The CIO as Business Transformer:
CIO Insights Luncheon Review
Today’s networked enterprises are faced with a number of interesting strategic changes and challenges. A rapidly evolving IT landscape presenting new ways to deliver ICT services, a shifting market and an increasingly influential, technology-aware workforce are just some of the new realities that are challenging how businesses operate and how the CIO functions in business.
On 13 April 2011, CIOs and senior IT managers of a diverse range of organisations in various industries – from AUT University through to Toyota Financial Services, congregated in Auckland for a CodeBlue-sponsored CIO Insights Luncheon. The event drew together around forty IT decision makers to consider the impact of these changes and contemplate the central idea of ‘The CIO as a Business Transformer’
Garry Fissenden, CEO of industry training organisation ETITO, delivered an informative presentation that shared his insights on working across the business and with partner organisations, to build an enterprise capable of evolving in real-time with changing technology and business requirements. Fissenden imparted five lessons he’s learned about CIOs and business transformation in his time and also gave his take on how the CIO role, while still relevant, has changed and will continue to change to meet business requirements.
ETITO is the training association for seven industries: Ambulance, Contact Centre, Electrotechnology, Financial Services, Offender Management Security and Telecommunications. These industries each have different technology platforms and processes, which require the business and ICT teams to collaborate to reduce complexity.
Prior to joining ETITO, Fissenden held a range of executive roles that included CEO and CIO in the financial sector in New Zealand and Australia. He was GM Technology and Operations for ASB Bank in the late 1990s, when ASB bank launched the successful Fastnet internet banking system (the system, launched in 1997, was two years ahead of other banks and remained virtually unchanged for 13 years) and implemented the Onyx CRM. Fissenden also ran operations and technology for Esanda Finance in Australia before returning to New Zealand to be GM for UDC Finance, while also holding the role of GM technology for Esanda. Fissenden is a director of the NZ Rugby League and today considers himself more of a ‘well-informed technology customer’, or ‘business person who understands technology’, than a technology manager. What’s clear is that Fissenden is well qualified to talk about how CIOs can help drive business transformation!
Garry Fissenden’s five lessons for CIOs as business transformers are:
1. A) Some things are just right (E.g. ASB Fastnet internet banking)
1. B) Sometimes there is no rule book
2. Focus on building capabilities not functionality (E.g. Onyx CRM)
3. Keep business focus
4. Avoid really big projects – history is littered with large project failures
5. The technology doesn’t really matter.
Fissenden also shared how he sees the CIO role shifting from its present major focus on interpreting business needs and ‘running stuff’ to a future focus that gives equal weight to planning, managing business expectations and also taking responsibility for the security of business systems and data.
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