CIONET Magazine 10

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Magazine. Vol. 10, Summer 2011.

Jesus Torres “Innovation will improve our customer service” 24

Daniel Lebeau “Always thank your team” 8 Neelie Kroes “Strategic role of the CIO is clearly growing” 4

Marcello Cordioli “Spend more time with the business partners” 9

CIO CITY 2011: How to be a successful leader Discover the three winners of the European CIO 2011 Awards IT and Social Media in all its aspects: full report Technological Innovation as a key to survival Business Analytics: The new role of the CIO and much more!

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Pascale Avargues “IT is a key asset for integrating people” 10

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The Perfect Storm ABOUT CIONET MAGAZINE

CIOnet Magazine is a CIOnet initiative sent directly to CIOnet members.

Produced by: Roularta Custom Media Publishing Director: Hendrik Deckers (hendrik@cionet.com) Editorial coordinator: Kurt Focquaert (kurt.focquaert@roularta.be) Printed by: Roularta Printing Advertising: Erwin Van den Brande (erwin@cionet.com)

www.cionet.com

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CIOnet continues its fast growth. We are proud to announce the launch of CIOnet Norway and welcome all members from the Land of the Midnight Sun and the Fjords. We now count more than 2750 members (in seven countries) and 70 business partners throughout Europe.

An unusual combination of exceptional events can cause a perfect storm, and that is what we’re witnessing this year in the IT world, where Social Media, Mobile Computing and the Cloud Paradigm challenge CIOs and IT leaders to ride and profit from those technology waves.

I would like to congratulate again the winners of the European CIO of the Year Awards, presented by Neelie Kroes during CIO CITY 2011, our highly rated international CIO event. Check out the three learnings of Daniel Lebeau, Marcello Cordioli and Pascale Avargues.

In this tenth issue of CIOnet Magazine, we are presenting you a series of business cases and views on Social, Mobile and Cloud. I hope you enjoy the read and look forward to your feedback.

Cheers, Join the Conversation is a new online initiative where CIOs and IT executives discuss the latest topics in the area of Social Media, Cloud Computing and The Value of IT. Join the online debate!

HENDRIK DECKERS MD CIOnet hendrik@cionet.com

Editorial

Can we find innovation?

“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.”

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his quote by Marcel Proust is highly relevant to western society.

Big changes are looming in the wake of the financial crisis. New economic powers are rising, in both Asia and South America. Old ways of doing things no longer work. We need new eyes and new perspectives.

In my country Norway the question is even more relevant. Since we found oil in the North Sea in 1969, we have become a thriving country. Today, oil represents as much as 26% of GDP and more than 50% of all exported goods. Oil is a limited resource, however. All known oil and gas wells are expected to be empty by around the year 2030.

Norway is reputed to have used its resources wisely, but even so, there are traces of ‘Dutch Disease’ in the country: the disease that attacks thriving economies and makes people – excuse the directness – rather lazy.

A post-oil age future Our Advisory Board is concerned about the long-term future of the Norwegian economy, and one important focus area is how IT can be used to spur innovation and business development. The INSEAD report published in March 2011 shows that more than 30% of CIOs share this concern.

We will use CIOnet´s discussion forums to raise awareness about these issues among our members. We feel that even if the CIO role has acquired more power and is being heard by top management more often, there is still a way to go to make sure IT is an integrated part of their innovation strategies. As part of this initiative, we will create a resource group of CIOs accessible by the media for expert advice and comments. We feel that there is an uninhabited space for the voice of the CIO in public opinion. We should no longer let NGOs, vendors and special interest groups act as spokespeople for the industry alone. We are confident that CIOnet´s platform for knowledge sharing will be an asset for our Norwegian members.

This is also an opportunity for Norwegian CIOs to reach out and take part in the international conversations that are constantly playing out in this arena.

JENS PETTER MATHISEN

General Manager CIOnet Norway

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Event report

CIO CITY 2011 How to be a successful leader At CIO CITY 2011, more than 100 CIOs and IT Directors came together for the first CIOnet international conference for IT leaders. Held at the famous Hotel Metropole in the heart of Brussels, the conference focused attention on the critical question of leadership. Moreover, leadership was the compelling theme for the invited guest speakers.

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Robert D. Austin, Copenhagen Business School: “The CIO who communicates a coherent strategy across the business lines will have a greater chance of success.” > PICTURE

David Taylor, the Naked Leader: “Everything that you need, to achieve anything that you want, you already have within you, right now.”

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s the role of the CIO takes on more importance, the importance of the correct leadership style strikes a chord that resonates across all aspects of the métier. Robert D. Austin, Copenhagen Business School, delivered an outstanding workshop on Leadership in Your (IT) Organisation.

Austin introduced a management approach that is appropriate if CIOs want to command the respect of their CEOs and company boards while delivering results from IT teams.

Drawing from real-life experience, a case study as it is known in business schools, Austin presented the fictional character of rising star Jim Barton who takes over as CIO of a dysfunctional company. In his presentation, Austin enabled the 100 conference participants to distill the knowledge for themselves as to why Barton succeeded in his role when his predecessor had failed so miserably.

In this case study, Jim Barton’s style turns out to be the deciding factor. Barton must connect with senior management while maintaining the trust of his IT team, even though the situation in the company is dangerously uncertain. Instead of locking himself down in his bunker, Barton knows the value of collaboration so that the business side managers are invested in the decisions he must make.

New leadership approach “We live in an age of risk”, Austin said, referring to rapid changes in business process design that call for a new leadership approach. In this uncertain era where IT is undergoing permanent transformation, the CIO who communicates a coherent strategy across the business lines will have a greater chance of success. Said Austin: “If we underestimate or overestimate any of the risks involved in an uncertain situation, the penalties go in both directions.”

Where a fine-balancing act is required against a background of stressful decision-making, Austin advices CIOs to establish trust with the senior leadership team while ensuring that doors are kept open to IT specialists who can be called upon for their technical knowledge. CIOs cannot be expected to know all the intricacies of today’s technological advances, but their humbleness will enable the right decisions to percolate through the business chain.

Speaking of building character, David Taylor as the Naked Leader delivered an inspirational workshop to the assembled CIOs on the power of leadership: “Everything that you need, to achieve anything that you want, you already have within you, right now.” Taylor urged his listeners to set a standard higher than anyone could reasonably

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CIO CITY // 1. CIOnet founder Hendrik Deckers welcomes more than 100 European IT leaders on the first CIO City event in Brussels. / 2, 6, 7, 8. Hotel Metropole was the venue for the CIO CITY 2011 event. / 3. Remco Brouwer - P&G, Mona Biegstraaten - CIOnet Spain and Fabrizio Grisoni - SACMI IMOLA Group. / 4. Enzo Bertolini, Ferrero and Alfredo Gatti, CIOnet Italy. / 5. The three award-winning CIOs with Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda.//

Event report

expect of them. “The competency-based framework is dead”, Taylor said. “Replace competencies with strengths.”

In Taylor’s leadership approach, if you want to achieve success as a leader you should: • be the very best you already are; • take ownership of everything you say or do; • give change a context and change will happen; • act as if that change has already been made; • keep going or else you’ll give up.

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Soumitra Dutta, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology and the academic director of eLab@INSEAD, stated: “The better you know yourself, the better the leader you can be.”

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Nils Fonstad, Associate Director of eLab@INSEAD: “There are three different kinds of CIOs.”

Social media leadership While Taylor spoke about leadership in the individual, Soumitra Dutta, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology and the academic director of eLab@INSEAD, gave a brief yet interesting talk on social media leadership. Dutta began his talk by stating a thesis: “The better you know yourself, the better the leader you can be.”

But to be a better leader, Dutta argued, requires a new approach. “We are seeing a crisis in leadership because the level of trust is at historic low levels. In the past, leaders were all strong, all knowing individuals with all the answers. It was the leader and only the leader who gave the vision.”

Said Dutta: “The top-down model of traditional media communications, where the C-level executive dictates the message for the communications manager to synthesise and disseminate, is no longer a given.” This model has now irreversibly changed because of the advent of social media

tools, which more and more employees, clients and partners are using. Tools such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube have opened the corporate boundaries beyond the control of one leader.

“We need to know how to loosen control but without losing control”, Dutta said. “We need to bring together the new with the traditional channels. The company who develops a social media strategy will have a better vision for the future.”

Returning to his original thesis, Dutta encouraged leaders to know themselves if they want to engage in an “authentic and open dialogue with their employees, customers and stakeholders”.

Three kinds of CIOs Afterwards, the Associate Director of eLab@INSEAD Nils Fonstad introduced INSEAD as the knowledge partner for CIOnet whose members responded to a survey whose results were published in a joint study called IT Enabled Leadership.

Said Fonstad: “Contrary to traditional perceptions of what CIOs do, our survey of 130 CIOs shows that CIOs spend a significant percentage of their time outside of managing IT services and working with external customers and partners.” Fonstad then went on to describe the three different kinds of CIOs which emerged from the study: • Technology-driven CIOs are primarily focused on managing the IT organisation to ensure delivery of IT infrastructure, applications and related services.

• Business process-driven CIOs spend a greater than average percentage of time managing enterprise business processes, such as shared services, global supply chain, operations and customer experience.

• Client-driven CIOs spend a greater than average percentage of time meeting with external customers and partners as part of the sales, service delivery or innovation process.

In introducing the 15 finalists for the European CIO of the Year 2011 Awards, Fonstad said: “The profiles of these CIOs offer insights into how organisations are creating strategic value from IT and highlight the importance of fostering IT-enabled leaders for creating and sustaining value.”

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Event report

The role of IT in 2020 Daniel Erasmus, who is the founding partner of the DTN (Digital Thinking Network), gave a workshop on ‘Scenario Thinking – A powerful methodology for enabling organisations to anticipate change and incorporate external uncertainty into the internal decision-making process’.

