There is some disturbing new data for the role of the CIO. Half of our Diamond Digital IQ Survey respondents said that more than 30% of the dollars spent on IT is done outside of IT.  Power in any organisation usually follows those who can create new revenue and value, but our survey shows that 75 percent of the CIO’s innovation role is internally facing.

We think these different indicators point to a weakening of the CIO role at the very time when technology is reinventing marketing and competition more than ever before. How can they be losing power and infuence at the very time that they should be gaining it?  iPhone apps are changing our expectations of mobile capability; Facebook has 400,000,000 users; Coke and Pepsi have embraced social media as a new means to get their message out; massive data mining is creating new insight, and data visualisation is making these insights more usable — and the pace of change is increasing!

Could there be a better time to be a CIO?

We believe that one of the key problems is that the CIO is the only member of the executive team who is both a staff executive, serving providing support for all the other functions of the company, in a manner similar to the director of human resources, and also a line executive — akin to a vice president of manufacturing. We feel it is this dual role, of staff executive and line executive — a Jekyll and Hyde of the organisation — that confuses the goals and roles of the CIO. Also, most firms are seeing a whole new wave of technology affecting marketing, service, sales, and brand. Everything, from iPhone applications to social media points to the fact that the CIO should have more infuence than ever — because technology is more important than ever to the creation of revenues and profits.

But, if the CIO is not willing to clearly explicate his or her role as the person who not only helps to drive down costs and automate all parts of the business but also as a line executive who runs the factory and helps to find new customers and serve them even more proftably,  then their role of the CIO will be split up and the “administrative” tasks will be given to an executive who is not a C-level player, but who is likely to report to the CFO or to the Chief Administrative Offcer — as internal staff functions ought to.  The line responsibilities will migrate to other line executives who have proft and loss responsibility — running divisions, product lines, or geographies.

What’s a CIO to do? First, CIOs must articulate their contribution to both the staff and line roles. Those CIOs who remain innovative and create demand are the ones who will continue to earn the C part of their CIO title. In our sample, only 25% of CIOs were involved in the creation of market-facing innovations. It is these executives who will continue to have a seat at the executive table.

This seat at the table is important because we fnd that those CIOs who are involved in the strategic planning of the organisation are more likely to drive business success. Put another way, it's hard to be a successful CIO if you are only an order taker and not a demand shaper. So, now is the time to see how much you are contributing to growing the top line, and expanding the bottom line — unless of course you’d like to lose your C.

CHRIS CURRAN is Diamond Management & Technology Consultants’ chief technology officer and managing partner of the firm’s technology practice. He writes the CIO Dashboard blog at www.ciodashboard.com