Eight things I learned at the MIT CIO Symposium

1. Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna, gets IT. His quote: "If you want to succeed in this firm you need to understand IT." Another: "IT isn't viewed as a cost, it's a way to achieve competitive advantage." His philosophy -- use IT to share information among products and also cut costs by using preventative medicine.

2. Consumers will better understand healthcare costs. Why, because they have to and because they can. New technology will allow costs to be more transparent for insurers and insured. For insurers, a way to control costs. For consumers, a way to make choices.

3. Google and Wikipedia are only the tip of the iceberg. Tom Malone, professor of management at MIT Sloan, views them as only the beginning of software that harnesses and organizes intelligence.

4. The number of software companies will decline. It's only natural with consolidation and a lot of software migrating to the Web, said Michael Cusumano, professor at MIT Sloan.

5. "SaaSified" and "SaaSifaction" are words. At least they were used by Gerri Martin-Flickinger, SVP + CIO at Adobe.

6. Centralized vs. decentralized. It depends. Stuart McGuigan, SVP and CIO of Liberty Mutual, talked about how much is decentralized simply because the business works that way and that's his company's strength. "The fact that we haven't centralized some things is not a sign of weakness."

7. As the value of business intelligence grows, the role if the IT shop will diminish. Why? Because business units can access data on their own and use SaaS to access and manipulate it. "This leaves IT out of the picture," said Dr. Claudia Imhoff, president and founder, Intelligent Solutions.

8. If a company is interested in data analytics the IT department can't stop or control it. Doug Tracy, CTO, Rolls Royce, says the best the IT department can do is help explain its value.

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