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Harrison Grierson Chief Digital Officer Terri Carajannis on being ‘chief cheerleader’ for digital, the importance of wellbeing at work and why magic happens when you hear from everybody.
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Second-quarter earnings later this month offer investors a chance to quiz Elon Musk on a bewildering run of news, from job cuts to “money furnaces.”
A string of record quarterly deliveries came to an end in the second quarter, when Tesla handed over 254,695 vehicles to customers.
CIO Sandeep Gupta’s innovative use of technology has enabled the company to cut costs, reduce time to first oil, and manage decline in production.
Digital twin, AI, and predictive analytics help put fans behind the wheel of race cars in the NTT Indycar Series, including the iconic Indianapolis 500.
Exploiting extreme automation, secure operations, and a local talent pool, the computer giant’s largest semiconductor plant’s IT management evolves continuously as it develops new tech.
Born of the pandemic, the commercial real-estate company’s global source-to-pay automation system overcame localization and change management challenges to become a blueprint for a new strategic imperative.
Global CIO Manoj Kumbhat is overhauling IT to facilitate a business transformation aimed at bringing the personal-care corporation closer to its customers.
Adopting hyperscale cloud can position your organization to react faster to the next “new normal.”
The pandemic has proved IT agility is an existential imperative. IT leaders versed with agile transformation share tips for speeding up IT’s ability to create business value and navigate change.
Economic, market, and worldwide turbulence continue to reshape the CIO agenda as priorities shift mid-year.
A startup-like initiative to enrich customer engagement with limited-release collectibles during the pandemic now fuels Mattel’s direct-to-consumer online business, opening new IP-based revenue sources for the company.
The insurer’s mature cloud foundation has facilitated extensive use of emerging technologies, in particular machine learning models that help deliver premium service, CIO James McGlennon says.
IT leaders share their experiences and advice for overhauling IT for speed, including cutting down on projects, shifting to product-based delivery, and spurring a cultural transformation.
The oil rig contractor is shifting to stay ahead of sustainability trends. New products borne of IT innovations around the company’s data operations are helping it get there, CIO Vagesh Dave says.
The past two years have seen CIOs accelerating digital initiatives as a matter of business survival. Now, those services are being reassessed for long-term value, as CIOs finally get serious about ensuring technical debt is no longer a drag.
Global CIO Adriana Karaboutis is modernizing the utility’s data stack and digitizing its grid to transform National Grid into an ‘intelligent connected utility’ capable of integrating with a range of energy sources.
The networking services company has turned to Amazon Connect to develop a cloud-based contact center geared for delivering enhanced customer service and reduced costs.
The business executive, technologist, and former champion debater explains why you should go where the data takes you and how to avoid getting too invested in your ideas.
IT leaders are upskilling IT staff in sought-after skills to support organizational transformations — and to improve employee retention. Here, CIOs share training strategies and lessons learned.
The airlines’ digital customer service gives travelers access to live agents via the web when flight itineraries go awry, easing uncertainty and stress while driving significant cost savings.
Thirty-plus years is a long time to be stuck on something. Is it time we move on?
A complete overhaul of its ecommerce stack finds the outdoor recreational retailer poised to offer improved customer experiences and personalization just as it starts a push to open more physical stores.
Process automation brings much-needed efficiencies, but enterprise DNA is essential for the long-term strategy, ensuring business resiliency and innovation.
Getting digital right requires more than executive buy-in and financial commitment. It requires a nuanced approach to strategy, implementation, and collaboration.
The ability to provide transparent, data-driven insights and measure progress toward objectives makes the CIO critical to the success of any ESG strategy.
The wholesale tire distributor has overhauled its core integration layer to be 100% cloud-native in preparation to offer slick digital sales channels to B2B buyers tired of traditional call centers.
For Case and his team, the pandemic, combined with the company’s merger, forced a focus on serving clients that became the guiding principle of their digital transformation.
The tech industry is rife with overhyped jargon. Here IT leaders discuss buzzy terms all too often misapplied by vendors and colleagues alike.
The hazardous waste cleanup giant is deploying AI and RPA in Azure cloud and integrating data with its on-premises Waste Information Network.
CIO Irvin Bishop says the new model ensures that the company either wins, learns, or fails fast on its digital investments – but never loses.
At San Diego Gas & Electric, digital transformation isn’t just a technology refresh but a wholesale change in its business, with speed gains afforded by the cloud being central to its strategy.
