The role of a CIO (chief information officer) is one of those that, perhaps because it is so American, often befuddles everyone else. What, exactly, does a CIO do?

A bit of everything, according to the job description of Mr Stacy J Smith, vice-president of finance and enterprise services and co-CIO at Intel, a company that has not one but two of the species. (On the other hand, Intel also has more than 100 people on its management roster with "vice-president" in their title, so being one of two CIOs is fairly unique.)

In the Republic on a running visit to meet with customers and employees last week, Mr Smith explained that his primary role was co-ordinating information and technology systems across the company. He also does everything from bringing back ideas on improving Intel, to listening in confidence to employees' job concerns.

But boil it all down and he's the one with the responsibility of keeping the technology running at one of the world's largest technology companies, with 75,000 employees, 17,000 of them engineers.

Far from finding that prospect overwhelming, he says it allows him to get a broad picture of what is happening at the cutting edge of technology, as well as keeping an eye on emerging trends as they gain momentum.

"The interesting thing about being Intel's CIO is not just running the organisation, which is pretty cool, but that, because of Intel's position in the industry, you get a chance to see trends and to go out and evangelise," he says.

However, that doesn't mean he gets to play with fun gadgets or order up whatever he wants from tech suppliers.

"Although we're Intel, I have to run Intel on a budget like everyone else," he says. "I don't get an unlimited amount of money to buy all sorts of cool things."

His concerns are pretty much the concerns of all CIOs, whatever their business.

"Certain themes always emerge: security, high-performance data centres, heating, cooling and power issues for maintaining systems. At CIO level, there's a basic problem statement that remains pretty consistent - the demand for IT always grows faster than the revenue of the company and the budget you're given."

Intel has seen a 20 per cent increase in employees since 1998, which has in turn produced a 1,000 per cent increase in demand for IT resources, and a several hundred per cent increase for email and voicemail services, he says.

But how have there been such increases even as the market has slowed, and when sales of IT products and services have been in the doldrums for several years?

"When revenue flattens out, the demand on IT grows. For example, you ask employees to travel less. When this happens, their phone minutes explode, their network minutes explode, and demand for bandwidth increases. Also, increased productivity results from increased automation. The challenge for CIOs is finding cost value while still investing."

Meeting with CIOs from other industries and sharing ideas is a particularly interesting part of the job, says Mr Smith.

Often he brings back these ideas to the Intel boardroom for possible implementation at Intel. On other occasions he can go out and use Intel's strategy as an example.

Listening to issues at other companies also helps Intel to design its products and services to address potential market needs, he says.

So what is a typical CIO day like? "I'm not sure there's a typical day for a CIO," he says. "For example, today I went to the Irish plant and met with the plant manager, then met with senior CIOs from Ireland and gave a presentation on how we look at the return on investment for the investment we make in IT.

"Then I had an open forum with Intel employees, and after that, a brown bag lunch where I met with selected employees to hear their issues."

As the person who keeps an eye on technologies, the trend he finds most exciting right now is "the convergence of computers and communications and the ability to take these two worlds and put them together."

He adds: "The next big thing is the current big thing: wireless."

Such a statement is not too surprising given that Intel has made a major strategic bet on wireless at home and in the business world. The company is pushing Centrino chipsets optimised for wireless connectivity on laptops, for example.

But Mr Smith's enthusiasm clearly extends beyond his employer's marketing strategy. "Wireless really starts to change the whole thing about where technology can play," he says, enthusing about how construction workers on the new terminal at Heathrow can download blueprint files while on site, and how the city of Jerusalem has introduced free wireless hotspots throughout public places in the city.

Is it as exciting as the technology boom years at the end of the past century?

"The gold rush mentality of the late 1990s, for people living through it" he looks wistful, "anything was possible and everything was exciting. A boom is more interesting than a bust.

"But now, things are more stable. Maybe there's not the buzz but it sure seems more sustainable."

Spoken like a true CIO.