InformationWeek Stories by John McGreavy

InformationWeek Stories by John McGreavyhttp://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2013-01-29T08:48:00ZBlackBerry 10 Has This CIO Singing Taylor SwiftMy enterprise will give the new BlackBerry 10 and BES careful consideration, but it appears our RIM romance is over.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/blackberry-10-has-this-cio-singing-taylo/240147209?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioMy IT organization was ready to roll out an Android and Apple BYOD program, having conceded that Research In Motion and its BlackBerry had been left in the innovation dust. But Sam, our CEO, suggested I "socialize" the new BYOD strategy with our management group before proceeding. As I thought more about our situation, I decided to weather the "When can I use my iPhone/Galaxy?" storm a bit longer and delay our BYOD plans. The mobile device management landscape is changing constantly, and buying a bit more time seemed like a good idea. We still run numerous BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, and we haven't given up on RIM. We have technicians who are steeped in the BES platform, so we understand how to run this engine, which has been a reliable one for years. And while many of our employees have personal Android and Apple smartphones, our company standard is still the BlackBerry. What we want is an easy, cost-effective transition to a far richer mobile experience, so if an MDM system could help us manage Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC and other devices effectively, we 'd have a clear path forward. However, I just can't imagine RIM launching a smartphone and management platform that's provocative enough to gain my attention. Taylor Swift's catchy tune rings in my head: "We are never ever ever getting back together." [ For perspective on what users want from RIM, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/blackberry-10-6-ways-to-win-back-consume/240147138">BlackBerry 10: 6 Ways To Win Back Consumers</a>. ] Even if RIM is able to convince me that it has exactly what we need, how long could it sustain its new product strategy? There's ample evidence to suggest that RIM is quite capable of mishandling good fortune. Sure, founders and former co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis have moved on, but current CEO Thorsten Heins's early comment that RIM largely had a "marketing problem" still irritates me. I have little confidence that even if its new BlackBerry device and server innovations are successful, RIM has the ability to innovate at the speed the market expects. Despite all of the hype and the numerous invitations I've received to launch events, I'm not entirely clear on what my company will get from the new BlackBerry device, BES services and BlackBerry World app store. I've taken a quick look at RIM's website to get an idea of where this might be headed: "BlackBerry World now gives you access to more of what you love. Download apps, games, music, videos, books, magazines and more. Plus, the new BlackBerry World storefront gives you recommendations so it's easy to find something new." None of that seems groundbreaking. It's also not relevant to me as a CIO. Where is my enterprise partner, which understands my security, risk and cost-control needs? It's tempting to look only at <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/rim-bes-10-too-little-too-late/240147106">what BES 10 will do</a>, but additional benefit comes from the transition strategy: What will it take to get from here to there? I'm looking for a transition that takes advantage of my existing staff's knowledge and capabilities. RIM would hold an advantage with a low-impact plan to convert to BlackBerry 10.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   I've also come to appreciate the granularity of control BES gives us. We need to manage the propensity for employees to use their company-paid device for non-business activities. I'm not looking for simple on-device management that the user controls. I'm very concerned that more functional devices will lead to much higher usage costs. Our employees travel quite a bit, so roaming costs are a serious issue. The current BlackBerry excels at little else other than email, helping to keep roaming costs in check. We have seen enormous usage increases with Android and Apple devices. Will BES 10 allow for some serious control? Help me, RIM. Regardless of how successful BB 10 is, we have other devices in play and will have more going forward. RIM says its Fusion MDM platform will manage it all, but I don't see support of rival products making it to the top of the company's development plan. An independent provider will do a much better job of following the market. Many of the BB 10 invitations I'm receiving are coming from carriers, RIM's best friends. After all, where would RIM be without them? Like most companies we have significant communications contracts with different carriers, which can bundle products in ways that create value for us. This structure gives RIM an advantage of easy access to enterprises. Maybe the carriers will add something new to the mix, like bundled pricing advantages that we don't see for Apple and Android devices. If RIM knocks it out of the park, I'll pay attention. We're definitely slowing down our smartphone migration plans to get a seat in the bleachers for the RIM show. But I won't be waiting for long. We have opportunities to pursue. Apple and Google drive the application innovation we're looking for. And the independent MDM providers are beginning to deliver the management functionality needed to harness those innovations for enterprise use. As much as I would like to see RIM succeed, I have little faith that the company can sustain any momentum it might gain from this latest product rollout. I just don't see us getting back together.2013-01-23T09:06:00ZSecret CIO: 5 Steps To That CIO TitleI advise a frustrated reader on how to win the CIO title he wants and deserves.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/secret-cio-5-steps-to-that-cio-title/240146719?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioFeeling overlooked for a big title adjustment? Read on. Dear John: I can't believe the timing and relevance of your recent column, <a href=http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/cios-dont-get-taken-for-granted/232901366>"Don't Get Taken for Granted."</a> Don't get me wrong: I work for a great company, and my bosses (CEO and CFO) have given me great freedom. However, when I was asked (told) to take over IT four years ago as the IT director after being in finance for 10 years, I thought I'd be in a different place by now. IT was a mess. No vision, no strategic direction and no communications. I pushed for and was given the chance to overhaul all of our systems with a major ERP project (Microsoft Dynamics AX). We're still implementing and making great progress, but it has been a monumental challenge overcoming organizational culture to implement not only a system, but also standard operating procedures across five organizations. We're also extending the product quite a bit, as it's not prevalent in our industry. [ Fed up? Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/leaving-it-4-job-options-for-frustrated/232900489?