The retired CIO and member of four public company boards knows firsthand the value of technology expertise to corporate boards. Here, he shares an insider’s view from the other side of the boardroom table.
A chief digital officer strategically transforms a company’s technological future in a way many CIOs don’t have the bandwidth to do.
The venerable platform continues to run critical applications while looking toward a future of open source, cloud, containers, AI, and much-needed new talent.
CIOs are once again walking a tightrope between innovation and operational excellence—this time, buoyed by strong LOB alliances and a lingering pandemic glow.
At the ViVE 2022 health IT conference, CIOs had plenty to talk about as the industry transforms
To enable the global high-tech company’s business transformation, CIO Praveen Jonnala and the IT team asked themselves, ‘Who do we want to be?’ The result is a reimagined IT organization with empathy and humility at the core.
The University of Alabama-Birmingham’s digital transformation is compounding what its scientific researchers can achieve. Systems that work in synergy with scientists is key, says CIO Dr. Curtis Carver.
Leading CIOs from the energy, financial, fashion, and fleet management sectors discuss how they changed their IT organizations to pave the way for business transformation.
The technology executive explains how to create a differentiated employee experience to drive 21st century business results.
CIO Claudio Salinas was diagnosed with blood cancer in the midst of both a major platform transformation effort and the scramble to adapt to the pandemic. Here’s how he and his team stayed on course at the Australian retailer.
The energy giant’s dual-cloud transformation includes a data lake architecture that AI chief Dan Jeavons says is catalyzing business efficiencies and will prove key in cutting carbon emissions over time.
The engine manufacturer is leveraging IoT data to tailor maintenance and overhaul to the individual engine rather than the product family.
Murat Ozkan, chief information and digital officer at Anadolu Efes, the Turkey-based international beverages company, talks about how a data management strategy comprising AI and analytics will sustain further growth.
Who says a zebra can’t change its stripes? CIO Deepak Kaul explains how a hub and spoke data model, along with cloud-based ERP and infrastructure, are at the heart of Zebra’s changing business model.
What worked in the past isn’t going to work in the future, says Wagoner. His advice: engage and welcome the different ways of thinking that are so critical for transformation.
ServiceNow is offering to help CIOs get more value from their investment — if they’ll pay just a little more.
Aiming to give advertisers access to a vast quantity of audience data while protecting users’ privacy, Disney Advertising Sales has taken a data clean room approach to data governance.
The pizza delivery and carryout chain has established a real-time monitoring system in the cloud to ensure its pizza-making operations go smoothly, even under high demand.
The pharmacy chain is leveraging its cloud-first digital transformation to better serve its customers, thanks to a data foundation retooled for speedier analytics and the latest machine learning technologies.
The 62-year old Fortune 1000 manufacturing company is transforming into an energy technology solutions provider, with IT at the forefront. CIO Tim Dickson shares his thoughts on how data is creating new business opportunities and how reporting to the CEO elevates IT.
Like many IT leaders, James McGlennon has been on a journey to transform IT to support a new era of business productivity, a move accelerated and shaped by the pandemic.
Digital transformation positions the freight carrier well in a tight market for truckers, paving the way for improved operations and data-driven decision-making.
As CIDO of the global $6.7B animal health business, Wafaa Mamilli’s job is to find new areas of revenue generation.
2022 promises to be both exciting and challenging for IT leaders. To get the most value from IT in the year ahead, tech chiefs should focus on the following key initiatives.
What began as a move to bring EDI management in house led to the creation of new APIs for shipping, and has opened the door to future infrastructure modernization.
The FedEx business leader shares why the strategic operating principles of competing collectively, operating collaboratively, and innovating digitally matter more than ever.
At PPG, data is key not only to IT strategy, but to enabling business strategy, says Jeff Lipniskis, global IT director. With a solid foundation in place, his focus now is on being AI ready.
Facilitating hybrid working environments and ensuring a skills match for future success top the list of tough, ongoing issues IT leaders must navigate this year.
Chief innovation and digital officer Vipin Gupta and his team turned transformation logic upside down to create a mobility-finance-as-a-service platform that TFS now offers as a white label service to other mobility companies.
Virtual healthcare has proven its value – now, it’s time to expand and improve upon that foundation.
IT leaders share their visions on how they hope to transform their teams, their organizations, and themselves in the new year.
