Home › Posts tagged leader

Tag: leader

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , ,

The emergence of business models driven by data along with the evolution of modern analytics and cloud capabilities have increased the interest in data management multifold. As a result, enterprises are breaking down data siloes, transforming their data architectures, and democratizing access to data tools to accelerate decision-making.

But the journey to the data-driven enterprise remains challenging, riddled by roadblocks, from budgeting issues to buy-in difficulties. And sound data governance practices can’t be given short shrift in the rush to unlock hidden insights from data.

With all that in addition to privacy and compliance laws continually evolving across the globe, the chief data officer role as become a highly challenging — and enterprise-critical — balancing act. To learn more about how data leaders are embracing the challenge, CIO.com caught up with Tejasvi Addagada, chief data officer at HDFC Bank, to discuss the various aspects of data impacting enterprises today.

Tapping the business value of data while keeping it secure is a complex balancing act. How can IT leaders convert data into dollars while ensuring its security?   

Addagada: A well-desired culture change of data awareness in an organization can be achieved through data democratization, a science that makes data accessible to anyone. By making data available and easily accessible, revenue streams can be improved through direct and indirect monetization of data. 

Data protection enables responsible data consumption on the heels of data democratization. Even though a data marketplace cannot provide free access to all data, there can be risk-based controls that must be actively managed. A few of these controls are privacy, security, authentication, encryption, entitlements, user access management, device management, and data rights management. 

New Privacy laws are coming into force while existing ones are under constant review. Technology leaders must account for the laws of every geography they do business in as a breach can bring about strong penalties. How can data officers meet regulations confidently? 

Privacy policy is constantly evolving across geographies, towards providing more control for customers on their personal data yet letting companies and public authorities share what is required for efficient governance, better service, and public good. Privacy engineering as a science must cater to providing geographical awareness that is backed by technology advancements like catalog, privacy, and security analytics. 

Assessment of the threat surface area begins with determining the classification of personal data in a geographical area. It is crucial that the catalog has the intelligence to apply geographical rules to classify the personal data, since what constitutes personal data differs between countries. As an example, financial information may be considered sensitive personal data in India but not in Europe.  

Over 137 countries have legislation to protect data and privacy. The data office can formalize, as part of the overall breach incident response, the integration of privacy intelligence and thereby privacy reporting tasks that have geographical context. Further, data offices can partner with the legal teams to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. 

Siloed data undercuts its value. What approach should IT decision makers undertake to ensure end-to-end data discovery process across the network?  

If data is siloed, it cannot be used for developing insights and products. For an organization that is yet to invest in managing its data and thinks centralization is costly or a bottleneck, a data mesh architecture is a decentralized approach at its core, with its domain team ingesting its operational and analytical data and developing data products. 

However, even in a decentralized setup, data needs to be discovered, as what is not known cannot be used. Information Technology as a function will have to support data discovery platform with an objective to understand the technical data estate that can then be defined as meaning by domain teams. 

The implementation of data governance is both imperative and challenging to prevent multiple versions of the truth with an organization. How can proper data governance be ensured?  

From the initial concept of corporate governance, IT governance has evolved into the recent concept of data governance. Globally, the adoption of cloud services, the evolution of modern data stacks, and improved data literacy have led to a greater interest in governing data over the past years. 

Implementing data governance is necessary to get sustainable value from data. A subfunction can be formalized as an authorized provisioning service. It can support activities that help ensure that a data element can be rightfully sourced from a designated provisioning point. In addition, it can have the domain team express their trust in certifying data as a system of record as well as authorized to provision. 

Other technologies that can help the identification and certification of single version of truth are data discovery, profiling, quality, and observability, to name a few. 

If there are multiple values to properties of an entity like a customer, technology like master data management can translate the know-how of operational personnel into prioritization and survivorship rules that can create and maintain a version of the truth that can be consumed universally within an organization. 

Data-driven projects demand a substantial investment of budget and resources. How can data officers justify both?  

Investments into data capabilities and development of data products have increased multifold over the past years. This requires investments into tools as well as commissioning people as well as augmented knowledge workers like consultants along with setting up new processes as well as interventions. 

Formalizing management of data through data governance can increase transparency, accountability, responsibility, independence, and fairness in implementing corporate governance. One crucial aspect of formalization from data offices is assessing return-on-investment on investments and maintaining the value of data assets. 

What tips would you share with IT leaders looking to establish a data strategy and direction for their companies?  

The 1994 Hawley Committee report first identified data as an asset, defining it as ‘data that is or should be documented, and that has value or potential value.’ Data offices can focus on the decision rights related to the data assets and the network of relations to ensure data is qualitative, consistent, usable, secure, protected, and yet available.  

In the past decade, the interest in data management has increased multifold with the evolution of business models that are driven by data along with the evolution of the modern data stack and cloud capabilities. This has in fact resulted in a need for improved data literacy around the globe. Industry bodies like DAMA, EDM Council, along with other data communities are providing global literacy around benefits of managing data with standard frameworks.

During the process of determining the company’s goals, the board is entrusted with exercising critical judgment, while the data office is responsible for designing data strategy and policies to ensure that these goals that have data contribution are met. 

Information Technology is not to blame for the emphasis on people and process capabilities; however, it should be considered when planning future technology investments that can enable the achievement of the goals outlined by data and business strategy. 

IT leaders can keep up with rapid advancements in data technology including data collection, cloud storage and processing, machine learning operations, automation in data operations and data security to name a few domains of interest. Within the organization, the data officer can build a data-driven culture by imparting awareness around benefits of managing data activities through interactive newsletters, roadshows, board representation and formalization of people and processes that involve data. 

