After executive IT positions with Verizon Wireless and Boeing, it is no wonder that John Hinshaw’s career took him beyond CIO at this $120 billion company.
by Peter High, published on Forbes.com
06-03-2013
John Hinshaw has been an IT executive at three iconic corporations and with each successive position, the company and the role has increased in size. He was the senior vice president and chief information officer of Verizon Wireless, the head of the Information Solutions business unit and CIO at Boeing, and he is now the executive vice president of Technology and Operations at Hewlett-Packard. In his current role, the CIO and IT report to him, as do several other business units.
Hinshaw has overseen a radical restructuring of HP’s cost structure, rendering a significant portion of the company’s infrastructure into the cloud, developing more common processes, and fostering collaboration across his organization and across the company more generally. Hinshaw’s is an organization that provides the glue to the diverse $120 billion behemoth.
As Hinshaw describes, his knowledge of technology combined with a head for broader business concepts began at an early age.
(The “Beyond CIO” series kicked off with this article, and the all past interviews in the series can be found here. If you are interested in future articles in the series with executives from companies like Symantec, Ameristar Casinos, and Aetna, among others, please return to the Technovation column in the coming weeks.)
Peter High: John, when you joined HP in late 2011, you did so as the executive vice president of Technology and Operations. You are a rare person who has been hired into a “beyond CIO” role from a CIO-plus role (you accomplished the latter by running the Information Solutions business unit while also being the CIO of The Boeing Company). Can you describe your current responsibilities?
John Hinshaw: In my current role, I oversee company operations including global information technology, global sales operations, global procurement, global business shared services, global real estate, and global security. It is a broad set of responsibilities, but it is actually quite an advantage to have the tech functions and the business functions mentioned reporting into the same group.
This was a new role created when I joined. It was an attempt by Meg [Whitman, HP’s CEO] to reduce the number of direct reports that she had, but also to increase the sphere of influence and enhance collaboration across these functions. It has been an important set of changes.
Additional topics covered in the article include:
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To listen to a recent Forum on World Class IT podcast interview with John, click here.
Greg Carmichael managed to first change industries, and then change roles as he climbed from CIO to President at Fifth Third Bank.
05-20-2013
Greg Carmichael was the chief information officer at multiple industrial behemoths before joining Fifth Third Bancorp as CIO in 2003. Although Fifth Third was smaller, revenue-wise, than was his prior employer, Emerson Electric, Carmichael was attracted to the challenge of learning a new industry that was very information dependent. He wove himself deeply into the operations of the business, and was able to drive significant business value from IT. Carmichael’s accomplishments have been rewarded as he has risen to the role of president and chief operation officer of Fifth Third Bancorp. In this interview, Carmichael provides advice for others who might wish to follow in his footsteps.
(The “Beyond CIO” series kicked off with this article, and the all past interviews in the series can be found here. If you are interested in future articles in the series with executives from companies like HP, Symantec, Ameristar Casinos, and Aetna, among others, please return to the Technovation column in the coming weeks.)
Peter High: Greg, you were a long-time IT executive at major industrial companies like General Electric GE +0.17% and Emerson. You then joined your first financial services company when you became the CIO of Fifth Third Bancorp in 2003. How did you approach this new experience in a new industry?
Greg Carmichael: Truth be told, GE and Emerson are each such diverse businesses that I had a series of new businesses to learn about within each company. Therefore, I came to Fifth Third with a pretty solid ability to learn about business drivers quickly, and to establish trusted relationships with new colleagues early on.
The key to any executive’s success is an understanding of the business that they are in. I dove right in when I joined Fifth Third and got to know the executives around the business, and talked to them about their plans, the opportunities they foresaw in the future, and I went to work translating the relevant points into solutions that IT could offer to bring those business plans and opportunities to life.
I have always focused on the creative use of technology to help meet needs. Technology for technology’s sake is pretty useless. Technology that helps the top and bottom lines is a recipe for success. It requires understanding the business drivers, as well as getting to know your colleagues well enough to help fix issues that they’ve identified.
To listen to a recent Forum on World Class IT podcast interview with Greg, click here.
Preparing for change is necessary with technology, and in Peter High’s Technovation Column, SnapLogic CEO Gaurav Dhillon talks important trends facing CIOs and how these trends can help drive competitive advantage.
