How Tech Supports Business Initiatives

Leo Collins, CIO of Lionsgate, talks about how to make sure your IT department is seen and actually is a vital part of your company, and how you can make sure you are spending your technology budget to support key business initiatives. Some of the advice Collins offers based on his experience is that top IT managers need to get to know their "clients," or the users, of IT equipment, and learn by walking around. In the many years Collins has been in the business, technology has advanced exponentially, but the rest of things have stayed pretty much the same, he says. People and relationships regardless of technology, and the ability of people to relate and work together, that's what makes it work, he says. Eric Lundquist, eWeek's Editor at Large, interviewed Collins at the 2008 CIO Summit in Half Moon Bay, Calif.