Five ways to ensure the IT leader role wins out

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My latest piece for TechRepublic shows how even though many finance chiefs seem to think the days of the CIO role may be numbered, IT leaders still have a number of options to strengthen their hand:

The headline figures make grim reading for IT professionals hoping to build a long-term career as a CIO. Almost one in five CFOs thinks the CIO role will disappear within five years, according to new research.

Worse, the survey of 203 key financial decision-makers by IT specialist Getronics and consultancy Loudhouse suggests 43 per cent of CFOs believe the IT leadership role will inevitably merge with the top finance position.

So, how can CIOs ensure their role does not become redundant? Here are five top tips from IT leaders and finance chiefs.

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Five tips for CIOs looking to create real change in two years

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The pressure on CIOs to make telling business improvements quickly is increasing – I recently presented five ways for IT leaders to make a mark in an article for TechRepublic:

What once took years now takes weeks. The fast-pace of technological development, supported by on-demand computing and the consumerisation of IT, means enterprise technology can now be adopted and used more quickly than ever before. So, how long do CIOs need to make their mark on an organisation?

IT strategy cycles traditionally run somewhere between three and five years. That schedule is consistent with tenures in the IT C-suite, with analyst Gartner reporting that the average time a CIO spends in post is four years and four months.

However, contract lengths vary considerably between sectors and nations. The Government Accountability Office, for example, reports the average tenure of government sector CIOs in the US is as low as two years. TechRepublic spoke to IT experts and got five top tips for how CIOs can act strategically in a digital age.

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Ian Watmore on security, social media & citizen engagement

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My interview with Ian Watmore for Guardian Government Computing, where the Cabinet Office permanent secretary talks about IT’s role in public sector projects, social media for citizen engagement and how the government is a hacking trophy:

Former government chief information officer (CIO) Ian Watmore might be new to the position of Cabinet Office permanent secretary, but he still recognises that digital technology presents a significant opportunity for the government to engage with citizens and shape the future of public services.

Watmore, who spent the last year or so operating as the chief operating officer for the government’s Efficiency and Reform Group, was recently appointed to his current role to help fill the leadership void following Sir Gus O’Donnell’s retirement from the role of cabinet secretary.

“The new generation of politicians really understand technology,” says Watmore. “It’s a business issue that is on the top table in every department in Whitehall.”

The elevated position of technology, according to Watmore, has been inspired by the increasing digital element of public policy and the growing desire of UK citizens to access public information online.

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Sainsbury’s IT chief: Why communication is key to IT success

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Sainsbury’s head of IT Rob Fraser knows that if you talk data centres and servers, you’ll lose your audience. So he’s been focusing on communication and the business skills of his tech staff, as he explained to me in a feature for silicon.com:

Rob Fraser, head of IT and a member of the operating board at retail giant Sainsbury’s, has worked hard since his appointment in July 2009 to ensure the resources of the inhouse technology team match the key objectives of the business. Crucially, the core of his attempt to meet such aims is people rather than simply technology.

Fraser says former CIO Angela Morrison put a lot of effort into reintegrating inhouse staff, following a period of outsourcing with service provider Accenture at the start of the century. The engagement of the firm’s 500 inhouse IT staff remains a critical priority.

“Our IT team complete the upfront tasks that make sure business outcomes are met,” says Fraser. “We don’t want technologists. We want people with an understanding of how retail works. The strategy and planning will support our great IT people. We want the dynamic to continually evolve from push to pull, so the business can always come to us for great ideas on what to do next.”

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Embrace transformation for the benefit of the business

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Are you ready for the digital future and the ever-continuing flux that will constitute the role of the modern IT leader?

More than anything else, CIO Connect’s 2012 Horizons research of more than 200 technology executives shows the target for high-quality IT leaders in the digital age is getting broader and wider. As the executive responsible for technology, the CIO looking to take advantage of the leadership opportunity must embrace transformation for the benefit of the business.

IT leaders are used to change; in short, they have to be. The mechanics – the basic building blocks of the IT industry – change and flex almost continuously with time. Today’s fundamental business technology has always been tomorrow’s potential legacy system.

But decades of enterprise IT implementations mean constrictions associated with legacy technology have become an issue common to all businesses, regardless of sector or specialism. And the modern pace of change in the digital age could, from the point of view of the sceptic, serve to create more complexity.

CIOs who managed what seemed like the fast-paced transformation associated with distributed computing and electronic commerce, now find themselves confronted with lightning speed change. The confluence of mobile, consumer, cloud and social technologies means the defensible enterprise perimeter has become a nebulous concept.