03-04-2013
Gaurav Dhillon was an early enterprise data integration success story. In 1993, he co-foundedInformatica at a time when data integration was not nearly the buzz-phrase it is today. He would lead that company for 12 years, and see it to a market capitalization of over $1 billion. (It’ market capitalization is currently nearly $4 billion.)
For an executive who has accomplished so much and seen his vision so fully realized, it is impressive to find that he is back at it again, pursuing a different vision in a related field as though he is an entrepreneur for the first time. Ben Horowitz wrote in his blog that he hates to fund new ideas from already successful entrepreneurs. He wrote, “Ordinarily, we would automatically disqualify an entrepreneur with such a massive financial success from funding, so when he came into pitch us on his new company…I was skeptical… our diligence found him working round the clock, running a hyper-intense environment and looking very much like a 20 year old entrepreneur on a mission from God.”
This new mission is SnapLogic, a commercial software company that provides data and application integration tools for connecting Cloud data sources. I recently interviewed Dhillon as part of the Forum on World Class IT series (access that interview here). As someone who has correctly read and shaped the technological zeitgeist, I was curious what excited him in terms of IT trends. There were three in particular that he focused on. None of them are new, but the nuance that he gave to each was enlightening.
Now that Cloud ROI is Proven, It is Time for the Cloud to Mature
Dhillon has assembled a CIO advisory board at SnapLogic, and posed a question to that group. “Which functional technologies are least likely to migrate to the cloud?” Dhillon says, “It was pretty unanimous: ERP would take a while and supply chain would take a while. Everything else can’t get there fast enough. That has less to do with technology. Companies like Workday, ServiceNow, Salesforce, these companies are doing a great service to the industry, helping people understand that cloud computing is appropriate for a wide array of old functions to the enterprise.”
The pace of change has been aided by the fact that the return on investment on cloud computing is getting easier to prove. In the early stages of its hype, CFOs were not big believers in this new way of doing things necessarily. Today, it is more widely appreciated that by moving an application to the cloud, less people are needed to rack and stack technology, demand for servers decrease, the need for cooling and power generation decreases as well, to take three prominent examples of costs savings. Cloud computing also renders one’s workforce more productive, as data is more easily accessible on multiple devices and can be made available in many settings. Dhillon stresses that the real opportunity is for CIOs and other IT executives is to make the case on this ROI, and then to plug the savings back into innovation.
Dhillon underscores the point by suggesting that CIOs need to be less “information officers” and more “integration officers.” He says that as CIOs, “you are an orchestrator of capabilities… [CIOs] should not be worrying about HR and payroll. You do need to worry about some things that are tailor-made and that are sources of competitive advantage, but anything that is a cost item that can be turned into to the cloud gives you more money to be innovative to do new things.”
Additional Trends Discussed in this Article are:
2. Data Analytics Will Separate the Best IT Executives From the Also Rans 3. “Mobility is a Monster”
To listen to Gaurav Dhillon’s Forum on World Class IT podcast interview, please click here.
Jo-ann Olsovsky discusses how BNSF Railway supports its widespread and increasingly mobile workforce of 40,000 employees with unified communications.
by Peter High, published on CIOInsight.com
Excerpt from the Article
Jo-ann Olsovsky, the vice president and CIO of BNSF Railway, shares her experiences with implementing unified communications, the benefits BNSF has gained, and the company’s immediate IT challenges.
IN SUMMARY
WHO: Jo-ann Olsovsky, VP and CIO of BNSF Railway WHAT: Sharing her experiences about BNSF Railway’s approach to unified communications WHERE: Fort Worth, Texas WHY: To provide CIOs and other IT leaders with actionable advice and insights about how to implement unified communications.
Jo-ann Olsovsky knows a thing or two about telecommunications. Prior to becoming CIO of BNSF Railway in June 2008, she was the assistant vice president of telecommunications at BNSF, and previously, she was the director of enterprise network services and technology support services at Verizon Communications. Soon after joining BNSF, Olsovsky recognized that unified communications would be an important area to invest in as the workforce that she supported was increasingly mobile.
In this Q&A, Olsovsky tells CIO Insight contributor Peter High about the steps she has taken relative to unified communications, the value her company has derived, and her future plans.
CIO Insight: How did the idea to pursue unified communications become a strategic imperative for BNSF Railway?
There was a combination of factors that led us to pursue that strategy. First, our workforce is very mobile. We have 40,000 employees all over the United States, and many of them are not in traditional office settings or spend a significant portion of their work day on the go. As a result, we needed to tailor communications tools that fit their needs.