AI and automation will take center stage, as cloud and collaboration continue to impact IT agendas — and IT leaders keep apprised of disprupive technologies on the horizon.
The parking service provider turned a business downturn at the beginning of the pandemic into an opportunity to accelerate an infrastructure shift to the cloud.
The manufacturing company’s VP and CIO, and 2021 inductee into CIO’s Hall of Fame, discusses creating a culture that “can ignite creativity and agility” in a video interview with CIO contributing editor Julia King.
Digital twins are real-time representations of objects, processes, and systems that can help organizations monitor operations, perform predictive maintenance, and improve processes.
Blending IT and business professionals in agile teams with autonomy over outcomes is fast becoming a key factor for digital success.
The need to co-create with the business has many CIOs shifting away from IT projects in favor of a product-based approach that, like so much else in business, is a journey that takes time to nurture and succeed.
Myths play an important role in history and culture, yet when it comes to digital disruption, believing in fables can be both destructive and career crippling.
As providers adapt their go-to-market strategies, customers must plan ahead.
The P&C insurance market is changing so quickly that Will Lee, CIO, is asking his team to focus both on near-term and long-term transformation. Critically important to the second horizon, says Lee, is an architecture that can allow the business to pivot.
The time has come for digital transformation in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Here are 10 technology trends that will shape the future of infrastructure.
As digital transformation moves from buzzword to business priority, understanding three critical concepts – and the subtle differences among them – will help you make the right adjustments to strategies and mindsets.
CIO Judith Conklin discusses the ongoing cloud migration and digitization of the world’s largest library — a massive endeavor to make more of its 170 million assets available to all.
To enable the $9 billion industrial gas provider to deliver new “mega projects,” CIO Brian Galovich has put self-service at the center of the target architecture, moved infrastructure to the cloud, digitized key business processes, and updated the IT operating model.
As organizations seek to accelerate their digital transformations, time to market, and development of new customer engagement channels, CIOs must find ways to sustain innovation. Read on for advice for upping innovation velocity and more.
The printer manufacturer’s Director of Transformation Products discusses the business impact of providing data-as-a-service with CIO.com’s Thor Olavsrud.
The financial firm is poised to launch a 10-year journey to overhaul its operations around a hybrid private and public multicloud architecture powered by Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
The commercial real estate firm’s innovation mindset positioned it well to handle a business surge driven by the pandemic.
Whether for stability’s sake or to support vital business processes, most CIOs still have to retain legacy apps and infrastructure. But that doesn’t have to mean hobbling along.
For more than a decade, Warner Music Group has been orchestrating an all-in cloud transformation. Its adoption of networking as a service may be the final note.
The future cannot be predicted, but strategic foresight enables leaders to embrace uncertainty by better understanding, anticipating, and preparing for change.
The technology distributor’s entire digital transformation is “geared toward creating a single pane of glass for the lifecycle of customer engagement,” says CDO Sanjib Sahoo. His recipe for success includes establishing the right mindset, creating a balanced execution plan, and architecting technology to anticipate pivots.
The rewards a gamer gets for completing levels or collecting points can be replicated in a workplace environment to improve engagement, motivate personal growth, and encourage continuous improvement.
Learn how this top CIO drives real business value through IT and how she fosters innovation at the 125-year-old company.
At one of the world’s largest steel companies, digital success springs from solid business cases, a culture of innovation, and diligent change management, says CIO Steve Bugajski.
Food ingredients supplier Archer Daniels Midland is consolidating IT systems as part of a transformation that includes standardizing many of its business processes worldwide.
As the multinational conglomerate transforms to bring cutting-edge digital products and services to customers, CIO Diane Schwarz ensures that it is digital on the inside as well.
Technologists cannot disrupt healthcare without a complete understanding of the operating model. Co-creation is the best path forward.
From inefficient IT operations to an inability to upskill at pace, innovation is often undercut by ingrained organizational issues that IT leaders must change.
The pandemic has seen organizations doubling down on true transformation. Here’s how digital initiatives are reshaping technology strategies and revolutionizing how work gets done.
CX is the new IT imperative. Here’s how IT leaders can staff up, get agile, and spearhead tech initiatives that deliver experiences that win over customers.
The apparel company has developed an AI-driven tool that helps its go-to-market divisions take a coordinated data-driven approach to expanding their footprint in the marketplace.
