IT
salaries and IT value
At first blush, recent reports of falling IT salaries and stalled
technology spending might easily be interpreted as proof that the bloom is
off the rose, that enterprises have lost interest in IT as a critical tool
for achieving business advantage. That interpretation, however, would be
wrong.
CEOs, and for that matter stockholders and customers, see IT leadership
as increasingly central to achieving and maintaining competitive advantage
in almost every business. CIOs, therefore, are increasingly occupied with
strategic e-business systems and less so with cyclical operating system
and chip-set upgrades. This is a change in focus that makes some spending
indicators, especially those that reflect the upgrade treadmill, look
weak.
Take a closer look, for example, at a recent report by Janco
Associates, of Park City, Utah, that compensation levels for CIOs and
other top IT managers fell in the first six months of the year, for the
first time since 1985. Once you get past the Chicken Little executive
summary, the survey says that overall CIO compensation is falling because
CIO compensation is increasingly made up of non-salary components. CIO
bonuses and stock options, such as the paycheck enhancements given to most
C-level executives, are increasingly linked to overall company
performance. As the economy's current weakness puts short-term pressure on
corporate earnings, CIO take-home pay shows the effect. The long-term
implication, however, is that, because CIOs and their organizations are
considered integral to enterprise performance, companies are likely to
compete vigorously in the future for the best and the brightest of IT
professionals. This is good news.
At the same time, the Janco survey reported that, even as the economy
slows and enterprises are cutting PC and server hardware spending, they
aren't hesitating to pay steeply higher salaries to IT professionals with
e-commerce and security expertise. The correct conclusion should be clear:
The future of IT is in delivering innovative and secure e-business
services. It is no longer just in the care, feeding and constant upgrading
of networks, servers, storage devices and PCs.
It's important to remember how we got here: The Y2K-driven spending
boom in 1998 and 1999 coupled with the dot-com-influenced spending surge
last year skewed traditional IT investment patterns. This makes the
current pause look far deeper than it is, seen from a larger historical
perspective. But make no mistake. IT and IT professionals are more
critical to enterprise success than ever. This will be doubly apparent
when spending levels return to normal—and it will be even more apparent
to IT professionals who hone their skills now to deliver secure e-commerce
services for tomorrow.
