health system website is perceived as endorsing products? Can health systems receive revenue or profits from non-patient sources? Healthcare providers may be inadequately overseeing clinical care by using automated systems. How will the use of technology affect clinical factors that rely on human intuition? How will complaints of improper sharing of clinical data among healthcare providers, payers, and employers be addressed?


	Healthcare CIO

ICIOs must help and encourage CEOs with developing collaborative initiatives with competitors, as this is becoming essential for survival. The best reason for collaboration is to gain operational cost savings. This happens when the two organizations decide to share the same resources. CEOs also collaborate with competitors when the advantage is to provide community service. A third reason for collaboration is for the conservation of capital.