Author Archives: mark

Autumn 2011 edition of CIO Connect magazine

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The autumn edition of CIO Connect magazine hit CIO desks during the last week of October. Cover star Dan West, IT director at ASOS.com, talks about his priorities for transformation and innovation at the online retail giant.

The release of the magazine was held back to include a special report that summarises the best practice evidence on consumerisation emerging from CIO Connect’s annual conference in London. As usual, thanks to all participants and contributors:

  • Dan West, IT director at ASOS.com
  • Cliff Burroughs, group IT and lean director at United Biscuits
  • Bill Chang, executive vice president at SingTel
  • Rajneesh Narula, professor at Henley Business School
  • Neil Farmer, IT director at Crossrail
  • Adam Gibson, CIO at Odgers Berndtson
  • Rob Gibson, director of business systems at the Scottish Qualifications Authority
  • Michael Chui, senior fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute
  • Jon Page, advisory principle at EMC Consulting
  • Sanjay Mirchandani, global CIO at EMC
  • Tony McAlister, CTO at Betfair
  • Jonathan Earp, CIO at Informa
  • Julian Self, group operations and IT director at IPD
  • Simon Meredith, UK and Ireland CIO at IBM
  • Mark Foulsham, head of IT and operations at esure
  • Mark Leonard, executive vice president at Colt
  • Steve Jeffree, operations director and group CIO at the Law Society
  • Mark Settle, CIO at BMC Software
  • Marcus East, CIO at Comic Relief
  • Alistair Russell, advisory practice director at CIO Connect
  • Andy Bristow, director at Hays Information Technology
  • David Head, director at La Fosse Associates
  • Lewis Martin, change manager at Brit Insurance
  • Sean Harley, technology operations manager at Sky IQ
  • Adam Banks, CTO at Visa Europe Services
  • Deepak Jain, senior vice president at Wipro
  • Dominic Batchelor, partner at Ashurst LLP
  • Inbali Iserles, professional development lawyer at Ashurst LLP
  • Danièle Tyler, solicitor at Ashurst LLP
  • General Sir Mike Jackson, former head of the British Army
  • Roger Camrass, independent consultant and former CIO
  • Katie Bell, marketing director at Middlesex University
  • Sally Fuller, director of strategic propositions at Kcom
  • David Fosberg, vice president at Samsung Electronics
  • David Smith, ex-people and IT director at Asda
  • Ian Watmore, chief operating officer at the UK government
  • Richard Reed, co-founder of Innocent Drinks
  • Jason Hill, business solutions strategist at VMware
  • Ian Sherratt, director of corporate business strategy at SCC
  • Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist

Twitter and customers: Talk like friends, but without swearing

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I recently had the opportunity to listen to Innocent Drinks co-founder Richard Reed, who went to great lengths to explain to a select audience why business leaders must recognise how a continual focus on the customer help keeps executives honest.

Reed was speaking at the CIO Connect annual conference that took place in London last week. There was loads of insight from speakers about the best way to deal with the increasing influence of the consumer over business technology, most of which will appear in the autumn edition of CIO Connect magazine.

But Reed had a particularly strong take on engagement. His entire organisation is focused on simple, honest communication with the customer. And when it comes to creating a social media strategy through Twitter, Reed’s advice is simple: “Talk as you would talk to your friends, but without the swearing.”

Rather than confusing customers with acronyms and double-speak, Reed encourages executives to “keep it natural”. Which I think is a pretty concise summary for how businesses should approach all forms of communication.

Apple’s iPad: Great for business or just for Angry Birds?

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Boardrooms across the UK have become home to the tablet computer. But is the iPad, and its rival products, really an important business tool or just an executive gadget? Here’s my analysis for silicon.com:

Executives always seem keen to take hold of the latest mobile technology and be part of the consumer revolution. But just how far that enthusiasm translates into serious business use with Apple’s iPad and other tablets is not entirely clear. So silicon.com talked to five IT leaders about the current state of tablet adoption and the likely route of future development.

There’s little doubt that tablets, in particular the iPad, are the subject of incredible fanaticism. You only have to watch the news during an Apple product launch to see the fervour among the company’s legion of devoted fans. But such excitement must be tempered in a business context.