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Leaving IT: 4 Job Options For Frustrated Techies</a>. ] So here I sit as the IT director of an $800 million organization that I believe should have a CIO. Sure, I want more money, but I also am concerned that at 45 I may be losing my window of opportunity to gain the C title. Currently, I'm first in line to replace my boss, the CFO, when he retires in five to eight years. A lot can change in that time, and I fear that waiting will close the window for good if things don't work out. My biggest issue is that I believe I'm doing the CIO job right now based on what job descriptions I can find. The primary goal of our ERP system has been to support the long-term growth and efficiency of our organization. Although I still have a fair number of specific tasks to do because of resource constraints, I think my value and the focus of my work over the last four years has been setting and implementing corporate strategies. What should I do? Stop worrying and be happy that I have a good job at a solid company, one where my opinions are valued and I'm in line for a big promotion in five to 10 years? Continue to press for the CIO title? Or start looking elsewhere? Thanks and best regards, Frustrated Dear Frustrated: You've summed up your options, but let's get into a few more details. <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"><div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a><div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div>Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</div> </div>   First, waiting for the promotion is a waste of your time and life. You've been out of finance now for four years and have accepted the unenviable task of an ERP conversion. You should have delegated this job a while ago, so as not to be seen as ERP Man, which I bet you are. Look around. Does the CFO have a key go-to person he/she relies on? The CFO's successor might be right in front of you (and not in the mirror). Unless there are some very strong commitments to you, I'd give the CFO option low consideration. Soups might get better with simmering, but careers don't. Second, explore options 2 and 3, which are related. Press for the CIO title, making it clear you already operate at this level and are prepared to leave the company to secure this industry-recognized level of responsibility and authority. And be prepared to leave the company, ideally by securing a CIO job at another company.But before getting to this discussion, you need a plan to press for the CIO title. Devote some time and effort to changing management's perception of your responsibilities, importance to the company, competence and the compensation that you deserve. Here are my five suggestions for creating the right impression: 1. Take Care Of The IT Fundamentals. If, after four years, your company's IT infrastructure is still broken and you can't keep the lights on, the rest of this discussion doesn't really matter. And make sure you assess your situation from your company's point of view, not yours. 2. Spend More Time With Your Business Counterparts. Those would be the departmental VPs, especially those who runs sales and operations. Focus on what they need to succeed. Explain that your organization can adjust Dynamics AX, if needed, to meet critical requirements, but that you need to understand what they are. Your goal is to enable better performance than they thought possible, and you need to ensure that AX has the right configurations, ready to go. Ask the departmental chiefs how they measure your success, and make sure they see results in their terms. 3. If You Don't Know Your Core Business, Learn It. Find out where your markets are headed. Talk with key customers to find out what sort of IT enablement would extend your company's value. Recommend new sub-projects or AX extensions that will support your ideas. 4. Research Your Competitors. Determine if they have key IT initiatives that threaten your company. Present this information to your management team and explain the counter strike you would like to make. 5. Hand Over Day-To-Day Management Of The AX Conversion. Give it to a highly competent lieutenant. You need to remove yourself from your current job and distance yourself from that project. Give the new ERP manager credit for his/her work, and don't let the project come off the rails. Then go to your boss. Explain that you value industry recognition. Explain that you participate in industry groups and conferences, such as the InformationWeek 500, and that your peers have CIO titles. Explain that you'll have greater influence with the company's IT vendors if you have the CIO title. Explain that the title is important to you. And then simply ask: What do I need to do in order to have the CIO title? If the answer is to your liking, make sure you and your boss are clear on the terms and the start date. If you don't get the answer you want, then begin the search for a CIO position elsewhere. If you're qualified, you'll find it. And once you're close, give your boss another chance at addressing your needs. At that point, there should be no surprises; you should be able to have a healthy conversation that will either lead to the title you seek, or you will leave on good terms. In this economy, 45 might be the new 35. We all might be in the workforce longer that we expected. The last thing I'd suggest you do is bet on hope. All the best, soon-to-be-CIO!2012-12-12T08:00:00ZAlways Connected, But Always DistractedTake a step back and ask what's more important: taking in what's online or taking in what's right in front of you?http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/always-connected-but-always-distracted/240143804?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cio Since I first became an IT manager, I've taken pride in being reachable pretty much at all times. After all, I'm in the business of enabling fast, immediate and cost-effective communications of relevant information. Today, our CEO, CFO and other senior leaders, as well as my direct reports, know they can email, call or text me anytime they need me and I'll respond. For instance, our email system had a short, unplanned outage a few years ago on Christmas Eve, and I already knew the ETA to a fix by the time our CEO left me a voice mail about it. His expectation was the same as mine: I would respond right away, which I did. One day last year I took off to get some chores done around the house. I was out in the yard for a couple of hours and had left my BlackBerry in the garage. When I returned, I found an urgent email from one of our divisional presidents about a personnel issue I needed to address. I apologized for not responding earlier, and that's how I felt. Call me anytime, because I will respond. Count on it. At a conference I attended several weeks ago, I planned to get some work done during the sessions. It's a conference, right? I'll just answer email while I listen and learn, I figured. But the conference organizers had assigned seating, and everyone behind me would have been able to see me working on email. This was not the impression I wanted to leave, especially because most of the attendees were IT managers and supervisors, many of whom aspire to become CIOs. So I had no choice but to pay attention to the conversations of the moment. One of the presenters echoed my fondest self-help sentiment: It all starts with me, not you or them. Stephen Covey's Circle of Influence vs. Circle of Concern and his Habit No. 1: Be proactive. I was listening because I had put my laptop and smartphone away. My action to appear in the moment actually put me in the moment. It was an interesting experience. Change starts with me. I remember now. A week later, I took a few days of vacation at a