Learn how IT leaders in award-winning organizations are reimagining products and services for a new era of customer and employee engagement.
These four companies are using digital twins to monitor operations, plan predictive maintenance, improve customer service, and optimize their supply chains.
CX has become a key factor for company success, and CIOs are rethinking operations and organizational culture to ensure customers remain squarely in focus with everything IT does.
Amid pandemic shutdowns, the Jack Daniels purveyor doubled down on digital asset management to sell its spirits online, earning CIO Tim Nall a seat at the executive table.
With the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst, the pharmaceutical company has accelerated its digital transformation to manage its operations and supply chain more effectively.
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Walmart, Ally Financial, and Raytheon are among the wide range of companies that have moved rapidly to build out new digital services to accommodate customer preferences.
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The quick-service chain rolls out AI-assisted call center software to help humans focus more on making and delivering its pizzas.
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Companies and organizations are experiencing the first stage of a new digital support: GDPR management tools. We analyzed some of them.
As for all previous cases of new business compliance processes there is today a growing number of tools in the market addressing the all new European privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force on May 25, 2018. Our main conclusion: these privacy tools have design limitations.
In alcuni casi l’approccio della soluzione è tecnologico -sistemi progettati come se fossero indipendenti o di natura statica- mentre in altri casi è funzionale, quindi tecnico in materia di compliance, ancora specifico.
Classifichiamo entrambi gli approcci come principalmente orientati al marketing; non per criticare la qualità di questi strumenti in quanto tali, ma il fatto che le soluzioni sono principalmente opportunità commerciali guidate dallo slancio per una domanda improvvisa, il cui mercato non è ancora esperto in materia. Questa pratica solleva problemi, anzi.
Parlando con gli esperti di GDPR emerge che alcuni imprenditori e dirigenti hanno adottato una visione che limita la conformità al GDPR a una gestione – burocratica – dei documenti o, peggio ancora, sembrano un’operazione one-shot che non richiede manutenzione. Il tutto nonostante i tanti e ripetuti avvertimenti e rischi di incorrere in enormi sanzioni amministrative.
Inoltre, ci è stato confidato che le aziende apparentemente preferiscono processi di business del mondo reale non corrispondenti rispetto alla presentazione di “processi ufficiali” e continuano con quelli abituali. Conclusione: il rischio e lo scopo dell’audit di conformità vengono dissipati nonostante si spenda tempo e denaro e allo stesso tempo con un costo di rischio elevato.
Notiamo un notevole parallelo con gli anni ’90, quando la certificazione di qualità ISO era di moda. Non era raro trovare imprenditori che inseguivano in modo contingente una serie di certificati, senza tuttavia alcuna seria intenzione di cambiare la loro cultura aziendale.
Abbiamo lavorato con un bel po ‘di loro in quel momento e, purtroppo ma non a caso, nessuno di loro aveva illuminato il proprio futuro dopo tali scelte. (Nessuno di loro esiste più sul mercato, ma questo è solo un account personale.)
Tre decenni dopo, la qualità in generale, infine, sembra diffusa in molti ambienti aziendali e la mappatura e la reingegnerizzazione dei processi non sono più una novità. I vantaggi che ne derivano sono riconosciuti come parte della nostra cultura aziendale.
Sottovalutare gli interventi necessari per soddisfare il GDPR o non sfruttare tutte le azioni necessarie durante questo processo, può portare le aziende a scegliere strumenti sbagliati che richiedono un serio impegno di conformità. Spesso questa strada porta anche all’impossibilità di collegarsi ad altre aree di competenza fondamentali come Legale e Operativo. Considerato tutto quanto sopra, solleviamo una domanda cruciale:
Perché le aziende e le organizzazioni dovrebbero mappare i propri processi solo ai fini del GDPR? Perché gli strumenti GDPR non partono dai processi gestiti?
Sono disponibili standard di scambio, come IDEFx, FFBD o BPMN 2.0 per la modellazione o standard universali come XML o Json, solo per fornire alcuni esempi. Allora, quanto è comune l’adozione di strumenti di mappatura dei processi?
Questa mancanza di integrazione delle migliori pratiche e degli investimenti precedenti porta a un costoso logoramento.
Companies and organizations are experiencing the first stage of a new digital support: GDPR management tools. We analyzed some of them.