Chief Data Officer, Data Governance, Data Management, Digital Transformation

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Digital transformation has embedded IT at the center of business strategy, making all organizations technology enterprises today, irrespective of their industry. Business processes, culture, workflow, and systems are all necessarily impacted by digital transformation efforts, which by definition overhaul how business gets done, expediting efficiencies, modernizing the enterprise, and — when executed well — enhancing profitability.

It’s little wonder then that CEOs across the world are attaching high importance to digital transformation as a means for achieving their future goals. According to KPMG’s latest 2022 CEO Outlook survey released in January 2023, 72% of the 1,325 CEOs across 11 markets have an “aggressive digital investment strategy, intended to secure first-mover or fast-follower status.”

But driving radical change in any enterprise without a well thought out strategy is a recipe for disaster. Before embarking on digital journeys, IT leaders must address several key areas that could otherwise stymie the entire process.

Unfortunately, the following planning, or ‘phase 0,’ mistakes are too often made by IT leaders looking to move forward with digital implementations before they are truly ready to make good on investments.  

Failing to secure LOB bandwidth

IT leaders must first gauge the readiness of their organizational engine to drive digital transformation. Without adequate resources, intentional change can quickly become chaotic. Resource assessment is a vital phase 0 or even phase -1 process of any digital initiative.

Most digital transformation initiatives fail because of lack of resources. While IT leaders often focus on planning, evaluation, partnerships, and platforms, they often forget to assess the human resource bandwidth required to implement, execute, and make good on the completed program — in particular within the lines of business (LOBs) impacted by by digital transformation.

No digital initiative today can succeed without LOB sponsorship and involvement. For instance, if a company intends to overhaul its recruitment strategy with a new digital solution, there must be complete involvement of the human resource department. However, in most cases, the HR team already has its hands full with its day-to-day workload and is unable to take out time to work alongside IT on the project.

With low HR involvement in meetings and feedback phases related to the project, IT will struggle to hit goals and timelines, jeopardizing the initiative’s outcome.

While it is relatively easy for an IT leader to put his or her team in place before embarking on a digital transformation journey, it may not be as easy for LOB leaders to identify the right team members to be involved. Therefore, it is on CIOs to ensure that their LOB counterparts set aside the right talent from their departments to be involved in the process and prioritize their participation alongside their daily work. This must be done right at the start, not after the project has launched, else the CIO will have to continue to re-baseline the timing and requirements of the initiative. Cross-functional teams are vital to digital success, and CIOs should insist on them.

Misunderstanding the organization’s digital maturity

Another major reason digital transformations stumble is the lack of visibility business and technology leaders often have into their organization’s digital maturity before they begin. To become digitally mature, an enterprise must know its capabilities. This is an imperative precursor before deciding to go digital.

Each company has a different level of digital maturity at the enterprise, technology, and functional levels, and how it complements business. If business and technology leaders understand where they stand on this digital maturity curve, it gets easier to know where they intend to go and how long will it take to reach that destination.

The onus lies on the CIO to apprise top management on the status of the company’s digital maturity, so they know where they stand. For instance, if a company is in growth mode, it may need to align resources, scale up its technology platforms, and hire more employees. By getting to know the digital maturity in each of these functions, technology investments can be prioritized and aligned in relevant areas accordingly. In the absence of this, companies can make investments in wrong areas without realizing larger value.

Some questions CIOs can ask as part of the digital maturity discovery process could be: Does the company have a clear strategic vision, objectives, and direction? How does the company rank (laggard, mediocre, or leader) against its competition? How consistent is the organization’s digital experience across various channels?

To get more visibility into digital maturity, CIOs would be wise to create digital maturity indexes and link them to various facets of the business.

Launching without a clear mission

Any digital journey kicks off with a problem that is worth solving. It would, therefore, help if there is a single, clear statement that throws light on the problem at hand, those experiencing it, and the reasons to solve it. IT leaders may come up with lengthy project briefs and comprehensive RFPs but without a clear, precise problem statement they are all no good.

A well-honed problem statement provides clarity for all involved. Deep into the complexity of a transformation, team members can return to this document for guidance, using it to help address drift or any additional issues or questions that may arise along the way to ensure they stay on course and on mission. A clear problem statement can also be helpful if a technology leader has taken up three or four projects simultaneously, as it can help with prioritization issues and any overlapping complexities that might arise to help ensure each project is successful.

A simple exercise such as a drawing board session can go a long way in understanding the pain points of the relevant stakeholders and coming up with a refined problem statement. A couple of weeks of such a collaborative process, prior to getting into a long-drawn digital initiative, can help business and IT to get on the same page and ensure they stay focused on delivering the optimal outcome regardless of what they encounter along the way.

Digital Transformation

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Leadership is not something that just happens. Leadership must be measured, managed, and invested in. After all, how IT leaders are selected, trained, evaluated, and compensated materially impacts the future performance of the enterprise.

So, again, when was the last time you had a substantive conversation about leadership with your direct reports? How frequently do you critically examine whether your IT/digital organization is well led? What set of metrics does your organization employ to evaluate IT/digital leaders?

The IT industry is undergoing a crisis of confidence. This is due in no small part to the erroneous presumption that IT and digital organizations have their leadership game in order. Quality leadership is not something that can be taken for granted. It’s time to turn an analytical eye to the state of leadership in our industry — and here are five key questions IT leaders must ask themselves to truly know whether they are successfully leading IT.

Is your focus on point?

Daniel Barchi, Naval Academy grad and award-winning CIO at CommonSpirit Health, explained to me that there are three areas IT leaders can allocate their time: People, process, and technology. Barchi suggests the optimal allocation for IT leaders is 80% people, 15% process, and 5% technology. Unfortunately, many IT leaders — especially those of the order-taker type — invert that triumvirate, placing the lion’s share of their focus on technology.

