Organizations Every CIO Should Consider JoiningOrganizations Every CIO Should Consider Joining

With the cloud, AI, and other growing technologies challenging CIOs' knowledge and management skills, it's more important than ever to stay on top of emerging trends. Whether it's providing cost transparency, optimizing budgeting, or showing ITs productivity and revenue value, CIOs need to prove clear returns on their technology investments. 

Successful CIOs know that networking with colleagues to gain advice and insights on critical issues is a great way to achieve long-term career success. The fastest and easiest way to network with colleagues is to join a professional organization. Here's a look at five organizations CIOs should consider joining to boost both their IT knowledge and industry connections. 

The TBM Council 

The non-profit TBM Council provides resources and community participation to help CIOs meet the increasing challenge of demonstrating critical business value. The council functions as a free, global organization offering tools and best practices to help CIOs align with technology, finance, and business leaders. By providing access to training, certifications, and a community of peers facing similar challenges, the TBM Council's goal is to help CIOs make data-driven decisions and effectively communicate the value of their work. 

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"TBM enabled us to unify financial and operational data to create a model of IT costs based on a standard taxonomy for cost categorization," says Susan White, CIO at the BMO Bank of Montreal. "This allowed the company to move away from spreadsheets, adopting TBM industry-leading allocation rules that no longer relied on assumptions to allocate spend," she adds. "We categorized costs into meaningful cost grouping -- applications, end-user devices, processes, etcetera -- and presented the information in one place. " 

The CIO Professional Network 

Established by a former CIO, the CIO Professional Network is a member-driven, member-led, and member-supported community of technology executives seeking ways to network, learn, mentor, and grow in a private, trusted environment. 

The organization states that its mission is to offer members a professional network crafted exclusively for technology leaders, providing access to resources that foster meaningful connections within a vibrant, vendor-free community. It adds that members can tap into a rich source of industry-leading insights and collaborative opportunities that are designed to keep CIOs ahead in the fast-paced world of technology leadership. 

The CIO Professional Network provides peer-driven insights, case studies, and real-time strategy alignment with other top-level IT leaders, says Jared Bauman, CEO of marketing agency 201 Creative. "Its access to practical, executive-level conversations is unmatched." 

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ISACA 

ISACA offers a collaborative environment, via local organizations, that allows CIOs to connect to peers and create friendships within the IS/IT community. "It's a professional network of those with similar interests who collectively support one another to overcome the complexities and challenges that many IS/IT professionals deal with on a daily basis," says Tony Anscombe, chief cybersecurity evangelist at security technology provider ESET. "The ISACA events are intimate and bring in industry expertise to educate and discuss current topics, providing the opportunity to directly engage and have open meaningful conversations." 

The Gartner CIO Community  

Sponsored by the well-known IT research firm, the Gartner CIO Community aims to connect CIOs into a series of curated events. Gartner promises a highly personalized networking experience with relevant regional insights. "It combines exclusive research with one-on-one analyst access, giving CIOs tailored, high-level support to make strategic decisions quickly and confidently," Bauman says. 

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With 34 branches scattered worldwide, serving over 3,600 CIOs, The Gartner CIO community brings together IT leaders with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and industry classifications. Through peer sharing and collaboration, CIOs from the world's leading enterprises can share innovative ideas, exchange best practices, contribute forward-looking perspectives, and address critical issues at the forefront of technology. Each community is organized by region and led by C-level experts offering members easy and regular access to enterprise peers. 

The MIT Center for Information Systems Research 

The MIT Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR) serves as a research center in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT CISR helps CIOs and other IT executives meet the challenge of leading increasingly digital- and data-driven organizations. Established in 1974, MIT CISR aims to help CIOs meet the challenge of leading dynamic, global, and information-intensive organizations. Through research, teaching, and events, the center also works to stimulate interaction between IT executives, scholars, students, and other relevant individuals. 

MIT CISR also aims to help CIOs gain insights into how organizations can effectively realize value from approaches such as digital business transformation, data monetization, business ecosystems, and digital workplaces.