CIONET Magazine 8

Magazine. Vol. 08, Summer 2010.

Nico Westpalm van Hoorn “I have never been fooled by a hype” 13

Sabine Everaet “Greater need for multifunctional IT professionals” 18

Daniel Lebeau “I prefer many short projects” 23

Juan Soto “Synergy SIMOCIOnet a boost for networking” 24

Jon Wrennall “Technology does matter” 11 Editorial: Italy is the latest jewel in the CIOnet network More than a hype: A fundamental cultural change Cloud computing: Already a reality The role of the CIO: Expanding beyond IT Hypes and trends: How do CIOs deal with them?

The CIO of tomorrow: Bright and inspirational Talent Management: A focus for the CIO Column: Desperately seeking skilful expertise Generation Y: Über confident, entrepreneurial and assertive Column: The evaluation of information systems IT governance: Speed and quality SIMO Network and CIOnet España: A shared project Column: Demand - Delivery - Servicing

3 4 6 10 12 15 18 20 21 22 23 24 26

The largest European CIO network ABOUT CIONET MAGAZINE

CIOnet Magazine is a CIOnet initiative sent directly to CIOnet members and as a supplement to Data News.

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

www.cionet.com

P REMIUM BUSINESS PARTNERS BUSINESS PARTNERS

2

Vive la France. We are very pleased to announce that France is the latest country to join the growing family of CIOnet. François Samarcq, together with his team, is putting together a strong advisory board and networking programme for the IT leaders in Paris and beyond.

Benvenuta Italia. We are also very proud to announce the official start of CIOnet in Italy. Alfredo Gatti, Susanna Bigioni and Manuela Moroncini are working hard to develop CIOnet Italia into the largest and most active community for CIOs & IT managers in Italy.

I’m looking forward to the first networking activities in France & Italy and to welcoming hundreds of new members to CIOnet.com, Europe’s first and largest hybrid network for IT directors. We estimate to grow to 2000 members by the end of 2010 and to more than 3000 in 2011.

Next on our road map are Germany and Scandinavia, where we are currently scouting to find the best possible teams to launch CIOnet in these regions. Please email me if you could introduce us to some good people in these countries.

In this eighth issue of CIOnet Magazine a series of event reports give you a glimpse of the different member activities that were organised the last six months in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium. You’ll read that the nature of the CIO role is all about Pride, Professionalism and Passion, that Talent Management needs our focus, that Generation Y is ringing the changes and that Cloud is the topic of the moment.

Enjoy, HENDRIK DECKERS MD CIOnet - hendrik@cionet.com

Editorial

An Italian touch T

he Expo 2010 which has now opened in Shanghai has an Italian touch. The impressive architectural envelop of the Italian pavilion is designed by the Permasteelisa Group, the lights are by iGuzzini and Vimar, the internals and the furniture by Poltrona Frau, Mascagni, Faram, Matteo Grassi, Portalp, Cisa, Zucchetti, Ceramica Globo, Ucs and Calligaris. Five hundred different transparent chairs represent the best of Alchemia, 400 elegant hostesses are dressed in Prada, and a big Ferragamo shoe and a kaleidoscopic Vara’s collection are at the entrance to welcome all the visitors.

Actually Made in Italy is made up of more than 3,000 brands who are competing globally in design, construction, fashion, food, hospitality, machinery, automotive and other industries. Their paths for excellence and innovation are supported by reliable IT deployments and led by courageous CIOs. All of them have the same objective: to contribute to the results of their companies while overcoming the boundaries of their nationwide vision and action. All of them need to be proactive and risk-takers, quick in decisions and smart enough to provide preliminary results to their bosses who demonstrate the return on investment of their projects.

What better way for them to meet with their peers, share their ideas and opinions on issues and solutions, consider alternatives in a wider perspective, as is already happening in the business? CIOnet may be a big part of the answer and provides the international spirit they are looking for.

CIOnet Italia just started up on 22 June and most of the CIOs of the top Made in Italy companies have agreed to join the Advisory Board while others from the top industrial, financial and public administration organisations have put themselves forward as candidates.

Introducing most of the top Italian CIOs to CIOnet is an exciting experience. It is amazing how this new form of networking is informally encouraging everyone to participate. To take part as one of the Advisory Board is a genuine bid to offer time and competences to the network and to put aside most of the established patterns of the CIO role. It is a question of networking among like-minded people with common interests as well as providing inspiration to promote a more important role for innovation. ‌ the right time for an Italian touch.

ALFREDO GATTI

Managing Director CIOnet Italia

3

Event report

More than the biggest hype of recent years

A fundamental cultural change The cloud is bringing about a new paradigm shift in IT. But how do we build up a healthy cloud strategy and which elements are best transferred to the cloud?

C

ompanies often think in polarities,” says Drue Reeves, research director with Burton Group, “either they want to move everything to the cloud, or they want no part of it.” Neither approach is ideal, that much is clear. The success of the cloud exists by the grace of a good strategy and methodology. The company needs to develop an objective, repeatable process that it can use to assess if a component of the infrastructure, application or process is ready for the cloud.

Burton Group has come up with a step-by-step plan to devise a good cloud strategy. “You need to start by identifying the objectives of the cloud strategy. Are you looking for agility? Or do you want to save on costs? Maybe other goals are also in play.” As a second step, the company should analyse the business processes or applications that it wants to place in a cloud. “A business impact analysis can immediately show you

New infrastructure In 2006 the department for semiconductors at Philips seceded from its mother company. Up to that time the department had always relied on the corporate IT of Philips. Now as a new company, NXP Semiconductors, it had to build up a completely new IT infrastructure. “We needed a global data centre for R&D”, says Henk Coenen, Manager Engineering IT Competence Centre at NXP Semiconductors. “To achieve this we consolidated the existing 25 data centres in three locations.”

NXP built an internal cloud that gives the designers of chips access to 1,200 design applications. “Because some of our design activities are carried out by external partners, we also have a private cloud that can be accessed by external partners.”

4

how critical the application is. Conduct a cost analysis too. It is generally not difficult to calculate how much a cloud service costs. But how much is the company currently paying for this infrastructure or applications? More often than not, companies do not have a clear view of these costs.”

Once all preparatory analyses give a green light for the move to cloud, the time is ripe to seek out the right vendor. Once the selection has been made, considering the viability of the vendor among other things, risk management remains important throughout the whole process. The company needs to have an exit strategy, in case the vendor fails, for example. Drue Reeves: “We always recommend putting aside sufficient time and budget to develop a good cloud strategy.

Jumping to cloud on the spur of the moment does not lead to long-term sound results.”

PICTURE

Henk Coenen, Manager Engineering IT Competence Centre at NXP Semiconductors: “The internal cloud is evolving, step by step, into a fully fledged private cloud.”

Event report

Cultural change “The cloud is being posed as the solution to practically everything today”, reports Kalman Tiboldi, CIO at TVH, specialist in fork-lift trucks and spare parts. The cloud is supposed to provide high availability, scalability, flexibility and performance, as well as being ten times cheaper too. “Instead of getting my head stuck in the clouds, I’d rather keep my feet on the ground”, he laughs. Nevertheless, TVH successfully employs various cloud services. Thanks to shifting its e-invoicing to a hosted private cloud, TVH is anticipating an annual savings of 600,000 euros.