Are you and your direct reports allocating enough time to leading people?

Are your people primed for success?

In Good to Great, Jim Collins suggests that decisions about people — who is on the bus — have to precede decisions about objectives — i.e., where the bus is going. Several CIOs have shared with me the anecdote regarding how Apple design icon Jonathan Ives typically responds to the question, “What’s the secret to your design success?” Ives reportedly responded, “We fire the A- people.” The point being that a group of passionate high performers is what is necessary to deliver the sought-for end state.

Talent is a differentiator. Are your IT leaders doing everything it takes to attract, nurture, grow, and retain the kind of talent necessary to succeed?

Are you helping your organization ‘see the future’?

Barbara Cooper was the beloved and now retired CIO at Toyota Motors North America. Having served as an IT leader in five industries, she is one of the top CIO “coaches” in North America. Barbara counseled me that it is not enough just to have a vision of the future. Our industry is too full of sic “transformational” CIOs being airlifted into enterprises only to slink away 18 to 24 months later having abjectly failed to create digital value.

Creating IT value requires a team effort. One has to get the organization to internalize and unite behind a collective vision of the future. Barbara jokingly quipped that “as a child of the ’60s” she learned that while you “can’t share the trip” — i.e., one person’s vision is not enough — you can get everyone moving in a common direction. To do this she set her direct reports down one day in the conference room:

“Ok, I want you to think out three years. ’Cuz five is a little much. I want you to pretend that you are driving into the parking lot. You are walking into your office. You are going to go through your day. You are going to have your first meeting of the day. You are talking to somebody in the door. You go and get your coffee. You have a series of hallway conversations. You are thinking about some of the things and the problems you have. I want you to play that out — almost like a storyboard in your head — what is going to be different three years from now?”

These individual visions were shared, consolidated, amplified, and linked to enterprise objectives.

Is that kind of collective vision-making part of your company culture?

Are you emphasizing the value of relationships?

Most of the voluminous academic literature on leadership focuses on the traits/idiosyncrasies of the individual leader and not on their relationships with key associates. As an IT leader, do you have a track record of helping or hindering colleagues in fulfilling their career objectives?

Vince Kellen, a digital force of nature and CIO at University of California San Diego, borrows insights from NHL scouts. He is looking for IT “skaters” who, when they step onto the ice, make the other four teammates better hockey players.

How leaders view themselves and others and how they are viewed by others is a critical causal driver of leadership success or failure. Tony Blair was able to reverse a multi-decade decline in Labour Party electoral success when he realized, “People judge us on their instincts about what they believe our instincts to be. And that man polishing his car was clear: His instincts were to get on in life, and he thought our instincts were to stop him.”

Leadership success requires connectedness to the community. How connected are your IT leaders throughout the ranks?

Are you effective at making a positive impact?

Franklin Pierce, America’s 14th president, is viewed by most historians as being one of the very worst presidents. Every action he took “made things worse,” as was discussed on “The First 15,” Episode 93 of the American POTUS podcast.

Have your actions made things better or worse?

Business IT Alignment, IT Leadership

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , ,

You might think that senior-level IT leaders have a lock on the art of landing jobs. After all, that’s partly how they reached such lofty heights, right?

But you’d be wrong. CIOs, vice presidents, directors — all make similar mistakes when they are on a job prowl, executive recruiters say. The two most common, and most fatal, are talking too much during an interview and resumes that are either too braggadocious or that go on and on and on.

“Our record was a 55-page resume,” says Judy Kirby, CEO of Kirby Partners, an executive search firm. “Not even their mother is going to read that.”

Here is a look at a dozen common mistakes even seasoned IT leaders make when looking to land new jobs, according to experts who can help.

Going grandiose

Charley Betzig, managing director of Heller Search Associates, has seen two candidates in the past year lose out on opportunities because of too-grandiose resumes. “These were great candidates, and we did our darndest to try to work with them to rewrite their resumes.” Both refused.

Betzig suggests instead sticking to the facts and keeping your resume “clean” by eschewing trendy design and offbeat type faces.

Finally, save your patents and published papers for the end of your resume and don’t lead with this information, Betzig says. “Employers don’t really care about that stuff,” he adds.

Failing to back up claims

In addition to holding your resume to a reasonable length, make sure it notes specific accomplishments. “I am a visionary innovator” doesn’t mean much to anyone wanting to learn about your credentials. (What did you innovate? In what way was that visionary?) Instead, talk about what your team produced and how, exactly, this helped your company create a new product, save money or time, generate revenue, or enter a new market.

Show, don’t just tell, how you’ve met specific challenges, whether strategic or operational.

Choosing ‘me’ over ‘we’

Similar to going grandiose, too many IT leaders forget that leadership is often more about team accomplishments than personal accolades.

Both on your resume and during interviews, recruiters emphasize focusing on ‘we,’ not ‘me.’ Nobody wants to hire someone who sucks all the oxygen out of the room or doesn’t play well with others. Make sure to share the credit with others on your team, and don’t talk trash about any company or person you’ve worked for.

Misunderstanding what makes a good interview

While you’re interviewing, answer the questions as succinctly as possible. Remember you’re not driving here; the interviewer is. “Be a listener first,” Betzig says. “Make sure it’s a conversation; listen and react.” He says that candidates are often so excited about landing an interview — or want to convey all their experience during the time allotted — that “they’re just bursting.”

Resist that impulse, and keep each of your answers to five minutes, maximum. Recently “we had a guy we thought was a great fit,” Betzig says. He had the qualifications and was a local candidate for the role. But the hiring company reported back that during the hour-plus interview, they were able to ask him only three questions because he talked so much.

“It was tough for them to imagine putting this person in front of their executives,” Betzig explains, and they wouldn’t consider doing another interview with him.