“They’re just a tool and should be treated as such,” says Hampshire County Council CIO Jos Creese, who says technology in the organisation must be judged on its value and effectiveness. He says tablets could help break the tendency of executives to hide behind laptop screens during important meetings. Yet, again, he says real success must relate to business outcomes.

To read the rest of the feature, please click here.

Five ways CIOs can improve how colleagues think of tech

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How can IT leaders overcome entrenched views of technology and create the type of communication that boosts the perception of the IT department within the company? Here’s my analysis for silicon.com:

Technology is still often seen by other business executives as a service, rather than a business essential. At the same time, ever-increasing consumerisation means workers across the organisation now have clear views on how they think internal IT should operate. silicon.com spoke to five IT leaders to get their take on how CIOs can help change perceptions.

Method 1. Become the champion for innovation - Comic Relief CIO Marcus East says perception has long been a challenge for IT functions and departments. It’s a challenge that has increased in recent years, with employees eager to understand why they cannot do things in the office that they can do at home with consumer IT.

“Arguments about the need for corporate security used to be enough to stop non-compliant users in their tracks, but that approach won’t work anymore. IT leaders need to address this issue and become the champions for people’s use of technology in their organisations, rather than trying to resist innovation,” says East.

To read the rest of the article, please click here.

Five ways CIOs can innovate for the business

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Getting creative in troubled economic times can be tough. So, how can CIOs prove the value of innovation? My feature for silicon.com investigates:

In the present climate, it can be hard for CIOs to shape the type of opportunities that will provide new benefits to the business. So silicon.com has canvassed the views of a group of IT experts for their suggestions. They have come up with five key ways that CIOs can continue to create new opportunities for the business.

Idea 1. Develop new partnerships and ideas - Asos.com director of IT Dan West says CIOs need to carve out opportunities to start innovating. West is leading the transformation of his IT team, so the skills of the department are designed to meet wider business objectives and to help develop creative ideas.

“That might include partnerships with universities and start-ups, or through the creation of internal events that are developed to inspire innovation,” he says. One such example is the Hackathon, a trial event created by West and his IT team to generate new business ideas.

For the rest of the feature, please click here.

The five essential ingredients for being a great CIO

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It’s tough to take a place at the executive top table, so knowing which features will make you stand out from your peers as an IT leader is essential. Here’s a presentation of such features by me for silicon.com:

What makes a great CIO? And how can such leaders encourage the best perception of IT across the business, as well as foster the right type of behaviour among the technology team? silicon.com spoke to five IT leaders with five different perspectives.

Put commercial issues first and IT second - Success is not defined by how you interact with the business but how you become part of it, according to Steve Jeffree, operations director and group CIO at the Law Society.

“The future for the CIO who acts in a standalone manner is very limited,” he says, referring to his own additional annexation of the operations director role at the Law Society in March 2009.

To read the rest of the feature, please click here.

Cloud computing: Top CIO tips for dealing with the next stage

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On-demand technology continues to rise in popularity. Here’s a feature for silicon.com, where I talk to IT leaders about what’s coming next in cloud computing and how to deal with the changes.

Utility computing has switched quickly from hype to reality, with increasing numbers of organisations moving infrastructures, platforms and even applications to the cloud.

What will be some of the next frontiers for on-demand technology and how can IT leaders prepare for the inevitable shift to cloud computing? Here, IT leaders discuss the future shape of the cloud and present their top tips for dealing with the next generation of on-demand IT.

Tip 1. Niche providers will fill the gaps - easyJet CIO Trevor Didcock is already making use of the cloud. He expects relationships with third parties to develop in the future, particularly with specialist providers that will help CIOs safely make the most of on-demand computing.

To read the rest of the feature, please click here.

Information, not technology – the CIO as a top table executive

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Read the media, or speak to any number of so-called industry experts, and you will still hear the same line: the CIO needs to be more aligned with the needs of the business.

Now is the time for the use of such clichés to stop. If a CIO really isn’t engaged with the business, what on earth is the executive responsible for technology doing on a daily basis?

The answer is quite a lot, actually. What becomes clear is that CIOs do not spend hours talking of the need to spend more time with other functions because such connectedness is a given.

