CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7 - 25

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commoditized, we've changed our approach. Selling
the machine is just the entry point. What really makes
a difference is how you transform that into a service
relationship. Because we're a relatively young industry,
we are a bit behind in that respect, because we had to go
through the early stages of the lifecycle to get there.

AUTOMATE AND COLLABORATE

Selling the machine is just the
entry point. What really makes a
difference is how you transform
that into a service relationship.

Within IT, we've had to further rethink the way we
operate. We have reevaluated and determined what will
be core competencies for us going forward and have
outsourced everything else to strategic partners. We
don't need to have our own people performing detailed
application development or support.
Internally, we have created a new operating model
that enables a closer connection with the business. We
have focused on engagement managers, architects,

doing it. In IT, we can look at those processes objectively
and figure out how to make them leaner. Ultimately, five
or ten years from now, when there is more intelligence
within these applications, the software will be able to see
patterns in those business processes, learn from them,
and optimize them without human intervention.

MEETING IN THE MIDDLE

and subject matter experts who can work hand-in-hand
with the business to define their needs. These people

For me as the CIO, this transformation requires that I get

must be business savvy and capable of having high-level

not only my IT organization on board with these changes,

conversations in the language of the business function

but the rest of the organization as well. It's a digital

they support, whether its finance, human resources, or

transformation of the entire enterprise. That demands

marketing. They have to understand the challenges of

that the CIO be more of a salesperson-which thankfully

those functions.

is where I started as a professional, in marketing and sales

We've found people with these skills in a number of

functions. You have to be an evangelist for the change.

places. Some have a technology background, but others

As much as we in IT understand the importance

come from the business. We just hired one person from

of meeting our business partners "where they are" in

our own financial department to head up engagement

order to continue this digital transformation journey, the

for all of our financial projects. He has that business

business is also beginning to understand that IT is a key

knowledge along with an understanding of IT.

component to their future success.

At the same time, we're automating more and more of

We intrinsically know how to manage a software and

our business process. If you look at the way the company

service business with a hardware component because

operates, it involves the integration of numerous complex

that is the business that IT has always been in. It's critical

business processes, many of which are performed

that the interest in collaboration come from both sides,

manually by our employees throughout the value chain.

and we've begun to see this happen. The business is
increasingly asking for our help and inviting us to the

right off-the-shelf IT systems to automate more of those

discussion. In the past, IT just took care of everything

tasks. Many of those functions, currently performed by

down in the basement while the business took care of

humans, do not add real value at all. But because we've

the customer. Now those two worlds are, happily and

always operated that way, you assume you need a person

productively, merging.

1999

In IT, we are working with software vendors to find the

Wal-Mart has the largest commercial database,
at 180 terabytes.

1.5 exabytes (1.5 billion gigabytes) of new
information are created worldwide, or about
250 megabytes for every person.
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7