Overlooking the power of practice

If you’re working with an executive recruiter, that firm will likely do at least one mock interview with you and will video you in the process. “That can be a very sobering experience, to see yourself in action,” Kirby says. The recruiter will give you tips about how to improve your interviewing skills and resume because, after all, he or she gets paid if you do land the role, from the company that posted the job. It’s wise to take their advice.

And if you flame out after the first interview, you can often get feedback from the recruiter that you wouldn’t be able to get directly from the hiring manager because of perceived or real legal constraints.

If you’re looking for a job without the help of a recruiter, Kirby suggests you still enlist a trusted friend or peer to do a mock interview — and video it. Check to ensure you show enthusiasm for the job without being over the top, and make sure you answer the questions succinctly and without grandstanding.

Not seeing yourself clearly

Spending 20 years or longer at the same company isn’t necessarily viewed as favorably as it used to be, says Shawn Bannerji, managing partner for the data, digital, and technology leaders practice at Caldwell. Back in the day, it was considered a sign of loyalty to stick it out that long. But these days, staying at the same place for decades can be a negative.

The question is whether a person who’s been immersed in the same culture for so long “can be successful outside the norms of that specific organization,” Bannerji says. Many of the traditional leaders in their respective industries — such as GE, IBM, Morgan Stanley, and P&G — have multiple systems and processes set up to ensure their employees’ success, he explains.

After spending so long in one place, IT leaders can perhaps successfully transfer their expertise and skills to another organization or industry. But some hiring managers feel this category of candidate should “go somewhere else and prove it first, and then I’ll hire them,” Bannerji says.

If you do find yourself wanting to move on after a long stint in one company — anything over seven years — spend time thinking through exactly how your skills are transferrable. And make sure that is reflected on both your resume and in interviews.

Failing to have foresight

IT leaders seeking to build their careers further need to take the approach of successful pool players and think at least two moves ahead. Where are you in your career, and where do you want to be? How do your pay and benefits compare to those of your peers? That’s another strike against staying at one place too long; company lifers tend to miss out on the same pay jumps that more nimble IT leaders generally receive.

Career paths used to be more straight-line; “you’d work hard, get good reviews, and assume that path would lead to recognition, rewards, and promotions,” Bannerji explains. “But we’ve seen a departure of this path,” he says. People who want to rise in their careers need to acquire new skills and competencies, and “develop a portfolio that’s a professional calling card” or else “opportunities can pass them by.”

He advises you to find a mentor who can act as a career sherpa to “advise you how to invest your professional capital” and to help you determine which skills you should be focusing on at any point in time. If, say, you’ve spent a decade in infrastructure, try to develop more direct business acumen and broader management or strategy expertise.

Getting rusty on tech

Conversely, a business degree and strategy proficiency alone won’t cut it as a CIO in today’s world. “The role is evolving to have more substantive technical dimensions,” Bannerji explains. “Cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, the journey to the cloud” are all important on a resume today. Digital supply chains and other areas also require technical chops.

It’s also important to understand product development because IT is expected to help or sometimes even lead in that regard.

Not honoring the job description

It can be tempting, and sometimes okay, to ignore some things on a job description’s checklist that don’t fit. But if you apply for a position that specifies an advanced college degree as a minimum requirement, and you have a bachelor’s, don’t expect to land the interview no matter how much experience you may have.

Also make sure the job is something you really can handle. If the organization wants an implementer, and you’ve been mostly a strategist, “that’s not the same thing,” Kirby says. Even if you force-fit things and you’re lucky enough to be hired, chances are good that the position won’t be sustainable for very long and you’ll be job-hunting again before you know it.

And, if you don’t calculate all the key elements correctly — position, company, pay, and location — you can “throw off the entire equation,” Bannerji adds.

Losing sight of the social-media details

Particularly at the senior or executive level, you and your entire family are on view. Hiring managers routinely check social-media accounts for inappropriate photos or posts, especially regarding you and your spouse, for a clue about how you both might conduct yourselves at corporate events and how you represent yourselves in the broader world.

If you don’t want people snooping, adjust your social accounts’ privacy settings while you’re job hunting — and suggest that all the members of your immediate family do the same. Something that’s ‘cool’ or ‘cute’ or ‘funny’ might not translate the same to anyone who doesn’t already know you.

You might survive an Instagram photo of yourself barbequing in your Speedo, if you insist on keeping that visible online, but make sure your LinkedIn account and other more professional venues don’t show you in sweatpants or risqué clothing, or looking (or acting) inebriated. Vet your videos and invest in some professional photos.

Kirby recalls a situation when one company’s internal candidate was determined to sabotage his closest rival, an external candidate. The internal person found photos of the external guy at a party with drinks in both hands and acting goofy, all while standing next to an X-rated cardboard cutout. Internal Guy emailed the photos to hiring managers, and in the process both candidates were thrown out of contention.

You can still be you, of course; just don’t leave any potentially damaging documentation of your wildest moments in places where recruiters or hiring managers can find it.

Failing to read the room

To survive executive-level interviews, you must hone your emotional quotient (EQ) skills, Kirby advises.

“One of our candidates was showing off his deep knowledge of baseball and failed to notice that one of the other people in the room had her eyes glazed over.” It cost him the job.

Forgoing leveraging your network

Job hunters “often don’t want to be a bother to their contacts,” Heller’s Betzig says. “But that’s a big mistake. Your contacts want to be there for you, to be the person to help you find your next job.” Make time to network; he advises reaching out to five to 10 contacts each day.

Get in touch with everyone you know from your former jobs and those you’ve met in various professional organizations, explain what you’re looking to do and ask if they’ve heard of anything related to that and to let you know if they do. “Chances are that IT leaders’ next jobs will come from their network,” Betzig adds.

