云时代CIO速写

    四大会计事务所中的很多机构（也是最近招募大学毕业生最多的雇主）都出台了这样的政策，鼓励员工自带iPad或智能手机上班。也就是说，让企业生活占据这些员工私人设备的一小块，而不是为员工配备企业设备，然后让员工的私人生活占据企业设备的一小块。企业消费化的趋势已经不远了。

    过去10年里，首席信息官们一直在走合并和外包的路线，以便最大可能地享受规模经济的好处。不过，今天在企业防火墙之外的规模经济已经令企业的内部规模经济相形见绌，而且企业承担的经济风险也比过去小得多。与此同时，所谓的“劳动套利”可以直接在互联网上完成，无需发布征求建议书。不过，许多首席执行官都发现自己缺乏必要的网络技能，无力应对这个基础架构、处理能力和劳动力都绰绰有余的新世界。

    顶级的首席执行官正在建立一些小型团队，让他们与业务部门结成对子，授权他们在企业防火墙以外毫无障碍地进行创新。同时他们也在打造一支正式的企业技术团队，与主要的云技术厂商建立关系，为创新团队提供实时支持。这样的首席信息官才称得上信息企业家，也只有他们才能带领企业迈进新的商业时代。

    对于那些愿意重新思考企业业务环境的首席信息官来说，云计算和移动技术为他们提供了无限的可能。只有具有相当前瞻性、愿意尝试新的业务模式的首席信息官（哪怕只是从低风险的云应用开始）才能成为最后的赢家。

    本文作者Philip D. Moyer是一位副总裁和常务董事，具有25年的连续创业的经验。他为Safeguard Scientifics公司带来了许多重要的运营和交易经验。他在该公司主要负责寻找金融技术以及Enterprise 3.0方面的机会。

    译者：朴成奎

    Many of the big four accounting firms (the largest employer of recent college grads) have already instituted such a policy and are encouraging employees to bring their iPad or smartphone to work. The company occupies a small piece of real estate on those devices as opposed to the employee's personal life occupying a small piece of real estate on a corporate device. The consumerization of the enterprise is upon us.

    For the last 10 years, CIOs tried to consolidate and outsource as much as possible to gain the benefits of economies of scale. Today, however, the economies of scale outside the firewall dwarf most enterprises' internal economies―with a fraction of the economic risk. At the same time, labor arbitrage can be accomplished without an RFP right over the Internet. Many CIOs have found themselves flat footed without the necessary internal skills to harness a world where infrastructure, processing capacity, and labor are available in abundance.

    The best CIOs are building small teams, partnering them with business units, and giving them a mandate to innovate with no barriers outside of the firewall. They are also building a serious enterprise technology team to build relationships to the major cloud vendors and evolve their offerings and relationships to support going live with these innovator teams. These are the CIOs that are intrapreneurs and the breed that will take their companies into the next generation of business.

    Both cloud and mobile technology offer untold possibilities for CIOs who are willing to rethink their business environments. Those proactive enough to experiment with new business models, even if they only start with low-risk cloud-based applications, are the ones who will succeed.

    Philip D. Moyer is Vice President and Managing Director. With more than 25 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, Phil brings significant operational and deal experience to Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE), where he is responsible for sourcing opportunities in financial technology and Enterprise 3.0.