Gary,

These are good questions, and from what I see, CIOs need to be up to speed on the latest technology skills that are driving businesses today, from cloud computing to SaaS to virtualization. Because technology changes so quickly, they not only need to keep up on these areas but also surround themselves with teams who understand and can manage these technologies for the benefit of the business.

Given the pent up demand for IT projects, CIOs need to have a solid understanding of the methodology for project life cycles and the various resources needed at each phase of the life cycle. They also need to demonstrate the cost/benefit analysis of each life cycle, as well as ROI.

As for leadership skills, CIOs need to be effective communicators with all levels and functions within the organization. IT needs must tie to larger business objectives, so the CIO is looked upon to convey, in clear terms, why and when IT initiatives must be launched, and explain them in such a way as to gain buy in from all stakeholders, including the CFO. More than ever, they need to have good skills in negotiation, diplomacy and team building, especially in an effort to maintain employee morale and retain key staff members as the economy turns around.

For the five year outlook for the CIO marketplace, it’s hard to predict what the future will hold. Some of the issues today will most likely be prevalent in 5 years, such as Business Intelligence, Virtualization, SaaS, Social Networking and the continued evolution of the web.

As for industries and regions in demand for new talent, our recently launched Salary Center gives some insight into this. You can access this at http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/UnitedStates.

Dave Willmer

Elliot,

While employers are still cautious about hiring and the job market is very competitive, we are hearing from clients that there is a lot of pent-up demand for IT projects. As for salaries, however, we expect compensation to show slight declines in the U.S. next year. While there is still demand for candidates in key areas, there is also a great supply of highly skilled IT professionals. We also surveyed CIOs recently who said they expect to invest in many areas such as information security, virtualization, VoIP, SaaS and Business Intelligence, among others. Another survey showed they also plan to invest in hardware, servers, wireless and software, for example, so the prospects for IT investment look good. We see less demand on the mainframe operations side than in other areas, and salaries for these positions are expect to remain flat in 2010.