Yesterday, I questioned the amount of progress being made by senior IT manager with regards to green computing. An answer of sorts of comes in a survey from archiving specialist Plasmon and independent researcher Vanson Bourne, which shows that as much as 86 per cent of technology leaders expect to be responsible for reducing power consumption in IT infrastructure within 3 years.

Which is all well and good, I suppose. But dig a little deeper and you find that just a third of IT managers (34 per cent) have already reduced consumption - and just another 26 per cent expect to be given the task during the next twelve months.

Which means that despite a concerted amount of media and customer pressure, a large proportion of technology leaders remain slow off the blocks when it comes to responding to environmental concerns. As an aside, financial services IT managers apparently lead the way, with 47% of respondents already working to reduce IT power.

This column tends to champion the case of the technology leader, suggesting where the UK's big spending chief information officers are both forging ahead and struggling.

But for today, the concerns of the chief information officer (CIO) can wait. For twenty-four hours - or until I post again, at least - the issues of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will dominate.

There are more than 4 million SMEs in the UK, accounting for more than half of the country’s employment and turnover - hardly small fry, then. More importantly, small firms are actually taking a lead on environmentalism.

More than 85 per cent of UK SMEs claim going green will be a part of their business strategy during the next five years, according to research from ISP Eclipse Internet.

Which is more than can be said for some high-spending CIOs. As mentioned recently in this blog (see end of post for link), analyst Gartner estimates the IT industry has a carbon footprint as big as the airline industry and accounts for two per cent of all global carbon emissions.

As was stated in this blog, it is time for CIOs to drop the suspicion and make time for environmentalism. A couple of years of media and consumer pressure have left the CIO with a stark choice: be seen to care about the environment or risk losing business, or even your job.

The Eclipse research shows SMEs are already concentrating their green efforts in a number of areas: recycling (76 per cent); reducing waste (67 per cent); and encouraging staff to turn off equipment when not in use (30 per cent).

Such forward-thinking - with regards to IT usage - by small firms is paying off, with suppliers beginning to target specialist deals at the SME community.

A new report from researcher Datamonitor concludes that although small firms have previously been under-targeted by vendors, large suppliers have noticeably increased their SME coverage in order to gain market share during the last twelve months.

With vendors looking at SMEs to increase market share and small firms taking affirmative action on environmental concerns, CIOs could be well-advised to take a very close look at the actions of their smaller cousins.

Time for CIOs to become more environmentally aware - Act green or lose your job

A contact suggested to me recently that there is no point in studying technology at university anymore.

So why the turn against computer science, especially given an escalating skills crisis where the UK IT industry is growing five to eight times faster than other sectors and needs 150,000 new entrants each year?

My contact said it is because firms no longer demand programmers and developers; they require business-focused graduates capable of becoming technology leaders.

Companies are realising they can pick up IT services cheaper overseas, which means more IT work is being offshored. Where does this leave graduates who have a surfeit of technology skills? Increasingly, the answer is lower down the management food chain.

Computing has written at length about the need for UK educators and business leaders to work more closely together to provide more relevant technology courses.

And Ian Campbell, chief information officer at British Energy, told this newspaper recently that hiring is becoming tougher because the skills requirement of the IT industry has changed.

The answer to such a mismatch in expertise is simple ­ students should stop studying IT courses; at least those focused on web development and programming that can be provided at lower cost from other parts of the world.

Many have already realised the futility of studying computer science, with the number of students choosing IT-related degrees almost halving from 27,000 to 14,700 between 2001 and 2005. Mathematics and computer science also have the highest university dropout rate in the UK.

A basic knowledge of IT will see graduates right, something most students in today’s IT-literate society will have already developed. So in a knowledge economy where an increasing number of basic computing jobs are being outsourced around the globe, students should instead focus on the business of IT.

Technology management needs graduates to understand financial processes: return on investment; change management; risk management; even green strategies.

Don’t study the bits and the bytes ­ concentrate on the pounds and the pence.

What type of technology leader are you? Maybe the decisions you make are crucial to the business, or maybe your firm has already decided the CIO role is becoming redundant?

Computing Business (and this blog) has written about the possible end of the chief information officer (CIO), as more businesses decide to phase out the IT director role following major infrastructure overhauls (see end of post for link). Some experts suggest firms could stick with existing systems and place more responsibility on the chief financial officer.

But it's important to place such changes in the context of a wider business transformation. Change in the role of technology leader is all part of a bigger picture that involves broader economic conditions, specific company targets and new leadership regimes.

Mark Raskino, research vice president and fellow at analyst Gartner, pointed out to me recently that these are good economic times - and business leaders are targeting growth, not just survival.

To do that, Raskino says leaders are working hard on strategic focus, partly because if they don't, private equity teams are hovering and poised to put other managers in place to do it for them.

So, what is technolgy's role in securing a growth-focused strategy - and how important is a strong IT leader?

For some companies, like Tesco, British Airways and Norwich Union, Raskino says IT is critical to the improvements they want to make in product, service, process efficiency or even the business model itself: "In those cases the CIO role is very important," he says.

For others firms, however, IT is eclipsed by other imperatives, notably culture change or financial re-engineering. And leaving the systems alone for a while, or outsourcing them, makes sense.

In the future, Raskino says we'll see more variation of IT leadership and governance structures between companies - rather than a single template. "And that's a good thing, it shows IT's role in business is maturing and better understood," he says.