Second, our voicemail system was no longer adequately supported. With our focus on being good stewards of the technology investments that we deploy, we jokingly say that “We will replace no asset before its time.” Well, our voicemail system had clearly reached its time. This added an additional reason to understand what the marketplace offered when it came to advanced communications solutions.
It was hard not to sense the presence, and importance, of technology in this year’s 2012 London Olympic Games. In the second article of his “Technovation” column for Forbes, Peter High captures five lessons from the leader that helped make it all happen.
10-09-2012
The London 2012 Olympics were generally thought to be extremely well executed. As a casual or even an obsessive observer of the Games, it is easy to overlook how much technology has changed the Games, largely for the better. Among other things, Gerry Pennell, the CIO of London 2012, was responsible for ensuring that the core mission of measuring athletic performance and providing data to the media and ultimately to spectators around the world was achieved.
At first glance, running IT for the Olympics would seem very different from doing so at a typical company, but I recently spoke with Pennell, and he brought up a variety of lessons that are universally applicable.
Lesson 1: People – Hire Technologists who can run at sprint and marathon speeds
Pennell had an advantage in that eight years earlier, prior to beginning preparation for the London Games, there was an Olympics in an English speaking country (Australia) with people who have some cultural similarities to the Brits, and he was able to recruit some of them to join his efforts. That said, prior experience only goes so far. “New blood is essential so that people are not tempted to simply replay what was done in the past,” says Pennell. It is important to have fresh thinking for each Olympics, but it is also important that there be a preponderance of people from the host country in IT so that the IT plan reflect the unique aspects of the technology landscape in that country.
In terms of characteristics to look for, finding people who are comfortable operating with a high degree of uncertainty, and who will not be frustrated by changes, even at the last minute, is essential. At the beginning of Pennell’s journey with his colleagues, it was important to think of their jobs as a marathoner might, but at the end, there were a series of sprints. Balancing the strategy of the marathon (a topic covered below) with the tactics of the sprints is essential.
Increasingly, this is a lesson that CIOs in most companies must contemplate. The pace of change in IT is growing, and there are no signs of slowing down. Hiring people who are comfortable with change, and bring an R&D mentality to new technology is essential. As in many conventional business situations, it is also the case that projects move swiftly through different phases; its important to find people who are versatile enough to deal with strategy at one end of the process, and deployment or operations at the other. The more versatile the team the easier it is to respond correctly to changing situations.
Lesson 2: Strategy – In the absence of solid plans from others, understand where the finish line is, and work backwards
Lesson 3: Infrastructure – in four years, speed records are substantially different
Lesson 4: Governance – Develop detailed plans as to how much gold and silver will be necessary
Lesson 5: External Partnerships – Choose your relay partners wisely
To read the entire article, please visit Forbes.com.
Peter High and Chris Laping, CIO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, speak with XChange Events at their Midsize Enterprise Summit 2012 in San Antonio, Texas after their on-stage interview for the Forum on World Class IT.
Meet the new IT leader—an executive intensely focused on building out an unparalleled IT core while increasing the business value of IT. Those two initiatives are what motivate the next-gen CIO. This session will unlock the secrets to breaking through by sharing innovative ways to manage projects, forge partnerships with internal departments and influencers and execute on a vision for driving business value and change. No matter what the critics say IT is uniquely equipped to drive change and foster innovation.
This interview is with Chris Laping, who is not only the CIO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers but the Vice President of Business Transformation and Peter High, President of Metis Strategy.
To watch Chris’ full video interview with Peter, please visit his interview page on the Forum on World Class IT.
by Kalhan Koul May 2012
Please click here to download the PDF of this article
As the pace of technology progresses rapidly, it has become vital for CIOs and IT leaders to keep an eye out for transformative technologies that help increase efficiency, drive revenue, and more. Thus, since 2010, we have asked interviewees on Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT podcast series to provide their thoughts on upcoming trends in IT; our team has tracked the results and elucidated several interesting patterns, some of which will be highlighted in this paper.
Overall, 51 individuals, ranging from active CIOs, CTOs, CEOs, CFOs, CAOs, professors in IT-related fields, among others, provided their input concerning future trends. The graphs in this article demonstrate which areas IT thought leaders believed to be most compelling in the near future.
