Information Technology (IT) concerns and strategies a Chief Information Officer (CIO) deals with are equally relevant for small businesses and startups, as they are for larger businesses. A presentation to the Loudoun Small Business Development Center (SBDC).

1. Information Technology (IT) Strategies
A CIO Perspective for Small Businesses
Ted McLaughlan
A Mason Enterprise Center/
Loudoun SBDC Discussion
3/21/2013

2. ?
IT Use and Leadership - ?’s
1. As a small business or startup, Information Technology
(IT) for my company isn’t an Outcome, it’s a key:
• Enabler – HW and SW we use, onsite or via the Internet
• Output – HW/SW we sell, make, maintain or distribute
• Skill Requirement – Our employees need expertise Are you the
Business Owner?
You’ll need clear
2. To handle IT decisions, questions, audits answers to these
questions.
or reviews, implementations - and to determine
whether we’re doing it right, who do we turn to?
• Our IT vendors or providers – can we trust them?
• Our employees or partners – what if they leave, or tweet?
• Ourselves, and what we read – what should I read?
• An outside expert – should this be outsourced? Overseas?
• Our IT Lead, or CIO/CTO – can we afford one? A whole one?

3. IT Business Value
Regardless of the source you rely on for IT expertise,
consider first assigning someone, or yourself, to manage
and monitor IT Business Value Domains, that require
knowledgeable IT Decisions. This is managing business
performance, vs. IT operations performance, and is driven by the
CEO/CFO/COO .
IT Business Value
Domains:
• Cost Savings &
Avoidance
• Operating Risks
• Issues & Feedback
• Marketing Threats
• Opportunities
• Curiosity
Source: Computerworld

4. ?
Principles of Successful IT
Have Some! For Example:
1. Tailor IT investments to specific business processes and
link them to key performance levers.
Focus on critical, measurable activities
2. Deploy IT sequentially, building capabilities over time,
seeking reuse and cost-efficiencies among program
portfolios.
Don’t do everything all at once.
3. Understand that IT investment evolves simultaneously
with managerial, technical and service or product
innovation (i.e. people and technology).
Maintain vigilance regarding the context.

5. IT Business Value Examples
Examples of IT Business Value Domains many small
businesses or startups need to carefully monitor, and
measure (2 different activities): Business Owners:
These are YOUR
topics to resolve,
with trusted help
• Cost Savings and Avoidance – now or later?
• Operating Risks – you usually have several people working on the
same document or presentation, on their own laptops
• Issues and Feedback – you’re getting a lot of complaints about your
online form and payment mechanism
• Market Threats – a cloud-enabled service will soon be available to
deliver what your distributed software or employees do now.
• Opportunity – your business is merging with, or working closely
with a new partner; what duplicate systems or services should go?
Are there any, and does it really matter?
• Curiosity – an employee asked whether they could join a web-
conference via their mobile phone - ? Is that new App I saw on
Mashable.com useful or relevant to us?

6. ?
IT Domains – the CIO
Now that we’ve got arms around the Value of IT, let’s focus
on the IT Domains themselves – dealing with these may
require different people. The competencies a CIO deals with
overlap many roles – but all require Information Mgmt.
Some areas are Others are not
quite IT-centric; so technical,
perhaps more and overlap
the role of a more with
CTO or Chief CFO, HR or
Engineer/ Lead perhaps
Developer LOB/Sales
Leadership
Business Owners:
DON’T spend all
your time here –
delegate/outsource
but retain authority
Sopinion8ed.wordpress.com

7. IT Spending Imbalance
Does this seem familiar? A typical CIO’s problem space is
here, to improve this ratio, therefore maximizing IT Value.
What is
costs to
buy…
What it
costs to run
and
maintain –
including
people and
facilities…

8. CIO Concerns and Focus
These CIO domains aren’t news to a large company, but may
be to a small company or startup – though the scope may be
quite different, these CIO domains are no less important to
manage:
1. Strategic Planning – how much time, energy and resource to we devote to IT?
2. Security – is our eCommerce data protected? Assume you WILL be hacked…
3. CPIC – what IT investment to consider first, or to combine?
4. Leadership and Management – who hires the IT staff, or signs the SLAs?
5. Technology Acquisition – do we use an RFP for a new web developer? What sort
of IT provider do we really need? Are we being assessed for due diligence
purposes?
6. Process Improvement – can some of our processes be helped with IT?
7. Performance – does our website perform well? In technical and business terms?
8. Architectures – do we follow standards?
9. Policy – should we follow standards? How are policies conveyed and enforced?
10. Technology Assessment – is our software, or website, licensed and installed
properly? What should we care about “Big Data”, “Mobility”, “Cloud” – key
buzzwords for 2013?

9. ?
CIO Imperatives for 2013
Big Data – focus first on “self-serve” analytics and data management requirements
(tools, processes and skills) to support business performance, including social feedback,
reviews and reach; 3rd-party providers of market data and low-cost BI tools more
accessible as well (like SumAll, Yurbi, InsightSquared, and the SBA’s “Sizeup” at
sba.gov/sizeup). This also means an expert, consistent focus on digital marketing.
The data you have now is already probably too much to handle with existing staff, tools …
Cloud – great opportunities to divest, consolidate or otherwise outsource computer
servers, systems to reduce risk and cost, and increase flexibility – as well as locally-
installed applications, to providers like Rackspace, Amazon. Opportunity also to
consider “context-aware computing”, and whether the intersection of sensors, social
media and application use can yield new insights or process change.
You’re probably already using the cloud…
Mobility – choices to be made to regarding online presence for increased revenue,
visibility and market share; for Web Apps vs. Mobile-enabled websites; also consider
employee and partner secure access to internal systems and portable content.
Do not ignore mobile, in fact, focus on it as critical for this year…

10. IT and Business Alignment
Enterprise Architecture is a skill and discipline that establishes company-wide alignment
between Business and IT – this topic is equally-relevant for large and small entities,
though toWhy Enterprise Architecture? Business (CEO/CEO/CFO) and
different degrees of scope and investment. Your
IT (CIO/CTO) Leadership should agree this is necessary, learn and act on it in some way.
Business Goals Technology Challenges
Delivering Real Increasing System
Business Value Enterprise Complexity
Architecture
Reduce Costs Business Infrastructure
Integration
Faster to
Business - IT Alignment
Market
Intelligence & Enterprise
Analysis Mgmt
Innovate = Enterprise Solutions:
opportunities to Applications & Data &
create value, Services Content
Globalize mitigate risk,
achieve mandates Security & Application
and so on Compliance Development
Source: Oracle

11. ?
Conclusions and Contacts
• Adopt Clear IT Principles.
• Monitor AND Measure Performance of the Business First, then IT.
• Have a Defined Role and Resource for CIO Responsibilities
- All of Them.
• All IT Investments Require CIO Input – Products, Services,
Personnel.
• Consider an Enterprise Architect (EA) role, or Methods.
• Don’t Do It All Yourself – and Don’t Just Outsource it
Thanks and Good Luck!
Ted McLaughlan  IT Investment and Due Diligence
 Startup Digital Technology Strategy
 Oracle - Enterprise Strategy Team  Enterprise Architecture & IT Program Management
 KME Internet Marketing - BOD  Interactive Marketing and Digital Technologies
 Loudoun EDC - Commissioner  Information Management & Solution Architectures
@Loudoun