hotel in a warm climate. As my wife and I sat in the lobby bar, I noticed a couple nearby. They didn't speak to or look at each other for at least an hour because they were too busy staring at their smartphones. I noticed another young couple with a small baby, and while the mother kept the baby entertained, her husband was preoccupied with his smartphone. At one point, he looked up, waved at the baby, and then returned to his device. A half-hour later, both he and his wife were engrossed in their phones while the baby played by himself. After making the observation to my wife about these couples' technological detachment, she responded: "It's very interesting that you notice this. You're looking at yourself." It was an eye opener. I didn't see myself in these other people. I have a reason for constantly checking my phone, I reasoned. I manage technology for a living, so I have an excuse. And then I thought about the conference session of the prior week. I realized at that moment that it's time for me to make a change. I tried to put my smartphone away for the next few days of my vacation. I still checked it regularly, but far less frequently than I normally would have. It was more difficult than I thought, but it was a start. I survived, and so did my company. Find A Balance The issue of the social and personal impact of technology is a bit above my academic acumen, so I'm not going to comment on that general topic. But for those of us who deliver and manage enterprise IT services, consider this a cautionary commentary. Being reachable 24/7 is critical for those in our profession, but there's a balance. I don't know where the right balance point is, I admit, but it's not where it has been. If you're like me, it's time to step back and ask what's more important: taking in what's online or taking in what's right in front of you? I'm going to make a change, and I'm going to encourage the people I work with to do the same, because change starts with me.  <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/9496/IT-Business-Strategy/informationweek-december-17-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1354/smallcov2.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: Dec. 17, 2012 Issue" title="InformationWeek: Dec. 17, 2012 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><a href="url_to_come">Download a free PDF of InformationWeek magazine</a> (registration required)</div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center>  2012-10-03T08:00:00ZGoogle Enterprise, I'm Not ImpressedYou have great products and are a proven innovator, but it will take changes in thinking to conquer the enterprise.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240008021?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cio Google is in the house! And it's staying for dinner. That was the message from Google Enterprise executives Michael Lock and Clay Bavor as they concluded their discussion with an audience of customers and potential customers at the recent InformationWeek 500 Conference. How fortunate for me, I thought sarcastically throughout their presentation. Google is important. I know. Google and Apple will become a critical part of our IT in the next few years. At some point in the not-too-distant future, most of our employees will access enterprise data from devices that don't run Windows. But it's going to be a bumpy ride. It took self-discipline to look past the Google speakers' pompous attitude. I'm trying to be positive, but their repeated references to the fact that Google's consumer products pay for the vendor's enterprise product development--so Google simply can't lose in the enterprise--got under my skin. It's all in the numbers for Google. Hundreds of millions of users can't be wrong. It signs up people for its software tools, and then it figures out how to make money. Enterprises can take it or leave it, and Google knows we will take it, the execs all but suggested. I'm not so sure. While we're integrating consumer technology into our business, we also deliver many purpose-built systems to provide a competitive business edge. We depend on reliable, focused vendor support. We need to understand future product direction. We need partners that don't chase shiny new things for a living and understand the discipline of delivering shareholder value through risk-managed innovation and execution. (SAP, listen up.) I don't think Google gets this point at all. Another CIO attendee at the conference questioned Google about its lack of a product road map. Bavor, Google Enterprise's head of product management, replied with some effervescent, hand-waving description of Google's process for creating incredible products of all sorts that increase productivity and generate a fabulous (or was it amazing?) experience. And then Lock, the Google Enterprise VP, attempted to explain the vendor's development cycle. He explained that Google can't share much more than a six-month vision because it doesn't know what it will be doing beyond that time frame. That's unsettling for an enterprise CIO. I could be part of the in crowd and say that I get it. But I'm not sure I do. It can take me six months to socialize (my favorite new buzzword) an innovation, and another six to implement it. Google, is that product going to be around after six months, or replaced? The cynics will tell me I need to be a more nimble innovator and implement mass organizational change in a month or two. Fortunately for my employer, I realize the nonsense in this notion. Business change is risky. Am I starting to sound like one of those "MBA types" InformationWeek contributor Jonathan Feldman referred to in a recent column on this same Google presentation? Jonathan asked if we MBA types really need a five-year road map to use Google's Hangouts for staff meetings. That's stretching the point. Videoconferencing has been around for a while. Vendors chasing the consumer market, most notably Skype (now part of Microsoft), lowered the cost of and barrier to entry. However, consumer products such as Hangouts do little to address the network load implications and the change management required to truly engage an entire organization in videoconferencing. I could ignore the cultural reality and blame those who don't "get it" for resisting change, but marginalizing employees has ugly consequences. I will take what I can get from Google, but I see a gap between what I need and what it promises. This is why my company recently switched from Google to Microsoft as the map provider for our customer portal. Microsoft was simply more enterprise-friendly. Google, I know you don't care. As a midsize enterprise, we aren't even a pixel on your radar screen. I hope some larger enterprises are able to help you pave this road for the rest of us. Google, you have some great products. You have market share, cash, and the ability to innovate. You also have the opportunity to change the world in many other ways, but it will take some adjustment in thinking and approach to conquer the enterprise. An attitude adjustment wouldn't be a bad start.  <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/19/9060/Network-Infrastructure/informationweek-october-8-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1345/smallcov.