The cloud model also looks interesting to TVH for its portfolio management and application testing.

“It is not our intention to place truly critical IT components in the cloud, but we do expect a few more applications to follow. This will only succeed if proper attention is paid to change management. The cloud requires a fundamental cultural change. Security and privacy are two very important points in this process.”

Although the term cloud computing has attracted the biggest hype of recent years, what we are witnessing is merely the starting point of the actual shift. “The concept of multi-tenancy is what is making cloud computing possible”, Jim Rivera, Chief Product Officer at Salesforce.com, tells us.

“Before, each application had its dedicated software and hardware stack. In the cloud that is not necessary anymore. There is one stack on which everything runs.” This means enormous scale benefits for Salesforce.com – known as a provider of salesforce automation software through the cloud. “We have 75,000 customers who together

use approximately 200,000 applications. But we’re not using 200,000 servers for them. We can manage easily with 3,000 now.” This means great savings in hardware costs and speed of maintenance. On the long term, the social aspect of cloud computing applications will be very important. “Today, there are already more accounts for social networks than there are for email”, says Jim Rivera. “Ten years from now cloud computing will be all about social data, social apps, social content and social platforms.”

< PICTURE

Virtualisation Consolidation and virtualisation generally are the first steps towards cloud shifting. Fedict, the government service that is building a shared IT infrastructure for the federal government, was facing a major budget cut at the end of 2006. To accommodate the new budget, Fedict migrated its infrastructure, that was then with Accenture and Smals, to a new shared own infrastructure for the application owners. “Our budget is now only a third of what it was in 2006,” Peter Strickx, CTO at Fedict, reports, “while we are offering many more services.” Over a period of five years Fedict has managed to save thirty million euros. But more applications are running in the two data centres of the government services than before the migration. A good preparation of the virtualisation transpired to be crucial for the success of the project. Peter Strickx: “Thanks to the virtualisation the maintenance of the server park is better than expected. There are only fifty physical machines, on which more than 200 virtual servers are running.”

> PICTURE

Kalman Tiboldi, CIO at TVH: “The cloud requires a fundamental cultural change.”

PICTURE

Peter Strickx, CTO at Fedict: “Virtualisation is the first step to the cloud.”

Drue Reeves, research director at the Burton Group: “Put aside sufficient time and budget to develop a good cloud strategy.”

5

Event report

The transition of IT from product to service

The year of cloud computing Few topics are capable of raising as much interest amongst various audiences and industries as cloud computing. Even more if the debate is held in a select environment, different and original, like the event that recently took place at the Costume Museum in Madrid on 22 April.

T

PICTURE

Debate on cloud computing at the Costume Museum in Madrid.

he meeting had all the ingredients for success: a good combination of the most active and knowledgeable service providers who are making significant efforts to promote, articulate and consolidate cloud computing on the market, and the big companies who act as end users and have already started to implement this model in their respective organisations, anticipating big changes in the way the IT is positioned and integrating the new concepts in their business value chains. A perfect mix between current reality and medium- and long-term possibilities, and a balanced vision between the fundamental theory and its pragmatic approach, as one of the lecturers managed to demonstrate.

The wide and select audience that went to the Bokado Restaurant contributed to these objectives. Some of the Spanish Advisory Board members, including its President, Roberto Parra, Juan Soto and José de Rafael, hosted this event and managed to make it simultaneously exclusive and friendly.

Significant growth The first part helped to consolidate the cloud computing concepts, by the main IT service providers, with a global reach. IDC’s keynote lecture,

by Alberto Bellé, stated the context, opportunities and challenges that are linked to cloud computing and its adoption. He gave some representative hints, showing some statistics from the Spanish SaaS market, where cloud computing has already been adopted by 27% of the companies, and is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.

He was followed by three recognised experts, Pau Contreras, Senior Director Technology Solutions for Southern Europe, Oracle; Raúl Álvarez, Iberian Sales Manager, BMC; and Moisés Navarro, IT Strategy Consulting Manager, IBM; who all agreed and confirmed the trend towards a future horizon where all public, private and hybrid clouds will coexist in one single company. All presentations stated cloud computing’s main benefits: cost-saving and a pay-as-you-go model, and capabilities – providing new solutions that were not technically or economically feasible with previous technology. Though the concept of ‘cloud’ is not new, it is undisputable that it has proven to be a major success in recent years and will play a large part in the IT domain over the next ten years or

6

Event report

more, as future systems continue to exploit the capabilities of managed services and resource provisioning. Clouds are of particular commercial interest not only due to the growing tendency to outsource IT so as to reduce management overhead and to extend existing, limited IT infrastructures, but even more importantly because they reduce the threshold for new service providers to offer their respective capabilities to a wide market with a minimum of entry costs and infrastructure requirements. These are the special capabilities of cloud infrastructures and this allows providers to experiment with novel service types whilst reducing the risk of wasting resources.

Cloud is already a reality Once we reached the end user experiences’ part, the presentation made by Joaquín Rincón, Lilly’s European IT Architecture and Innovation Manager, convinced everyone of the fact that cloud com-

puting is already a reality. After the definition of cloud, that he took from Simon Wardley (“Cloud computing is the transition of IT from product to service.”), Joaquín executed an IaaS application – with Amazon AWS – on protein calculations, leaving some of the audience astonished. Afterwards, Enrique Laso, Technical Director of Ferrovial, and Pedro Suja, BBVA’s European Infrastructure Manager, shared their particular experiences in their companies, each of them recognised leaders in their respective industry segments, which apply global delivery models. Enrique, as a curiosity, noted that the end user is normally less vulnerable to change when applications are run in a cloud computing environment than when they are installed in the traditional way. Furthermore, Pedro Suja shared some real examples of external and internal clouds, as well as other services which this leading financial institution is currently considering to move into this format, like emailing.

< PICTURE

Enrique Laso, Technical Director of Ferrovial: “The end user is less vulnerable to change when applications are run in a cloud computing environment.”

PICTURE

Pedro Suja, BBVA’s European Infrastructure Manager, shared some real examples of external and internal clouds. > PICTURE

Joaquín Rincón, Lilly’s European IT Architecture and Innovation Manager: “Cloud computing is already a reality.”

7

Advertorial

Value Shore: the Best of Two Worlds

Spain, your Destination for IT Outsourcing A recent survey (Feb, 2010) of 200 UK IT CIOs conducted by Vanson Bourn showed a tremendous lack of satisfaction (75% of CIOs were disappointed with quality) of service delivered from offshore outsourcing service providers. An increasing number of European companies are looking for ways to fix issues on service quality and unmanageable governance models without losing the cost savings associated with offshoring. The Value Shore brand groups the member companies of the Spanish Association of Consulting Firms (AEC in its Spanish acronym) and defines a concept which offers a new delivery model for developing major European sourcing projects and for IT outsourcing.

