Beyond the IT cost centre: What makes a CIO influential?

Technology leaders are often asked to do more with less. But what if the real question is not how much IT costs, but how much value it creates? We spoke with Sara Fatacci about the changing role of the CIO, investment choices and why successful transformation still starts with people.

About Sara

Sara Fatacci is a Chief Information Officer with 18 years of experience across Banking, Healthcare, Luxury, and Manufacturing.

She leads technology transformations by putting people first. Her approach starts with listening, understanding the business deeply, and working hand in hand with teams to build solutions that fit their reality. She is convinced that the best results always come from working together.

She holds a Master in Intelligent Systems and an MBA in Digital Transformation and International Business, and is certified in project management, IT service management, and information security.

Why do many organizations still treat IT as a cost centre?

Because IT is often measured by expenditure, project delivery and system availability rather than by business outcomes.

A strong CIO changes that conversation by linking every technology investment to a clear business priority: growth, productivity, resilience, customer trust or risk reduction. Budget discipline remains essential, but reducing cost is not the same as creating value. The objective is to spend better, simplify the estate and invest where technology can genuinely improve the business.

We also often fail to quantify the P&L impact of IT service interruptions. An outage can have a direct business cost through lost revenue, lost productivity and reputational damage.

What distinguishes an effective CIO from a truly influential CIO?

An effective CIO keeps technology secure, reliable and within budget. An influential CIO also helps shape the business strategy.

That requires listening to customers, employees and business leaders, translating technology into business language and creating strong collaboration between IT and the rest of the organization. The CIO should be a partner in decisions about operating models, talent, risk and growth, not only the person responsible for systems.

How do you decide what to modernize, simplify, replace or stop?

I begin with facts: business criticality, user experience, security, resilience, total cost, complexity and strategic relevance.

I modernize what is important but constrained. I simplify what has become unnecessarily complex. I replace what creates unacceptable risk or cost. I stop what no longer creates value.

The decision should be driven by business need, not by technology fashion. Good budget management means making deliberate choices about where to invest and where to stop spending.

Decisions in practice

A mature core system was stable, secure and still critical to the business. Replacing it would have meant major expense and operational risk. We kept it, reinforced security and resilience, simplified the surrounding architecture and removed redundant tools and manual workarounds. We invested selectively in data quality, integration and user experience.

I also turned down a technology that looked promising on paper. Our organization was not ready for it, and the product was very new. The problems we anticipated did eventually appear.

When other systems were still working well and teams were fully trained, I pushed back against replacing them on an obsolescence timetable. I requested extended maintenance and obtained a test system to prepare a future migration properly.

When the business wanted a system it had heard about from a competitor, we set up a lab rather than dismiss the idea. Testing it together helped us agree it was not the right fit for our context, strategically or financially.

None of that was 'doing nothing'. It was deliberate management of risk, budget and operational stability. Good technology leadership means investing where change creates real value, not simply choosing what is newest or most expensive.

Which fundamentals should leaders not neglect while pursuing AI, cloud and automation?

Leaders must protect the fundamentals: cybersecurity, identity, data quality, architecture, resilience, integration, service management and financial control.

AI depends on trustworthy data and responsible governance. Cloud still requires cost discipline, security and accountability. Automation only creates value when the underlying process is sound.

Innovation attracts attention, but reliable operations create trust. Organizations need both.

What does a genuinely people-centred transformation look like?

It starts with listening to the people who do the work. Employees understand operational realities, customer pain points and practical risks that may not appear in a project plan.

People should be involved in designing, testing and improving the change, not simply informed after decisions have been made. This requires honest communication, realistic training, collaboration across functions and psychological safety when something does not work.

Transformation succeeds when people understand the purpose, see their role in the future and feel supported throughout the journey.

Where do transformations most commonly break down?

Usually, not in the technology itself. They break down when leadership, governance and organizational behaviour are not aligned.

Priorities may be unclear, decision rights may be fragmented, budgets may be disconnected from strategy and incentives may continue to reward old behaviours. Collaboration then becomes difficult and teams protect their own areas.

Technology can support transformation, but it cannot compensate for weak leadership, poor communication or a lack of trust.

What metrics should a board use to assess technology value?

A board should look beyond the IT budget and the number of projects delivered. It should ask whether technology is improving the organization.

Useful measures include:

Business benefits achieved against investment
Progress against strategic priorities
Operational resilience and critical service availability
Cybersecurity and risk reduction
Customer and employee experience
Reduction in unnecessary complexity and technology debt
Adoption of new capabilities
Cloud and supplier cost control
Delivery speed and time to measurable outcome
Development, retention and engagement of technology talent

The key question is whether IT is helping the organization become more resilient, efficient, collaborative and adaptable while managing investment responsibly.