European links

EuroCIO includes Club Informatique des Grandes Enterprises Francaises (CIGREF) in France and CIO Colloquium in Germany, as well as tif., with the three organizations represented on the board of EuroCIO. "This network has members with best practice in a range of IT disciplines across Europe," says Campbell. "Many people in tif. already have a lot of international experience of the IT issues around international work through mergers and acquisitions, which is priceless in this arena. It will be a huge benefit to members. The numbers of people involved means that sometimes there are language barriers, but not often."

Last November there were around 130 members at EuroCIO 2007 in Switzerland. Campbell says there were only four UK organizations represented this time, but is convinced of its value. "Because it is all facilitated by members, if they need and want this additional international contact and information it will come. We can learn a lot this way."

Unlike tif. in the UK, some of the European events are vendor sponsored, for example they might have a vendor panel where members can interrogate suppliers, but there is no promotion of products involved, or a sales side to events.

Campbell believes the IT profession has gone through a number of evolutionary stages, and that the evolution of The Corporate IT Forum must reflect that. "In the 1970s it was data processing, in the 1980s linear programming and engineering, then there was analysis and problem solving, but IT was still very much a black art," he says. "It is now becoming far more consumerized, and commoditized, so it is not longer that different from other disciplines. But you still have to deal with the IT legacy from earlier."

This makes IT as a profession more flexible, according to Campbell, allowing business people to enter the profession at different levels, and allowing IT people to use their experience to enable business. "tif. gives members a direct and independent channel to get practical information, and to share ideas on the IT issues that affect every large corporation," he says.