“If you meet Buddha on the road, kill him”, Erasmus said to an incredulous audience before explaining what he meant. “Scenario thinkers have a deep distrust of futurists. We make the different tomorrows come alive in the actions, innovations and imaginations of you – the leaders – today. We have a deep distrust of futurists.”

IT will become more efficient because organisational strategy is inseparable from IT.

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Daniel Erasmus, founding partner of the DTN (Digital Thinking Network): “We have a deep distrust of futurists.”

Improvisational comedian John Cremer showed the CIOs that they can learn how important it is to have confidence in their own abilities.

THE EUROPEAN CIO 2011 AWARDS Having said that, Erasmus presented his view of the role of IT in 2020. Erasmus argued that IT would become more efficient because organisational strategy is inseparable from IT and only through linking managerial and technological perspective can we build strategies that have business value and technological relevance.

To engage the audience, Erasmus asked the CIOs to discuss among themselves how the change of control and power is shifting to the user, whereby the leader is becoming “more of a facilitator”. In this shift towards a bottom-up approach, CIOs can start to discuss the future with greater sophistication as they will be able to plan for an entire spectrum of possible futures. “The future is plural and not official”, Erasmus said.

In a highly motivating session, John Cremer brought out the best in all the aspiring leaders at CIO CITY 2011 by asking four volunteers to perform on stage and improvise situations not of their making. By asking attendees to think on their feet, CIOs can learn how important it is to have confidence in their own abilities. “These highly interactive presentations are designed to bypass the critical mind and access the unique talents of the individual”, Cremer adds.

At the beginning of the afternoon session on Friday, Vice President of the European Commission and European Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes introduced the European CIO 2011 Awards.

But before doing so, she addressed the entire CIO community: “Your strategic role is clearly growing. Your purchasing power matters”, Commissioner Kroes said, adding that more than a quarter of current IT spending would eventually be “moved into the cloud”.

Then introducing the three award winners*, Commissioner Kroes noted that six of the 15 finalists were women. “I am pleased”, she said. “All the nominees are fascinating. You are not only the future, you are today. It’s about outstanding achievement across Europe.”

After presenting the awards, Commissioner Kroes invited the three finalists along with three other finalists to meet her for coffee at her office in the near future. “I need your help to explain to the outside world”, she said, referring to the growing importance of IT for Europe’s future. * The three award-winning CIOs are presented on p 8-11.

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CIO of the Year Technology-driven Category

Developing the right skills for the right processes As Vice President Information & Management Systems of GSK Biologicals, the vaccine division of GlaxoSmithKline, Daniel Lebeau is happy if members of his bioIT team are recruited to different parts of his division. Headquartered in Belgium, GSK Biologicals employs more than 1,500 scientists and has approximately 30 marketed vaccines supplying around 25% of the world’s vaccines in 182 countries.

Gartner, the total amount that GSK Biologicals spent on IT was 29% lower than the peer group average and 14% lower than the 25th percentile of the best performing peer companies. The total cost of the SAP environment was 35% lower than the peer average and even 27% lower than the 25th percentile of peers.

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Daniel Lebeau, Vice President Information & Management Systems of GSK Biologicals: “The Apple tablet and the mobile devices are the weapons of the future.”

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his enables me to develop an influential network of bioIT advocates throughout the rest of GSK Biologicals”, Lebeau said. “With my network of alumni, I can even go faster because speed comes from trust.”

The best practices Winner in the technology-driven category, Lebeau described the IT environment at GSK Biologicals as “a business process consultancy company.

Before a process meeting, I expect my bioIT members to read up on the relevant business processes and then come and position the best practices of the industry. For that, I need someone who is disciplined, has a conceptual mind, engagement skills, and of course, customer focus.”

2010 was a good year for Lebeau and his bioIT team who improved their service performance ranking – especially when compared to other pharmaceuticals. According to an assessment by

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A multi-stage model For Lebeau, the critical success factor for managing IT services efficiently is implementing a clear skills development strategy. To this end, Lebeau has developed a multi-stage model: • Strategise “from business plan to IT vision”.

• Engage “from IT vision to project charter”.

• Re-engineer and Deliver “from Project charter to Go-Live”.

• Service “from Go-Live to Benefits”.

Said Lebeau: “It’s all about developing the right skills for the right processes.”

THREE LEARNINGS OF DANIEL LEBEAU 1. Always thank your team. In this case, Lebeau acknowledges all 100 members of the bioIT team at GSK Biologicals.

2. After 20 years, the revolution in IT is finally converging in the 2010 decade.

Lebeau cites the Apple tablet and the mobile devices as the weapons of the future.

3. Build your team like you would a consulting business to get results and connect to the business.

CIO of the Year Business Process-driven Category

Staying close to the business Marcello Cordioli, Group CIO of Permasteelisa, said the biggest operational challenge facing his IT team is managing the geographical complexity of the company, a worldwide contractor in the engineering, project management, manufacturing and installation of architectural envelopes and interior systems. Winner in the business process-driven category, Cordioli leads a team of 100 IT professionals that provides services to 50 offices on four continents. With so much complexity across so many global locations, IT cannot afford to add an extra layer of complexity.

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am very rarely in my office”, Cordioli said.

“I need to see my colleagues from the rest of the business lines at least once a week – whether it is for a coffee or just a chat. If they have an issue that requires more time, then we set that up.

This is how I learn about the things that are not said during the steering committee meetings.”

New email system The two largest service providers that Cordioli works with are SAP and Autodesk. In 2010, for example, his IT team co-developed with Autodesk a system to accelerate Permasteelisa’s ability to react to customers from initial inquiry to final installation. It uses both Autodesk architectural and manufacturing 3D design software and services throughout the global Permasteelisa curtain wall creation process. The project involved bringing together different experts throughout the firm who had not worked together before.

In 2008, Cordioli agreed to become the biggest pilot site for Google Apps. After consulting with his non-IT colleagues and team members, he decided Permasteelisa needed a new email system which could be implemented all over the world.

The existing system consisted of hundreds of different email programmes. What he wanted was a simple and inexpensive system that was secure and reliable enough that if it went down, it would be back up within an hour. By mid-2010, it was a big success as all Permasteelisa employees were using Google Apps, including other collaborative tools and the email system.

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THREE LEARNINGS OF MARCELLO CORDIOLI 1. Keep it Simple and Stay Close to the Business. By staying focused, we are moving from a group of independent companies to a single global company.

2. Start with the Power of One and make processes fit the same standards.

Having standard processes enabled the firm to draw on our global resources and rapidly respond to opportunities.

3. Spend More Time with the Business Partners. We can coordinate and support the design and production processes that could involve many different country offices.

Marcello Cordioli, Group CIO of Permasteelisa: “Our biggest challenge is managing the geographical complexity of the company.”

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CIO of the Year Client-driven Category

New IT platform for city services

Bordeaux Digital City The city of Bordeaux is the 6th largest French city with 800,000 inhabitants.

With the legacy of its glorious past and the worldwide prestige of its wines, the city launched an ambitious IT development plan four years ago.

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Pascale Avargues, CIO of Bordeaux: “IT is a key asset for developing social links as well as integrating people.”

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THREE LEARNINGS OF PASCALE AVARGUES 1. Building a new collaborative platform for your citizens requires transversal management across the entire range of urban platforms. Quality circles need to be established.

2. Marketing plays a bigger role as the online demand for services grows exponentially. Innovation also has to be managed.

3. Security is far more important as the data becomes more open and accessible to citizens. 80% of requests for the vital records (of 70,000 applications annually) were done online in 2010.

escribing the ‘Bordeaux Digital City’ project that she managed as Bordeaux’s CIO, Pascale Avargues said: “It was not just about internal efficiency. This project aimed at playing a major social role in both public and non-public organisations. For a city as large as Bordeaux, IT is a key asset for developing social links as well as integrating people. IT also contributes to sustainable development and enables new urban behaviours. IT also raises the city’s attractiveness to tourists and companies.”

‘Bordeaux Digital City’ is an ambitious project due to its design and deployment of a full set of added-value digital services provided to residents and tourists and to enhance business and city services. It encompasses five key elements: online government services, e-education, e-participation (i.e. ensuring that information and services can be accessed via multiple devices), internet for all and sustainable computing and green IT. This new IT platform is one of the biggest achievements of Avargues, and contributed to her CIO of the year Award in the client-driven category.

Bordeaux.fr: the E-administration Portal “This portal is intended to provide residents with information and services. We therefore worked with 40 representative working groups combining civil servants, residents and elected representatives. This step established 80 categories of users (academics, family members, seniors, companies, etc.) and defined 200 main tasks”, said Pascale.

However, Bordeaux.fr is just one ‘component’ of the overall e-administration solution. The city now provides a unified, multichannel services platform that can be accessed by phone, email, internet or on site.

CIO of the Year Client-driven Category

Results have been striking. By the end of 2010, over 3.2 million visitors had used the portal either to obtain information or to access online services.

This represents a 20% increase over the previous year. The following online services have had great success with Bordeaux residents: • Monthly payment of school meals and early childhood care for 71% of families; • 80% of requests for medical records (out of 70,000 applications per year); • 95% of tenders are downloaded from the online procurement platform and many submit their proposals online as well.

Bordeaux mobile city “More than one billion smartphones have an internet connection, networks are more and more pervasive and street furniture turns out to be one of many communicating devices. This is a major opportunity for a city to ease the life of its inhabitants and visitors and to open up its services to mobility.” To draw on this growing pervasiveness, Pascale and her team implemented three main solutions: ‘Carte de Bordeaux’, ‘M-Services’ and Communicating City panels.

‘Carte de Bordeaux’ is a payment card valid for most city services, such as school meals, childhood care services, pools and ice rink, libraries, parking, public transport, etc. 30,000 inhabitants already use it and the number is growing rapidly.

As regards mobile services, Pascale’s team developed applications for smartphones, featuring the ‘Carte de Bordeaux’ for contact-free devices.

In the meantime, all city council members were issued with iPads.

