Big news: Your company has decided to make an initial public offering (IPO). Maybe your company's venture capitalists want to recoup their investment. More likely, your company thinks it has a hot product or service and needs the cash to expand.

But before you start counting your stock options, consider the work ahead. An IPO puts a huge burden on you as CIO. Now, in addition to meeting your company's daily technology needs, you have a new priority: coordinating with the finance department and legions of auditors, inside the company and out, to ensure that your company can meet the stringent financial reporting and data security requirements of a public company. Before you know it, auditors will be questioning all your workflow processes. Some might even dive into dumpsters to make sure your employees are properly shredding sensitive data before throwing it out.