Careers, IT Leadership, Resumes

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Manfred Grossmann has seen the scenario play out over and over.

“I think companies that sell new products in an IT environment don’t always use them themselves,” said the vice president of corporate IT and project excellence for digital service provider Sycor Group. “Like everybody else, they focus on things that are not quite new.”

This was the situation Sycor recently found itself facing.

“When you’ve been using an older system release for years, hardly being able to do any upgrades, you get into a kind of innovation trap,” Grossmann explained.

Prior to 2022, Sycor’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was 60% dependent on nonstandard processes, a situation that complicated operations, blocked growth, and reduced innovation.

As a result, application runtimes tended to be long.

The log-on process “was really slow and not state of the art,” Grossmann said. “It was based on on-premises hardware with additional virtualization layers.” Users had to begin by logging on to a virtual private network (VPN) ensuring that all data would be privately transmitted. That often took 20 seconds, then another 20 seconds to start a program.”

“It was very frustrating if you were in a meeting and wanted to demonstrate something on the screen. Everyone would be sitting there, waiting for the data to come up.”

In order to keep pace with its forward-looking philosophy, Sycor would have to simplify and standardize all processes of the company – replacing the unwieldy system with a single platform.

Investing in change

With its main headquarters in Goettingen, Germany, Sycor Group covers the entire range of information and communication technology, including software asset management, concept development, telecommunication services, and IT outsourcing.

The urgency to develop the Sycor Intelligent Business Platform was felt at every level, since two legal mergers were scheduled to occur by New Year’s Day 2022.

The company forged ahead anyway, vowing to have the platform in place when business operations combined. 

“You have to invest in change,” Grossmann said.

Implementation partner Walldorf Consulting assisted on everything from development enhancements and interfaces to program management.

“Implementing public cloud software is completely different to classic on-premises approaches,” Grossmann pointed out. “That’s why we needed a good implementation partner to guide us through the cloud environment and its specific processes.”

With an eye on future innovation and new business model support, the decision was made to reach across the fragmented services and systems by building the platform with seven cloud solutions from ERP leader SAP, including SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud & Sales Cloud, SAP Concur, and SAP SuccessFactors.

“Individual software would no longer have to be installed,” Grossmann said. 

Complexity would be minimized by incorporating mobile and other technologies to capture data, allowing users to log on from anywhere and gain support from modern user interfaces.

New horizons ahead

In less than 10 months, 179 services and processes were implemented, enabling Sycor to meet its January 1, 2022 deployment deadline.

Among the achieved goals: a single sign-on across all systems, greater transparency at every information level, and faster response times for internal and customer requests.

The utilization of mobile, user-centric applications for recording and billing expenses dramatically reduced complex administrative tasks of the past, creating more time for innovation.

For its holistic re-design of its entire business platform, Sycor was honored as a winner at the 2022 SAP Innovation Awards, an annual ceremony highlighting organizations using SAP technologies to transform the world.

Meanwhile, modernization efforts continue at Sycor, with plans to use its enhanced tools to improve the company’s HR processes, create new billing models, and widen the cloud and technology portfolio for customers.

“When I think back on the way we developed the platform, there are many minor things we could have changed,” Grossmann said. “But when you consider the methodology and the way we’ve run the project, I would do it again completely the same way.

Learn more about Sycor’s amazing accomplishment that earned them the SAP Innovation Awards here.

Enterprise Applications, SaaS

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

As CIO at The Hut Group (THG), the British ecommerce firm behind such brands as Lookfantastic and Myprotein, Joanna Drake has been navigating some serious headwinds.

Responsible for global operations and technology services across company and customer websites, staff technology, and THG’s direct-to-consumer Ingenuity service and hosting business, Drake has looked to support the rapid growth of the Manchester-based firm through IPO, a global pandemic, supply chain instability, and the onset of recession.

Speaking at the CIO UK 100 awards ceremony at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London, Drake explained what it meant to be ranked the top CIO in the UK, how her tennis background shaped her leadership, why automation is freeing up her IT team, and how THG is supporting engineers relocating from war-stricken Ukraine.

CIO 100 winner, sports leadership and being ‘too friendly’

Having featured in the CIO 100 in 2021 and 2020 prior to topping this year’s list, Drake says the award is for her team, not just her.

“If this was about me, as an individual, I’d struggle to do a [CIO 100] submission,” she said. “So it’s about the team and I’m blessed and honoured to work with some amazing people every day, with so much grit, determination and creativity.” She also added that it was also an opportunity to stop and reflect on how far they’ve come in the last year, and how she fell into IT after a career in tennis failed to materialise, first starting out in help desk support before progressing into service management and engineering positions.

As she climbed the ranks, taking on more senior technology roles at Diageo, Accenture, Yahoo, Betfair, BBC and Skyscanner before joining The Hut Group in 2018, she realised that her sports background could shape her leadership style.

“Sports taught me about teamwork, putting players in the right positions, team formation, understanding your strengths and weaknesses, practice, hard work, discipline and how and when to apply coaching or mentoring,” she says, adding that she continually analyses the ‘ingredients’ of her team, to find details that can make big differences.

This isn’t to say that Drake’s ascension to the higher echelons of business leadership has come without difficulty. In particular, throughout her 20-year career, Drake has often been chastised for being too friendly, an unfamiliar quality perhaps in a results-driven business world.

“A lot of times in my career I’ve been told I wouldn’t make it as a senior tech person,” she said. “Actually, I think it’s about being my true authentic self because it’s exhausting if you can’t be yourself. I’ve learned through being me that actually, that’s okay.”