As José de Rafael (Managing Director of AEC and CEO of Value Shore) says: “Value Shore takes advantage of both labour arbitrage cost savings from off/nearshore locations and know-how, solutions and specialised capabilities of Spanishbased companies. It is real smartshoring.” Value

‘The IT industry is currently one of the best performers in the Spanish economy.’

Shore is a two-layer delivery model for IT development, maintenance and for BPO. The nearshore layer is located in Spain pairing with typical offshoring locations mainly Latin America but also India, China, Philippines and other traditional ones. It is delivered by companies based in Spain and large global IT and outsourcing firms having remarkable capabilities built in Spain. “The industrial, functional and technological know-how are delivered through a number of specialised centres most of them holding high CMMI Maturity Levels.

8

Centres of excellence Through those centres of excellence, companies delivering Value Shore have implemented highquality processes that take advantage of previous experience to build new industry or technology specific assets and solutions for the European market. This value layer delivered from Spanish centres of excellence can be further leveraged by offshore factories to get a very effective combination of quality and cost. Agile and flexible governance models avoid your organisation having to deal with the typical noise coming from geographical distance and cultural barriers”, clarifies José de Rafael.

Why now? Why Spain?

“The world has moved to offshore delivery to cater for static IT budgets. Pure offshore ‘lift and shift’ approaches aggressively help return the typical daily rate savings but generally forget about innovation, flexibility and agility to support business needs. Current perception on low service quality is not a matter of providers but rather choosing the right-balanced delivery model. Value Shore brings European organisations the best

Advertorial

PICTURE

José de Rafael, Managing Director of AEC and CEO of Value Shore: “Value Shore takes advantage of both labour arbitrage cost savings from off/nearshore locations and know-how, solutions and specialised capabilities of Spanish-based companies.

It is real smartshoring.”

of all worlds: domain experience demonstrated by world class organisations, agility and minimal risk of nearshoring and cost effectiveness of offshoring.”

When José is asked about current Spanish economic threats he quietly points out: “There is no real risk due to the current economic situation.

The IT industry is currently one of the best performers in the Spanish economy. The solid reasons that made Spain the most popular Western European country for building SSC, innovation/ excellence centres and software factories have not changed: the highest ratio of technology graduates to population in Europe, significant labour cost savings compared with Western Europe and one of the most impressive figures in the world for CMMI appraisals. Spain has now become a recognised world leader in industries such as Banking, Telecommunications, Utilities, Transportation, etc. Companies including DuPont, BAT, EADS, Danone, Sara Lee, Adecco or Ericsson just to mention a short but representative sample, maintain delivery capabilities in Spain to take advantage of these value services to European branches.

The right moment to think of a model shift Value Shore has not forgotten about offshore. In fact a typical Value Shore engagement may in fact use existing relationships with Latin American countries to externalise commoditised activities. What Spanish capabilities bring to European organisations are better governance models from cultural and geographical proximity, predefined solutions and assets for rapid implementation, elastic architectures to support business needs, delivered innovation, accessible domain expertise, etc. “This is what we call value layer”, says José de Rafael. He kindly opens the doors to everyone wanting to learn more about Value Shore: “You may contact our team through Value Shore website www.valueshore.org or our offices in London and Madrid. I will personally be very happy to arrange for a guided tour through Spanish capabilities and specialised centres (by industry and technology) demonstrating the power of Value Shore delivery model.” If you feel the current quality of the services provided to your company is not good and/or your business needs more agility and innovation driven by IT platform, try a pilot experience with Value Shore.

9

Special feature

The nature of the CIO role

Pride, Professionalism and Passion, at Pace Jon Wrennall, CIO at the UK Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and a member of the CIOnet UK Advisory Board, is passionate about his profession. This much is clear as we talk about the nature of the CIO role, and the demands it makes for business and technology expertise. In his two years as VOA CIO, Wrennall has led significant transformation of the agency’s IT, seen his role expand beyond IT, and spent time as acting CEO – so he is well placed to comment on how IT roles integrate with the rest of the organisation.

O

utlining his path to the VOA, Wrennall explains: “I’m the son of a dairy farmer – and used to getting my hands dirty.” Time as an engineering apprentice at BAE was followed by a Computer Science degree at Manchester University and then 11 years at Accenture, working on major projects in the public sector, financial services and energy sectors. A consulting career path as an Accenture partner was the obvious way forward, but Jon took what he describes as “a calculated risk”. He says: “The integration of the Inland Revenue & Customs and Excise was getting under way. With annual IT spending of over £1 bn (approx € 1,17 bn), the CTO role was a compelling opportunity.” Wrennall applied, and spent three years as the first HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs) CTO, before moving into the VOA CIO role.

At VOA he has driven change, and not just of the technology employed. A comprehensive technology transformation has seen everything replaced – from desktops and their operating systems, through to rationalisation and virtualisation of servers, applications and stacks, VoIP, LAN, and even cabling. But bigger changes have accompanied this, with the move from paper-based processes to electronic. The VOA is responsible for maintaining up-to-date and accurate information on all residential and non-residential properties in England and Wales – more than 30 m in total. All domestic drawings have now been scanned, and surveyors update them electronically – a major change in business process. The VOA CIO role has been extended to include wider business infrastructure, so Wrennall and his team are now re-

10

sponsible for the VOA’s own buildings portfolio and associated services. “Infrastructure is infrastructure”, he comments.

Both business and technology Given the broadening of his role beyond IT alone, and his time as acting CEO, does Wrennall agree with many that the CIO role is fundamentally about business rather than technology expertise?

“Absolutely not” is the emphatic reply. “CIOs need both business and technology expertise, not one or the other. It really concerns me that it is so fashionable to be business-centric, and so unfashionable to be technology-centric. It is almost as if the fear of being badged as a ‘tekkie’ leads to us hiding any deep technological skills and understanding we might have. Certainly that’s what I see happening.”

There is an irony here, not lost on Wrennall, that having persuaded our business peers that technology does matter, IT leaders are shying away from pursuing and demonstrating technology expertise. Wrennall worries “this communicates to our teams that we consider technology skills to be unimportant – certainly if you want to reach senior IT leadership positions. That cannot be good for the UK IT skills agenda.”

Why does this happen? Wrennall’s analysis is that it flows from right motives. We are committed to a key role for IT, and to representing it at board level.

But, because other board members have little technology know-how, we think we have to avoid talking technology if we are to get there. The consequence is that technology decisions at board

Special feature

level risk being based on conversations in which technology does not feature.

So, how does Jon Wrennall address this issue himself – ensuring that he sustains his own technological expertise and promoting its importance within his VOA teams? He says: “It helps if you have an innate interest in technology, and I’m not ashamed to say that I do. At home for example I maintain a virtualised exchange server, VoIP PBX and recently built a Sharepoint server. It is not an enthusiasm my wife shares, but it has real benefits. It means that when I am talking with my teams, I have some recent experience on which to draw. This helps build credibility – and people are always more likely to follow leaders they see as understanding their own job. It can also be useful in discussions with vendors.”

