Introducing The New Cabinet-Level City CIO

Local governments must address the needs of diverse and often growing constituencies with limited and often dwindling resources — following that age-old mandate of doing more with less. Inconsistent business processes, competing departmental priorities, and a historical view of IT as a supporting role rather than strategic force compound that daunting challenge. Drawing from Forrester's Forrsights Budgets And Priorities Tracker Survey, Q4 2011, and Forrsights Business Decision-Makers Survey, Q4 2011, this report presents the attitudes of IT and business decision-makers in government with respect to city priorities, processes, and each other. Based on interviews with city CIOs, this report provides best practices for a new strategic, cabinet-level CIO, answering the following questions: What is the best way to facilitate collaboration across department leaders with seemingly competing objectives? How can you provide centralized and shared IT solutions to address the diverse departmental requirements? How can you create win-win situations for cash-strapped cities through IT initiatives?