Digital workplace, automation and ‘IT as consultants’

Drake highlights THG’s digital workplace and automation initiatives as her team’s most notable achievements over the last year, alongside its Ingenuity Compute Engine (ICE), through which THG is hoping to build ‘hyperscaler experiences’ across more than 50 data centres.

As part of the ‘infrastructure reimagined’ programme, ICE provides a software-defined, infrastructure-as-code (IaC) platform where teams can run containerised applications on Kubernetes, ultimately speeding up infrastructure procurement and deployment. Drake says THG has built the platform in four of its data centres so far, allowing developers to build new platforms on ICE, and migrate existing THG workloads onto it.

Speed and simplicity have also been the essence behind THG’s digital workplace initiatives.

The e-commerce firm has also rolled out zero-touch device provisioning, built app stores for Microsoft and Mac-based devices, offered technology drive-through and click-and-collect services, as well as numerous enhancements to the office environment from digital signage, wayfinding screens and universal desk set-up for hot desking, to meeting room technology, video editing suites, device lockers and digital packing benches in warehouses.

Automation, meanwhile, has been introduced to free-up IT team members to become consultants to the business, removing their operational toil while empowering their line-of-business peers to focus on more strategic work.

Leveraging a combination of RPA, low-code and no-code technologies, THG has sought to streamline processes, particularly in HR such as joiners, movers, leavers and role-based access control.

“Automation has been about [IT] almost automating themselves out of the jobs they had, so they could go on to more interesting roles,” says Drake. “Where they’ve removed a lot of operational toil, we’ve had to re-skill our engineers and this is great for retaining talent.” So instead of churning or doing tickets, engineers go out as consultants in the business and speak to different departments about processes. “They follow things that hold them back, how they could do more, so they can actually remove their operational toil,” she adds.

Stalking talent and supporting Ukrainian staff

Despite such technological innovation, Drake is adamant that people remains her top priority, and she’s taking to stealthy methods to find prospective talent.

“I do a lot of stalking on LinkedIn,” she says. “I think about the sort of people and skill I want, and I go and hunt them out. I’ve got to build the team and I want the best players so I’ve got to go out there and find them. And when I’ve got them, I need to make sure they’re successful and making a difference. And if they’re successful, we’re all happy.”

Yet she recognises that the ongoing recruitment challenges, cost-of-living pressures and deepening mental health concerns mean the focus must be as on talent retention and attraction in equal measure.

To further help with the former, Drake oversees a series of stand-ups during the week to keep the team engaged. There’s a Monday session that tackles how the IT team plans to ‘win’ that week, a Tuesday one is called take-over Tuesday, Wednesday’s focuses on wellness and development, and Friday offers an opportunity for team shout-outs and general updates.

The Hut Group has also looked to help engineers get out of Ukraine at the onset of the war with Russia, helping to evacuate them and their families to Poland, paying for accommodation and providing homeware, toys and jobs at a local warehouse.

“For a lot of our staff in Ukraine, work has helped them lead as normal life as possible in these circumstances,” says Drake. “Ensuring they are very actively involved in and heard every day is a really important part of supporting them.”

Financial strife puts the CIO’s focus on efficiency

Much of last year’s progress has been about laying the technological foundations for the next 10 years, yet Drake acknowledges that the next 12 months could be a bumpy ride.

The Hut Group has seen its growth stunted in recent times by rising raw material costs, cost-of-living pressures on customers, declining shares (down 86% year-on-year), and a market valuation that recently plummeted from £5bn to £600m amid market headwinds.

In October, Japanese investor SoftBank announced it was selling its 6.4% stake to company founder Matthew Moulding and Qatari investors for just £31m, having bought the stake in the shopping group for £481m in May 2021.

Such uncertainty means Drake’s focus is now on efficiency.

“[My priority is] continuing with all of that efficiency stuff—ICE, composable compute, which means we can deliver more, more quickly.”

Drake is also spearheading THG’s ‘match-fit programmes’, looking at ways the group can improve customer service, operational efficiency and team development for when some semblance of normality returns.

She says THG is consolidating toolsets, decommissioning legacy technology and migrating customers to the latest platforms, as well as making sure the firm gets the best ‘bang for buck’ when working with suppliers.

“We thought of using it as an opportunity to get in really good shape, ready for the fight when the world turns the right way up again.”

CIO, CIO 100, IT Leadership

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

IT analyst firm GigaOm is quick to point out that primary data is the first point of impact for ransomware attacks. This fact puts primary storage in the spotlight for every CIO to see, and it highlights how important ransomware protection is in an enterprise storage solution. When GigaOm released their “GigaOm Sonar Report for Block-based Primary Storage Ransomware Protection” recently, a clear leader emerged.

GigaOm named Infinidat as the industry leader in ransomware protection for block-based storage. Infinidat is a leading provider of enterprise storage solutions. According to GigaOm’s independent analysis, Infinidat distinguishes itself for its modern, software-defined storage architecture, securing enterprise storage with a strategic, long-term approach, broad and deep functionality, and high quality of innovation.

One of the top CMOs in the tech industry, Eric Herzog, is leading the marketing charge at Infinidat and had this to say about this recognition from GigaOm:

“Infinidat has taken the benefits of ransomware protection on enterprise block storage to the next level, including guaranteed immutable snapshot recovery in one minute or less, greater ease of use, and comprehensive cyber resilience.”

“Being recognized as the industry leader for combatting ransomware not only gives us enormous forward momentum as a solution provider of cyber storage resilience and modern data protection, but it also gives Infinidat a seat at the table to talk to large enterprises and service providers about what we can do to eliminate the threat of ransomware for them,” he added.