But Wrennall has gone much further in promoting technology expertise as integral to IT careers in the VOA. Leveraging the UK Civil Service’s values of Pride, Passion, Pace, and Professionalism, he has moved quickly to promote professional bodies and standards. So, from very little when he arrived two years ago, around 60% of his team are now members of the British Computer Society (BCS), with the majority of his direct reports having recently attained Chartered status.

Perhaps further reaching is the use of the SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age) framework. Thus, as Wrennall explains: “Every role in the IT team now has a role description mapped to SFIA – highlighting the skills required, the levels needed, and what that means. Each person has undertaken a moderated self-evaluated gap analysis against that role description. And each person then has a continuous development plan to close the gap. Organisation-wide, we measure progress against this as part of our balanced scorecard. So, at pace, we’re driving professionalism in IT, endorsing passion about the technology, and taking pride in our progress.”

Outside the VOA, amongst his peers, Wrennall is also a strong advocate for professional status. He

explains: “I want us to get to a position where those championing IT skills are themselves Fellows of the BCS, or equivalent – so we are promoting IT skills with credibility.”

Breaking down the boundaries With all of this, we might expect that business expertise was being downplayed within the VOA IT team. But that is not the case. Wrennall’s approach here has adopted multiple strands. Moving people among ‘engage’, ‘deliver’ and ‘support’ teams means that a high percentage of his team will, over time, interface with those outside of the IT function. Taking on responsibility for nonIT infrastructure has made possible the creation of a delivery team responsible for the wider business infrastructure, exposing them to a wider range of business issues. Wrennall highlights too, that embracing ‘end user computing’ by the VOA’s surveyors is “a way of breaking down the boundaries. Working with them and their contributions again helps the IT team to understand the business issues they’re facing.”

So, it seems that the CIO can be both a business leader and a technology leader – indeed that to focus on being one of these only is to risk undermining the effectiveness of the unique role that IT leadership offers.

PICTURE

Jon Wrennall, CIO at the UK Valuation Office Agency (VOA): “It really concerns me that it is so fashionable to be business-centric, and so unfashionable to be technology-centric. It is almost as if the fear of being badged as a ‘tekkie’ leads to us hiding any deep technological skills and understanding we might have.”

11

Event report

How CIOs deal with hypes and trends

The value of past, present & future trends Every year CIOs are bombed with lists of IT trends from Gartner, Forrester, IDC and the like. Some prevail, others do not live longer than the hype cycle. How do CIOs deal with hypes and trends? Dutch CIOs discussed this subject on April 20 in Oegstgeest.

I

PICTURE >

Nico Westpalm van Hoorn, until recently CIO of the Port of Rotterdam, now retired: “I think a CIO needs to stay two years ahead of classroom knowledge.”

PICTURE

Johan De Wit, associate director of CIOnet: “The IT industry is like the fashion industry, with a spring and an autumn collection.”

12

do not think that I have ever been completely fooled by a hype”, says Nico Westpalm van Hoorn, until recently CIO of the Port of Rotterdam, now retired. It is every CIO’s fear: embracing a hip product, a promising technology or a groundbreaking method, which then does not survive the hype. That danger is always lurking.

“The IT industry is like the fashion industry,” says Johan de Wit, “with a spring and an autumn collection.”

De Wit, associate director of CIOnet and former head of IT Governance with ING Bank, opened CIOnet’s IT Trends meeting. He is supervising research into IT Trends by students Panagiota Georgiou and Dimitri Fragkos. They have found that any trend of note will linger for at least five years in the annual reports of IT suppliers. De Wit: “You can only establish the importance of a trend after the fact, by measuring to what extent it generated successful products and services.”

Westpalm van Hoorn is the first to admit that the

Port of Rotterdam is not a sector that is particularly susceptible to trends. “We are about the longterm, not sensationalist consumer applications.”

He prefers to leave the pioneering to others. That does not mean that he should not respond appropriately to new developments. “In the first place, to be able to talk to suppliers about them.”

Supply management, in other words. He also thinks trend-watching is important for keeping up to speed with his architects and IT professionals, about what is up and coming. “I think a CIO needs to stay two years ahead of classroom knowledge.”

Over the past decade, the new IT has fundamentally changed how they work in the port. These days a pilot takes his laptop on board a ship.

Even more has changed with regard to the IT organisation of the Port Authority itself. “Very important for us is the evolution of products towards services, from doing it yourself towards buying it in. Associated with that are such characteristic trendy topics as facilities management, outsourcing and commoditising, with SaaS and Cloud in the mix too.”

In terms of architecture, the port is moving towards SOA with everything associated with that; the company is actively switching to an all-IP network for communications and data exchange and is working on smarter data management (BI).

These are trends that the Port Authority has embraced with conviction this century.

However, Westpalm van Hoorn still has a full drawer of ‘let’s sees’. That is to say: interesting, but not quite yet. Among those ideas is a possible choice for Microsoft alternatives on the desktop (“Quite frankly, I don’t dare yet”), the Cloud (“Yes, it will come, but when and how?”) and IPV6 (“We

13

Event report

PICTURE

Aart van der Vlist, CIO of ING Nationale Nederlanden: “Almost all the money and energy in large financial institutions goes into maintaining existing applications and systems.

That’s my biggest challenge.

I have to try to break away from it.”

14

know it has to happen, but when?”). He sees no call for social media in his own organisation, and he prefers to turn a deaf ear to calls from personnel to open up to all manner of cool smartphones: “I see the debate bearing down on me, but I am old-fashioned in that regard. I see no place for them in my business network.”

In a dilemma Someone who does love gadgets is Aart van der Vlist, CIO of ING Nationale Nederlanden. He is also the author of the book ‘Trends in IT’. According to the blurb, “for fifteen years a guide for managers who wish to form their own picture of the sense and nonsense of technological developments”.

He compares the rise of the computer with that of typography, railways and the electric motor: “Just as in the days of the first bookprinting, the technology is the dominant thing in the first fifty years.

Then the technicians are the ones who earn the most. With automation that phase is pretty much over now. Just as with books in those days, it is now all about the content, using the opportunities that technology has to offer.” He advises CIOs to look around as much as possible and to rip off ideas: “Make your own trend funnel and keep it always up to date.”

Nevertheless, CIOs of large financial institutions like him have a huge problem: almost all the money and energy goes into maintaining existing ap-

plications and systems. “That is my biggest challenge. I have to try to break away from it. The absolute cost per transaction must definitely be brought down, otherwise you can hardly do anything new.”

Policies for security, compliance and privacy are also placing increasing demands on resources.

That is certainly a trend in the financial world.

“Legislators come knocking on our door every day. Much energy is likely to be involved in that.

Furthermore, last year, banks had to deal with some serious security incidents.”

Van der Vlist’s survival strategy consists of further process and chain integration combined with phasing out legacy applications. That ought to create more scope for innovation. On his wish list for 2010, we spot the usual suspects such as virtualisation, Cloud and SaaS, but also professionalisation of his IT staff.

Nonsense Surely the CIO should be the enabler of business change. Van der Vlist: “That role is always being foisted on us, but quite honestly, I find it nonsense. I am making up lost ground. What I want to see is an infrastructure that will enable us to respond more quickly.” Like applications that fit in with the paradigm of Anywhere, Anytime, Me Here Now. Van der Vlist sees a shining example in Albert Heijn. “They have done a great job with their iPhone App. They must have done a huge amount of work in the back end to make it possible to suggest to a customer the best route around any Albert Heijn store based on his shopping list.”

