CIOs, CTOs look to 2012 with confidence in their business’ growth prospects, according to technology recruitment firm.

Both share the common objective of growing the business, but rifts between CIOs and CMOs are commonplace -- the result of misconceptions and outdated, stereotypical views about the other’s priorities. One is seen to have a short-term focus, the other long-term. One is the left brain of the organisation, the other the right.

While most Australian telcos have CIOs presiding over dedicated IT departments, mobile network operator, Virgin Mobile, has unified its project management, IT and customer service business units under the guise of its chief operating officer, Matt Anderson.

The former CIO of Google and founder and CEO of ZestCash, Dr Douglas Merrill, says companies stuck in traditional management practices risk becoming irrelevant and leaders should not be afraid to do 'dumb' things.

Organisations using 'Green' IT has increased 5 per cent during the second half of last year with nearly three-quarters of CIOs having deployed more environmentally sustainable products and services, according to a new survey.

Outstanding CIOs most resemble outstanding CEOs. That was the eye-opening benchmark established when the CIO Executive Council, as part of its Future-State CIO initiative, teamed up with Egon Zehnder International (EZI) two years ago to build a leadership competency assessment for CIOs and senior IT leaders.

To ensure harmony between IT and business management, Jeff Kubacki recommends communication, communication, and more communication.

With a diverse business unit portfolio that includes direct mail, call centres and electronic document management, Salmat CIO David Hackshall is working hard to instil a culture of collaborative knowledge management at the company and turn innovation into efficiency.

Trashing a truck-load of old equipment and physically cleaning up rooms may not be indicative of the average IT transformation project, but the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) took a ground-up approach to modernising its business processes.

Every company or organization has a wide range of software in its application portfolios-some enterprises, of course, carry a little more software bloat than others.