The GigaOm Sonar Report showcases the strength of Infinidat’s novel InfiniSafe cyber resilience technology embedded across all its platforms: InfiniBox®, InfiniBox™ SSA and InfiniGuard®. The report states:

“Infinidat offers a complete and balanced ransomware protection solution. InfiniSafe brings together the key foundational requirements essential for delivering comprehensive cyber-recovery capabilities with immutable snapshots, logical air-gapped protection, a fenced forensic network, and near-instantaneous recovery of backups of any repository size.”

Infinidat has delivered the industry’s first cyber storage guarantee for recovery on primary storage – the InfiniSafe® Cyber Storage guarantee.

The company recently extended cyber resilience to its InfiniBox and InfiniBox SSA II enterprise storage platforms with the InfiniSafe Reference Architecture, allowing Infinidat to provide its immutability snapshot guarantee and the recovery time of immutable snapshots at one minute or less. InfiniSafe was announced on the InfiniGuard modern data protection and cyber storage resilience platform in February this year.

The GigaOm Sonar Report recognizes the features and functionality of Infinidat’s cyber resilience technology: “InfiniGuard delivers solid cybersecurity features at no extra cost, allowing customers to quickly and securely restore data, even at scale, in case of an attack.”

Through near instantaneous cyber recovery, Infinidat helps organizations avoid having to pay the ransom, yet still retrieve their valuable enterprise data, uncompromised and intact. Think about how significant this really is, given how much of a threat ransomware is.

When ransomware takes data hostage, it can destroy backup copies of data, steal credentials, leak stolen information, and worse. It has caused businesses of all sizes to shut down operations overnight, so it is not unusual for a company to pay a large sum of money to restore their business. Infinidat’s solutions can put a stop to it.

It is an honor that GigaOm has recognized the technology leadership. The analyst community has been spot-on about how enterprises and service providers should strategize to not just take “baby steps” but actually take a quantum leap forward to address these cyberattacks.

In addition, GigaOm recognized Infinidat as a “Fast Mover,” one of only two vendors awarded that accolade. “Fast Movers” are expected to deliver on their solutions and technologies faster and with more features/functionality than other vendors known as “Forward Movers.” Infinidat has been rapidly delivering new technology, several guarantees, and new capabilities over the past 18 months, including the extension of new features and functions to InfiniSafe.

Max Mortillaro, Analyst at GigaOm, shared his perspective: “Primary data is the first point of impact for ransomware attacks, so it is critical for organizations to implement primary storage solutions that incorporate ransomware protection, such as Infinidat’s cyber resilience solutions.”

He went on to say, “Our new GigaOm Sonar Report on ransomware protection for block storage comes at a time when ransomware attacks have become so prevalent and such a persistent threat for all organizations across all industries. We have seen through our analysis how ransomware can cause significant damage to companies and government agencies.”

The time is right for Infinidat to step forward as a recognized industry leader for ransomware protection.

To download the full analyst report, click here.

To read more about Infinidat’s cyber resilience solutions, click here.

Security

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , ,

The nonsense was tucked away in a PowerPoint slide, as so much nonsense is. “We’ll help you institute best practices, followed by a program of continuous improvement,” the offending bullet said.

Now, I’m willing to shrug at a bit of harmless puffery from time to time. And maybe this puffery was harmless. But I don’t think so.

As my pappy used to say, ‘If someone sells this and someone else buys it, they have something in common: They’re both schmucks.’ Even ignoring the two-schmucks-in-a-pond aspect of the situation, the whole premise of “best practices” isn’t just flawed, it’s fraud — that should be avoided at all costs. It’s a phrase that pretends to provide value when it’s really inserting nothing but noise into the signal.

The idea of “best practices” is deeply wrong for these reasons: (1) It’s argument by assertion, not evidence and logic; (2) “best” is contextual, not absolute; and (3) it encourages stasis by precluding innovation.

Argument by assertion

When you read or are told a particular way of doing things is best practice, do you ask what the criteria are for awarding it best-practice status? Or, for that matter, who the governing body is that’s authorized to give out the award?

In the rare cases where there is a governing body — ITIL is an example — best practices aren’t what they offer. What governing bodies more often provide are “frameworks,” which are lists of practices, not actual how-to assistance.

If you have asked, you’ve probably discovered that there is no such group. What there is in its place is self-proclaimed authority. Here’s how that works out:

Imagine the situation at hand isn’t about running IT or a business — it’s about curing intense abdominal agony, for which surgically removing the vermiform appendix is, you’re told while lying in your bed of pain, best practice. An industry consultant tells you so, buttressing their argument by laying out three case studies in which appendix removal successfully eliminated the abdominal distress. It’s best practice!

Except it isn’t, because, sadly, they lost a few patients along the way. There are, as it turns out, lots of different types of intense abdominal pain, most of which aren’t appendix-related. Somehow or other these weren’t written up as case studies.

Best is contextual

As has been pointed out in this space before, processes and practices have six dimensions of possible optimization, and because they trade off you can only optimize no more than three of them.

For any given practice, different organizations need to optimize different combinations of these dimensions. A process or practice whose optimization goals are, for example, cycle time and quality will be designed quite differently from one designed to optimize for unit cost and excellence.

Which makes designing any one process or practice that’s best in all situations no more possible than designing any one anything else that’s best in all situations.

Stasis over innovation

Call me Captain Literal, but “best”? Really?

Look, if we’re supposed to take someone at their word, their word should mean what it’s supposed to mean. So a best practice should be, by definition, a practice that can’t be improved on.

As a leader and as a manager, the last thing you ought to be doing is encouraging the attitude that the way you do things, or the way you’re going to do things once you’ve installed a new practice, is that there’s no place for innovative thinking.

But that’s what the phrase tells them.

So don’t use it.

Where do you go from here?

When you decide you need to improve your organization’s practices, starting from scratch doesn’t make sense either. Surely there must be a way to learn from the experience of other organizations.