“However, we must also be realistic. Bringing business and IT together, raising their awareness of each other’s fields, is already yielding great results. In practice, the ‘front end’ (the business) dreams up all kinds of things. And it still always turns out to be possible to link new ideas to existing systems.”

Special feature

Better, not more CIOs

Equipping tomorrow’s information leaders “We need better CIOs, not more CIOs.” That’s the view of CIOnet member Dr Andrew Tuson of the Centre for Information Leadership at City University London. Not surprisingly, he’s persuaded that academia has a real role to play.

T

he CIOs who really contribute at board level are bright and inspirational people – you would want them on the board regardless of their role”, he continues. “So to develop these information leaders, we want to bring together fine minds, classic liberal educational values, and the professional expertise that underpins the CIO role.”

Tuson leads the new Master of Information Leadership (MIL) programme at City University, and has a deep concern to equip the next generation of CIOs. Underpinning the MIL programme is a belief in the breadth of the CIO role – both within the organisation, and in a broader engagement with civil society. For Tuson, Jan Peter de Valk’s comment in CIOnet 7 that the CIO had to be a Renaissance-like homo universalis resonated strongly. Not surprisingly, therefore, the MIL programme is broad-ranging, encompassing not just business and technology modules but also legal and social science-related ones.

Tuson explains: “The Information Law and Compliance module is designed to help IT leaders understand not just what the law says, but how it works. We want CIOs to be able to engage with and shape legal frameworks, so they can truly work for and protect the interests of their organisations.” Similarly, the Information Leader in Society module aims at helping CIOs to understand the impact of what they do on wider society. Tuson again: “CIOs will be more effective if they understand how the decisions they make relate to issues such as digital exclusion or information overload. They’ll be aware of potentially unsought effects, and equipped to argue their case.”

gues Tuson, “we design the programme around bringing together academic input with peer and expert interaction, pushing the participants to reflect on the work they’re doing. Every time the cohort comes together, they will leave with something they can apply in their working lives – to ensure that they build their careers with the ability to both transform and deliver.”

Time will tell how major a contribution to equipping the CIOs of the future is made by innovative academic initiatives such as the Centre for Information Leadership. Tuson believes passionately that academic excellence is not opposed to career success, but that the two are inextricably linked. His call to aspiring CIOs is “Use it, or lose it – the MIL programme will be as successful as the CIO community want it to be.”

For more about the MIL programme, contact Andrew Tuson via CIOnet or see www.city.ac.uk/informationleadership

PICTURE

Dr Andrew Tuson of the Centre for Information Leadership at City University London: “The CIOs who really contribute at board level are bright and inspirational people.”

Not theoretical This might all sound very theoretical. “Not so”, ar-

15

Advertorial

Seidor, more than 25 years a solid services supplier

Creating value through Partnership For more than 25 years, Seidor has been working with its partners to ensure that all projects are completed on time, to the desired specifications, and that performance goals are met. General Manager Alejandro Daniel explains the secret of their success: a true partnership with the top Global IT leaders that showcases their ability to customise every facet of their business to fit their client’s needs.

Firstly, can you give us a brief presentation of Seidor? What is its portfolio of products and services?

Alejandro Daniel: “Seidor is a group of companies whose mission is to develop a broad range of IT services and infrastructure supply. We have 12 offices in Spain and 9 in Latin America, a global turnover in 2009 of 122 million euros and a total staff of about 1,300 people.

“The structure of the group includes seven companies: Seidor Consulting, specialised in the distribution and implementation of enterprise management solutions based on SAP All-in-One; MSS, focused on implementing SAP Business One turnkey solutions in small businesses; SBS Seidor, dedicated to develop complete end-toend solutions in the Extended ERP area; Microsistemes, specialised in infrastructure, consulting and maintenance projects; Saytel, focusing on systems’ integration and infrastructure based on IBM environments; Seidor Training, to provide training in Information Technologies area; and finally Seidor Estrategias, developing strategic business consulting in the areas of organisation, operations, finances and IT. “Our portfolio is very rich, nevertheless our core business today is around the SAP Business Suite and SAP Business One implementations. We have 12 years of successful relationship with SAP, with 14 awards as Best Spanish Partner.”

16

What types of projects are you presently developing in the ERP field?

“Our projects are currently split into two different categories: ERP deployment in new customers that migrate from some other obsolete or functionally limited ERP and, on the other hand, projects in existing customers enhancing the potential of SAP’s tools with the use of new modules: CRM, BI, ECM, etc. In most cases, we offer fixed price turnkey projects including all the necessary elements: hardware, software and services. Finally, we are also very active in rolling out international projects in subsidiaries of large companies.”

What is the position of Seidor in the ERP market, and particularly in the SAP ecosystem?

“Seidor is Gold Channel Partner of SAP and is leading this segment with nearly 50% market share in Spain. We currently serve over 600 customers worldwide and have a team of 800 consultants specialising in this area, of which over 350 are in Spain. We are founders of the largest SAP network (UnitedVARs), present in 45 countries all over the world, with a global taskforce of more than 3,500 consultants.”

What kind of integration with Extended ERP applications are you currently implementing (ECM, BI, CRM,…)?

“In Seidor we have a strong commitment with our clients, we therefore strive to provide them with

Advertorial

the best possible solutions, and that includes the integration of their ERP with other systems. One of the most frequent is undoubtedly Business Intelligence (BI) platforms, especially after the integration of Business Objects in SAP’s portfolio, but rapidly growing are CRM projects and solutions including enterprise content management (ECM) based on OpenText technology, a company Seidor partners with.”

Which sectors are you more focused on?

What are the most active sectors in these hard times?

“Seidor is neutral in terms of sector, we have customers in nearly all sectors of activity. And of course, customers most affected by the crisis are those where we have reduced the volume of our business. But overall this past year 2009 has been good for us in some sectors such as pharmaceuticals, distribution and consumer products. We expect a more noticeable recovery in the second half of the year.”

“By the way, Seidor has invested heavily in ‘verticalising’ SAP, aware of the fact that customisation reduces the risk, time and implementation costs. Today, we have 25 solutions covering 25 different sectors of activity.”

What are you providing in the infrastructure and related services area?

“We hold strategic alliances with the main key leaders in information technology industry, both software providers and hardware manufacturers,

and distribute and implement their solutions in our customers. We also develop all necessary of services around the products: installation, configuration, maintenance and support. In summary, we focus our activity on infrastructure integration and deployment of value-added IT solutions, aiming at increasing productivity and efficiency of organisations.”

PICTURE

Alejandro Daniel, General Manager of Seidor: “In Seidor we have a strong commitment with our clients, we therefore strive to provide them with the best possible solutions, and that includes the integration of their ERP with other systems.”

In what other areas is Seidor offering services to its customers?