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: Oct. 8, 2012 Issue" title="InformationWeek: Oct. 8, 2012 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/19/9060/Network-Infrastructure/informationweek-october-8-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download a free PDF of InformationWeek magazine</a> (registration required)</div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center>  2012-08-29T08:00:00ZThe Problem With Social Collaboration On IT ProjectsThe buzzword of the day takes communications to a whole new level. It may ease implementation--or mean getting bogged down in consensus building.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240006021?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cio I was just putting the finishing touches on our company's bring- your-own-device policy when Sam, our CEO, dropped by for a chat. I eventually got around to the BYOD strategy, mentioning the planned move from company-issued BlackBerrys to employee-paid, personally owned devices of choice. "This is going to be a big change for some of our staff," he said. "You better socialize this." "Socialize" is one of the &#252ber-buzzwords of the day. To socialize an intention is different from communicating, explaining, or discussing it. It requires taking communications to a new level of importance and intimacy with the organization. In fact, to socialize an intention means it's further from implementation than you might expect. Socializing generally involves communicating from one to many and, more important, encouraging much more feedback from and interaction among that many. For example, you might socialize your plan to replace Office 2010 with Office 365 by posting this information on the company blog and asking employees to weigh in with comments and suggestions, even alternatives. In the past, the IT organization would just make this decision and implement it. I'm now working through our new smartphone/tablet/personal device policy, and it's clearly a high-touch, high-feel subject. In the past, my team would weigh the options, consider the overall business case and value drivers, and set a policy that we would then implement. But the past dealt with cell phones and laptops. With consumer devices, most employees have a much stronger opinion. Rather than come to us, the IT experts, for advice ("Which home PC would you suggest I buy?"), employees are now coming to us with advice ("The company should issue everyone iPhones, as I've found that they're the best smartphones on the planet."). Not only does socializing involve a fairly broad audience (socializing with your staff doesn't count), but it also implies true interaction. And with that interaction comes the expectation that the mobile device approach our company ultimately will take won't necessarily be the one my IT team would lay out if we were (no pun intended) left to our own devices. We will start the process at the top. I will send a summary of the initial plan to our CEO, and I will then present it at our next senior leadership meeting--not as a fait accompli, but as an idea. I will provide all of the answers to their questions. Members of the leadership team will chat about the idea, and eventually share it with their direct reports and ask them for feedback. Much of that feedback will come in the form of questions, which my team will answer, and I'll communicate those answers back to the broader management team. This cycle will continue for a few iterations, before we open the discussion to employees and begin to zero in on the end point. The Big But This all may seem like an exercise in bureaucracy and CYA, but I have no doubt that the socializing process will produce a much easier implementation. But … and this is a big but: If the socializing process morphs into consensus-building, we'll have a huge problem, because there's no chance everyone will agree on what to do with smartphones, tablets, and other personally owned devices. At some point, our IT organization will have to make a decision based on our expertise, a decision that will be unpopular with some, even many, employees. In the past, our IT organization's approach was to get our hands on everything and manage the heck out of it. We negotiated cellular contracts, locked down rate plans, set policy on our BlackBerry Enterprise Servers, centralized billing and chargebacks, and monitored expenses. I slept very well at night. Adoption of personally owned, corporately enabled devices is very different. Centralized control will be expensive and will stifle the productivity benefits these new devices have to offer. There's no right answer, but if socializing means coming to a collective agreement, we may be a BlackBerry customer for much longer than I thought.  <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/13/9006/Outsourcing-Services/informationweek-september-3-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1342/smallcov.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: Sept. 3, 2012 Issue" title="InformationWeek: Sept. 3, 2012 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/13/9006/Outsourcing-Services/informationweek-september-3-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download a free PDF of InformationWeek magazine</a> (registration required)</div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center>  2012-07-09T08:00:00ZI'm A 'Tech Savvy' Pro, But Am I CIO Timber?Our Secret CIO, John McGreavy, answers questions from our readers.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240002851?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioDear John: I am a 54-year-old, tech-savvy leader in my field, and I aspire to be more. Since the dawn of information technology, I have studied and watched the industry with great interest. During that time, I also raised a family, cultivated a marriage of 24 years, and became an expert in the packaging industry. I have led teams of individuals as small as seven and as large as 125. Can you point me in the right direction as to resources or education I might require to break into a CIO position? I also have a bachelor's degree in communications.--Looking for Guidance Dear Looking for Guidance: I assume you didn't grow up in the IT industry, that your core professional knowledge lies outside of IT. You want to move into an executive IT C-level position at a mature stage in your career. I'll brush off the initial "good luck with that" reaction and suggest that your objective can indeed be realized. But consider the following: Problem 1: Effective CIOs must balance IT knowledge and business acumen. You have the latter, not the former. While you may understand the business implications of technology, your weakness will be in motivating and managing IT staff and their supplier organizations. If you don't understand their pain points and struggles, as well as their professional development needs, you won't get their respect. Problem 2: You don't mention your job history, but if you have been with the same organization for some time, you're likely typecast. You see yourself as a packaging industry expert, with no reference to IT. Your current credentials are a hindrance to your goal of becoming CIO. How many IT organizations pine for a CIO who hasn't a clue about their jobs, interests, and challenges? Problem 3: Just how tech savvy are you? Are you on Facebook for more than creeping your kids' pages? Do you understand the latest shop flooring scheduling technologies? Is Hana really the database of the future? How much unstructured data does your company process? What do you think of Jive? Java? Radian6? Have you worked through a data security breach or an e-discovery process? Are cloud services truly sent from heaven? CIOs must be current with technologies as they impact the enterprise. Showing everyone the Star Walk app on your iPad won't