Smart Enterprise Exchange: Live Exchanges : Tags : events

Live Exchanges

2 Posts tagged with the events tag

Inside the Boston Live Exchange in Live Exchanges

Posted by Paula Klein Sep 29, 2009

September 2009

Almost exactly one year after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the sale of Merrill Lynch and the subsequent fallout to the global financial services market, the industry is still figuring out how to move forward and make lemonade from the lemons it has been given.

Against this backdrop, about two dozen Boston-area CIOs —from Fidelity Investments, State Street and other leading financial firms — met on September 9 to discuss their leaner, and in some cases meaner, IT operations.

Bruce Rogow, former Gartner Research Fellow who speaks regularly with CIOs as Principal of Vivaldi Advisory Service and Odyssey program, noted that in the new environment IT can no longer determine what users and customers want. IT must respond to the business and the marketplace even if “you may have to throw out [some projects] and start again,” he said.

Rogow sees new opportunities arising and he offered a call to action, too. Most businesses will emerge from the recession as changed companies and their former models will no longer serve them. It’s a chance to “redesign the business with IT as the hub,” he said. IT will increasingly get “out of the device business” to offer “alternative delivery vehicles” such as services over the public infrastructure, mobile apps, “extreme virtualization” and cloud computing to meet demand-side expectations.

Picking up on this theme, State Street EVP and CIO Christopher Perretta said that CIOs can actually “take advantage of the turbulence” to create new products and services. He welcomes the challenge and encouraged his peers to seek untraditional and “dial-moving types of innovation” that allow IT to differentiate the business from competitors.

At his company, Perretta is exploring a “virtual PC environment” where IT doesn’t provide every piece of client hardware — whether it’s an iPhone or a PC. Instead, users can access a virtual image of their desktop on a cloud service secured and supported by IT. It’s a way of shifting limited resources while still providing basic services, he said.

It’s wise to make the most of what you have –especially considering the alternatives. Therefore, CIOs may want to roll up their sleeves and make some lemonade!

[You can download the slides from this event on our Event page here]

486 Views 2 Comments 0 References Permalink Tags: boston, events, christopher_perretta, bruce_rogow, state_street, financial_services, virtualization, innovation, lean_it, practical_innovation, video

Transforming 'The Department Formerly Known as IT' in Live Exchanges

Posted by Scott Vaughan Sep 3, 2009

Live Exchange Report

Scott Vaughan

I had the pleasure of spending the last week on the road as part of the Smart Enterprise Exchange Roundtables we organize in major cities around the globe for senior IT executives. Joining me in Muskoka, Ontario (also known as, Canada’s Cottage Country), Sacramento, Calif. (the state capital) and Phoenix, (Arizona’s beautiful western U.S. desert), was Peter Hinssen.

Peter, who is based in Europe, is a respected CEO/CIO advisor, self-admitted ‘uber geek,’ author of a very insightful new book Business/IT Fusion, and regular contributor to Smart Enterprise Exchange. (You can read his latest column here.)

Peter delivered clear, hard-hitting inspiration and a prescription for the core changes CIOs and IT departments need to institute to transform their organizations and their careers. Drawing on rock music legend Prince--who changed his name a few years back literally to “the artist formerly known as Prince”--Peter’s resounding point of view was this: “We need to eliminate the old, tired, IT department way of thinking and start anew.”

Peter challenged current thinking and energized very lively debates on what we need to do as IT leaders. As part of your Smart Enterprise Exchange membership, you can review and USE his slides across your organization to drive discussion and transformation. You can view Peter’s presentation from our recent Rome event here.

WARNING: This is NOT easy stuff. However, the consensus among CIOs at the meetings I attended was that those with the passion and might will be the big winners. So, what were key points on Peter’s CIO check- list? Five critical items come to mind:

1. Business/IT Alignment is a fallacy: Stop trying to do the impossible; it will never, ever work. Stop being a “butler” and an “implementer.” Become the business and lead the conversation on strategy.

2. Eliminate the IT ‘Department,’ at least, as we know it. Literally Fuse IT into the business. IT positions need to be distributed directly into business functions, divisions and teams.

3. IT Consumerization is a BIG Opportunity: Because IT is everywhere, customers, employees and users expect the same experience in the office as at home. Don’t be the purveyor of old, boring stuff.

4. Shift the Budget & Planning Model: First, align each initiative into one of three buckets: 1) Stay-in-the Game, 2) Win the Game 3) Change the Game. And then, apply a cost+risk+value equation, investing budget and resources in those initiatives with the most direct business value. The traditional, cost=risk model puts a majority of resources on the biggest projects with the least value.

5. Eiminate Silos Wherever Possible. This includes technology silos; deploy re-usable components and dismantle organizational silos.

So, how are you transforming “the department formerly known as IT” and evolving your organization, business and career? Please take a look at Peter’s viewpoints and share your thoughts with me here. Are they do-able at your organization? Where will you begin?