Bordeaux visitors and inhabitants now view new city panels with 2D and RFID tags with multimedia information.

E-education “The city also takes care of its future residents and considers IT as crucial knowledge to be acquired

by youngsters.” Pascale Avargues’ team is collaborating closely with both the teachers and the Ministry of Education towards full integration of IT in school programmes. In addition, 400 interactive white boards are being installed in the city’s various schools.

E-participation IT should help reinforce a social link to avoid exclusions based on non-awareness or financial status. The IT team launched an ‘Espaces Numériques Bordelais’ label to increase visibility of Bordeaux’s initiatives and services.

In this ‘non-exclusion context’, the city also provides free training sessions, recycled computers and free internet access.

Finally, Bordeaux has deployed high bandwidth connectivity throughout the city for use by everyone.

TWO AWARDS IN ONE WEEK In 1997, Pascale Avargues became head of the Directorate of Organisation and Information (DOI). Fundamental to fulfilling her responsibilities has been ensuring that Bordeaux’s residents and local government employees have access to secure, effective and efficient IT services. By 2010, Avargues was working with a team of 80 employees, including 20 subcontractors, operating and maintaining about 180 applications and managing over 160 projects. During her tenure as CIO, the DOI moved from being a cost centre to a services centre, developing service level agreements and continuously improving government processes and services.

At the CIO CITY event in Brussels, Pascale Avargues was awarded ‘European CIO of the Year’ – ‘Client-driven’ category by Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission.

A week later, Pascale was awarded the ‘Public Manager of the Year’ distinction by François Baroin, France’s Minister for Budget and Administration modernisation.

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CIO view

The human side “A successful social media strategy will use technology to meet the demands of users”, says Trinity College Dublin’s John Lawlor.

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John Lawlor, head of management information systems at Trinity College Dublin: “Social media is about business, not technology.”

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s head of management information systems at Trinity College Dublin, John Lawlor has a broad remit from operation supervision to quality assurance. It is, however, his take on social media that is perhaps the most interesting area of his work.

“Don’t let the technology drive your decisions; understand the demand and make decisions based on actual requirements”, says Lawlor, who has helped establish the College’s social media strategy.

Lawlor is by no means the only CIO to be dealing with the increasing challenge of collaboration. He is, however, one of social media’s most advocate proponents, as evidenced by his enlightening presentation at the 2010 CIO Connect Annual Conference.

Unlike other CIOs who might fear the impact of all-knowing users, Lawlor says the College benefits from having an informed base of 25,000 students and staff: “They expect us to communicate with them in ways with which they’re familiar”, he says – and that includes a broad range of collaborative and social media.

That move towards collaboration must be seen within the broader context of consumerisation and the increased use of consumer technology in a business context. The change has been rapid – just five years ago, most workers would go to the office and expect to have access to impressive technology.

Now, the opposite is true. Workers expect to hook into the enterprise through their own internet-enabled devices that draw on a wide collection of collaborative tools. Such a rapid transformation creates considerable challenges for the IT leader.

Best practice guidelines Lawlor says there are also almost too many platforms and CIOs need to be as clear as they can about their social media objectives. At Trinity, his aim is to provide an appropriate platform, supporting a small number of key technologies.

Microsoft SharePoint is the base for collaboration, wikis are used to discuss ideas and podcasts are used for training and lectures. Blogs, meanwhile, are used to share ideas and opinion, and Twitter is used to push out help desk alerts.

Of course, social media use is not just confined to those areas. Lawlor recognises the College is home to many different Twitter and Facebook accounts, some individual and some organisational.

Branding across accounts is not consistent and Lawlor recognises the approach might look slightly haphazard. This lack of influence, however, has its upside: “We don’t brand personal material because we don’t endorse what is written on different personal accounts”, he says.

A similar approach is taken with regards to Facebook and YouTube; the College is investing in the supporting IT infrastructure but often takes a hands-off approach to branding and content.

Lawlor advises other CIOs to establish policies and best practice guidelines.

CIO view

It is a sentiment that will need to be considered fully during the next year or so as consumerisation continues to extend its grip over the enterprise.

Help for the CIO comes in the form of autumn’s 2011 CIO Connect Annual Conference, an event that will focus on the growing effect of consumerisation.

Entitled ‘Power to the People?’, the 2011 conference will show how the conjunction of new technologies, new business models and new social situations mean the business is set within yet another transformational stage of IT. The event will address such concerns through a fascinating agenda.

Key speakers include London Olympics CIO Gerry Pennell, Innocent Drinks co-founder Richard Reed and Matt Ridley, author and ex-chairman of Northern Rock. The event will demonstrate that CIOs must consider how the choices employees make at home will affect the way technology is used in the workplace.

“You have to consider what social media means in terms of intellectual property and ownership”, agrees Lawlor, referring to the need for IT leaders to create social media guidelines. “The fast-evolving nature of social media means your strategy doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective.”

Social media evolution Over the last year or so, Lawlor and his colleagues have established a digital communications strategy: “Previously, we’d been a bit too focused on technology, rather than communication.

Social media is about business, not technology.”

That recognition will continue to inform the College’s evolving approach to social media: “The strategy will change to focus more on end users but we’ve made a good start”, says Lawlor. Such evolution will rely on focus groups, learning and dissemination.

“Your social media strategy should be part of your

broader media and communications strategy; it should drive innovation in your business. Culture can be a barrier and it’s important to try and empower users to make their own decisions”, he says.

“Hoarding can be a problem when it comes to collaboration, with some individuals unwilling to share information. And the IT mindset too often prevails, with an internal concentration on firewalls and security. Don’t pre-design social media and don’t get in the way of your users.”

‘Put value for the individual above value for the organisation.’

Other technologies continue to be of interest, including virtual learning environments, content management and iTunesU, Apple’s method for sharing content from academic organisations.

Like other academic institutions, the College is interested in open approaches to technology.

The College, for example, has already introduced Google Docs for students. Lawlor says the big benefit is that Google is a well-understood platform and there is little demand for support services from students: “It’s saved us time and effort.”

And when it comes to the key factor for social media success, Lawlor’s advice to other CIOs is simple: “Put value for the individual above value for the organisation. That way, your people will be more likely to use social media and your organisation will benefit.”

This year’s CIO Connect Annual Conference will take place on 4 and 5 October at the Grange St Paul’s Hotel in central London. If you are interested in attending this year’s event, please contact us at the following email address and refer to this article: events@cio-connect.com.

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Event report

Social Media: the new scenario for IT Social Media, Web Analytics and Mobility Enterprise are adding pressure on organisations to invest in infrastructures and services in cloud computing.

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hief Information Officers should prepare themselves for the day when consumers, employees and suppliers will communicate and interact through mobile devices running on web applications. Not only will this extend the reach of an enterprise, but it will also offer a premium on the analytics process and the possibility of improving companies’ competitiveness. They will be able to exploit all new information and interaction that a web-centric environment provides, as never before.

CIOs will be responsible for this process. They will have to decide whether costs can be cut and productivity increased by introducing rich ‘horizontal’ applications. Examples include customer relationship management systems across industries and ‘vertical’ applications within industries, or electronic medical records on mobile phones in Healthcare or the claims process on smartphones in Insurance.

Cloud computing definitely pays a central role in this scenario. Last April, Nextvalue, CIOnet’s Italian research company partner, presented the results of its 2011 Cloud Computing Report, a survey conducted in cooperation with CIOnet on the adoption of cloud services in Europe’s top organisations. The 2011 Cloud Computing Report is available in Italian on CIOnet.com.

Organisations as laboratories The presentation took place in Milan with an audience of over 400. During his welcome, Hendrik Deckers, managing director and founder of CIOnet, provided an update on CIOnet and the future international targets. He introduced Marcello Cordioli, as European CIO of the Year. Cordioli, the Italian CIO of Permasteelisa Group, provided some interesting insights into the benefits of cloud

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computing achieved in his company.

Across the board, the stakes on new web centrality are high. Far-reaching changes in the business environment require radical shifts in strategy.

CEOs and their immediate senior teams need to grapple with these issues. Otherwise, it will be too difficult to generate the interdisciplinary, enterprise-wide insights needed to exploit these trends fully. Once opportunities start emerging, senior executives also need to turn their organisations into laboratories capable of rapidly testing and learning on a small scale, then quickly building on the successes. Against this background, CIOs and IT teams may return to their role of before the crisis, i.e. delivering innovation. That was the meaning of decisions taken by CIOnet’s Italian Advisory Board concerning the CIObootcamps Programme, which is to be dedicated to multisided IT services and web centrality, including Social Media Policies and Security.

The Advisory Board meeting took place on 7 April, in the afternoon. It was the opportunity to introduce five new board members (Fulvio Grignani, Dario Castello, Donatella Paschina, Ferdinando Peretto, Marco Tagliavini) to power the strong team headed by Enzo Bertolini, CIO of Ferrero Group.

Social Marketing The A.B. meeting was followed by the CIObootcamp on the Social Media theme, three full hours including dinner entirely dedicated to business cases and networking at 10WATT, a location of design and fashion in Milan.

“Is it a matter for the CIO to manage the combined effects of emerging web technologies, increased computing power, and fast, pervasive digital communications and collaboration which are spawn-

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ing new ways to manage customers, talent and assets, as well as new thinking about structure organisation?” The answer is ‘Yes’, according to Alfredo Vinella, former CIO of the Espresso Media Group, who gave an effective speech on Social Media from the perspective of CIOs. “It’s true, but Social Marketing is taking IT into unexplored territories”, responded Enzo Bertolini, while presenting the amazing case of Nutella on Facebook.

Last March Nutella collected more than 8.4 million fans on Facebook versus 3.9 million one year ago. Other products, like Rocher, which reached 8.8 million of ‘I like it’, as well as Kinder, over 8 million. These new tools are drawing a new map of traditional consumer segments.

At Ferrero, the marketing department owns the programme and advertising, but the IT department is responsible for feasibility and execution.

