Why does your company not have a CIO/IT Director?

[-]

NapalmNorm@reddit

IT “Manager” at a company that does not have any IT person at the executive level. It’s 100% because the executive is team does not value or understand what IT does for the company.

We’re quickly growing and approaching the breaking point though where they’re starting to understand the risk by not including IT.

[-]

Defconx19@reddit

IT inclusion also depends on the manager. If managers or someone is the IT department are incapable of tying IT initiatives to company goals then you'll never be at the table.

[-]

Agreed. That’s one of the key skills a good IT executive has, is the ability to translate their department’s list of tech projects into talk the execs understand to show them how the work benefits the company and enables it to make more money. If you’re lucky enough to have a seat at the table you have to know how to use it…sitting there quiet doesn’t do much good. May as well not be there at all.

[-]

Ozmorty@reddit

Or if your company doesn’t even understand the concepts of goals, how to govern, delegate , etc.

[-]

KareemPie81@reddit

Or because manager is top of structure

[-]

NapalmNorm@reddit

As defined it is yes, but at a functional level it is not. For years we’ve had a gate keeper, the CFO(s), whose sole focus have been raw EBIDTA, because that is what ownership wanted.

Ownership has recently brought on almost a whole new executive team to take over and push revenue growth. My first meeting with them was essentially, your IT spend is only _____, and you only have 3 people to fully operate your entire IT, compliance, and security organization?

[-]

Defconx19@reddit

If you want to be taken seriously, make an effort to understand the current goals and company strategy as the C-Suite views it and tie what your IT deparment is to those goals and demonstrate how they move the company's goals and objectives forward.

[-]

Maro1947@reddit

These types of business rarely take IT seriously even with all that and more

[-]

Klynn7@reddit

I’m curious what size company you’re at.

[-]

NapalmNorm@reddit

\~250 employees

[-]

WantToVent@reddit

We have, but they are under the CFO. That's tells you everything you need to know about our strategic priorities on IT: minimise short term cost at likely long term cost.

Everything is "doing more with less", asking us to lower expenses like licensing costs as if we can just pick which machines can be turned off (none) or just tell the vendors to not raise prices, or cutting teams in half and surprised pikachu face when we either spend the days firefighting OR quality decreases.

The ideal of a CFO is creatio ex nihilo i.e. creation out of nothing, infinite work from zero money.

[-]

brokentr0jan@reddit

Generally because it’s just a small company, or it’s a company that just doesn’t value IT enough to pay the salaries for those positions

[-]

ConsistentRisk5927@reddit

fooeyandnuts@reddit

Whoever is playing the role of CTO but not getting paid for it is also playing the role of CISO and not getting paid for it.

[-]

rokiiss@reddit

Me. Except for MSP.

[-]

andrewsmd87@reddit

Hello, this is me

[-]

Infinite-Stress2508@reddit

As that person in my org, I agree... Using it to get experience and skills and keeping an eye on what else is around. The job itself is decent but if I didn't do what I do, shit would be terrible so I shot myself in the foot by being competent and using my experiences to do what was needed rather than what was required.

Upside is a secure and optimised environment with a focus, direction and purpose.

[-]

zeroibis@reddit

Correct.

[-]

ConsistentRisk5927@reddit

And likely neither are able to focus on either as closely as they ought.

[-]

RansomStark78@reddit

Too cheap

I was a cto

[-]

AugieKS@reddit

We didn't, then we did and it was me. Still solo IT, but with more money and a nice title. Oh and I get more freedom to just do the thing v.s. waiting for the OK from someone with zero IT knowledge.

[-]

Mobile_Particular895@reddit

Senior IC who has worked at both kinds of orgs. The "small / doesn't value IT" answers are the surface. The pattern I see:

Under \~$50M revenue, you don't actually need a CIO. CTO carries it, sometimes the COO or CFO. That's fine.

Over $50M without IT at the exec table is usually one of two stories. Either (a) founder-CEO who still thinks of IT as "the laptop person" mentally even though the company is past that, or (b) PE-owned where the portco mandate is "do more with less" and IT leadership gets squeezed out.

The cost of the gap doesn't show up on a balance sheet. It shows up as: shadow IT proliferating because nobody is saying no, vendors getting added without procurement review, security debt accumulating below anyone senior's radar, contracts auto-renewing at terrible terms because nobody is coordinating.

The thing that usually breaks the dam and finally creates the role: a security incident, an audit failure, or an acquisition where due diligence exposes the gap. Almost never a proactive decision.

[-]

joat_admin@reddit (OP)

What I'm finding is, "We don't need your help deciding which direction to go, we just need your help getting us there." I think you're right, the inciting incident will probably need to be one that costs, whether that be security or audit a backtracking on a major commitment.

[-]

lifeisaparody@reddit

You can't expect leaders who can't even manage their own calendars or know to share files internally through onedrive links instead of attaching files to appreciate proper IT leadership.

[-]

EventPurple612@reddit

Leadership team is completely IT illiterate. They're still running the 1 manager + 2 generic sysadmin structure even though NIS2 is a thing already. I tried pitching them the idea of a dedicated cysec position and they dropped it instantly.

