GET TO KNOW
“
our customer success; how we can better
understand and support our customers. I
think both of those areas are common to all
companies developing software.
How do you deal with stress and
unwind outside of the office?
I’m an avid cave diver and underwater
photographer. I am a keen traveller and
enjoy new experiences, from Snowshoe
hiking in the Alps, to dry caving in the UK.
If you could go back and change one
career decision, what would it be?
I’d give relationships and politics a greater
focus. I’ve learnt, with hindsight, the
importance of investing in relationships
and keeping them current. Ensure that
people are comfortable with the direction
being taken; make sure that, when there
are problems, people know they can come
to you with them; invest time in getting to
know the different stakeholders across the
business to understand the role of IT across
different business units and how it can help
them achieve their goals. Ultimately, this
is crucial and – especially with the rapid
adoption of new technologies – needs
constant attention.
What changes to your job role have
you seen in the last year and how do
you see these developing in the next
12 months?
CIOs are seeing a shift of budget for
technology out of the IT team and into
the business units, which has made owning
financial control much harder. Marketing, for
example, will purchase the technology that
will enable it to achieve what it needs, but
this makes it harder for the CIO to keep hold
of the purse strings and be accountable for
technology spend.
Gartner predicts that, by 2020, large
enterprises with a digital focus will see
business unit IT increase to 50% of enterprise
IT spending. This will further disrupt the
traditional CIO role, requiring them to
transition into the role of a consultant and
influencer that works with business units to
ensure they are getting the best value and
not buying overlapping offerings.
Visibility will be crucial to achieving this. CIOs
need insight into who is using what, what
GARTNER
PREDICTS THAT,
BY 2020, LARGE
ENTERPRISES
WITH A DIGITAL
FOCUS WILL SEE
BUSINESS UNIT
IT INCREASE
TO 50% OF
ENTERPRISE IT
SPENDING.
resources are unused across the business and
how existing assets can be better optimised
to deliver true value to the business units
within budget.
What advice would you offer
somebody aspiring to obtain C-level
position in your industry?
IT is a technical role and you can spend
a lot of time thinking about how it works.
However, it’s the business element which is
crucial for aspiring IT leaders to understand.
Tech underpins everything, so you need to
understand what value you can add to each
business function, rather than how clever a
piece of technology is. n
What are the region-specific
challenges when implementing new
technologies in Europe?
The regional challenge I face in Europe
is the increased focus on privacy by
design. With every new technology going
through a data privacy impact assessment
and security assessment, this has led to
some suppliers being faced with tough
questions. This is an outcome of the GDPR
that has generated more awareness on
privacy, which you can see with the recent
Facebook revelations.
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