cut it. Consider the following advice: Work on what you can influence. In your current role, to demonstrate credibility with IT professionals: >> Start a special project that will require IT capabilities. Get hands-on with the work, and learn from the IT experts who are involved. >> Take on IT development work yourself, on your own time. Build an iOS application or two. >> Spend time with your own IT department. Find out what IT staffers do. >> Read the terms and conditions of all of the click-through agreements you accept. >> Develop a voracious appetite for industry information, gleaned from seminars, trade publications, research firms, and the like. Spend your nights and weekends reading about our industry. It will all add up. Longer term, consider moving to a smaller company within your industry and changing jobs, in a role closer to what you're now looking for. A smaller company will value your broad experience; in exchange, you want influence and/or direct control over some aspect of technology. From then on, you can begin to develop your CIO-in-training credentials. Don't jump to conclusions about being tech savvy too quickly. You likely mean that you have a fascination with and interest in how applied technology solves business problems and creates value. But liking music and becoming a professional musician are entirely different things. Every IT pro I know is tech savvy and loves technology, but few of them will ever become CIOs. Let's translate this tech interest into understanding. >> Attend local CIO panels/conferences and establish relationships with CIOs. Set up a few lunches with the ones you meet, and talk with them about their strategies and priorities. >> Establish contact with key IT vendors. Few vendors turn down the opportunity to meet with a potential purchasing influencer. You'll be amazed at what you can learn from vendors, including CIO opportunities. >> Get to the packaging industry conferences, find the IT vendors there, and immerse yourself in their products. >> Look for opportunities to present your views on IT innovation in your industry. There's no better teacher than the process of teaching itself. Think about presenting your emerging CIO ideas to an audience. Nothing compels an individual to achieve a goal like believing in it. Start behaving like the CIO you wish to be. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, offers advice to readers under the pseudonym John McGreavy, Share this story and read others by him at <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/authors/John-McGreavy">informationweek.com/johnmcgreavy</a>. Need career advice or have a technical, business, or organizational problem to solve? Send a letter to <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>.  <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/8883/IT-Business-Strategy/informationweek-july-9-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1338/cov_110w.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: July 9, 2012 Issue" title="InformationWeek: July 9, 2012 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/8883/IT-Business-Strategy/informationweek-july-9-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download a free PDF of InformationWeek magazine</a> (registration required)</div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center>  2012-05-03T09:05:00ZCIOs: Don't Get Taken For GrantedIf your IT organization is seen as executing each new strategic initiative seamlessly, the job can't really be all that difficult, right?http://www.informationweek.com/news/232901366?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioI receive no shortage of advice on how to do my job--research, articles, books, seminars, conferences, boot camps, blogs…the list goes on. I hold a position that must be the most surveyed and over-analyzed on the planet. Every vendor wants to know what keeps me up at night so that it can help me sleep better. But the most valued advice I receive comes from other CIOs. Their only bias is the same as mine: getting the job done right. It's with this thought in mind that I'll be writing a regular "Dear John" column on InformationWeek.com starting next month. If you want technical, organizational, career, or any other kind of professional advice from a working CIO, send me a Dear John email at <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com"> jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a> and I'll answer select ones in my next column. I promise you this: I'll give it to you straight. Do you work for an overbearing IT director or a line-of-business executive who thinks he knows more about IT than you do? Are you facing an intractable software rollout or upgrade? Do you need guidance on dealing with a specific vendor? Are you a vendor exec who can't figure out why you keep striking out with a particular CIO? Tell me about it and let's see what we can do. And if you want to offer me advice based on what I've written in one of my Secret CIO columns (access them at informationweek.com/johnmcgreavy), I'm all ears. Maybe we'll solve a problem or two together. As a premise for my Dear John advice column, here's my overall philosophy: Don't get things done too right, impairing your ability to succeed in the future. Put another way, if you deliver the goods consistently but too quietly, you may find yourself and your organization taken for granted. This isn't the voice of resentment; it's the voice of experience. And when you're taken for granted, the conditions needed for your success start to change. If your IT organization is seen as executing each new strategic initiative seamlessly, the job can't really be all that difficult, right? If costs are always in line, services are always delivered on schedule, and emerging technologies are in place just in time, maybe this IT thing is a walk in the park. Maybe you don't need that place at the executive table. And if you and your organization then become disengaged from executive discussions, you no longer have early visibility into corporate changes. And you're no longer able to inject your influence into the executive process. The result is a slow decay in IT effectiveness. Here's some advice. 1. Communicate near-misses. Make sure all of the top executives know what could have happened if that major IT project had gone sideways. You know how tricky that ERP upgrade was? What would have happened if the database conversions had failed? Billing wouldn't have run the next day, adding how many days to receivables and infuriating how many customers? 2. Compare yourself to competitors. Ask a recent hire from a competitor about the IT systems at his or her former employer. How was the access to information? Were the systems reliable? Was the IT organization responsive? Find weaknesses and make sure your senior management team understands them. 3. Point out other companies' misfortunes. Examples of IT catastrophes are plentiful. Don't revel in them, but use them to your advantage. Create a sense of relief that your company has never felt those kinds of awful, painful experiences under your watch. 4. Describe what can go wrong if strategic IT initiatives aren't handled correctly. A little FUD doesn't hurt from time to time. Do you insource certain key operations? To reinforce your strategy, highlight a few examples where outsourcing of similar operations failed. Help your peers understand the pitfalls you have avoided. 