Computing Business analysis on the end of the CIO - Ask the experts

Being green is all well and good, but where do you find the time? Chief information officers (CIOs) are busy ­- there’s complex service-oriented architectures to set up and intricate people management issues to unravel.

Against the backdrop of such strategic developments, it might seem slightly trivial for a CIO to start concentrating on the wasteful people in accounts who print too much paper and users who fail to turn off computing equipment at night.

So, you’re a time-pressured CIO, exasperated by the need to over-manage the small details.

Maybe you even think that green computing is a cynical strategy that is being used to sway public relations?

It is time to drop the suspicion and make time for environmentalism. A couple of years of media and consumer pressure have left the CIO with a stark choice: be seen to care about the environment or risk losing business, or even your job.

Partners and clients will increasingly make purchasing choices on a firm’s green credentials. And with the IT department being one of the business’s most wasteful departments, the CIO is likely to be a crucial strategy setter.

The finance-obsessed chief executive, driven by a desire for increased value and a limited knowledge of IT, is likely to be appalled by waste in the technology sector.

Analyst Gartner estimates the IT industry has a carbon footprint as big as the airline industry, and accounts for two per cent of all global carbon emissions.

With the boss watching you, the best advice is to think quickly and to think big. Cutting printing and energy costs is just the start. As this month’s Computing Business cover feature shows, CIOs need to be cannier.

Trade association Intellect suggests technology leaders should find out exactly what they are spending, not only in a financial sense but also in carbon and energy terms.

Such figures will help CIOs establish return on investment figures from IT that are essential for helping to create a green computing strategy for the organisation.

The feature shows how your strategy should call on a range of technologies and policies, including virtualisation and component reuse.

Demonstrating business benefits can help convert even the most cynical of IT leaders and help impress the chief executive.

And that kind of strategy has to be worth as much of your time as possible in your monthly schedule.

A contact suggested to me recently there is no point studying technology at university any more. He said it's because firms no longer demand programmers and developers, they require business-focused graduates that can become future chief information officers (CIOs).

More and more companies are realising they can pick up IT services for cheaper overseas, which means more and more IT work is being offshored.

Where does this leave graduates with a surfeit of technology skills? Increasingly, lower down the management food chain.

Computing has written at length about the need for UK educators and business leaders to work more closely together to provide more relevant technology courses.

The answer - as my contact suggests - might be more simple. Stop studying IT courses; at least those focused on web development and programming that can be provided at lower cost from other parts of the world.

A basic knowledge of IT will see you right, something which most technology graduates in today's IT literate society will have already developed.

Focus, instead, on business. Technology management, after all, needs you to understand business and financial processes: return on investment; change management; risk management; even green strategies.

Thinking of getting in to IT and what to get ahead? Then don't study the bits and bytes - concentrate on the pounds and the pence.

Twenty-odd years of mobility - and still the pressures for chief information officers (CIOs) mount.

The BBC reports how on the 7 September 1987, 15 phone firms signed an agreement to build mobile networks based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications (see end of post for link).

Progress has been swift - according to the GSM Association there are more than 2.5 billion accounts that use this mobile phone technology. But while the mobile phone might seems ubiquitous, challenges for business remain - as identified by this week's special feature on mobility in Computing (see end of post for link).

The feature - which is the first of four reports on the future of mobility in the enterprise - identifies how integrating mobile devices and making them work with company applications is still a big barrier to wide scale adoption and use.

Despite massive usage of mobile devices, transformations heralded by the use of such technologies has only just begun.

The report suggest users will face a range of challenges during the next three-or-years and Lief-Olof Wallin, research vice president at analyst Gartner, says CIOs should concentrate on five areas:

Don’t treat everybody the same
Most companies will be able to segment the user base into at least three profiles based on business requirements, job function, work style and locations.

Make IT responsible for mobility
Such an initiative will ensure that the organisation benefits from the same predictability of costs and project delivery times, while achieving the agreed service levels for all its enterprise mobility projects.

Create a mobile centre of excellence
Have three or four key staff that pull in virtual members as required to look at issues such as compliance, security, procurement, contract negotiation and local policies for use.

Implement a single unified mobility policy
Rather than rely on separate policies that have grown up piecemeal for mobile phone and laptop use, firms need to create one end-to-end policy that addresses all the issues of mobility, including security and interconnection standards.

Balance people, process and technology
While policies and processes are required for success, overly focusing on such aspects will delay time-to-business benefits while large amounts of documentation is produced. Find the balance between good enough technology, skilled people and sufficient policy – and processes for a successful implementation.

BBC report on the history of the mobile phone - Mobile phone technology turns 20

Computing special report on mobility - Mobile momentum

How long is a piece of string? More importantly, what on earth is service-oriented architecture?

Such questions can be answered by mobile text question and answer service AQA (Any Question Answered), which Metro reports recently answered its 8 millionth question.

The newspaper provides a list of the top ten most popular questions (which includes 'How long is a piece of string?').

IT-based questions are notable by their absence in the top 10. Which got me thinking - what would a chief information officer (CIO) ask AQA? Here's my stab at the top 10 most popular questions for CIOs:

1. Why can't I get on the board?
2. Why won't the financial director let me spend any money on IT?
3. How can I adopt a service-oriented architecture-based approach?
4. What is service-oriented architecture, anyway?
5. How does opening up 20 new data centres square up with our green computing strategy?
6. What on earth has love got to do with it?
7. How can I outsource the entire IT department and still look like I'm responsible for something?
8. How can I tell the chief executive to get stuffed?
9. Why does everyone hate me so much?
10. How long is a piece of string?