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the top trends identified over the course of the podcast series, and consist of some of the “usual suspects” such as cloud computing, mobility, etc. Figure 3 provides a breakdown of trends identified in 2010 vs. 2011, and Figure 4 takes the data a step further to demonstrate the change in percentage of identified trends. Together, these charts convey some interesting revelations, such as the emergence of trends like the consumerization of IT, the increased role of IT in the business, and the power of computing, as well as the decline or stagnation of trends such as social media. Although the identification of prominent and emerging trends provides interesting food for thought in itself, simply identifying trends without a broader context does not do the insights justice; thus, this article will further build upon these insights and present context concerning the emergence, decline, or persistence of specific trends in order to provide IT leaders greater visibility into what technologies will gain a foothold and should be considered sooner rather than later.
Figure 1: Top Trends Identified by Interviewees N = 51
Where the chart above provides the number of interviewees identifying trends, the chart below demonstrates trends identified as a percentage of interviewees.
Figure 2: Top Trends Identified – Percentage of Interviewees N = 51
The top few trends identified by the podcast interviewees, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, have been prominent in the IT realm for some time, and for good reason. Cloud computing, which essentially provides shared resources, software, and information on demand, enables increased flexibility in IT spend, as it entails not only a significant reduction in fixed costs, but the ability to focus time and resources on better supporting the business and aligning to their objectives, a proposition tantalizing to many CIOs. For example, Curt Edge, CIO of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, states that “about 4-5 years ago [prior to moving to the cloud], we spent about 80% of our time working on maintenance …today we spend anywhere from 60-65% of our time working with the businesses.[1] ” It should be noted that some of the identified trends, such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and virtualization remain closely linked to cloud computing: virtualization enables the movement of major infrastructure components to the cloud, and SaaS essentially acts as a subset of cloud computing, with software and associated data being centrally hosted in the cloud. For the purposes of this paper, these trends will be treated as distinct entities despite their linkage.
As mobile technologies improve at a rapid pace, employees have the ability to utilize mobile devices to conduct business and access internal networks, so that they may be productive anywhere. For instance, David McCue, CIO of Computer Sciences Corporation, states that “we’re all beginning to appreciate what the convergence of the last few years of ubiquitous available bandwidth, thick pipes, and powerful handheld devices means…we’ve learned that being able to do anything, anytime, anywhere is the direction we’re going.[2] ” Furthermore, what has partially enabled the advent of mobility has been the consumerization of IT, where a plethora of ever-improving mobile computing devices such as smartphones and tablets have begun to permeate the business world.
Taken together, these trends do not seem surprising at all, as they have been widely recognized in a variety of publications and numerous companies have begun implementing projects in relation to them; however, further delving into the data provides significant insights into the shifting priorities of IT leaders (see Figure 3 and Figure 4).
Figure 3: Trends Identified in 2010 and 2011 N = 48
Evidently, the data illustrates significant changes in trends identified between 2010 and 2011. Figure 4 provides the difference in percentage from 2010 to 2011, and reveals several interesting details concerning trend trajectories.
Figure 4: Change in Trend Identification from 2010 to 2011 – Percentage of Interviewees N = 48
First, the number of interviewees identifying social media and collaboration technologies (both internally and externally facing) as a major IT trend decreased dramatically; over the past two years, this trend dropped from first to fourth overall (see Figure 1).
So, what has caused this dramatic decrease in recognition? Some plausible explanations include the increased awareness of social media platforms, such as Facebook, that were more front-of-mind due to their exponential growth in use by the general population, or by the significant level of media exposure these platforms received. Another explanation could be that organizations recognized the potential of these platforms early and sought to implement technologies to take advantage of them. For instance, Microsoft witnessed a significant increase in sales of SharePoint [3] (which enables collaboration), indicating that more companies have sought this type of solution, and have addressed this trend. On the flipside, however, as detailed in a recent InformationWeek article, numerous internal social networking initiatives have faced lackluster adoption [4] ; one possible consequence could be that IT leaders have shifted focus elsewhere. Whatever the explanation, this precipitous decline in focus on social media remains an interesting topic that merits further monitoring.