For Ferrero and other companies attending the CIObootcamp, the next step will be to find the technology for capturing and analysing widely available information. As someone remarked during the workshop, some companies are taking data use to new levels, using IT to support rigorous and constant business tests to guide decisions, test new products, business models, and the new customer experience. In some cases, the new approaches help companies to make decisions in real time. This trend has the potential to drive a radical transformation in research, innovation and marketing.

Test and learn approach An example of this is BTicino. Maurizio Brianza showed how co-creation works in the Italian branch of Legrand Group: “In the past few years, the ability to organise the community of web participants to develop, market and support products and services has moved from the margins of our business practice to the mainstream.” The MyOpen community of BTicino includes employees, installers and partners but it is open even to competitors that may share suggestions and developments and have past information and solutions. The platform, totally developed by IT in-house, is to be upgraded to add all Group best practice.

Using tests as an essential component of management decision-making requires new capabilities, as well as organisational and cultural changes. During the CIObootcamp, many CIOs acknowledged that their companies are still far from accessing all the available data. Some companies have not even mastered the technologies needed to capture and analyse the valuable information they can access. More commonly, they do not have the right talent and processes to design experiments. Ultimately, a conclusion was agreed: to convince managers to accept the value of experimentation, leaders must be the first to have a ‘test and learn’ approach and then serve as role models for their teams. CIOnet is crucial for sharing business cases and real experiences.

Alfredo Vinella, former CIO of the Espresso Media Group: “The CIO is facing new challenges today: managing the emerging web technologies, increased computing power and digital media.”

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Enzo Bertolini, CIO of Ferrero Group: “Social Marketing is taking IT into unexplored territories.”

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Maurizio Brianza, CIO at BTicino: “In the past few years, the ability to organise the community of web participants to develop, market and support products and services has moved from the margins of our business practice to the mainstream.”

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‘Real cooperation gives a lot of benefits’ Social media are part of a shifting culture. Large companies are finding things increasingly harder. More and more companies will be organised as projects.

The latest Dutch CIOnet meeting was about the use of social media in a changing world.

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Frans van der Reep, lecturer of eBusiness INHolland and strategist with KPN Getronics: “Problems arise where there are managers, rather than that managers solve problems.”

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Asking Frans van der Reep to be speaker was naturally asking for trouble. Van der Reep, lecturer of eBusiness INHolland and strategist with KPN Getronics, likes to take the broader view and context. Thus, it is not so much about ‘effective use of social media’, the theme of the CIOnet meeting, but rather about opportunities and threats in a changing world. Social media are just a small part of that. This prompted an animated debate, which, chaired by Frits Bussemaker, continued for some time after the keynote address.

To Van der Reep, Twitter is becoming a symbol of a hectic world. “The public’s memory is practically

zero.” The time that you have to be able to predict anything meaningful is becoming increasingly briefer, he believes. “Stop making business plans.

It’s far more about direction, strategy.”

A company is becoming a temporary project, like a film production, a temporary uniting of skills.

Social media and the internet in general are turning businesses inside out and backwards.

Companies hardly have any secrets now. Van der Reep says: “Misrepresent yourself and you will be punished in a flash. The chain is reversing, B2C is becoming C2B. That encroaches on the actual business models. Musicians now give away their music, in order to fill the venues.”

According to Van der Reep, it means that an entrepreneur has to question increasingly closely how his business figures look to customers: just nine out of ten for you? “In short, that which is considered well within the company appears to be at least as good outside of it. This has to be the core competence of enterprises. You need to let go of the other activities. Innovation can very well consist of no longer doing something, as of doing new things.”

A few sentences later, he predicted the end for big companies. “There is no evidence whatsoever that being bigger leads to greater earning power.

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Xaviera Ringeling

The average company size is plummeting. It is no longer about bosses, rather about people who know how things work, about professionalism.

That has an extraordinarily purgative effect.” He expects the company to change as a concept. A company is becoming a temporary project, like a film production, a temporary uniting of skills. Each individual colleague works within it as a small business. Van der Reep is not too fond of managers. In his view, they are largely redundant in modern collaborations. It is more so that problems arise where there are managers, than that managers solve problems.

Who is my pal?

Traditional management focuses pre-eminently on ‘control excellence’, then on ‘operational excellence’. According to Van der Reep, this is an effective approach for a dwindling proportion of businesses, because the world is becoming increasingly dynamic. A top-down approach fits in with this less and less. Real innovation always comes from the bottom up. Over the next few years, ‘communication excellence’ will increasingly determine companies’ success. The key question here is: “Who is my pal?” It is no longer a matter of ‘having to’ but of ‘meeting’.

To Van der Reep the bottom line is that the internet forces honesty. Otherwise, you will be punished via public pillories on consumer sites or via Twitter, the modern village pub. Honesty as a survival strategy, it will take some getting used to for some executives.

‘A PLACE WHERE BUSINESS AND PLEASURE MEET’ Although dead scared of being branded ‘the Twitter bird’, at CIOnet Netherlands’ latest meeting Xaviera Ringeling, specialist in social media, spoke again about her ‘Twitter research’. Although hardly representative, that research does provide some interesting impressions about Twitter’s usage.

Most Twitter users start out of curiosity: how does it work, could there be something in it for my business? If the answer is yes, the tough questions follow. How can you deploy Twitter successfully, how do you become a much followed twitterer?

Ringeling thinks there are no general answers to this. What often scores well are amusing messages, current news and messages with links.

These are the most retweeted. Otherwise, there are no hard and fast rules: tweeting too much is not good, too little as well, too many links is not good, too few too. There are ‘professional’ tweeters, who mostly tweet to enhance their brand and to expand and maintain their network.

That is not without its hazards. A wrong tweet can cost you your job.

Many stick to the rule of not talking about friends or colleagues in tweets. Given the informal nature of the medium, a mix of personal and business communications can rapidly arise. That does not always turn out well. Some respondents, who really cannot do without twittering, therefore have both a business and a personal account. According to most CIOs attending, businesses must impose the same code of conduct for social media as for email. They see a role for CIOs to encourage their implementation. One attendee said: “I encourage social media to allow employees to exchange knowledge and experiences voluntarily.”

A few more findings from the research: • 90% have a public account.

• 80% twitter from a mobile phone, the most popular app is Tweetdeck.

• 57% use Twitter lists to follow people and topics more easily.

• 76.6% of respondents have actually met other tweeps in person.

• There is much tweeting from bed (45%) and the toilet (39%).

• Most important rule: do not tweet about private matters (24%).

• Main business reason to tweet: enhancing the brand (60%).

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More content but less control At all levels, social networks have become as much a matter for individuals as for companies. They modify the behaviour of their members. They generate more spontaneous communication with more content but less control.

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Jean-François Vermont, founder of PFLS. PICTURE

Frédéric Charles, Strategy and Governance Director at Lyonnaise des Eaux.

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Armelle Douay, Collaborative Platforms Manager at GDF SUEZ.

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he true foundation of all collaborative exchanges within the company, through their informal working groups, social networks have now become the cornerstone for increased agility, creativity and improved collaboration. They also question traditional working and communications structures.

For Jean-François Vermont, founder of consultancy company PFLS, there are mistakes that a company cannot afford: “Lack of control over employees, image, communication and the fear that goes with it, are nothing compared to the negative impact of those fast-aging companies that disregard social networks.”

The Lyonnaise des Eaux has implemented a social network based on a collaborative structure.

“Once IT had boosted all cross functions within Lyonnaise, any increase in productivity could only be achieved by interaction with employees, customers and partners”, said Strategy and Governance Director Frédéric Charles. “But deployment can only be successful if certain golden rules are observed: open and easy communication, no neutral statement, no hysterical behaviour, etc.”

Dedicated tools “GDF Suez also deployed a global collaborative project, based on a double interactive ‘process’: on the one hand, collaborative, structured content, structured space to share documents, and on the other hand, a social network, i.e. a nonstructured ‘free file’ space, supporting numerous keywords to share opinions and knowledge”, stated Collaborative Platforms Manager Armelle Douay.

Following on from successful project deployment, new trends are now setting the way: email, even though universal is to be replaced by dedicated tools, offering more efficiency and better integration: ERP-integrated instant messaging, collective knowledge capitalisation, document management, social network-based platforms of collective intelligence, ‘empty’ emails linked to recorded information.

ERPs are to find their collaborative dimension beyond the process. With these tools, companies will use both professional and non-professional social networks to talk and interact with their customers.

Special feature

10 key lessons for Community Building For the last 20 years I have brought together groups of people with a common goal to deliver value. In all cases, there was no hierarchical relationship among the parties involved but, rather a more symbiotic relationship where all parties benefit from the cooperation. Today you would call this a community.

Below are my 10 lessons learned for successfully setting up and managing a ‘community’.

1. “Just do it!” Do not get caught up in the beginning on setting up formal organisations or a supporting IT infrastructure. Better is to allow the formal structure to emerge as the needs of the community evolve. So, in the beginning, just start, pick some dates to get together and keep things small and simple, and only develop what you need.

2. Create a unique identity and mission statement. Having a name and logo will help make the community visible, not only for its members but, for the outside world. Over time this identity will get value and can grow to represent authority.

3. Focus on what you have in common rather than on the differences. You are part of the same team. So, outside the community you might be working for different departments or organisations, but within the community that becomes irrelevant.

4. Being a member of the same community does not imply everybody has the same role.

Preferably, members should be complementary to allow good teamwork to take place.

5. Keep looking outside. Don’t isolate the community. Instead, cooperate with other communities. This allows you to reach a larger audience and jointly deliver even more value.

6. Plan ahead for growth but take your time for the roll-out. By pacing yourself you can demonstrate continuous small wins and assess what the real needs are.

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Frits Bussemaker, who recently joined CIOnet Netherlands, is the author of this article. Frits is a regular international speaker.