Our Horizons research shows CIOs recognise employees now demand a free choice of mobile device, and use such tools to draw on enterprise information on-demand. Building a firewall and locking down access is no longer an option because technology, and the knowledge it enables, is being democratised.

Yet the pace of change is no reason to be scared. Savvy CIOs are embracing consumerisation and showing the business how technology can help engage with customers whose opinions were previously hidden. It is the CIO, rather than the marketing director or another c-level strategist, who must grasp the nettle and demonstrate how going digital improves the business.

Responding CIOs also recognise that the cloud, although in its infancy, could help the business to really use IT flexibly and to create an approach to technology that concentrates on value-added outcomes, rather than being constrained by the fears of legacy infrastructures.

Now is your opportunity to finally address the embedded perceptions of the IT department, where the technology team is viewed as practising a dark art that only acts to reduce the potential for change. Leadership in the digital age means the converse is now true and CIOs must show a business-enabled approach to IT that is agile and light-to-the-touch.

Your first step towards success – whether working as a change leader, digital designer or a shared services executive – is to grab the attention of the chief executive and to work with trusted partners to deliver set objectives that relate to specific business outcomes. Now, more than ever before, is your opportunity to change the business for the better.

The above column summarised CIO Connect’s 2012 Horizons survey and was included in the recently released edition (issue 37) of CIO Connect magazine

The digital agenda is now the business agenda

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The last few months of 2011 provided an inspiring call to action for all those connected to networking and advisory organisation CIO Connect, and represented a bright counterbalance to the doom and gloom of broader macro-economic pronouncements.

While political and business leaders around the world fought to stabilise the global economy, CIO Connect sought best practice evidence to show how technology can help drive continued efficiency gains in the public and private sector.

Early foresight came at the annual conference in October and left attendees with a sense of how the rise of consumer IT means the role of technology leadership in the modern organisation has never been more crucial.

Further evidence of the significance of the digital agenda came in the weeks following the conference, as CIO Connect magazine secured exclusive interviews with two of the most important men in UK IT.

Issue 37 cover star Rob Fraser of Sainsbury’s provided a string of examples to demonstrate how the retail giant is using technology to create innovative projects that help the business meet stringent targets and deliver ever-improving service for the customer.

Cabinet Office permanent secretary Ian Watmore, meanwhile, took time from his hectic schedule to outline to CIO Connect how he and his colleagues are using technology to help push transformation in central government, an initiative that is producing lasting benefits in terms of efficiencies and cost savings.

Both interviews proved one thing above all else: the digital agenda is now the business agenda and every organisation, whether public or private, needs an expert at the helm that can help make the right decisions regarding technology deployment.

Economic stagnation continues to be accompanied by technological development and 2012 is likely to see more pressure for innovative approaches around a number of key areas, such as cloud computing, social media and information management. The CIO must be ready.

The above editorial introduced the recently released edition (issue 37) of CIO Connect magazine

Issue 37 of CIO Connect magazine

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The winter edition (issue 37) of CIO Connect was posted during the Christmas break. The magazine features two particularly big hitters from private and public sector IT, both of who’s best practice will help shape technology transformation through 2012.

Cover star Rob Fraser,  head of IT at retail giant Sainsbury’s, explains how a successful strategy ensures technology skills are connected to business objectives.

And in an exclusive interview, recently-appointed Cabinet Office permanent secretary Ian Watmore says the increasing importance of technology means good leadership is more crucial than ever before. As usual, thanks to all participants and contributors:

  • Ian Watmore, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office
  • Rob Fraser, head of IT at retail giant Sainsbury’s
  • Hakan Carlbom, CIO at EQT
  • Peter Erceg, chief security officer for UK mobile operator Everything Everywhere
  • Katherine Coombs, IT director and information security officer at buyingTeam
  • Andrew Bover, head of ICT at 1st Credit
  • Bill Limond, CIO at the City of London
  • Piergiorgio Grossi, IT director of the Ferrari Formula 1 racing team
  • Eugene Buyakin, chief operating officer at Kaspersky Lab
  • Alexander Erofeev, director of market intelligence and insight at Kaspersky Lab
  • Christian Christiansen, vice president at researcher IDC
  • Phil Everson, leader of the IT effectiveness team of Deloitte
  • Matt Peers, CIO at Deloitte
  • Sandeep Phanasgoankar, president and CTO of Reliance Capital
  • Chris Webber, senior editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit
  • Sheree Lacy, programme transformation director at BT
  • Steve Sturr, executive director of global services at Dell
  • Julian Self, group operations and IT director at IPD
  • Wayne Smith, head of IS at Birmingham Airport
  • John Bates, CTO at Progress Software
  • Frank Land, former chief consultant at LEO
  • Jim Norton, president of the British Computer Society.
  • Geoff Colvin, writer and Fortune senior editor
  • Nick Kirkland, chief executive at CIO Connect
  • Alistair Russell, advisory practice director at CIO Connect
  • Dominic Batchelor, partner at Ashurst LLP
  • Inbali Iserles, professional development lawyer at Ashurst LLP
  • Danièle Tyler, solicitor at Ashurst LLP
  • Rudy Giuliani, New York City Mayor from 1994 to 2001
  • Deepak Jain, senior vice president at Wipro Technologies
  • Roger Camrass, independent consultant and former CIO
  • Mike Gualtieri, principal analyst at researcher Forrester