The context to this new level of interaction is change. Perceptions of technology within the business have altered rapidly over the past decade or so, shifting from being seen as a dark art that is best left to the geeks in the basement, to an essential backbone of business success that must be widely understood in order to create competitive advantage.

Such perceptions continue to alter on an almost daily basis, with the business forced to confront challenges across multiple technology fronts. These battlegrounds include cloud computing, social media and consumer technology.

But across all fronts, the CIO has to be in charge of one crucial component: information. Now, more than ever before, the executive responsible for business IT truly is the chief information officer.

For far too long, CIOs have been forced to justify the relevance of technology to the business. Brought into board level debates on an ad-hoc basis, IT leaders have then been asked to explain why spending on hardware and software is important.

More fool the business that still takes that closed approach. In comparison to other c-level executives, the CIO is the individual with the broadest view across all business functions. That great view across the enterprise should, in itself, be enough to guarantee the CIO’s regular seat at the top table.

But there is more. CIOs have long recognised what the rest of the business has only just started to comprehend; your success or failure as a modern organisation relies on your ability to understand data.

From structured data stored in stove pipes to unstructured data floating round on social media, successful businesses will be able to take data and create useful information that can help improve decision making and boost customer engagement.

The CIO, as the guardian of this information, is the person who will ensure data becomes useful knowledge that provides a business advantage. Now, then, really is your time.

The above editorial introduced the recently released summer edition of CIO Connect magazine

World of hurt if CIOs fail to think globally

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My latest feature for silicon.com shows how major economic growth projected for regions such as Southeast Asia will reshape the technology models companies adopt and transform the role of CIO itself:

Economic recovery usually leads to an upsurge in investment in Western economies as businesses aim to start growing again. This time it is different, says esure head of IT and operations Mark Foulsham.

Two years after the UK recession of 2009, Foulsham believes the recovery is much slower than might have originally been expected. Proof comes in the form of economic indicators, with the Office of Budget Responsibility downgrading UK growth projections for 2011 on three occasions from a high of 2.6 per cent to a current expectation of 1.7 per cent.

The slower rate of growth leads Foulsham to suggest that CIOs need to think differently about the mix between new investments and existing resources. But he believes there are big opportunities for technology leaders who can think about intelligent ways to grow the business through smart IT.

To read the rest of the feature, please click here.

Summer 2011 edition of CIO Connect magazine

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The summer edition of CIO Connect magazine should now be making its way to the desks of IT leaders. The edition profiles some of the great work being undertaken by CIO Connect’s Hong Kong network, including profile pieces of Jockey Club CIO Sunny Lee and internet guru Vint Cerf.

Other CIOs featured in the magazine include Malcolm Simpkin, UK CIO of general insurance at Aviva, and Jim Slack, business leader of IT operations and development at Co-operative Financial Services. As ever, thanks to all participants and contributors:

  • Sunny Lee, executive director of IT at the Hong Kong Jockey Club
  • Vint Cerf, chief internet evangelist at Google
  • Malcolm Simpkin, UK CIO of general insurance at Aviva
  • Jim Slack, business leader of IT operations and development at Co-operative Financial Services
  • Trevor Didcock, CIO at easyJet
  • Sean Whetstone, head of IT services at Reed
  • Pat Kolek, chief operating officer at eBay Classifieds Group
  • Cris Beswick, managing director at Let’s Think Beyond
  • Rebecca Jacoby, CIO at Cisco
  • Derek Drury, CIO at University of Salford
  • Jo Stanford, group IT director at De Vere
  • Dan Morgan, IT director at General Healthcare Group
  • Jeff Smith, CIO at Torus Insurance
  • Glyn Evans, director of business change and ICT chief at Birmingham City Council
  • Paul Green, head of IT at Prism DM
  • Mike Harris, entrepreneur and founder of Egg, First Direct and Garlik
  • David Head, director at La Fosse Associates
  • Raj Samani, CTO at McAfee
  • David Longson, CTO at IBM
  • Nathaniel Borenstein, chief scientist at Mimecast
  • Francesco Violante, chief executive of SITA
  • Jane Kimberlin, former CIO and head of Creaton Consultants
  • Dominic Batchelor, partner at Ashurst LLP
  • Inbali Iserles, professional development lawyer at Ashurst LLP
  • Danièle Tyler, solicitor at Ashurst LLP