Re-imagining and re-energizing the Chief Digital Information Office network

In 2006, the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka set up the Chief Innovation Officers (CIO) network to create a network of people responsible for drafting and implementing the ICT Plan for their respective organizations. 

The heads of the relevant organizations nominated their CIOs who represented an assortment of people from different roles and levels. The ICTA provided the CIOs training and opportunities to gain qualifications, as well as connected them through a network. 

In 2020, ICTA reached out to us to revamp and strengthen the existing network of officials widely dispersed across the island. Following this request, we had several discussions and deliberations with ICTA, relevant government officials and other stakeholders to identify the road map to revamp the CIO network. We also worked closely with Public Digital UK to practically implement the road map. 

Public Digital is a digital transformation consultancy founded in 2015 by the original leaders of the UK Government Digital Service (GDS) and has partnered with multilateral institutions, multinational corporations, and governments in over twenty countries.

To understand the existing situation, in addition to the interviews with selected CIOs suggested by ICTA, Citra together with Public Digital, sent a survey to the broader network of CIOs. Among the interview and survey findings were the following:

• CIOs agreed their role is to drive digital transformation within their organisation, but the mandate behind this objective remains unclear. All interviewees considered CIO as a title in addition to their formal role, rather than a role in itself, which does not induce any change in their day-to-day activities.
• Most of the CIOs were at the top of the IT function. As the CIO role is an assignment that people have in addition to their existing job and due to the level of hierarchy that people hold, most of them have been carrying out three roles: that of the change agent, the digital technology leader and the IT manager, which means they are unable to do all three well.
• Those CIOs who are not in IT roles are mostly carrying out the role of change agent.

The survey findings justified our observation that the next CIO should be a digital technology leader, rather than a change agent. Moreover, it was identified that in the current context, the best driver of digital change would be digital technology leaders with the skillset, resources and mandate to design and deliver user-centred digital services. This was also in line with ICTA’s belief that creating a new role that is more similar to a digital and technology leader rather than a change agent assignment on top of someone’s existing role was imperative. 

Following a three-month engagement where we explored the opportunity of creating a new Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) role in a few key government organizations in the country, we came up with a report in which we:

• Specified the level of skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications expected from these leaders
• Drafted a job description that reflects these expectations
• Explored ways to advertise the opportunity for the new role
•  Shared recommendations on how to create buy-in around the creation of the new role

The hiring matrix and the road map which were developed, are envisaged as tools to be giving further muscle to the CDIOs network, aligning its work with the National Digital Government Strategy.