Programmers have taken on more important positions within organizations. They must understand not only the technical side of computing, but they must also know business processes so they can adapt the technology to the needs of their company. Systems analysts serve as the bridge between the techies and the nontechies. Heading this group of people are the information systems managers. Their importance to businesses has grown as the emphasis on technology‘s role within organizations has grown.
Just as most organizations have a Chief Financial Officer, the position of Chief Information Officer has been created to handle the myriad of problems and opportunities businesses face in today‘s technologically driven environment. Very large corporations appoint a Chief Security Officer who‘s responsible for enforcing the firm‘s information security policy and training users and information systems technologists about security. The CSO keeps other executives and managers aware of security threats and maintains security tools and policies.
Chief Privacy Officer protects an organization‘s data from misuse and abuse and makes sure the company complies with data privacy laws. Another new position that of Chief Knowledge Officer, has been created in larger corporations to deal with effectively using knowledge management systems.