As for all previous cases of new business compliance processes there is today a growing number of tools in the market addressing the all new European privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force on May 25, 2018. Our main conclusion: these privacy tools have design limitations.
The problem
In some cases the approach of the solution is technological -systems designed as if they were independent or of static nature- while in other cases it’s functional, thus technical in compliance matters, still specific.
We classify both approaches as mainly marketing-oriented; not in order to criticize the quality of these tools as such but the fact that the solutions primarily are momentum-driven commercial opportunities for a sudden demand, which market is still not well versed on the subject. This practice raises issues, indeed.
Talking with GDPR experts it emerges that some entrepreneurs and executives have taken a vision which limits GDPR compliance to – a bureaucratic – document management or, even worse, they seem a one-shot maintenance-free operation. All despite the many and repeated warnings and risks of running into huge administrative fines.
Moreover, we have been confided that companies apparently prefer a non-matching real-world business processes above the presenting of ‘official processes’ and carry on with their usual ones. The bottom line: the risk and the purpose of the compliance audit is dispelled although time and money is expended, and at a high risk cost at the same time.
Back to the past
We note a remarkable parallel to the 90’s when ISO quality certification was fashionable. It was not uncommon to find entrepreneurs chasing contingently after a series of certificates, however without any serious intention to change their company culture.
We have worked with quite a few of them at that time and, unfortunately but not by chance, none of them had enlighten their future after such choices. (None of them exist anymore in the market, but this is just a personal account.)
Three decades later quality at large -finally- seems widespread in many business environments, and process mapping & re-engineering is nothing new anymore. The resulting benefits are acknowledged as part of our business culture.
An innovative approach – a golden opportunity
Underestimating the interventions required to meet the GDPR or not taking advantage of all actions needed during this process, may lead companies to choose wrong tools that require serious compliancy efforts. Often this road also leads to the impossibility to become connected with other fundamental areas of competence such as Legal and Operations. Given all of the above, we raise a crucial question:
Why should companies and organizations re-map their processes only for GDPR purposes? Why do GDPR tools not start from managed processes?
Exchange standards are available, such as IDEFx, FFBD or BPMN 2.0 for modeling or universal standards like XML or Json, just to provide some examples. Then, how common it is actually the adoption of process mapping tools?
This lack of integration of best practices and previous investments leads to a costly attrition.
Today it’s almost impossible to find organizations of any size not using information technology (IT); moreover, the smaller the company the more it relies on automation or IT services. It is both a powerfull tool for business and, if not properly managed, a certain source of risks and hidden costs.
IT specialists inside organizations are expensive and should not be on payroll if IT is not the core business of the company, but even in those cases, outsourcing is a common practice; the task of harmonization of services and assets is impossible when relying on outsourcing for IT without previously defining criteria and policies for the matter. These policies must address company’s business rules and specific operational needs. Nonetheless, it’s a common bad practice in small organizations to bend company operations and processes to adopted software or services instead of all the way around. Fortunately, IT market is full of possibilities and an accurate selection of tools is the best recommended practice.
All companies and situations are different, but every company that uses computers, email, the internet, and software on a daily basis should have IT policies in place: these policies apply both for employees and IT sub-contractors and provide a vision and strategy for such an important asset as technology. Without an internal IT policy the company is subject to the risk of adopting vendor or third-parties policies implicitly. An important secondary benefit of owning an IT policy is the control and indipendence it grants from vendor strategies and vendor-lock-in practices that must be avoided.
Solving these important risks, saving costs, granting business-centric priority and indipendence is what we call the “Business IT Alignment“.
Employees need to know what is expected and required of them when using the technology provided by their employer, and it is critical for a company to protect itself by having policies to govern areas such as personal internet and email usage, security, software and hardware inventory and data retention. It is also important for the business owner to know the potential lost time and productivity at their business because of personal internet usage. Contractors, on the other hand, must operate within the frame of customer’s IT policies for granting security, compliance, operations and, quality.
Although it seems a difficult task it is not indeed when relying on Baermann indipendent approach to the problem and it’s fundamental for yielding the much need of reliable systems working properly on a daily basis. Baermann helps customers to define these policies minimizing or eliminating unnecessary risks and hidden costs while putting business needs in the right priority of importance.
Without written policies, there are no standards to reference when both sticky and status quo situations arise, such as those highlighted above. So, what exactly are the IT policies? There are six areas that need to be addressed, for each area specific guidelines will be documented: