The Heller Report: Now More Than Ever, CIO Means Chief Integration Officer

After six decades in IT leadership, Charlie Feld, founder of The Feld Group Institute, argues that the CIO role is more critical than ever—if these leaders can serve as chief integration officers. “The CIO can't control everything,” Feld writes. “But they can and must establish data, standards, and integration points—and rally other leaders and groups around them. The goal isn't to stop innovation. It's to make innovation possible at scale.”

Can AI move the needle at a small or mid-sized company? It can, explains Thomas Sweet, CIO of private equity-owned Industrial Refrigeration Pros. The difference-maker at his company: The rapid maturation of agentic coding tools, with some tools releasing updates monthly. “Tasks that once required specialized developers have become achievable for a small team with demonstrated willingness to learn,” Sweet writes.

Kelly Doyle, managing director at Heller, told TechTarget that CISOs who have earned a master’s in business administration benefit both their careers and their employers who want to understand risk in business terms they can use. “Having an MBA, you get that business fluency, financial knowledge, process and operations. You want CISOs who can see how data flows through the whole enterprise and organization,” Doyle said.

The navigation technology behind Pokémon GO, the augmented reality mobile game that uses GPS to locate virtual cartoon characters, is powering a new robotic delivery service. Coco Robotics is using the navigation system from Niantic Spatial (a company spun out from Pokémon GO) to unveil a bot that “can operate without remote human drivers and can use streets and bike lanes at speeds of up to 13 mph,” faster than typical deliver bots, TechRepublic reports. Coco said it has completed more than 500,000 deliveries across the US and Europe and tested routes that included Miami flooding, Chicago snow, and Los Angeles traffic.