“In the area of Adobe, Seidor is considered a very strategic partner because of our lasting relation with them. We are the only Spanish Adobe Distributor Solution, we are an Adobe Certified Training Centre and Adobe Licence Centre. Our offering is based on Adobe’s Server Solutions based on PDF and Flash technologies, and targeted mainly on financial and public sectors.

“Regarding Microsoft, Seidor has recently signed an agreement as Microsoft LAR Partner, in addition to other certifications such as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Microsoft Service Partner Advantage. Based on the platforms supported by Microsoft, we have developed a portfolio of products and projects in multiple areas (ECM, BPM, B2B, BI, Retail), as well as tailormade applications and custom developments.

“Our strategy in Seidor is to establish a rich portfolio of solutions in collaboration with the best possible partners and providers (earning the highest level of qualification) such as: IBM, HP, VMware, Dell, Citrix, EBD, to name just a few.”

17

Event report

Talent Management must be a focus for the CIO

IT professionals need the requisite care These days IT relies on people more than ever, both direct employees and the employees of external partners. Supporting those people is gradually becoming an IT department’s primary task.

N

PICTURE

Eric Goris, ICT Manager Application Services at De Post: “IT must respond flexibly to the needs of the business, even if the forecasting is difficult to get right.”

PICTURE >

Sabine Everaet, CIO at Coca-Cola: “Sourcing and service management are now receiving more attention.”

ot every company correctly estimates the strategic value of the IT department. “The recruitment of IT professionals is therefore not even really the IT department’s concern”, says Nils Fonstad, Senior Researcher of Research Bureau Insead. “It is the entire company’s concern.

You see, the IT professionals are crucial to increasing the company’s competitive edge. It is vital that the CEO and the CFO see how important e-competence is to their business.” De Post is a prime example of an organisation that has gone through a major transformation, with a key role being played by IT. Until ten years ago, De Post did not have a separate IT department. Today it has a team of six hundred staff with a budget of one hundred million euros. “We have a very diverse mix of IT profiles”, says CIO Olivier Van der Brempt. “There are company and contracted team members. We also work with outside partners and have a nearshore site in Romania.”

Because IT has very specific HR needs, De Post’s IT department set up its own Resource Management Office. “For us, IT is heavily businessdriven”, says Eric Goris, ICT Manager Application Services with De Post. “IT must be able to respond very flexibly to the needs of the business, even if the forecasting is very difficult to get right.”

At the same time IT must organise itself as efficiently as possible, because not only does the business demand flexibility from IT, but also, increasingly, cost reduction and ideas for innovation. Olivier Van der Brempt: “The Resource Management Office has mapped the IT staff’s skills and competence. We know what talent we have on board. It allows us to work more proactively, to build on a stable collaboration with preferred partners and to find the right balance between onshore and nearshore activities.”

Lean IT Coca-Cola has also seen some major IT restructuring. Between 2000 and 2009, the company switched over to a European IT infrastructure.

Over that period, Coca-Cola reduced its European IT budget by 60% to twenty million euros. Today, Coca-Cola has a 44-strong European team of IT specialists. That is 80% less than in 2000.

“The European IT organisation is very lean”, says CIO Sabine Everaet. “We are able to rely on a network of partners.” This transpires to be one of the most important results of the IT reform at CocaCola. “Sourcing and service management are now receiving far more attention. We have learned to negotiate better and we are paying more attention to benchmarking our contracts.”

The IT department’s reform focused more on cost reduction and productivity. Sabine Everaet: “That

18

Event report

requires robust processes and an approach aimed at the continuous improvement of IT services. In the context of the globalisation of the IT environment, it was also necessary to greatly simplify all processes.” The new strategy also had a major impact on Coca-Cola’s IT culture. “We are now rolling out global solutions. That really is a big change. Much attention went to change management.” The interpretation of IT jobs also looks very different today. “There is greater need for IT professionals who are multifunctional”, explains Sabine Everaet. “They have to know how to work well together on a global level. The focus has shifted. Our IT professionals have to be more vendor managers than people managers. They need to be more skilled at negotiating. It is certainly not easy to find the right employees for this.”

IT professionals with business knowledge ING’s current IT portfolio comprises more than five hundred projects. To keep these properly on track, ING has to take the requisite care of its existing IT talent. “In the next five years about a quarter of our employees are due to retire”, says Myrjam Verrijssen, HR Manager for IT with ING. “It is a big challenge to come up with an appropriate solution to that.” The fact that, along with employees, a significant portion of technological expertise will be leaving the company, is not even the greatest problem. “IT professionals with long experience often know more about the business than the actual employees of the business side do.”

These days that business knowledge is sorely

needed. At ING, compliance projects have top priority. Not surprisingly, given that the risk appetite in the financial sector is lower than ever. In addition, the bank is investing heavily in the internet channel and in marketing automation. IT manager Johan Smessaert: “These are areas in which we are helping the business to achieve a faster timeto-market. In the old Cobol-managed environment that was not always so straightforward.

Therefore we are now focusing mainly on package solutions and on integrating them into the existing environment.” Next year ING hopes to recruit and train a hundred new IT specialists.

Johan Smessaert: “It is the technological environment that attracts the candidates the most. Yet in addition we are naturally very attentive to the proper work-life balance and to the alignment of personal and corporate values.”

< PICTURE

Nils Fonstad, Senior Researcher at Insead: “E-competence ensures competitiveness.”

PICTURE

Johan Smessaert, IT Manager at ING: “These days the aim is to help the business achieve a faster time-to-market.” > PICTURE

Myrjam Verrijssen, IT HR Manager at ING: “IT professionals with experience often know more about the business than the actual employees of the business side do.”

IT IS PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN STRATEGY The story of Procter & Gamble is a well-known case that shows how IT can drive a new strategy. In the first place, IT was used to reorganise the company via shared services. This resulted in greater efficiency and lower costs. The company then invested the budget share it had saved in innovation. Nils Fonstad from Insead: “The example shows how IT helps enable a new and different approach to business management.”

The CIO should also reconsider his own role in this. “He may no longer confine himself to traditional IT services, but should position himself more as a manager of enterprise processes.” A strong technological focus alone is not enough. The CIO also has to attract and train talent.

19

Column

Desperately seeking skilful expertise The results of the interactive voting at the CIOnet Talent Management Event (report see pages 18 and 19) clearly show that CIOs are in need of business knowledge and skills for their IT departments. Business architects and analysts are by far the most lacking functions in their departments (52%) followed by project managers (15%). Though, these two profiles are also considered the most difficult to recruit on the external job market today.

S

till CIOs remain to seek their resources externally instead of attracting the company’s business expertise towards IT. The CIOs prefer good old ‘strong negotiation skills’ to manage their sourced contracts rather than having capable technical SLA managers. Again they expect to find those skills externally within their suppliers rather than re-skilling their own IT staff. On the other hand, no academic IT curriculum can fulfil the talent needs of the CIOs.

PICTURE

Louis Mahy (left), CIO at Record Bank, Geert Vercaeren, Director at Deloitte and Luc Hendrikx, Director at PwC are the authors of this article.

Today CIOs mainly try to attract people from the external job market and they focus on a rather important but small segment of the IT population.