5. Don't expect pats on the back--that's not the point. The point is that the better you and your organization get, the more you may fade into the background. Ensure that there's a clear understanding company-wide of your strategic relevance. It's your job to make sure you and your people are appreciated. Meantime, email me your questions and problems. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. InformationWeek is conducting a survey to get a baseline look at where enterprises stand on their IPv6 deployments, with a focus on problem areas, including security, training, budget, and readiness. Upon completion of our survey, you will be eligible to enter a drawing to receive an 16-GB Apple iPad. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012IPv6.sgizmo.com/s3">InformationWeek IPv6 Survey</a> now. Survey ends May 11. 2012-03-12T14:33:00ZInnovative Ideas Are A Dime A DozenIdeas abound. The real challenge for CIOs is to pick the best ideas that can be implemented quickly and visibly. http://www.informationweek.com/news/232602430?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cio <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/ebusiness/232600832"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/739/01_IBMsmartcamp175.jpg" alt="9 Startups To Watch In 2012" title="9 Startups To Watch In 2012" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">9 Startups To Watch In 2012</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  Our company held another innovation session last month. These sessions, run by our operating divisions, are intended to establish an environment for employees to get their creative juices flowing. Sam, our president, has decided that innovation is one of our key corporate themes this year. As CIO, one of my major responsibilities is to facilitate innovative changes and implement new ideas. However, I still cringe when I hear that another innovation session is scheduled. Innovation isn't just about coming up with creative ideas. Those ideas must be implemented--and we as a company tend to be soft on implementation. I know other companies are struggling with this same issue, as Rob Preston wrote about <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/232600922">in a recent column</a>.] We have no shortage of ideas. Here are a few of mine: I wish my kitchen cupboards washed the dishes so I could just put them away dirty and take them out clean. I'd like my smartphone to unfold into a laptop, then fold back up again and fit into my pocket. I wish our CRM software tracked our reps' locations, figured out which customers they met with, listened to their conversations, and completed the call reports automatically. Ideas aren't that hard to come by. These innovation sessions yield long lists of great ideas. Many of them are already on our IT organization's list but fall outside the budget we have set for this year. Other ideas aren't very good at all. And some are absolutely brilliant in both their creativity and simplicity. But in all cases, the idea itself is only the first part of the process. [ For more thoughts on how to foster innovation at your organization, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/232601770?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How To Become More Agile And Innovative</a>. ] What we need are innovative ideas on how to implement truly innovative ideas. Call it innovative innovation. I struggle to get our organization's collective head wrapped around this notion. I don't want to be raining on the idea parades, but I hate to see the disappointed faces when employees' winning ideas are forgotten or ignored. Chuck, one of our plant maintenance supervisors, stopped me in the main reception area as I was returning from an offsite meeting the other day. He usually rags me about forgetting his name. Embarrassment is a good teacher, so I don't forget Chuck's name anymore. "Hey, Chuck, how are you?" I asked. "John, I need to talk with you," he replied. "What about my idea? Remember the one I submitted online? You know?" I was supposed to know, but Chuck let me off the hook and continued: "The one about adding a 'for sale' section to our intranet. It would be fantastic to be able to post items for sale to employees. When are we going to do that? Don't you like that idea?" I remembered Chuck's idea once he mentioned it. And I could have explained to him the considerations we would need to take into account: the number of public sites devoted to this purpose already; the value to the company of administering such a function; the policy we'd have to write to govern it, etc.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   Which brings me back to the point of implementation: Implementation includes everything required to realize sustainable value from an idea. It includes communications and training and usage measurement and all the other work required to engage an organization in the adoption of a new or changed process. This is the real challenge of innovation. A massive consumer market is adopting IT like never before; millions of talented people are coming up with bold, creative new ideas every day. So there's no shortage of innovative ideas. The challenge is in picking and executing the right ones. For me, innovative innovation starts with picking the best ideas that can be implemented quickly and visibly. I'm wary of the ideas that appear simple at first glance but take an army to implement. The fewer the people involved, the better. Even major shifts in business process must start this way. Simple but highly visible implementations of new technology generate enthusiasm and pride within a company. People like new shiny things, and there's legitimate organizational value in being an early adopter of certain technologies. Call it the gadget process: It's a great way to find some of the best of the best and assess just how easy it will be to create sustainable value. It's a new day that takes new ways. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. Nominate your company for the 2012 InformationWeek 500--our 24th annual ranking of the nation's very best business technology innovators. Deadline is April 27. Organizations with $250 million or more in revenue may apply for the <a href="http://informationweek.2012IW500pre-registration.sgizmo.com?iwid=pl <http://informationweek.2012iw500pre-registration.sgizmo.com/?iwid=pl> ">2012 InformationWeek 500</a> now. 2012-01-30T08:00:00ZThe Ambush That Set Me StraightIt's never easy getting criticized by a customer--but it can be valuable.http://www.informationweek.com/news/232500034?