Five tips for CIOs: How to solve a problem like communication

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IT enjoys an unwelcome reputation for working behind closed doors. Even when the tech team comes up with a great solution to a problem, IT people often fail to communicate potential benefits in terms the business can easily understand.

In a collaborative age, where engagement inside and outside the business is a given, IT leaders have to work harder to develop top communications skills. I recently spoke to some IT experts and produced five top tips for silicon.com on smarter engagement.

1. Employ a communications specialist in the IT department - Matt Peers, CIO of consultants Deloitte, is part of the new, younger generation of IT leaders. He has recently taken over technology stewardship at the company, bringing with him more than a decade of customer-facing experience from high-street retailer Carphone Warehouse.

Strong engagement with all interested parties is the absolute crux of the matter for Peers. “I base all my leadership on good communications,” he says. “Engagement is the key component for successful IT.”

Since joining Deloitte, Peers has helped work towards the recruitment of an internal communications specialist for the IT department. This specialist will analyse IT strategy and help define in simple terms how line-of-business executives can benefit from the good work of the technology team.

“It helps you concentrate on the type of message that you are really trying to get across to the rest of the organisation,” he says. “Having a head of internal communications for IT is not about technology but about demonstrating the capabilities we can provide to users across the business.”

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

Is Apple hardware and software really ready for business?

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Apple products are beautiful to look at and easy to use. But are iPads, iPhones and the technology specialist’s other user-friendly tools really ready for enterprise deployment? Five CIOs gave their opinions to me for silicon.com on whether Apple technology is really resilient enough for the modern organisation:

Opinion 1 – Apple tech best suits certain industries: “Enterprises used to drive innovation and that is now definitely not the case,” says Julian Self, group operations and IT director at information specialist IPD, who says people are now entering the workplace with their own devices and their own demands.

“There’s significant pull-through from consumerisation,” says Self. “If strategies to allow workers to buy their own device continue to increase in number, then we will see much more Apple technology in the office. But is it really enterprise-ready?” Self believes the answer is definitely ‘yes’ for some organisations in specific industries, such as media and marketing.

But while he believes MacBooks have a great reputation, and that iPhones and iPads can be used as channels to create apps that build brand awareness, he is not convinced there will be a rapid move towards a broad range of Apple-led enterprises.

“Our clients don’t really make decisions in the field and, in many businesses, people still need a Windows-led approach,” says Self. “At the same time, attempts by Microsoft to move towards gesture-based computing might have an unexpected effect and show sceptics that other operating systems and techniques, such as those produced by Apple, can work in the business.”

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

Five tips for CIOs looking to harvest social media data

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Individuals inside and outside the organisation now use a range of social tools to engage with the business. So how can CIOs make the most of this online conversation and use unstructured social data to help shape better products and services? Here I present a recent article for silicon.com, where I polled five IT leaders for five top tips:

Tip 1 – Identity the themes and address the customer: John Bates, CTO at Progress Software, says last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico was the first example of a major company such as BP having its reputation damaged through an inadequate response to social media: “They didn’t respond effectively and they got badly hurt,” he says.

Much has been written about the oil giant’s struggle to incorporate social media into its communications crisis plan. Bates says CIOs must help the business identify underlying issues addressed through social media and find a means to deal with customer-identified themes.

“Social media is a series of events and Twitter is the medium that can potentially damage the reputation of governments and businesses. If someone says something about your organisation, you need to raise the issue and understand what the sentiment says about your business,” Bates adds.

“Social is not just about the technology. It’s actually more about the culture. The 21st-century customer understands the culture of social media. Your business has to understand why people would want to go out on to the internet and to collaborate.”

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