Identifying and providing career paths for high potential is considered as the second biggest talent challenge. Retention of critical IT people, re-skilling and redeploying of the own staff or managing the talent of the external resources are considered less significant.

Do CIOs really see the full potential of the talent spectrum? Do they differentiate enough in terms of talent strategy to deal with these challenges?

Aren’t there more effective ways?

Looking for ‘rare birds’ in the same external ‘pool’ rather than in the own ‘IT nest’.

We think of building a distinct retention strategy or they could present clear career paths in IT. CIOs can offer IT professionals an engaging career.

Why not implement well-structured business IT rotation programs or professionalise on-boarding for external IT resources?

Most (57%) CIOs consider negotiation skills as most important. They think that these skills are best acquired through selling outsourcing services. Less important are architectural skills, understanding the systems development lifecycle and people management skills.

Are people with strong negotiation skills also best qualified to develop solid relationships with the service providers? Strategic partnerships are important to make outsourcing a long-term success. Research proves that most successful customers of outsourcing show good collaboration with service providers, and that good collaborators tend to be effective outsourcers.

20

Event report

Über confident, entrepreneurial and assertive

Generation Y – Ringing the Changes “Generation Y are different”: that’s the view of Dr Paul Redmond, Head of the Careers & Employability Service at Liverpool University and a speaker at the first CIOnet UK Annual Conference. Redmond continues: “As a whole, they are über confident and entrepreneurial, assertive and more than capable of voicing their concerns. And of course they are very techno-savvy.”

S

o what impact will this first ‘digital native’ generation have as they enter the workplace? Redmond points to not only their ability to adapt very rapidly to new technologies, but also their inbuilt sense that computers are for social networking. The former means that instead of training new recruits to use in-house systems, existing staff have to be trained to keep up with the new recruits. The latter means that blocking access to social networking sites seems strange and perverse to Generation Y recruits.

But, as Redmond highlights: “Timekeeping is an optional extra for Generation Y. They want flexibility and the ability to make last-minute commitments and adjustments.” As a result 9-5 ‘presenteeism’ work patterns are not attractive to them and they will instead look for job opportunities with more flexible work patterns.

How should we attract and motivate Generation Y, into our organisations, and in IT roles. Redmond identifies three factors key to any successful engagement with Generation Y. First is compelling story-telling rather than slick corporate presentations: “simply having someone talk about why they are proud to work for that organisation almost always beats the typical corporate presentation. Many organisations forget this – and it’s crucial in attracting Generation Y.” Second, excellent quality induction, repeated several times in the first year, can make a big difference. Redmond says: “Generation Y responds best to face-to-face communication. That way they feel valued and important. Ignore induction, or do it haphazardly, and prepare for empty-desk syndrome.”

Finally, and integral to how Generation Y views the

world, is brand. As Redmond explains: “Gen Y is more focused on the brand and the brand reputation than on an individual job function. Make the brand Gen Y-friendly and the job role will automatically gain more buy-in.”

What will Gen Y CIOs be like? That remains uncertain, but Redmond is clear that “they will have a more developed global mindset, confidently leading teams comprising people located in different time zones”.

So, we have changes to make if we are to leverage the potential of those we are recruiting now.

But, in a parting shot, Redmond affirms that we should also visit our primary schools to see the people likely to lead the next IT revolution.

Dr Paul Redmond’s new book The Graduate Jobs Formula was published in May 2010 by Trotman.

PICTURE

Dr Paul Redmond, Head of the Careers & Employability Service at Liverpool University: “Generation Y are über confident and entrepreneurial, assertive and more than capable of voicing their concerns.”

21

Column

The evaluation of information systems Somehow the supply of reports on the economic failure of IS projects seems to be inexhaustible. Given that evaluation should be about learning and improving, it makes one wonder whether or not we are becoming any better at assessing these aspects.

T

o answer this question, the University of Groningen started a KPN-sponsored research project on CIO perceptions of economic concepts in evaluation. In a joint effort with CIOnet, over 30 CIOs participated in interviews to identify these attitudes as well as current evaluation practices. Some of the preliminary findings are expounded hereinafter.

PICTURE

Peter Schuurman, researcher at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, is the author of this article.

22

Observations By now, it is apparent that basic business case practices have become pretty standard, as has the evaluation of (project) planning, budget, and quality at project closure. The general picture that emerges further indicates that business is starting to establish a long-needed position in assessing projects’ economics. However, directly after project initiation the attention for the economic foundations declines (a small revival at project closure left aside). Their use turns into a method of

project control and revaluation of the business case’s validity is scarce. Some issues found especially emphasise that there is a significant need for improvement; among these are the following observations: • Evaluation hardly takes place when things go well, i.e. it is (solely) triggered by errors.

• Often organisations are too tired of a project to evaluate it, new things are so much more exiting!

• Once started, we don’t stop projects. Never.

Never ever.

• Evaluations are project-centred as opposed to focused on the change.

• There is a lack of workable methods to incorporate business strategy into evaluations.

Notable practices Then again, throughout the sample some organisations seem to lead the way and make more headway compared to others. These organisations show signs of more advanced evaluation habits. In addition, their activities are well-founded and in accordance with what the business can cope with. Although the evidence is mainly anecdotal, these practices might provide guidance for the future. Some of the notable ones that repeatedly emerge include: • Projects are actively cut into manageable pieces.

• Some project categorisation is applied (e.g. compliance, continuity, or commercial) to enable tailored evaluation.

• Initial evaluations are used as a consciousraising element.

• Long-term road maps can be used to increase linkage with the business strategy.

Event report

IT governance

Speed and quality go hand in hand As a CIO, how do you ensure good governance of your IT projects? Do you opt for one project over a long period or several short projects with a rapid return?

D

aniel Lebeau, CIO of GSK Biologicals, is unequivocal. He prefers many short projects to fewer long projects. In a recently acquired biotechnology company, Lebeau set out to implement SAP in just six weeks. In the end, the project took seven and a half weeks. “The work took 25% longer than expected. Strictly speaking, the project should then be judged a failure, but in practice I still prefer that approach.”

Parkinson’s Law It is all to do with Parkinson’s Law, which states that a job will take more time if more time is available for it. “We can see that very clearly in the IT business. A project is usually completed on time, sometimes too late, but never too early.”

The findings of the Stanley Group show Daniel Lebeau to be right. The research bureau found that four projects with a duration of six months have a much higher chance of success than one large project over two years. “An IT project should never last longer than six months”, said Lebeau.

“If the period is longer, there is a risk that the initial business sponsor will go off to another job or that business priorities will change before completion of the project.”

Create more faith “Short projects with promptly visible results mean that you create more faith among the end users.

Contrary to popular belief, speed and quality actually can go together well in the implementation of IT projects. If, nonetheless, there is some delay, then we view that as a form of insurance policy for the quality.”

PICTURE

PICTURE

Daniel Lebeau, CIO with GSK Biologicals: “An IT project should never last longer than six months.”

Patrick Dewilde, ERP director with NMBS: “Long-term planning with strict deadlines.”

