|
|
| The complete CIO: from techie to business strategist |
The changing role of the CIO was the theme of a Getronics press event timed to coincide with the Gartner Outsourcing Summit in London at the beginning of June. The event, attended by journalists from around Europe and ably hosted by Chris Middleton, editor of outsourcingfocus.com, gave Getronics the opportunity to set out its vision for the company in the wake of the KPN acquisition last year.
In his introduction, Jos Schoemaker, Chief Operating Officer, made it clear that while Getronics would not shy away from pursuing a global strategy it remains realistic about the challenges posed by bigger competitors with a broader range of services. Part of the solution, he said, was greater specialisation, particularly around Getronics’ market-leading workspace management offerings. With more than 2 million workspaces under management today, Getronics is on target for 3 million by 2010. One strategy for enlarging Getronics share of the workspace sector would be to forge further partnerships along the lines of the deal with EDS, under which Getronics will provide workspace services to Shell. Deals like this were part of a growing recognition that none of the players in the outsourcing arena, not even the biggest, can provide complete solutions in every case.
This view was echoed by Nico Westpalm van Hoorn, CIO of Port of Rotterdam, who put the CIO’s perspective on outsourcing. He cautioned organisations considering outsourcing to think about all aspects of the partnership, including the fit between the customer and the provider. The relative size of the two parties could affect attitudes on both sides and the responsiveness of the provider when problems arise. Equally important was to consider the long-term nature of the relationship, which is only just beginning when contracts are signed.
The biggest change in the role of the CIO, according to Mr van Hoorn and other speakers, was from a technical manager to an all-rounder responsible for HR, project management and business strategy. Whether or not the CIO ends up on the board, he or she is more visible to other C-level managers and is expected not just to support business processes but add value to them.
The outsourcing process itself could take a matter of years starting with the handover of hardware and software support, through the transitional arrangements made for staff to the ongoing vendor management and the continuous process of checking to maintain the alignment of business and IT strategy.
Countering the popular perception of outsourcing as the complete devolution of responsibility to the provider, speakers emphasised the importance of the retained organisation, which could still be substantial in size (about 50 of Port of Rotterdam’s 200-strong IT staff were retained) and which might still contain a mix of skills from software specialists working on strategic systems to experts in vendor management. The vendor management process is critical from the outset, determining both how smoothly the organisation undergoes the transition and how expectations are set on both sides for the future of the partnership.
One of the greatest challenges for the CIO is to identify and communicate every element of the provider’s contractual responsibilities. While boxes, wires and other physical assets are easy to account for, other factors are harder to quantify. For instance, support tasks that were not well defined in the original organisation might easily be lost in the transition to the outsourced organisation.
Perhaps the most critical role of the CIO is that of a skilled translator and mediator. Instead of merely answering requests for systems, the modern CIO needs to ask searching questions about what those systems will be used for. If the question is “Can I have CRM?” the CIO has to ask “What do you want to know about your customers?” When the business becomes used to this interrogative process, its own questions become much sharper.
|
|
|