It comes as no surprise that consumerization of IT, which concerns the impact that consumer-originated technologies have on enterprises, has witnessed the greatest increase in being identified as a trend from 2010 to 2011. The rise of tablet technologies likely acts as one of the primary drivers for this increase, particularly the release of the Apple iPad. Although consumerization of IT has been increasing in prominence as consumer technology becomes more sophisticated, it appears that the release and the widespread adoption of the iPad (approximately 55 million sold to date [5] ) has opened the floodgates and has caused this topic to considerably rise in prominence. In fact, Metis Strategy has advised several clients who have sought to implement tablets within their own organization in recent years; overall, despite concerns of security of information in adopting tablets and other consumer originated technologies, the majority of organizations have found benefits through a combination of increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and reduced cost. Furthermore, as the capabilities of consumer technologies expand, we have also seen an increase in organizations employing “Bring Your Own Device” programs, which leverage not only the familiarity employees have with their own devices, but the reduction in support necessary for these devices. For instance, Bruce Leidal, CIO of CareStream Health, states that “people own their own devices and they would just as soon use those for work…and we’re putting in the right infrastructure so that we can make sure that that happens. I think the benefits [are that] we have basically eliminated all of the support costs…it reduces our call volume and also takes a lot of noise out of our support environment. [6] ” Thus, overall, the rise in consumerization of IT makes sense given the parallel advancements and capabilities of consumer technology.
An additional trend that is rising in prominence includes an increased IT role in the business. In numerous organizations Metis Strategy has advised, IT has historically been regarded as an “order-taker”, and not seen as integral to driving the business; however, as technology becomes vital in how business operates in contemporary times, we have begun to see a shift towards increasing IT involvement in the business. Although this trend has yet to become pervasive, it appears to be a logical successor to other prominent trends. For instance, we have seen several of our clients try to unburden their resources by adopting cloud computing solutions, significantly increase virtualization, or leverage consumerization of IT programs such as ‘Bring Your Own Device’; not only do these initiatives decrease fixed costs related to hardware, but they drastically reduce ongoing maintenance and support of the hardware. Consequently, IT employees have increased opportunity to partner with the business so as to focus on value-oriented and revenue driving initiatives. For example, Jim Knight, EVP and Global CIO of Chubb & Son, states that “what we have found the last couple of years is not only are we the fuel for managing expenses…we’re also the engine for the business…because technology can get us there…there are absolutely expectations of us that our operations will be streamlined and [as] cost-effective as possible, but they are also investing in programs to bolster up the business. [7]” In addition, as the general consumer of technology becomes more tech savvy, it becomes necessary for businesses to connect with these consumers utilizing the same technology; as a result, IT can naturally team with other functions to drive business’ strategy through leveraging new tech-enabled customer touch points.
When explaining the power of computing and analytics as a rising trend, it makes sense to take a step back and assess the progress of technology as a whole. For instance, Moore’s Law, one measure of technology progress, states that the number of transistors that can affordably be placed on an integrated chip doubles approximately every two years (and is hence associated with growth in processing speed, memory, etc.), and illustrates the dramatic pace at which computing improves. Furthermore, recent developments where research teams have taken significant strides in quantum computing (e.g., IBM physicists at the Watson Research Center advancing superconducting qubits [8]) indicate that a new era in the scale of computing power may not be too far off. However, the real appeal lies in what can be done with this computing power, and how it can be utilized to drive business. June Drewry, former CIO of Chubb Insurance and Aon Corporation, states that “over the years…we’ve collected so much data that we’re not sure we know how to make information out of it in some cases; well, now we’re learning, and now there’s a thirst for it in the business. [9]”
The ability to process and analyze massive amounts of data, currently referred to as Big Data in IT circles, to form conclusions that can be acted upon will be invaluable, allowing businesses to discern customer behavior and other patterns. One of the reasons why this capability will be so valuable derives from the fact that many correlations that can be discovered through this type of analytics are not intuitive in nature. For instance, the New York Times recently published an article detailing how Target was able to utilize statistical correlations to predict which of its consumers were pregnant, and thus create tailored promotions to that demographic; other correlations included finding that newly-married individuals are more likely to begin purchasing a new type of coffee, or when individuals divorce, they tend to change brands of beer [10]. These behaviors do not appear to have inherently intuitive explanations, yet they exist and can be discovered and leveraged through analytics as enabled by computing power. Thus, the rise in the power of computing, and the correlated capability to conduct extensive analysis to discover valuable insights, will become a source of competitive advantage in the future, and likely explains why this trend has been increasing in prominence.
The analysis of the data obtained from the Forum on World Class IT podcast series reveals interesting insights concerning the trends that are front of mind for IT thought leaders. Not only does the data point to top trends such as cloud computing and mobility, but it also demonstrates trends rising in prominence such as consumerization of IT, the power of computing, and the increased IT role in the business, as well as trends on the decline such as social media.