FOCUS ON TRANSFORMATION The new structure of NMBS with three companies – the holding company, the operating company and Infrabel – led to the IT environment being restructured. For the implementation of SAP, NMBS chose for long-term planning. “In one company we had a major go-live after eighteen months”, says ERP director Patrick Dewilde. “Twelve months later we went live in the whole group with the financial part of SAP. The deadlines that we used were very strict. Delay was not an option.” Instead of focusing on speed, NMBS put the emphasis in the project more on the changes throughout the three companies, in the various business lines and among the end users.

23

Special feature

SIMO Network and CIOnet España

A shared project

This year SIMO Network will host the staging of the annual event organised by CIOnet España. Both trade forums are essentially aimed at promoting networking. In this respect, they will join forces and resources in order to implement a joint project in which heads of technological development are able to share know-how and experiences within the framework of a large sector event in Spain.

J PICTURE

uan Soto, the Chairman of the SIMO Network Organising Committee and a founding partner of CIOnet España and member of its Advisory Committee, explains the objectives of this initiative.

Juan Soto, Chairman of the SIMO Network Organising Committee and founding partner of CIOnet España: “I believe this collaboration will provide a boost for networking.”

How did the idea arise for this collaboration between SIMO Network and CIOnet España and what is its purpose?

Juan Soto: “Basically, these are two initiatives that share a common goal: to promote valuable trade

links within an environment designed to boost the competitiveness of companies through the acquisition of know-how and the management of technologies. SIMO Network, the grand annual meeting for the IT industry in Spain, has been developing this idea since last year, when the event’s organisers adopted a new fair model, one in which all contents and activities aimed at promoting networking are granted a leading role, whilst still promoting awareness of the latest trends and technological developments.”

“The trade network, CIOnet, has gained popularity over the last year in Spain, after booking considerable success abroad. Its aim is to create a community of CIOs in Spain, one in which the heads of leading companies can cooperate and share experiences, both at a national and an international level, with a view to promoting the use of technology in companies’ business strategies.”

“The common ground between the two initiatives is abundantly clear and, as an active participant in both events, I believe this collaboration will help to create synergy at both SIMO and CIOnet, bringing together large numbers of visitors and broadening the perspectives of all members of the industry who travel to IFEMA. The event will also, of course, provide a boost for networking.”

What benefits will CIOnet España and CIOs gain from the fact that this event coincides with SIMO Network?

Juan Soto: “In general terms, for CIOnet España I believe this will represent a step forward for an ini-

24

Special feature

tiative that has already enjoyed rapid expansion throughout the country, in the sense that the staging of its annual event coincides with SIMO Network and this will grant CIOnet a considerable degree of visibility, both among professionals and within the media. With regard to CIOs themselves, in addition to enabling them to play an active part at the event alongside other prominent members of the industry, this joint initiative will provide them with an opportunity to discover the products and services on show at the exhibition, to view the latest new features and solutions, to obtain first-hand information and to attend the rest of the activities, meetings and conferences that have been designed to promote the use of technology in companies.”

What added value will the CIOnet España event contribute to SIMO Network?

Juan Soto: “The CIOnet España event constitutes an extremely interesting activity that links up perfectly with the philosophy and objectives of SIMO Network. Technological tools are presented as one of the foundations for the current business model and, from this perspective, the staging of events of this kind helps to widen our future prospects, based on the analysis and exchange of experiences that are facilitated among experts working within the same fields. These goals also correspond to those being pursued by SIMO Network and there is little doubt that CIOnet will contribute considerable value to the fair, helping to boost business links and to introduce Spanish and European CIOs to the leading point of reference for cutting-edge technology in Spain.”

SIMO Network AREAS: Exhibition Corporate Events Conferences and Activities ORGANISED BY: IFEMA

Organised by IFEMA, the International IT Services and Solutions Trade Fair, SIMO Network, provides a key point of reference for the information and communications technology industry in Spain. Its next edition will take place at Feria de Madrid from 5 to 7 October. The annual event organised by CIOnet España will take place on the fair’s opening day, Tuesday 5th October.

PICTURE

SIMO Network is the grand annual meeting for the IT industry in Spain.

This year, it will host the staging of CIOnet España’s annual event.

DATES: From 5 to 7 October 2010 OPENING HOURS: from 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.

VENUE: Feria de Madrid

THE KEY ASPECTS OF SIMO NETWORK • SIMO is a leading point of reference for the IT industry in Spain, one designed exclusively for members of the trade.

• It is aimed at promoting networking: three days over which participants can establish valuable professional links and contacts.

• A forum for innovation and a setting in which to share experiences and know-how.

• An event at which to find the technological resources and solutions that enable companies to boost their competitive performance.

• An exhibition that highlights the growing importance that IT products have acquired with regard to business development.

• Multiple activities aimed at the business world.

• A setting designed especially to promote the latest trends in cutting-edge technology.

25

Column

Demand - Delivery - Servicing

H

ave you ever been frustrated by the way IT services are delivered today? Between clients who, for less and less money, demand perfection in day-to-day servicing and speedy delivery of new functionalities, and IT professionals who consider themselves craftsmen, or even artists, more than industrialists, how do we deliver the predictability and repeatability that our industrial 21st century deserves?

While process-based methodologies exist in IT, it is important to position those processes in a context that can structure the whole business-IT relationship in any enterprise. ‘Demand-Delivery-Servicing’ is such a framework.

Start from servicing, where you deliver every day the services expected from you, relying on application and infrastructure assets. From an economic viewpoint, servicing includes what the IT world usually calls maintenance. I prefer the wording ‘IT asset management’, to highlight the necessity to optimise the quality/cost ratio of each asset across its lifecycle.

The portfolio of IT assets evolves through projects that create, transform and phase out assets. This is the world of delivery and should be clearly distinguished from servicing. Projects are meant to design, develop and deploy solutions to fulfil needs expressed by business clients. Key phrases here are predictability, time to market and cost effectiveness in nonrecurrent activities. Because of a lack of business and system knowledge it is not obvious to everyone, but separating delivery from servicing is the key to achieving client satisfaction on two fundamentally different activities.

Ensuring that the IT organisation focuses on the services and projects that deliver optimal value to the business clients is the role of demand management. Continuous and structured interactions between IT and business must lead to relevant and effective portfolios of services and projects: ‘doing the right things’.

In a nutshell, such an operating model structures activities around three processes – demand, delivery and servicing – and is supported by three portfolios: services, projects and assets. The day that all IT managers can clearly present the elements of these three portfolios that they are responsible for, their organisation will be ready to enter the industrial age.

JACQUES GODET

CIO of BNP Paribas Fortis Jacques Godet passes the baton to Stefan Vanhelleputte, CIO of Solvay.

Theme: Time to raise corporate IT at the level of the consumer smart devices and services.

Column

FIGHT FOR THE ALTERNATIVE!

WWW.FREETHENETWORK.BE CELEBRATE YOUR FREEDOM. PAY LESS – GET MORE. VOTE FOR US! FIGHT FOR THE ALTERNATIVE! 27

The private cloud and many related topics are sparking passionate discussion among your colleagues.

Join the conversation at www.clusterofthoughts.com.

2 EMC28 , EMC, and where information lives are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. Š Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.