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioOur largest customers are distributors of our products, and they receive special treatment. In a number of cases, we have built unique technology integration with these key customers, which provides product-handling intelligence that translates into a competitive advantage for them. And for us. Vic, our VP of marketing, recently invited me to a quarterly strategic review with one of these flagship customers. "We want to build a stronger partnership by giving them insight into our plans and how the work could be of benefit to them," Vic told me. "I'd like for you to present your vision of how IT will further enable competitive advantage for them." It sounded like a great idea. I prepared a few PowerPoints I thought would impress the audience. We have under way some exciting IT investments that will benefit our customers. For example, we plan to embed in mobile equipment low-cost tracking devices that will transmit health and load factors in real time, helping our customers move our products more efficiently. We're adding analytics to the data our key customers collect and correlating it with industry data, something that's nearly impossible for a single distributor to do on its own. The strategy meeting began well, with introductions and discussion of our objectives. After about half an hour, it was my turn. I handed out the few pages I had prepared and began to describe the IT trends we're seeing--new devices, faster wireless networks, big data. I discussed the technology investments we're making that will be of value specifically to our customer. As I started wrapping up, a bit full of myself at that point, I noticed that guns were being loaded beneath the boardroom table. The next stage of the meeting then became painfully obvious, as our customer's executives pointed their weapons at me and started firing. "Hey, John, what about the connectors between our systems that don't work today? What are you doing about these issues? We lose orders routinely because the software doesn't work." George, the senior procurement exec, was clearly frustrated. It was his opinion that it was all our fault, and others in the room agreed. "This system has never worked, not from day one," remarked another exec. "We're looking at putting in a competitor's system, because we know it will work." The barrage continued for about 15 minutes--what seemed like the rest of the day. I felt like the bad guy in a B movie who gets riddled with hundreds of bullets and takes what seems like forever to die. But I listened intently, took notes, and didn't attempt to cut the discussion short. I acknowledged their frustration, as they must wonder what the point of future investments is when the existing investments aren't paying off. Our customer service department is empowered to address all of the issues raised by our customer. The problems it has been encountering are operational in nature, and our IT organization would normally get involved once customer service had determined we had a true software problem. I didn't expect these types of issues to be addressed at a strategy meeting. But all that doesn't matter. Our customer had nagging problems tied to our IT efforts, and I should have been prepared to address them. A swift kick in the teeth is healthy from time to time, as the most effective learning can come from discomfort and duress. The night before the meeting, the thought had crossed my mind that I was in for an ambush--it was like seeing a dark cloud and thinking it could rain. But the weatherman (Vic) had assured me that no umbrella was needed. Come as you are. Which I did, unprepared. I don't fault our customer. Its IT problems are our problems to solve. The buck stops here; it always will. We've since taken the appropriate action, including enhancing the customer service processes that should have addressed the root causes of our customer's problem. But the experience was a bracing reminder to me that no matter how strategic CIOs become, we're always a moment away from the hot seat. If what our organizations have delivered isn't working properly or is perceived so, fix it fast. And if you think it's someone else's job, you're wrong. I had no idea how valuable this meeting was going to be. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>.  <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/7/8657/Enterprise-Software/informationweek-january-30-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1322/smallcov.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: Jan. 30, 2012 Issue" title="InformationWeek: Jan. 30, 2012 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/7/8657/Enterprise-Software/informationweek-january-30-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download a free PDF of InformationWeek magazine</a> (registration required)</div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center> 2011-11-18T09:00:00ZMobility Is The New Wild WestIt will be tough for our sales reps to keep up, and we're going to see have and have-nots. What's a CIO to do?http://www.informationweek.com/news/231903154?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioMy company represents a number of manufacturers' products, and we sell through brick-and-mortar stores as well as a field sales organization. Our industrial customers don't buy on impulse. Most often, our specialized sales force helps them understand their requirements and recommends product configurations that will meet their needs. With a broadening, ever-more-sophisticated product line, however, our reps struggle to keep current. In the past, sales support information came mostly in print materials as part of training. Today, all bets are off. Each supplier has its own new idea for supporting its products, based on the technology platform or tool of its choice. One supplier recently warned me that its new software, required to specify its product line, will be so processor-intensive that our reps will need laptops with the performance specs of our current server configuration--8 gigs of RAM minimum to support the high-end graphics and animations that will simply delight our customers. Another of our suppliers dropped by the other day to announce the company's new line of iPhone applications, aimed at our sales force as well as our customers. Imagine the power of having this rich sales content at your fingertips, we were told--anywhere, anytime, and delivered in a very fashionable package. Move over, high-end laptop. Make room for the iPhone. Yet another supplier recently demonstrated to us its new iPad sales applications. "You don't want your sales reps pulling out those old grampa notebooks, do you?" asked the supplier rep. The iPad makes a statement, we were told. This sales app is designed for the full tablet real estate, so an iPhone won't cut it. Move over, high-end laptop and iPhone. Make room for the iPad. Our reps all use BlackBerry smartphones for company email and BlackBerry Messenger. As I wrote last month, my return on this investment appears to be on the decline as Research In Motion struggles to keep pace with the innovations of its competitors. However, we can't just toss out this large technology investment without a good reason (called a business case). Excuse me, high-end notebook, iPhone, and iPad: Our BlackBerrys are going to stick around for a while. It's the Wild West of mobility. It will be tough for our reps to keep up, and we're going to see haves and have-nots emerge. Some reps will simply choose not to cope with the multitude of interfaces and will opt out of certain communications channels. They will become less and less knowledgeable about key product lines. Individually, each supplier's application may look terrific, but collectively, our sales team is going to struggle to keep up. The IT side of this situation doesn't look pretty either. Sure, we're evaluating "bring your own device" policies, but we're doing so with the intention of creating greater value for our organization, not to be part of a trend. New devices have clear advantages for certain requirements, but my responsibility is to put technology to work for our organization in the most cost-effective manner. Multiple devices, multiple training requirements, new security models, and added support demands add up. This is a new problem, and it's going to require new thinking. I'm open to suggestions on how to adapt to this new Wild West. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. 2011-09-29T10:38:00ZSecret CIO: RIM, What's Going On?My company has a significant investment in your BlackBerry platform, but my return is starting to erode. Time to step up. http://www.informationweek.com/news/231602391?