[-]

alextbrown4@reddit

Often if a company is on the smaller side the the head of IT will report to Finance/Accounting C level or some form of General Admin

[-]

stevephoenix@reddit

Because they decided to combine IT and business analysts and PMs under the same umbrella and now I'm the head of a "service delivery" team whilst still doing all these roles.

[-]

Ellimis@reddit

You're gonna need to be more specific with your question, otherwise it just doesn't make sense. Plenty of businesses do not necessarily have a leadership tier large enough to have that kind of representation, or legitimately don't need one because of their structure.

[-]

BoringLime@reddit

We changed our to cto from cio 5 or 6 years ago to look more cutting edge, when looking for a replacement candidates Same responsibilities just a different name. Ugh marketing.....

[-]

Less-Philosophy-1978@reddit

It's a very small company and most of the titles/roles are not defined

[-]

Serafnet@reddit

They don't want to give the title/pay. I sit in leadership, but am stuck at Senior Manager. Despite having a larger department than some other Directors.

Ultimately it is a lack of appreciation and care for what technology brings.

[-]

Buddhas_Warrior@reddit

Amen! Until it stops working.....

[-]

NapalmNorm@reddit

Up until we’ve brought in the new executive team the company has literally never operated under any goals other than maximize profits, plain and simple. The only IT initiatives that have ever got through executive review were those that brought “efficiency” gains to the organization as a whole. Risk Management, non existent. EDR, Windows comes with Antivirus. Email Gateway, our people are smart enough and policies are strong enough to avoid BEC/fraud. Cyber Liability Liability, we use OneDrive/Sharepoint, Ransomeware can’t hurt us that bad.

[-]

sqnch@reddit

Because the business just views IT as a cost to be slashed and has our head of IT report to the COO

[-]

iamatechnician@reddit

Ours just left at the beginning of the month. We currently have an interim from the consulting company we work with, and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever have one permanently in house again. I’m not feeling great about the situation

[-]

ExceptionEX@reddit

Falls under CFO in lots of places in a practice that goes back to accounting departments being the first to get and adopt computers.

[-]

igiveupmakinganame@reddit

fired

[-]

Defconx19@reddit

Most are too small and they roll it up.under whoever runs fiscal.

[-]

brownhotdogwater@reddit

Most don’t care about IT and see you like the iPhone in their pocket. It will just work.

Even though everyone at the company uses what you control every moment of every day

[-]

theMightBoop@reddit

Government agency. Normally we do but this administration got rid of ours (along with a whole mess of leadership) and haven’t replaced anyone. Just a bunch of people acting in the role.

[-]

Meadbreath@reddit

As someone who is the only IT person in a company, it feels like they are constantly looking for ways to not internalize IT responsibility, ignorant to the risks that that actually opens them up to.

Yeah, if you outsource your NOC/SOC or get an MSP and you get breached, you can go after them… but that doesn’t fix your infra, and doesn’t close the breach. And the losses you’ll accrue waiting on them or their insurance to pay up, you’re just gonna spend out the ass on another contractor.

I’m tired, y’all.

[-]

LordCornish@reddit

Those of you that do not have IT representation in leadership, do you know the reason?

The only named C-levels at our company are the President/CEO and the CFO/VP of Accounting & Finance, but we do have other VPs on the executive management team. Specifically, I report to the VP of I.S., but we have one for Marketing, Warehousing, and Member Services*/Administration. Functionally, I act as the CISO, although officially my title lands me in with the "mid-level managers" group (the senior NCOs to the executive management team's officers). Titles are meaningless.

* Think of it as Customer Services

[-]

Calm-Show-9606@reddit

Because small to medium sized companies do not need one. A IT manager is all thats needed.

[-]

tankerkiller125real@reddit

I'm the solo IT guy is why, my title encompasses everything I do. I'm not just the director, manager, and officer, I'm also the guy who implements it, fixes it, etc.

However, I am part of leadership. My one on ones are basically daily (impromptu), and are directly with the CEO.

[-]

nitroman89@reddit

Money/greed.

My boss is like the top dog in IT and he reports to the COO so some companies don't value IT in deciding operational decisions even though every company uses technology nowadays.

[-]

discogcu@reddit

Assign that role to a broom in your stationary cupboard. You’d get the same outcome.

[-]

AltairLeoran@reddit

At least the broom doesn't bitch when I take overtime lol

[-]

Emotional_Garage_950@reddit

Our CIO is fine, our IT director is a fool

[-]

Normal_Choice9322@reddit

Director retired and they made me manager but I do the work we both used to... Dangling the director carrot but it won't work for that long

[-]

Chilled_IT@reddit

Greed combined with delusion. Company size is about 500 employees, revenue somewhere around 1/3 to 1/2 of a billion dollars per year. There is no reason not to have one. But the CFO who is also the head of HR doesn't let anyone have the position and rather keeps that CIO hat on as well.

Company got successfully hacked twice in the last 3-5 years ago. Still no change. Oldest servers I have seen in a while. Licensing probably not done right either. I don't know, I am not allowed to see it. As mentioned, just pure greed combined with a strong dose of delusion that IT doesn't matter and just costs money.

[-]