There surely is, and it’s probably obvious to you if you’ve read this far.

If you’re on the proposing side of such things, banish the phrase “best practice” from your vocabulary. When you’re tempted to use it, describe the practice you’re proposing as a “proven practice” or “well-tested practice” instead, assuming you and your teams have enough experience to justify the claim.

If you’re on the buying side of the equation and someone uses it as part of their attempt to persuade you to embrace their way of doing things, stick your fingers in your ears and sing, La la la la la! I can’t hear you! La la la la la!

It is, after all, just noise.

If you’re looking for a better way of doing things, and like the practice in question as described and are explaining why you’ve chosen to implement it, go beyond banishing the phrase.

Replace it with this dictum: There’s no such thing as best practices, only practices that fit best.

And make sure you’ve evaluated the practice in question so you’re confident it does fit your organization best.

Is that best practice for practice improvement?

Probably not.

But it’s a pretty good one.

IT Leadership, IT Strategy

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

A lot is being written about VSM, and for good reason: it offers the opportunity for organizations to benefit from increased alignment, accelerated innovation, reduced risk, and improved competitive advantage. In spite of the clear benefits, it remains a struggle for many leaders to feel confident in taking initial steps and knowing exactly where to start. In this regard, it is invaluable to hear from experts who have been doing this work and realizing success.

While each organization’s VSM initiative will be unique, there are nevertheless common principles and lessons that all can benefit from. In our work with global enterprises, we’ve had the opportunity to hear directly from the executives who are leading the VSM initiatives in their organizations, and who are leading the industry in terms of maximizing the benefits of VSM. We recently had the opportunity to chat with a leading VSM expert working in a large insurance firm. Several years ago, this executive helped launch the organization’s VSM initiative. Here are some of the key lessons they’ve learned in terms of breaking ground with VSM:

Start with clear definitions

In today’s business world there’s no shortage of acronyms and buzzwords. Ultimately, for the insurer, VSM has come to involve people from throughout the organization, especially when working with an international mix of stakeholders, executives, and participants. It is vital to start with a clear understanding of VSM so everyone’s grounded in a common understanding of what it is and why it’s important.

Clearly define value. The good news is that any organization that’s been in operation has value streams. It is essential to gain a clear, well understood, and agreed upon definition of the value being delivered. Ultimately, if teams aren’t clear on value, it is inherently a hit-or-miss proposition as to whether that value can be delivered and improved over time. The VSM leader took a purposeful approach in this case. Start with value, then look to back up from there in terms of decisions that enable that value, and how it is delivered.

Leverage data to gain transparency

Teams need to be empowered with data. Without a real-time view of what’s happening, it takes longer to pivot, and longer to deliver value. When you have fundamentals in place, decisions become faster, and you’re more likely to avoid having to make the same decisions repeatedly.

Quality data provides context, and helps teams navigate complexity. Teams have to navigate thousands of micro decisions. If we don’t have quality data, those decisions become bigger, more complex efforts; we then have to stop and gain input from others, etc. With quality data, we can validate decisions and move forward.

Are you constantly asking, “What can be done to inform an action?” See where there are disconnects and blockages in value streams. Focus on removing things that get in the way of making decisions, from tactical to roadmaps.

Data-based dashboards versus PowerPoint slides: Ensure your dashboards are based on real data, not interpretation. Automated dashboards are much less manual effort than aggregating data and building slides, and if you have thousands of people doing manual rollups – it really becomes a massive cost and drain on efficiency.

Be inclusive

For this insurance giant, VSM is very much a team sport; to succeed, many people need to be involved and engaged. Any time someone approaches, it is very useful to share knowledge around what the teams are trying to accomplish with VSM. Invariably, when hearing about the focus on delivering customer value, others get engaged and want to be a part of it.

Ultimately, people from legal, finance and executive leadership, and a range of other areas are part of the delivery of value. On a practical level, bringing in these other teams can be instrumental in avoiding potential roadblocks and speeding up initiatives. It is important to listen to different perspectives and be open to changing your mind.

Don’t be neutral

Value streams already exist – the question is how effectively they are being managed. Staying neutral, or not investing in VSM, means competitors will be getting in front of you. Often, if you put off dealing with VSM, problems don’t necessarily emerge right away. They may start emerging in six to eight months. Therefore, it is essential to take a proactive approach, and get started right away. You have to invest in an umbrella before it starts raining, just like you have to invest in systems, processes, and people. Build trust in those investments before you realize you are facing a catastrophe.

Focus

If focus is everywhere, you will be weak everywhere. We all only have a finite amount of time and resources. If your organization is not clearly focused on value, you will be diluting power that exists in an organization. Focusing on everything can be very detrimental. You’ll fall into a trap of focusing on efficiency, while losing sight of what really matters: whether you are gaining traction in value delivery.

Balance continuous improvement and innovation

Continuous improvement is inherently about improving existing processes, while important drivers are very different for innovation. You must be able to accommodate unstructured creativity, experimentation, etc. to foster innovation, without disrupting other workflows. For example, if you have scrum methodology in agile, you are effectively measuring velocity. Ultimately scrum is about stability, and the ability to predict and forecast productivity. You can’t expect to measure on this type of predictability, while at the same time requiring innovation. It creates conflict. If there’s misalignment and you try to scale, you will only scale misalignment. Before you try to scale value, you need to be certain you are delivering value.

Conclusion

VSM makes success far more likely for your organization. By leveraging clear definitions, real-time data, and using an inclusive approach, teams can ensure benefits of VSM are realized – as proven by this real-life example.

For more information, watch this webinar, Resilience Through Rainstorms – How Unum Weathers Any Storm with VSM.

Collaboration Software