7. Clearly state your governance principles. How are you going to manage the community?

Take notice of the important unwritten rules that will present themselves over time.

8. Time is the currency of a community, not money. Setting up a community or becoming a member only has value if you actually spend time in the community even when the community is free.

9. Show tenacity. In the beginning the people you would like to join most of all will not become members of your community right away. The big fish will first wait and see if you will survive.

So, be patient, keep your focus, and eventually even the big fish will also come on board.

10. Continually assess the value or reason that your community exists. Change happens! So, adapt accordingly, but if your community becomes obsolete, do yourself and everybody around you a big favour and stop.

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Technological Innovation as a key to survival Academic Director Silvia Leal explains why the leading role of technological innovation could, or maybe should affect the CIO’s role in an organisation.

I

t is not a new debating topic arising from our current difficult economic situation. Nor is it a sales pitch created by those on the supplier side of the technology sector. Of course, it is also not some new speech from CIOs designed to win more budget for ‘their’ projects. As socio-economic historical evidence shows, technological innovation is a determining factor in a firm’s development, a key to survival, and of course, a significant driver in the growth process and subsequently maintaining competitive advantage.

Although I would like to, I cannot claim exclusive, original ownership of this widely accepted proposition. Some may think that I was inspired by Tom Peters (1985), whom Fortune magazine called the Ur-guru (guru of gurus) after he published such books as Passion for Excellence, where he said that the golden rules for business success can be reduced to two: marketing and innovation. But no, since as many have been able to advance, this has its roots in the reflections given us a few decades ago by Schumpeter (1939), an Austrian economist pioneer in highlighting the importance of technological phenomena on economic growth. In turn, he found inspiration and coincided largely with previous contributions of Adam Smith (1776) and David Ricardo (1817).

Information and Communication This way, we situate the rationale and source of inspiration for the present document in the fact that, beyond the wording and formulation of the problem and solutions, the essence has remained unaltered since the debate originated. That is to say that even though many responses over time have been provided to address the recurring discussion about the elements that determine an or-

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ganisation’s success, technological innovation has always been at the heart of the answers. Of course, we find, nonetheless, important ‘nuances’ about the nature of the sources of innovation.

However, in our current scenario, there is clear consensus regarding the main innovation engine: Information and Communication Technologies.

New technologies are becoming a key issue for companies.

That is why the new technologies have undoubtedly become the leading and more powerful agents of creativity and innovation in organisations, thus becoming a key issue for companies.

In other words, technological innovation is a determining factor in a firm’s development, a key to survival, and of course, a significant driver in the growth process and subsequently maintaining competitive edge.

New dynamism Research and numerous success (and failure) cases have shown that, when properly managed and with adequate resources, these new technologies can successfully play a creative role in the organisation, enhancing the search for and generation of ideas. This in turn would lead to more efficient leveraging in the creative potentials available to each of the employees and thus to a company’s overall creative ability. As a result, it paves the way to generating new products, services and business models, affecting competitive strategy and organisation tools, their organisational and operational processes, and among others, enabling organisations to access more active and even proactive changes occurring in the market.

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All these result from the typical new dynamism that is largely based on these new technologies.

In this scenario, should the Chief Information Officer be a member of a company’s Board of Directors? What is the right profile to be successful in this difficult position? Are the professionals prepared for this critical role? What is the depth required for a CIO’s technical knowledge? What are the key managerial skills for this manager?

These are some of the questions that we frequently come across in literature, research and, of course, IT discussion forums. After such prolonged debate almost everything should have already been said, yet even so these questions remain on the table because the consensus is not achieved, and because the CIO is, without doubt, key in a firm’s strategy deployment. In spite of this, he still has a long way to go to achieve the position that his role clearly deserves.

The CIO’s role My opinion is very clear and simple, but I keep it to myself. Instead, I will pose some questions.

The CIO is responsible for managing technology, companies’ principal, and in many cases only, innovation engine. In this scenario, should his opinion not carry the same weight and value as that of his colleagues? Should he not be able to position and explain IT plans and projects directly to the other corporate directors? On the other hand, if he is the one responsible for defining and implementing new technological projects, projects that should be designed to generate new competitive advantages and help the company achieve strategic business goals, should he not know at first hand what is happening and being defined in these strategic steering meetings?

I do not want to finish the article without including some of the reasons why I believe this is happening and why there is no radical change even though the theory is clear. As before, I do this with questions that will fuel the debate. Does the CIO understand the importance of his role in the new scenario? Is he prepared to assume it? What about the rest of the management team, are they ready to support this function and recognise its importance?

I will not answer every question because I understand that, beyond my personal opinion about what really matters, each of us needs to reflect on them and the response we would give to each one. I hope the debate will place the CIO in the right place, and personally, I will continue putting in my two cents’ worth.

Author of this article is Silvia Leal, Academic Director of the Executive Master in Management of Management Information Systems of the Instituto de Empresa Business School. The Instituto de Empresa Business School is a high-level business school in Spain, and CIOnet has an important deal with it, as with several other business schools. Such close cooperation aims at designing new master classes for CIOs and other activities that provide value to the Spanish IT sector.

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Deloitte Technology Innovation Event 2011

Are you ready for change?

Technology and innovation drive change. They provide interesting business opportunities, but may as well lead up to legal and organisational challenges.

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s witnessed by an impressive attendance last April in Brussels, the second edition of Deloitte’s ‘Technology Innovation Event’ hosted several guest speakers explaining their vision on the role of technology: a driver for innovation, an enabler for business. Koen Vandaele, Managing Partner Consulting at Deloitte Belgium, introduced the event. “There is a natural convergence between business and IT”, he said. “But the most clear trend of all, is that everybody and everything

CEOs should dedicate at least ten percent of their time thinking about the future of their companies. has gone online.” It is a trend that offers new opportunities in the fields of social computing, applied mobility and cloud services. The world is changing, indeed. And technology proves to be – more than ever before – the driving force behind the change. This was – and is – clearly the case in the use of mobile telephony and social networking sites during the revolutions in North Africa. But as the world around us is evolving at high speed, do we – as individuals and as companies – fully embrace this change?

“A long time ago, IBM estimated there was a worldwide market for five computers”, said Neil Jacobsohn, Joint CEO at South African think tank FutureWorld. “We now know the estimation was wrong. There is only one computer: the internet.”

According to Jacobsohn, we are now in a situation that is compared best to the Cambrian explo-

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sion. It wiped 95 percent of all life off of the face of the earth, at the same time creating opportunities for new life forms. “A lot of businesses have disappeared as well,” said Jacobsohn, “making room for new initiatives.” CEOs should dedicate at least ten percent of their time thinking about the future of their companies. For Jacobsohn, ubiquitous connectivity currently offers the biggest opportunity for growth. “About three quarters of the world’s population has access to mobile telephony. Knowledge is available in the cloud. Whoever needs this knowledge, has direct access to it.

This has initiated a power shift: away from governments and businesses, towards any connected person.”

New technology, new risks Google’s success is a prime example of the high speed with which the evolution takes place. According to Peter Fleischer, Google’s Global Privacy Counsel, the evolution is not only a matter of technology and innovation, but also of legislation.

“Data is an organisation’s most valuable asset”, he said. “The use of new technology may cause new risks, for example in the field of compliance.”

That’s what Google experienced when a Swiss court ruled that Google Street View is illegal. Peter Fleischer: “It is a court ruling we probably will be reminded of several times in the near future. It clearly shows how legislation actually can slow down the adoption of new technology.”

Google Earth also faced legal issues. Some countries do not allow the use of high resolution satellite images. Google anticipated using images that are taken from blimps and airplanes, as the rules

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for satellites are not applicable for these aircraft.

“The potential success of web services is enormous,” Fleischer continued, “but it is clear that there is an urgent need for a legal framework.” To his dismay, Fleischer was arrested and sentenced to six months in prison by an Italian court, because a user of Google owned YouTube had posted a video with illegal content. “The Italian court held me personally responsible. Despite the European framework that is in place today, the incident in Italy shows that technology and innovation related legislation needs more attention.”

Hyper-social New technology is more than just a driver for new business. It also alters the way we organise our social life. That is the main idea of ‘The HyperSocial Organisation’. In their book, François Gossieaux from social media consultants firm Human 1.0 and Deloitte’s Ed Moran explain how businesses can benefit from the use of social media. “A lot of what happens in the world of Web 2.0 is nothing more than typically human behaviour.” Whenever we help out someone, we do so because we know the other person will return the favour. It is a human characteristic that is the very starting point of social media. “Trust also plays an important part. That’s why people decide not to buy a book after they’ve read a negative review online.” Gossieaux and Moran see a trend that

they call the tribalisation of business. The hypersocial organisation has a lot in common with a traditional tribe. It’s not about market segments or people sharing certain characteristics. Like a tribe, the hyper-social organisation consists of all sorts of people, from different age groups, social, professional or political backgrounds, sharing a specific interest in a specific topic.

The tribe that was formed around Drupal is a clear example of how this social mechanism works.

More than 3,000 website builders using the open source platform gathered for the Drupal conference in Chicago, earlier this year. Drupal is an international success, as the platform was used for the websites of the White House, Turner Broadcasting, the New York Stock Exchange, Sony and more. “There are more than a million registered Drupal users today”, said Dries Buytaert, founder of the Drupal community. “They can all freely use the software, look into the source code, change it and release it back into the community of Drupal users. The open source approach can only work in the context of a tribe.” At the same time, on-going innovation is a necessity. The evolution of the open source platform is a primary condition for Drupal. Dries Buytaert: “That way, the product can evolve into a true utility one day. For a traditional closed-loop product, that would just be impossible.”

Koen Vandaele, Managing Partner Consulting at Deloitte Belgium: “There is a natural convergence between business and IT.” PICTURE >

Peter Fleischer, Google’s Global Privacy Counsel: “The potential success of web services is enormous, but we need a better legal framework.”

