June 2010

Baker Hughes’ CIO takes a broad view of his role and is open to lessons he can learn from other industries.

By John Verity 

Clif Triplett

As head of IT at Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest providers of oil services, Clif Triplett holds the titles of VP and CIO. But considering what Triplett has been up to since joining the $17 billion company 18 months ago, his title might just as easily be Chief Entrepreneur.

Earlier this year, Gartner pointed to risk-taking “entrepreneurial CIOs” as the key to gaining competitive advantage as economic growth picks up — a great idea, no doubt, but in most global organizations like Baker Hughes, much easier said than done.

Nevertheless, Triplett seems to be stepping up to the plate. Since joining the Houston-based conglomerate as its first formal CIO, he has not only addressed the basics — fine-tuning existing business processes, for instance — he has also reached out to global business unit executives and encouraged them to think creatively about Web technologies, collaboration tools and security, to name just a few examples. “We’re part of the management team,” Triplett says about IT. “We bring expertise to the table on what technologies might be available, how to apply those technologies, and how people in other industries are using technologies to differentiate and win.”

He says that reevaluating every IT system decision and every contract signed —  with the exception of SAP financials — within the past 12 months has an element of risk. In addition, he is working with senior management to revisit corporate direction and challenges for the future.

Generating Profits
Much like someone running a start-up, Triplett is determined to create and deliver products and services that will yield new revenue and profits. A prime example: a service platform called Baker Expert Advisory Center Operations Network (BEACON) that lets Baker Hughes leverage its seismic expertise across potentially thousands of drilling sites at once. With BEACON, engineers remotely monitor “live” well-log data from a central location and use video, supercomputer visualizations and other tools to collaborate with and advise drilling engineers out in the field — or in some cases, to remotely steer drills and control machinery themselves. The next phase is to tailor basic BEACON offerings and fees to different market tiers while leveraging a common infrastructure. In April, Baker Hughes acquired BJ Services Co. to further enhance its reservoir-drilling capabilities.

To execute on his plans, Triplett embraces the company strategy of bringing lots of “new eyes” into IT. “For many positions, we’re looking for someone outside of oil services. We’re looking for that fresh, new look at the problem.”

His team, therefore, is a mix of executives from industries as diverse as aerospace, food services, telecommunications and copiers. And Triplett himself has a diverse background. After 10 years in the U.S. military, working with nuclear command-and-control systems, he worked in the utility industry (Entergy Corp.), aerospace (the former Allied Signal), automobiles (General Motors Corp.) and telecommunications (Motorola Inc.). Now, he and his top managers make a point of meeting regularly with peers — CIOs and others — from a similar breadth of industries.

The objective is to “look outside the four walls of our company and our industry” and learn how others are thinking about technology and applying it to business problems. In that way, he advises, “you can expand your own personal experience and the experience of the team.”

Lessons Learned from Many Sources
One recent “innovation session,” for example, unstructured and lasting for more than two hours, involved a firm that works closely with a large entertainment company. The session yielded “at least seven innovations for our company,” Triplett says. By the same token, Triplett insists that his own employees regularly visit companies in disparate industries to gain this type of outside information.

Fortunately, Triplett has found Baker Hughes especially conducive to his brand of leadership. “Everyone in this company is challenged to offer new competitive offerings to the market and to the corporate functions they may be supporting,” he says. “We basically have no barriers in terms of services that we can create and offer for market consumption.” Triplett reports to the chief operating officer, who “has offered business development resources as needed” and is supportive of IT initiatives.

To make sure he and his team are accountable, Triplett’s performance on the job is partly measured by how many new common global services he’s able to deliver. Another metric is the amount of new product revenue generated by his IT team — just as a small business operation would be measured.
Particularly since its recent reorganization, and in response to the weak economy, Baker Hughes is very “open to new ideas,” according to Triplett. The “not-invented-here” mindset at other companies “is not something I’ve encountered here,” he says.

Within IT, Triplett has his managers pick an area — cloud computing, say, or asset management — where they will work to “establish a new world standard. ‘Just pick one and go do it, I tell them.’” And as these IT leaders build confidence and become experts, they inevitably identify new opportunities to apply their know-how.

A formalized “managed innovation” process calls for all new ideas to be registered with the company’s chief IT architect, who then publishes them for others to see. This transparency ensures that those who might have use for the idea are made aware of it and minimizes duplication of effort. All proofs of concept are sanctioned by the chief architect, another way of maintaining control and focus.

Reaping Rewards
Those who innovate well can earn financial rewards and will see their careers advance. Of particular interest right now are collaboration techniques that can enhance the BEACON offering. Baker Hughes also is gaining attention from outside companies for a new process for speedily deploying major chunks of SAP’s ERP system — just three weeks to bring up the supplier relationship management module, for instance.

Likewise, Triplett’s team has ramped up business processes for higher speed and lower costs. Within Baker Hughes, he explains, support desks can now monitor and troubleshoot the performance of not only drilling systems but also complete business processes, such as procure-to-pay. Known as Business Process Instrumentation, this is a big win when it comes to diagnosing problem conditions.

And, ultimately, big wins are what an entrepreneurial CIO hopes to achieve.

John Verity is a business and technology writer based in Santa Rosa, Calif.

ASK THE EXPERT

Clifton Triplett, VP and CIO, Baker Hughes Inc.

Clifton (Clif) Triplett was named Vice President and CIO of Baker in 2008. He joined the company from Motorola where he served as VP and CIO of the Network and Enterprise Group, and most recently as VP, Global Services. Prior to that, Triplett held a variety of IT leadership roles with General Motors, Allied Signal and Entergy Services. He holds a degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy and a master's degree in computer information systems from Boston University. Triplett is also a member of the Executive Board for the School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University and is a member of ComputerWorld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2010.