The idea originated from quite a few failures or ERP disasters across the world and the impact that made to the organization. ERP projects take the largest pie in the IT investments of a company and it has the power to make or break the whole growth strategy of that company. This idea turned into a new trend that is fast catching up across the world especially in growing economies like India and China. The trend that started in the United States few years ago and was keeping low and almost died down during the economic downturn, has picked up quite well in India and China. The organizations that either do not have an ERP centric IT department or have no specific skills around ERP but would not like to recruit a new CIO or an additional senior expert on ERP, got a new option these days where instead of hiring a CIO for their ambitious ERP project, they can rent a CIO on contract wherein periods vary from 6 months to 12 months. This makes sure that you are not adding a recurring cost to your balance-sheet but still getting the best talent & expertise available for this purpose.
Normally, this model works best with the milestones basis payment and not with monthly salary basis as the company which rents these high worth individuals, would like to get short term results also in addition of the long term strategic roadmap execution to justify their high payouts. On the other hand, these CIOs are an experienced lot who have managed complex ERP projects in that geographic area with similar footprint, language, industry and localizations and are well versed with not only the challenges that might come in the ERP project, they also have knowledge and expertise in leveraging prevalent best practices to make the ERP project successful. The qualities in these CIOs have to be early learning of the organization