Juanene Wong, CIO at Dinsmore & Shohl

How do you ensure that IT line managers are involved in strategic IT planning?  

“We go through this on an annual basis with everyone in my IT department. Since we budget on a calendar year, I send out a call for any initiatives, training needs, tools - anything they feel they need to do their jobs better or be more effective. I ask everyone in my entire department to submit what I consider to be their personal budgets. That tells me how they are investing in themselves. From an IT strategy, we are here to serve our firm and our clients. Dinsmore has been on a trajectory of growth, so that’s been the biggest factor for us. Law firms may not change much, but they do grow and move into other cities and that’s what my group finds we are dealing with on a regular basis. We get very short notice to be ready to handle the expanding offices and my team does a great job meeting the needs of the firm’s growth strategy.”