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CIO view

The Correos CIO reflects on Innovation

‘Essential for improving competitiveness’ Juan Jesus Torres Carbonell, the CIO of postal services company Correos, explains how innovation will help to maintain the leading position of his company in the liberalised Spanish market.

What are Correos’ main goals in terms of improving its market position this year?

Juan Jesus Torres Carbonell: “Our main objective is to improve the cohesion of Correos as a group that works as a global communications solutions operator, completing our range of physical services with new electronic and innovative services and becoming a point of reference in the parcel and direct marketing market.”

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Juan Jesus Torres Carbonell, CIO of Correos: “ A change of vision towards the customer and technology investments aligned with their needs is required.”

How many people benefit each year from the many services offered by Correos?

“Correos reaches 19 million households and two million businesses. We are the leading company in terms of ‘capillarity’ and geographical coverage, with 10,000 access points to our services, about 2,400 post offices and 7,500 rural services.

The extended opening hours of many of our offic-

es should also be highlighted, as should the availability of our virtual office, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, offering both traditional and new and innovative services.

Moreover, we belong to different international postal networks that increase our range of services and ensure global coverage. They include Kahala Posts Group and E-Parcel Group.”

How does Correos adapt and which tools does it use to adjust to an increasingly changing, dynamic and competitive market?

“In recent years, Correos has been modernised and has diversified its revenue to other areas close to the postal industry. We have defined new strategies that incorporate the development of new technologies and increased internet penetration in a more competitive environment, the replacement of traditional mail by electronic communications and the liberalisation of the postal market.

Thanks to the new systems that we have today, we have major management and processing capacities, a high level of process automation and standardisation, real integration between the areas of activity, one single vision in terms of customers, suppliers and employees and a high level of adaptability to new demands. We are in a prime position to face the future.”

How does Correos innovate in all the services it currently offers to society?

“In recent years, we have invested heavily in innovation with the aim of improving the service we provide to our customers. We have significantly

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CIO view

improved quality, the speed of delivery and traceability through the application of radio-controlled RFID technology (as pioneers in its implementation) and the widespread use of PDAs by postmen. We have also made great strides in services via the internet, where we have incorporated a variety of well-received services for individuals, companies and partners, some of which are traditional, such as the ‘burofax’ (registered fax) or telegram, and other innovative solutions such as digital letters, available at any time and from any location.

And these are just some examples. At Correos, we continue investing resources in order to drive innovation in all areas, which include the designing of innovative and competitive products often based on new technologies that add value to the customer, innovation in production processes to improve efficiency and quality and innovation in processes relating to the internal relations of the organisation’s employees.”

And what about future innovations?

“We are currently putting together the final steps for the complete renewal of the company’s most important applications: the logistical management of international shipments and management of Correos’ human capital.

We are developing an improved and simplified model of integration with customers as well as with Correos group companies Nexea and Chronoexprés.

In 2011, we have acquired and will deploy 9,000 new PDAs for postmen, in addition to the 11,000 that are currently operational. These devices improve productivity, efficiency and quality and have elements that allow for the future expansion of services by the organisation.

We are also developing new electronic services via the internet and improving existing ones. And with the new intranet we will change the way em-

ployees work by promoting collaborative work, improving performance and productivity and achieving more effective communication.”

Do you think that innovation is the key to succeeding in an increasingly globalised world?

“The current post and parcel market situation is characterised by its breadth and in the Spanish case, it was also highly liberalised until 2010 and has been fully liberalised since January 2011.

At Correos, the role of innovation is increasingly important because it is essential for improving competitiveness.

The company is driving innovation in all areas, which includes the designing of innovative and competitive products often based on new technologies that add value to the customer, innovation in production processes to improve efficiency and quality and innovation in processes relating to the internal relations of the organisation’s employees.”

What major developments does Correos plan to carry out in terms of its customer services for the remainder of the year?

“The market and customers are increasingly demanding and require services with greater added value, which in turn requires a change of vision towards the customer and technology investments aligned with their needs.

We are directing our business policy towards a specific strategy for each of the markets and customer segments in which we operate, both nationally and internationally, developing different comprehensive solutions for different segments, simplifying the product portfolio, improving the model for electronic relations and integration and providing e-services that complete Correos’ range of products and services for both the institutional and private environments.”

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The new mobility We can expect a huge boom in the use of mobile telephony and mobile data in the next few years. These days it is causing businesses extra worries, particularly in the area of security. At the same time mobility opens up new opportunities. < PICTURE

Ulrik Van Schepdael, founder of Mobco: “It is essential to define different user profiles and to decide who is to be given what mobile access to what applications and data.”

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Kalman Tiboldi, CIO with TVH: “As a company you cannot offer employees any type of car, rather a selection, with options according to their profile.

The mobile story follows the same line.”

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Marc Wijnants, CIO with Bank J. Van Breda & Co: “The Dell tablet application proves that mobile working can be cost effective, even for complex administrative business processes.”

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F

rom 2013, we will surf more on the smartphone than on the PC. Quite soon, up to ninety percent of the world’s population will have mobile access. All this causes an upheaval in the ways we handle our mobile phone. “Take the iPhone”, says Ulrik Van Schepdael, founder of Mobco, a young business providing services in mobile fleet management. “We use the device for gaming, surfing, emailing, taking photos and so on. Now and again we even use it to make phone calls.” The fact that devices like the iPhone and iPad are popping up increasingly in the professional environment poses some great challenges for CIOs. “Employees themselves are more frequently choosing the device to use for their job.

It is then down to the CIO to manage this new multi-OS environment efficiently.” It is therefore important for the CIO to develop a well-balanced mobile policy. Ulrik Van Schepdael says: “It is essential to define different user profiles and to

decide who is to be given what mobile access to what applications and data.” Naturally, security is paramount here. The trick is to strike a happy medium. It is an illusion to try to seal off the corporate network hermetically. Nor should a business simply throw open its network.

Mobility offers differentiation Mobility increases the speed at which employees take decisions and allow information to flow through. In a strongly competitive sector, mobile applications represent a significant differentiator.

“That is indeed what we are working on”, says Kalman Tiboldi, CIO with TVH, supplier of parts for handling equipment among other things. “The demand for more mobility obliged us to make a few choices. Based on tests with various smartphones and tablets, we opted to support Android, BlackBerry and iOS.” Initially TVH brought in the iPad as a presentation tool for sales and

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marketing. Since then however, the tablet also runs an application for facilities management, which for instance enables TVH to operate its buildings’ lighting. Kalman Tiboldi says: “For business intelligence we use ClickView. We are pushing that application towards the different mobile platforms. Meanwhile, we have been looking at how to do the same for the CRM tool of Salesforce.” Security is an important point of attention

‘Blocking everything is pointless, because people will simply look for ways to bypass the policies.’ for TVH too. The company is adjusting its policies as mobiles evolve. “Blocking everything is pointless, because people will simply look for ways to bypass the policies.” TVH is opting to respond in full to the demand for more mobility. Of course, the company is unable to support everything.

Kalman Tiboldi compares the need for a mobile policy with that of the company car policy. “As a company you cannot offer employees any type of car, rather a selection, with options according to their profile. The mobile story follows the same line.”

Extra service for customers A project at Bank J. Van Breda & Co also reveals that mobility can result in significantly improved service to customers. “Over half our customer contacts take place on location”, says CIO Marc Wijnants. “It is therefore important that we have electronic documents available with the customer on the spot and that they can sign those documents electronically.” Bank J. Van Breda & Co developed an application for a Dell tablet. Employees can for instance use it on the spot to open an account when with a new customer. The customer signs the documents with an electronic pen and is sent a copy by email. The data go into the bank’s systems immediately via 3G, where they are archived in the right place. Marc Wijnants says: “Data entry on the tablet remains very limit-

ed. Much information is already on the customer’s electronic identity card. Then the employee mainly needs to tick check boxes and make choices in drop-down lists.” Given the confidential nature of the information, it is extremely important not to store any data on the tablet. “The application proves that mobile working can be cost effective, even for complex administrative business processes. However, the condition for success is to go for an end-to-end approach, from the front end right through to the back end.”

In the driver’s seat GSK Biologicals, producer of human vaccines, also traced out a mobile strategy. “We already had experience with at least one thousand mobile devices in the warehouse”, explains CIO Daniel Lebeau. Furthermore, GSK Biologicals already had an infrastructure of more than a thousand WiFi antennas on the headquarters’ site at Waver well before the big demand for the use of smartphones took off. That use certainly exists now.

Annually, GSK Biologicals takes on around a thousand young graduates. Initially, they want to be able to use their own smartphones. “As CIO you have only two options”, says Daniel Lebeau.

“Either you say no to an evolution that you are unable to stop, or you say yes, and immediately this also puts you in the driver’s seat.” GSK Biologicals drew up a short list of devices with which employees can access the corporate network.

These are the iPhone and a few Android devices.

This is creating an unprecedented phenomenon.

The user pays for the costs of the device and the communication himself or herself. The list of options for the devices is quite limited. GSK Biologicals provides no helpdesk, only outline support via a website. Even so, the employees are very pleased with it. For Daniel Lebeau, the use of the smartphone is the place where the consumerisation of IT comes together with the cloud. “It is all about user-friendliness”, he claims. “It is a trend that is pushing the IT department into a new arena, that of usability.”

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CIO view

Business Analytics

The new role of the CIO Times are changing, nobody denies that. However, today it is not about that undeniable change, but about how much times are changing. There again, times are changing... all the time. Welcome to the world of the modern CIO.

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es, I know. You could argue that all of the ‘C-something-Os’ of any modern company face the same environment and problems from the CEO downwards. Nevertheless, Information Technology has become so important in all organisations that many decisions that the company’s management take daily are based on information that comes either from IT or from systems controlled by IT. This has elevated the status of the CIO figure in modern companies. His work focuses not only on developing and maintaining the organisation’s IT infrastructure, but also on formulating strategic goals for the company. In other words, until now the work of the average CIO could be defined as tactical. However, tactical is no longer the word, nowadays it is strategic. Additionally, the modern CIO has to align his organisation’s strategic goals with the existing IT infrastructure and its gradual growth. His job description is therefore not what it used to be.

