These days, the role of the CIO also encompasses data management and analytics, which opens up a bevy of new benefits and challenges. Jim Kilmer, group vice president of Verizon Enterprise Solution's manufacturing vertical, explains what today's CIOs are doing to stay ahead of the competition.

Here, he discusses how he sees the role of the manufacturing CIO evolving:

“There are a number of trends occurring in the industry right now that are directly impacting CIOs. From a strictly business standpoint, we are seeing a lot of companies looking to monetize information that they’ve had for years in an effort to learn more about what they manufacture or about the use of the things that they manufacture. Companies that make large products or systems - like aircraft or locomotive manufacturers - have a lot of data, but in the past they’ve just used it internally or talked to their clients about it. Now they are looking to monetize that data. The ability to create systems to become revenue streams has really changed the way some CIOs do business.

“Also, literally every element of a plant, business process or system is being connected to the network (or made IP-aware). The Internet of Things is really heading towards a tipping point and CIOs are faced with a lot of plusses and minuses. The good news is that these systems are aware and help make businesses much more efficient in how they allocate resources, manufacture products and deploy individuals. By the same token, that tsunami of data is really overwhelming their ability to gain analytics and insights. They’re going to need a good strategic plan for how to capitalize and monetize this emerging trend.”

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