Peer to Peer Magazine

66 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2016 FEATURES The Small Firm CIO of Today and 2025 To oversee service providers rather than employees, CIOs must develop different management techniques and approaches. That includes evaluation and supervisory functions. These tasks will become more complex as firms adopt more technology and more vendors serve the firm. » Mobility: For mobility, most firms have focused on the benefits of allowing aorneys and management to work remotely. In the future, IT staff will also be less tethered to the office. While the benefits of increased mobility will provide many advantages, CIOs must implement extra steps throughout the firm to keep data secure. The CIO will also need to expend more time and effort to provide education and security training at the end-user level to make sure aorneys and staff understand the risks of new technology. » Money: Regarding budgets, CIOs should be able to anticipate costs and avoid unpleasant surprises, although they will not see costs decline significantly. According to a report by Gartner Inc., worldwide IT spending will total $3.54 trillion dollars in 2016, which represents less than one percent of an increase over 2015 spending. The 2015 total represents a decrease of $216 billion dollars from 2014. And Gartner predicts that 2014 spending levels will not be surpassed until 2019. When IT budgets are broken down as stated in the Gartner report, communications services represent the largest category, followed by IT services, devices, soware and data center systems. While overall spend on communication services and IT services will decrease, those savings will be offset by increases in spending on devices, soware and data center systems. » New Metrics for Success: As the CIO's role shis, so will the measure of success, which will be determined by making the firm efficient and profitable through IT. Enhanced, Not Disrupted For law firm CIOs, the last few years have been challenging from a competitive and technology standpoint. While it is impossible to predict the future, law firms will continue to face an evolving environment. Technical fluency will continue to be a key component of the CIO's job, but other traits will become more important by 2025. Those include the ability to train people and explain complex solutions in a way that lawyers and key stakeholders can understand. Many firms have developed efficient workflows that technology will enhance, rather than disrupt. By understanding the changing IT environment, identifying the risks and embracing the right technology and vendors, CIOs will help their firms thrive in 2025 and beyond. P2P Worldwide IT spending will total $3.54 trillion dollars in 2016, which represents less than one percent of an increase over 2015 spending.

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