Shifting roles As I stated before, Information Technology is of the utmost importance in today’s companies. Thus, the CIO is slowly drifting towards a position from which he or she establishes strategic goals for the organisation, far removed from his former, more technically-oriented job. It is not merely a matter of implementing technology for the company, limited by a more or less strict budget, but of implementing a given technology, in order to enable the company’s flexibility, improve its management and reach the goals set by upper management.

This brings us to a scenario in which CIO and CTO can easily tread on each other’s toes, depending on the company’s size and hierarchy. In general, the CIO manages the implementation of his company’s technology to improve access to

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existing information and systems (however heterogeneous or disparate they may be). On the other hand, CTOs usually focus on developing technologies and expanding a company’s technological capabilities. Wikipedia actually gives a good insight into this dilemma: “When both positions are present in an organisation, the CIO is generally responsible for processes and practices supporting the flow of information, whereas the CTO is generally responsible for technology infrastructure.”

So there we are. The CIO’s work is dealing with “processes and practices supporting the flow of information”. Yet that sounds very much like a business or management function to me. Surely, the CIO is that little-bit-nerdy-techno-guy in the company. How can you expect him to understand strategy and business goals? His work and life revolve around computers. Or perhaps not.

Well, up to a point they do. Although the CIO is still the one in charge of tech and info, slowly but surely his job is shifting towards a more executive role.

Actually, a more business-oriented role. This shift is happening in companies all around the world.

Almost half the CIOs worldwide report to their respective companies’ CEOs. The rest report to COOs, CFOs, and so on. However, the importance of the CIO’s job is growing steadily and it is now quite usual to see them sitting alongside the other board members giving advice and actively influencing their company’s course and future. However, on what grounds does the CIO give his advice?

Business Analytics, just the right answers The time is over when a CIO had to gather data from the company’s Data Warehouse to analyse it and make predictions for the future of the business. Today the information used by the CIO has to be in real time, flowing directly from the company’s system. On top of this, the actual economic

CIO view

pressures, growing business expectations and rapid technological innovation are forcing IT management to prioritise objectives, budgets and resources carefully. This can only be done correctly if innovation is aligned with business objectives.

To achieve this however, a CIO has to be capable of measuring the company’s performance and the IT changes performed to it. To make key decisions, he or she must be able to monitor, measure and predict strategic and operational needs.

There you go: the CIO has to use analytics, the usual domain of the CTO. Therefore, it is possible that the typical modern CIO’s responsibilities will sometimes collide with those of the CTO or CFO. This scenario brings us to two steps that all corporations should take to ensure their future flexibility and capacity for making the right decisions, right on time: First, it is necessary to define the CIO’s position very carefully, granting regular access to the board, so that all appropriate executives take decisions.

Second, if not present or not fully used, Business Analytics software should be implemented as soon as possible. As you probably already know, Business Analytics (BA) focuses on developing new insights and understanding of business performance based on data and statistical methods.

It should not be confused with Business Intelligence (BI), which focuses on using sets of metrics to measure the company’s performance, in order to generate constant improvement in the Business Processes being used. Business Analytics is able to show why this is happening, what will happen if these trends continue, what will happen next, and finally the best scenario that could happen (therefore, predicting how a certain action will impact the company).

Integrating BA software into any pre-existing ERP is not that difficult, especially because the benefits gained by using it considerably outweigh the effort involved. The equation is as follows: CIO + BA = increased insight, performance + faster and better decision-making.

Yes of course, you are right: adding a new system to the IT structure gives us all an additional headache. Honestly though, not using BA today is equivalent to the company’s slow and painful death induced by stagnation. You might argue that I am exaggerating. Indeed, I am, yet that does not

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make the underlying truth less real. BA is a must and the CIO must be thoroughly involved in it.

Recap As I see it, information is one of the most valuable assets in today’s corporate world. The ‘I’ in ‘CIO’ just happens to stand for ‘information’. This makes the CIO the one responsible for the one thing that can give the company an edge over competing corporations. Therefore, integrating the CIO figure into a company’s board is a vital requisite, so that he or she can help the rest of the board members set appropriate strategic goals, based on proper, timely and accurate information, obtained almost in real time from the ‘beating heart’ of the enterprise.

The CIO’s deeper engagement in aligning business needs with IT strategy and evolution (the latter coordinated appropriately with CTO, if present, and CFO) can eliminate role duplicities in the company, as well as conflicts between COs. Both strike me as great benefits for any organisation. What do we thank for all these newly gained advantages? Yes, quite right, Business Analytics.

If you are a CIO, therefore, prepare to brush up your management and business skills, because you will soon need them as part of your everyday work. Computers are not really everything. Well, actually they are, but do not tell everyone. You are a businessman now and, honestly, they do not like to hear that machines rule their world. They do, naturally.

Alejandro Daniel O’Davoren, Deputy General Manager at Seidor, is the author of this article.

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Event report

Beyond Business Intelligence

Many new opportunities for business Using content and information originating from websites, blogs and social networks was the topic debated at a recent CIOnet Italy event.

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t is an issue of great interest to Italian organisations. With its ‘Beyond BI’ event, CIOnet Italy highlighted the evolution of BI and organisations’ new approach to using content and information originating from the web and social media.

Sanofi-aventis hosted the event at its Milan offices. This global giant in pharmaceuticals has also grown over the years through a succession of successful M&A. In his opening speech, Adriano Riboni, CIO of Sanofi-aventis Italy, said that a faithful travelling companion on this long journey and reference point for the strategies for integrating and consolidating internal IT had undoubtedly

‘In every great journey you need to take the first step.’ been SAP. SAP also has a central presence in the BI system, with the complete suite of application modules, including Business Warehouse (BW).

Since the outset, the BI strategy of Sanofi-aventis has been focused on creating a single system for gathering useful, structured and updated information for the business. The BW-based solution (enables native data extraction from SAP ERP) is now able to add agility to organisational changes and make available information, possibly aggregated with different levels of detail, to internal users and top management (15 business units are linked to this unique system).

The new power of the consumer Luigi Pignatelli, IT manager at Saralee Body Care Italy, a company recently acquired by Unilever Group, the consumer goods giant, presented a different approach to the event’s theme. “For reaching target ‘consumers’, Sara Lee has

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always adopted the approach of using PR agencies, marketing and advertising campaigns”, said Pignatelli. Today this approach is no longer satisfactory. The new scenario shows an upside-down situation in which the consumer is the target to be reached and the origin of content, auto-generated on websites, social networks, blogs and discussion forums. These social media are becoming more and more the places where customers share their views and experiences on products and services. It is quite clear that the more companies are able to capture and handle such auto-generated content, the more competitive advantage they will have.

Where are the companies today?

Many companies prefer something that Pignatelli called the ‘comfort zone’, a sort of safe area in which “Here are my data, I have control of them, I know what to do and how to do it.” However, the web and social media have introduced a new area of auto-generated content that is out of organisations’ control and disruptive to them.

According to Pignatelli: “This is the concrete area of innovation for companies. It allows competitive advantage and growth to be attained.” Some companies are taking their first steps into the new land. On behalf of Saralee, Pignatelli had a pilot test conducted with the University of Milan-Bicocca to monitor consumer perception of certain products. The results were of great interest to the R&D department. The scenario is evolving rapidly and creating a pressing need for new tools to analyse content on the web.

“Social media is a gamble. Today no one knows how to manage the new issue. Social media are evolving rapidly and bringing issues with them.

Yet, as Pignatelli said: “In every great journey you need to take the first step.”

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The new scenario for BI Paolo Pasini, head of SDA Bocconi School of Management’s BI Centre, presented new solutions and approaches surrounding BI. Pasini classified the issue of web BI, to which Pignatelli referred, as the new trend that has recently helped move the world of BI towards new horizons and new application areas. As a new trend in the analytics area, Pasini referred to ‘near real-time’ BI (with applications supporting business processes to “acquire real-time information from these processes”) and to new methods of BI design and BI management.

Beyond Business Intelligence There are many problems and needs imposed by social media as the new sources of information to be captured, intercepted, analysed and used as decision support. A first step is to map the ‘right’ sources: not all companies are the same as the markets in which they work. Facebook is not always the best or unique source to monitor. This regardless of whether it could be hazardous in terms of results and resources. Even more pressing is controlling and managing all the issues and variables playing on the ground. This means a new opportunity for organisations, yet at the same time new complexity and new issues to manage. One issue is the governance of BI while the BI is moving from being ‘reporting-oriented’

towards becoming BI analytics, decision and user-centric-oriented.

Now what is the state of the art of the new BI? “There is a well-structured portfolio of BI applications,” said Pasini, “with some limits and some areas of improvement.” The feeling is that BI is changing its skin. Last in order of time is the emerging area of analysing human talent and intellectual resources inside organisations.

The web and social media have introduced a new area of auto-generated content that is out of organisations’ control.

Adriano Riboni, CIO of Sanofi-aventis Italy: “Our BI strategy has been focused on creating a single system for gathering useful, structured and updated information for the business.”

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Luigi Pignatelli, IT manager at Saralee Body Care Italy: “The web and social media are the concrete areas of innovation for companies. It allows competitive advantage and growth to be attained.”

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More attention and more analysis of information available on web and social media already provide companies with extraordinary opportunities. However, the real issue for companies could be looking for the new skills and experience to address these opportunities, something that companies need to face soon.

A special guest at CIOnet’s Italian event was Alberto Broggi, CEO of Visiant Lab, one of the leading laboratories worldwide in the field of driverless vehicles. He presented the results of an exciting challenge in the field of intelligent mobility and robotics that Broggi’s group took in 2010: four vehicles driving autonomously from Italy to China with no human intervention.

