The IT Beacon

Aspiring CIOs - Step this way.

City University plans to industrialise the production of next generation CIOs -  http://bit.ly/aGXwSC. Thank goodness.

CIO: Don't square up to the CFO

Who does he think he is cutting my budget, when in fact he should be increasing it to enable me to deliver operational efficiencies elsewhere? Tempting as it maybe to have it out with the CFO, this is rarely productive.

I suggest you take cost management into your own hands. Get ultra lean and divert the saved cash to delivering operational efficiencies elsewhere in the business. Then get the beneficiaries to push the CFO for more of the same.

On the basis that the CFO trusts the other departmental heads more than you, or at least likes the sound of costs being cut around the organisation, he is likely to see the wisdom in investing in further cost management initiatives.

CIO: Rebrand the IT Function

Let’s face it. The IT industry has a brand problem. How can we be the drivers of innovation when users think of IT in terms of late system delivery and the ‘turn it off turn it on’ service ethic (/mantra).

So what can you do?

• Step 1- Rename the department
• Eg. Information services, innovation centre. Don’t mention technology
• Step 2 – Increase the visibility of the good stuff you do
• Eg. Produce a regular newsletter. Don’t email it
• Step 3 – Deliver the basics well.

Perhaps step three should be step one? My view is that the IT staff are more likely to deliver the basics well if they first feel part of something strategically meaningful.

I forgot:

• Step 4 – Make the case to be part of the business leadership team.

CIO: Cloud Warning

Are you aware that your staff are using Skype and other free collaboration tools to communicate across and beyond the organisation? Perhaps you are and accept that this is a reality of business today and actually makes good economic sense.

Well picture this? A customer has complained about the behaviour of a member of staff. This has ‘gone legal’. There is now money and reputation on the table. Your lawyers ask you to provide details of all communication transactions associated with the employee.

Do you have an agreement with Skype or Google for them to provide you with this data? Well if not then you will most likely be the reason your organisation takes a financial and reputational battering.

The Cloud represents a major change in the dynamic between users and the IT function. If you do not manage this carefully you may well find your self caught up in a career storm.

On the sell side: The rules of account manager management

Let the account manager manage the account. Don’t undermine their authority by muscling in on client meetings, in particular dinners.  And don’t force them to have the title ‘account manager’ on their business card. Such cards alert CIOs that they are trapped in a room with a ‘selling machine’, that is unlikely to leave until a commitment is made.  Nothing is more effective in causing the CIO to don their full commercial body armour. Not the ideal conditions for evolving a long and mutually profitable relationship.

On the Sell Side: If you can't deliver value.....

Currently in Germany on a consulting assignment. Earlier on today I was sitting in a meeting that was being conducted in German. Not speaking the local tongue, I was listening intently to at least get the context of the discussion.

.....ROI..........payback.........CIO....... etc.

And then, from an ex (and very wise) COO of Deutsche Telekom, "....If you can't deliver value, deliver discount.......".

That summed it up perfectly for me. If you are selling IT products and services and there is nothing remarkable about you that the CIO values, then you better go armed with a calculator.

And make sure in advance that the percentage button works.

CIO: Time to hibernate?

Whilst out running recently, in an attempt to divert my mind from the discomfort that is part and parcel of interval training, I attempted to draw parallels with the environment I was running in and the one I spend my business life in.

Looking at the trees, I noticed that many of them were losing their leaves. But some were not.This by the way is quite an observation when the oxygen needed to keep the brain functioning drops into the red.

What if the trunk and branches represented the the business and the leaves were the IT function? Stick with this please.

So some businesses, when the environment gets challenging, choose not to feed the IT function. They are quite happy to let it struggle and eventually shrivel up and die. Such organisations have battened down the hatches with a view to going into hibernation until the market picks up again. And if that means the death of their IT function then so be it.

But what if this is the 'new normal'? I would recommend that CIOs and their staff migrate to organisations that are not so seasonal. Whilst today's industry leaders hibernate, tomorrow's industry leaders are busy growing.

CIO: The Giuliani Approach

The former Mayor of New York was  famous for coming down hard on minor misdemeanors. Focus on the small crimes and that in turn takes care of the large crimes. A zero tolerance approach. Why not try that with your IT department? Make best practice your only practice. Come down hard on staff that don't follow the release management procedure, side step testing or are rude to users. All of these undermine the IT function’s credibility.

Some would argue that it wasn’t Giuliani's zero tolerance policy that fixed New York, but the fact that he pushed the gangsters, pimps and drug dealers out to the suburbs. I guess the IT equivalent is outsourcing?

Support your CIO!

The role of the CIO is at an all time low in terms of strategic influence. Their decision making powers, even over their own budget, have been reined in.

Some ‘score on the doors’ sales-focused vendors will be tempted by bypass the CIO in order to try to deal direct with the CFO, COO or whoever actually is making IT-related decisions these days.

In my view that would be a mistake. The CIO is likely to be the person who best ‘gets’ the features and benefits of your offering. And thus is best placed to sell your solution to the decision makers.  

The problem is that often CIO lacks the skills to get into the boardroom. High value (and thus big ticket) vendors will invest in their CIO relationships, where necessary supporting their personal development. When you realise that the CIO is fundamentally no longer the buyer but your vendor’s chief sales officer for that account then this starts to make sense.

Beyond the downturn?

There is much talk about how IT functions are going to change once the downturn has run its course. There is a presumption here that:

• The downturn will end (though history tells us they generally do)
• The financial beating taken by the IT function will be reversed once the organization is back on an even keel.

At this present time I am doubtful about both. And so CIOs are encouraged to think about how they change the IT function under what might be called ‘new normal’ conditions.