From Metis Strategy’s perspective, we feel that IT’s increased role in the business, as well as the power of computing and analytics, will continue to be pertinent for business leaders, and will rise in prominence in the coming years. As many resource-consuming aspects of IT move to the cloud, such as purchasing and maintaining servers, network equipment, data center space, business applications, etc., IT organizations will thus be able to focus more on driving business strategy. One method of IT supporting the business, as we have seen in several organizations, entails enabling a strong business intelligence function, which is closely associated with the power of computing and analytics. As the amount of consumer information gathered and analyzed continues to grow, it will become essential for IT to develop methods to effectively consume and utilize this information to influence business decisions.
We feel that consumerization of IT, although experiencing a drastic increase in recognition in recent times, will level out somewhat. This is not to say that this trend has been ‘over-hyped’, but that the advantages of consumer-originated technology entering the business landscape have become much clearer recently, and many of our clients actively pursue opportunities to incorporate these technologies in their businesses. Similarly, when considering cloud computing, we feel this trend will begin to even out in the near future; cloud computing has been a topic of discussion among IT leaders for several years now, and we have begun to observe numerous companies moving ‘to the cloud’. In the coming years, cloud computing will be in essence ubiquitous, less of a consideration and more of a necessity, and will be intrinsic in how IT operates.
Overall, these insights bolster the notion that the landscape of IT continuously shifts and progresses at a rapid pace, and it becomes ever more important to keep our fingers on the pulse of IT and understand how these constantly emerging innovative technologies can be harnessed to propel business to a new level. Furthermore, what is truly exciting about all of these mentioned trends is that the majority of them provide tremendous opportunities for CIOs to collaborate with peers across the company, putting IT in the center of interesting conversations that could determine business direction. These trends have deep-seated business implications that should be taken advantage of to increase the curiosity and enthusiasm about how IT can help drive the business as opposed to merely supporting it.
[1] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with Curt Edge, March 26, 2012. [2] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with David McCue, April 9, 2012. [3] Mary Jo Foley, “Microsoft: We’re adding 20,000 new SharePoint users a day.” March 24, 2011. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-were-adding-20000-new-sharepoint-users-a-day/9011 [4] Healey, Mike. “Enterprise Social Networks: Dislike,” InformationWeek, February 2, 2012. [5] Sam Gustin, “How Many iPads Can Apple Sell?” Time Business, March 16, 2012. [6] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with Bruce Leidal, November 21, 2011. [7] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with Jim Knight, January 3, 2012. [8] Cade Metz, “IBM Busts Record for ‘Superconducting’ Quantum Computer,” Wired Enterprise, February 28, 2012. [9] Peter High, “Metis Strategy’s Forum on World Class IT,” podcast interview with June Drewry, December 5, 2011. [10] Charles Duhigg, “How Companies Learn Your Secrets,” The New York Times, February 16, 2012.
Please visit The Forum on World Class IT to listen to the podcasts and trends mentioned in this article.
Peter High
2-15-2011
Excerpt from the Article:
When Mike Capone became ADP’s first corporate-wide CIO in July 2008, he worked from the outset to be sure that IT was considered a strategic weapon within the arsenal of the corporation.
As someone who grew up on the business-side of ADP (prior to taking on his current role, he had been general manager global HR/payroll outsourcing ), Capone had been a user of IT. He knew he could speak with his new partners outside of IT with a degree of understanding and empathy that a traditional CIO might lack. Only a few months into his post, the economy was decimated. Based on Capone’s moves, IT was not the cost cutting target that it became in many other organizations, where IT was viewed as a mere support organization.
Like many CIOs, Capone focused his team’s attention on optimizing costs during the economic downturn, to ensure that his department was doing its part when the company needed it to run lean. That said, he was wary not to have the entire team focused exclusively on cost-saving activities. Early in 2009, Capone identified a group of his best performers and future department leaders, and had them focus on new innovations.
Admittedly, there was a dearth of market data on mobile platforms in the payroll space. Most of the solutions that had been developed to date were small offerings by small competitors. Once the decision was made to invest in a mobile payroll platform, there were two options to potentially pursue: a “me-too” solution that mimicked competitors, or a quantum leap forward. Working closely with the product group, the team elected to go for the latter, developing a full-featured mobile application to run payroll.
To read the full article, please visit CIO Insight