Paolo Pasini, head of SDA Bocconi School of Management’s BI Centre: “Web BI is the new trend that has recently helped move the world of BI towards new horizons and new application areas.”

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Special feature

What is a successful learning experience?

CIO Connect advisory practice director Alistair Russell discusses how IT leaders can develop the type of insight that changes organisational behaviour.

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Alistair Russell, advisory practice director of CIO Connect: “Successful learning is about being open to change.”

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o start, let us be clear on an important personal definition: I now recognise, albeit post hoc, that my life’s work is about helping C-level executives and their teams to learn.

This is learning in its broadest sense, from being adaptive and sensing what is required, to continually developing the capability of an organisation, the team and the CIO. As someone that cannot help but take what might be called a systematic and instrumental perspective on such work, I continue to consider why learning and development intervention works well in some cases and less well in others.

Why do we sometimes achieve the truly joyful experience of the transformational breakthrough with individuals, teams and organisations? It is a tough question to answer. But this article presents my conclusions so far, as a means to a current state assessment.

Most importantly, the piece offers some pragmatic advice on how the realisation of a successful learning experience has changed, and is changing, our own practice in the IT leadership network of CIO Connect.

The development of this practice remains a work in progress. However, it is important to set a path through such thoughts in order to help CIOs. The article first addresses the specific challenges of learning and development for the most senior of IT executives.

There are significant bandwidth de-

mands for a CIO who must deal with both a continually changing business context and the natural desire to be a successful, senior executive. For most CIOs, the emerging coping strategy is a reliance on established ways of working rather than being open to new ideas.

The article then makes an explicit recognition that successful learning is about making a pragmatic change in behaviour towards the delivery of outcomes that match organisation need. The article then draws conclusions with regards to the elements a CIO must get right, before translating such themes into a future programme of work for IT leaders and their teams.

The need for successful learning The CIO, and any senior IT leadership role in any organisation, has always encompassed specific challenges. I would argue such challenges are not going away. In fact, they are probably increasing.

The significance of information systems continues to rise, as does the crucial role of the supporting storage and communication technologies that organisations use to operate, compete and transform. The significance of this challenge is compounded for CIOs. Like all senior executives, successful IT leaders are very busy. However, they also have established and learned patterns of behaviour that – although they can place the CIO in good stead – can be hard to unlearn.

CIOs are further challenged by the fact that, both with regards to the technology and the business needs of the wider organisation, the target keeps moving. Unhelpfully, such transitional targets

Special feature

mean that the specific business technology problem at hand is often not something that can be easily defined, analysed and solved.

Just when the CIO gets a handle on how to work with their C-level colleagues, something else disrupts the world and the IT leader needs to find a new way of operating. So, how can we define a successful learning experience in this ever-changing world?

In my view, the only criteria that can be used to assess successful learning is the identification of change that leads to outcomes that are more closely matched to business requirements.

Such learning should not be about the acquisition of knowledge through codified methods. Please note that I am not devaluing the very important work that is, and will continue to be, done via IT standards such as ITIL and Prince 2.

But in my terms, knowledge and methods should just be viewed as qualifying criteria. Such codified techniques as ITIL and Prince 2 will not define successful learning; they are not – in the terms of a sales-based language – winning criteria.

Successful learning is actually about being a CIO that is open to new ways of working, whilst being comfortable with the game that is being played at senior levels of business. Senior IT leaders must portray a level of confidence in decision-making.

Developing insight and changing behaviour The intensity of experience will be the source of the most effective type of learning. If you want to enable yourself – and your team – to experience more, you should guide the opportunity for the creation of more intensely challenging experiences.

These experiences should be fruitful, in the sense that learning is translated into changed behaviour.

Here, my view is based on active, deep reflection on what an executive did in a certain circumstance, what happened, what the IT leader learnt and what he or she plans to do next.

The intensity of experience is linked to my final point about learning – and that is about the importance of novelty. Recent neurological research has identified new experiences as a key source of creativity. Novelty is also quoted as the reason

why older adults believe years pass quickly, in contrast to younger people for whom everything is new.

Also remember that intense learning is hard, otherwise we would all be incredibly successful in this fast-changing world. So, I would argue that learning is far more effective if an external expert works as a guide. My experience suggests that individuals, teams and organisations benefit significantly from an outsider paying attention to the learning process.

That outsider should be someone who holds responsibility for successful learning. The expert should also be someone who can push the debates that enable a breakthrough to be made, or someone who can engage in uncomfortable discussions that help create the right intervention at the right time.

CIO Connect is translating such insight into more powerful learning programmes for IT leaders in two ways. First, the sixth iteration of our Next Generation programme is about to start and now runs in Hong Kong as well as Europe.

The programme combines coaching, a series of intense workshops, and ‘action learning’ amongst participants. The result is the delivery of effective learning for the next generation of IT leaders. Many participants have already made the breakthrough to the CIO role.

Second, CIO Connect is planning a Learning Journey to Finland and Sweden in the autumn of 2011. The journey will be driven by all the aforementioned concepts of novelty, intensity and guided learning.

The unique programme will combine in-depth discussions with C-level peers in their place of work at leading edge organisations in the Nordic region. Facilitated workshops every evening will enable everyone taking part in the programme to test their own learning with peers from other organisations.

Finally, I am aware that my expressed thoughts are only partially right. I would value your comments and thoughts. I hope that, at least, I have prompted a thought and an action that would not otherwise have happened.

If you would like any information regarding CIO Connect’s work with CIOs and IT leaders, please e-mail: alistair.russell@ cio-connect.com.

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Event report

Shared services

All about the human factor Efficiency and cost optimisation, the two keywords around which a CIO builds almost his entire strategy. The use of shared services is increasingly entering the picture. CIOnet Belgium organised a best practices event on this hot topic.

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ohn Hall is Senior Vice President with global science-based company DSM and has over fifteen years’ experience in shared services.

“What is repeatedly striking,” he says, “is that shared services is rarely about technology, it is about the people.” Straight away, it also seems to be the most difficult element for the shared service leader. “He needs to initiate a major change in the business organisation and frequently encounters resistance to this.” In the past decades, DSM has seen no shortage of change.

The company operated in mining until the late sixties. Following the closure of the mines, it took a different direction, first as a business in chemicals, later in life sciences. “DSM has changed course radically a few times. Nevertheless, the company carries that background in its DNA.” This is an important finding, because a company’s culture determines how it looks at shared services. John Hall says: “DSM’s initial reaction was very negative. Shared services? We don’t work that way here! We had to work really closely with the financial department until they finally became convinced that it was actually their own idea.” The starting point for an IT-related shared service was to map the existing situation. Among other things, this brought to light that DSM was using no less than 54 ERP systems, 28 of which related to barely ten percent of the business. “It was then immediately clear that there was room for improvement and that you needed to look around for the best practice.”

Shared service manifesto This immediately raises the question of who decides on the definition of best practice and above

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all how to do it. In practice, John Hall had all actions aligned with DSM’s vision and mission. That led to a functional vision: IT needed to become the best possible partner for all the company’s business units. The mission became clear in this way too. “Our customers have to be able to concentrate on their core activities, thanks to the value-added business support that IT provides.”

DSM published a manifesto on what it wanted to achieve by introducing shared services. The company showed all its cards to all interested parties.

‘You must be able to stick to your guns and not allow a customer to turn back the clock for a particular subprocess.’

“We wanted the right commitment from everyone.

The picture had to be clear to everyone from the outset. We were quite clear: don’t open a shop if you don’t want to smile.”

Instead of tackling the existing 54 ERP system one by one, DSM opted for a functional approach. For instance, a global shared system was introduced for purchases related to business trips. “We used middleware to connect that system to the existing ERP applications. This was at least ten times less costly than changes to each individual ERP.” This is just one example of how DSM changed over to shared services step by step. John Hall says: “You must be able to stick to your guns and not allow a customer to turn back the clock for a particular subprocess.” Communication is an important condition for this to suc-

Event report

ceed. “You need to communicate consistently, honestly and in time, and not withhold certain information. If you know that some jobs will disappear, avoid creating false hope. Simply be as clear as possible about it.”

Consistent service Jérôme Steenbrink also knows that shared services can provide significant economies of scale.

He led the shared services programme for finance, HR and IT at Suez, and then prepared the merger with Gaz de France. Today he is programme director with GDF Suez. “Our group’s business units have a good deal of autonomy”, he says. “We have 35 CIOs, 35 CFOs, and so on. At the same time, there is one corporate centre, to which the shared service centres belong.” GDF Suez chose a strategy based on two pillars: globalised processes creating value and shared services producing economies of scale. “We have grouped our resources in shared service centres and expert centres. The service is not free. A business unit using a shared service pays a price for it and is granted a SLA in return.”

When Suez and GDF merged, it seemed that both organisations were already operating around shared service centres. Consolidating them therefore went quite smoothly. Jérôme Steenbrink says: “We always started with the people. Once they sit down together, aligning the systems can follow more rapidly.” GDF Suez opted to start with domains that are easily suitable for a shared service approach, such as accounting and payroll.

Later on, recruitment, HR and banking relations were added. “We watch closely for consistency in the shared services, not least to be sure that all

shared service centres charge for providing their services in the same way.”

Towards ten percent Via benchmarking, GDF Suez looks at where they can improve the use of shared services even more. “For instance, at present we still need too many resources for finance.” A shared service for IT is being developed. The company is working on a unique IT platform for the whole group. This shared service centre will be responsible for the IT support of the 5,500 GDF Suez sites around the world. Out of its 200,000 employees, today GDF Suez has 2,800 employees in shared service centres. “Companies like Shell and HP have now accommodated about ten percent of their workforce in a shared service model. Thus we are clearly still keeping our options open.”

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John Hall, Senior Vice President with DSM: “Shared services is more about people than about systems. You must therefore communicate consistently, honestly and in time.”

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Jérôme Steenbrink, programme director with GDF Suez: “Shared services are not free. The business units pay for them and are granted a SLA in return.”

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