A year for the tough CIO

No matter where you are in the IT world, it's going to be a tough year for even the toughest CIO. And it's worth looking at other places to see how your colleagues are coping. A new Gartner study in the United Kingdom finds that CIOs expect a 2.5 percent increase in their IT budget this year. But there are plenty of CIOs who expect their budgets will be cut even more. The advice from the experts: Make sure you are ready to provide the CEO and CFO with a strategy for dealing with budget cuts.

Here's some ways to help protect your budget:

• Explain your IT costs and how they compare based on your industry and location. If you are over the industry average, make sure you can explain why. For instance, can you point out how you are using IT to drive greater business value?
• Have a list of priorities for reducing IT costs.
• Make sure you have a clear idea of how to invest in value-added IT initiatives.

Meanwhile, Gartner's CIO survey also found that the average CIO stays in place for nearly four years in the U.K. And that means that the average CIO can see major initiatives from start to finish. So with tough days ahead for many CIOs in 2008, now is the time to show your strengths and ideas for innovation. It's not a time for the faint-hearted.

For advice on dealing with the tough year ahead:
- See this ComputerWeekly article