Tag Archives: Silicon

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.”

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

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.

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.

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.