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioResearch in Motion has had a rough ride this last year, the subject of many disparaging blogs and articles. We work in a trendy industry. We set trends, we follow trends, and we jump on and off the bandwagons. We thrive on "I have it and you don't" emotions and we relish those "I heard it first" moments. I admit it: I hate to be seen as hanging on to yesterday's lifestyle choices. But it's not just a hipster attitude at work. Consumer trends are having a profound influence on enterprise technology. And consumers appear to be leaving RIM behind. I have a lot of respect for the little Canadian company that did. It created a reliable mobile communications platform that dramatically increased the speed of business. Remember Windows CE? Redmond couldn't get it right. I read recently that if the data volume now handled by BlackBerry devices were to be processed by Android/iOS/other devices, networks would be crushed with the increased load. I don't know if that statement is true or not, but I do know that I value the cost management tools and capabilities inherent in the BlackBerry platform. I value the policy control. I value the ease with which it lets our organization manage company data. I value the commonality among devices, the ease of swaps and replacements, the battery life, and the stability. [ RIM engineers just issued a troubling warning regarding the PlayBook's Android capabilities. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal-tech/mobile-apps/231602334?itc=edit_in_body_cross"> PlayBook Tablet: Retailers Cut Prices, RIM Cuts Hope</a>. ] I can't recall, however, when another product has fallen so far so fast. At least when the Sony Walkman was displaced by MP3 players, the new kids on the block offered a far superior technical product. And Sony chose not to compete but rather fight the emergence of the new technology. If you fight, you either win or lose. Sony lost. I get it. But I don't get what's going on with RIM. What have you been doing with your cash? Based on your recent financial results, I suppose I won't need to ask this question for long. I recently attended the InformationWeek 500 Conference in Dana Point, Calif. This conference attracts senior IT leaders from across the country. I saw many iPads, notebooks, iPhones, Android devices--and still many BlackBerrys--in use. But not one RIM tablet. Isn't the BlackBerry Playbook the first professional-grade tablet? So shouldn't some of us professionals be carrying one? I have a Playbook, but it was given to me. And I didn't take it with me to the conference. I'd be too embarrassed to pull it out of its case. I'd know the glances that would come my way. I'd hear, "You really use that thing?" I shouldn't care what people think. And I don't really, if I thought the device was just the right thing to use. But no one carries a Playbook, and I bet most feel as I do. RIM's tablet has its problems. The bridge connection to a BlackBerry handheld doesn't make much sense. It's a bit flaky. It does have some terrific design features--why can't every device have HDMI output? But it doesn't seem to matter. At least not to developers, who continue to produce great apps for Apple and Android devices, but not for the Playbook. A tablet without applications is ultimately just an interesting bit of history. RIM made many promises in May of things to come. It needs to deliver. I don't get it, RIM. What's going on? You've launched some new smartphones--is that it? My company has a significant investment in your platform, and I make decisions based on ROI. I've made the investment, and my return is starting to erode. Before long, my friends (and colleagues) will be laughing at me. (I hate it when people laugh at me.) Hello? RIM? Hello? The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. 2011-07-26T08:01:00ZSecret CIO: When Reboot Has A Silver LiningThe 3 minutes it takes for my netbook to restart are critical to my effectiveness as a CIO. Here's why.http://www.informationweek.com/news/231002597?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cio I use a netbook as my main PC. It provides me with the best balance of size and portability, battery life, and usability for both office and business travel. I often throw a tablet into my bag when travelling, so that I can pull it out at the right times and look relevant and all, but I use the netbook for my real work. I run all of the usual suspects on the netbook--Outlook, Office, etc.-- under Windows 7 Professional. I suspend the unit each night, and usually reboot it only for a Windows update. It's very reliable, and performance is terrific. Occasionally, however, Outlook gets a bit screwy and I have to reboot the machine, just like the old days. It was about 4 p.m. on a recent sunny Friday afternoon, and I hit restart. The one drawback with this netbook is that it takes up to 3 minutes, start to finish. I didn’t want to sit in my office for the next 3 minutes, so I took a walk through the building to see who was working on a summer Friday afternoon. The place was pretty empty, but Jeff, our VP of operations, was just leaving his office, on his way to a customer event for the evening. I asked if he had seen the emails I had circulated recently concerning inventory write-downs. Jeff has a pet peeve about the way we handle miscellaneous inventory, and he thinks some sort of RF tracking technology will solve the problem. I'm not sold on the solution, but I know we have a problem with too many write-downs. Jeff and I then had a lengthy discussion about process change at the company, the need for more discipline, and how technology will work only if we adopt a new approach to handling inventory. And I also assured Jeff that if it's the right investment to make, we will invest in the new tracking technology. We didn’t solve any problems of the world that afternoon. However, it's moments like those that are very important to my effectiveness in the company. If you ask Jeff his opinion about the job I'm doing, he will reference the hallway chats like the one we had on that Friday afternoon. He knows that I will take the time to drop by, to talk about an issue that's important to him. I don’t wait for issues to escalate to a VP level. I know this is an important aspect of my job, but too often I let my time get consumed with daily IT issues. This day, I took the time because it takes Windows 3 minutes to reboot on my netbook. Thanks, Microsoft, for getting me out of my office. You help me be more effective at my job--for reasons you couldn't possibly have intended. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact jmcgreavy@techweb.com.2011-06-11T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: Time For Technology Leaders To Get NosyIf you're in a senior technology function, you must have, or develop, a genuine interest in various business disciplines.http://www.informationweek.com/news/229700283?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioThe expanding role of the CIO is a hot topic in management consulting and academic circles. While this expansion may not be formal within your company, bet on the fact that change is under way. I feel it. The opportunities for my CIO peers and I to stick our noses into others' business are growing every day. Fortunately, I have a genuine interest in many business areas. If you're in a senior technology function, I hope you have or can develop such an interest. You need it--now. Maybe you can fake it. I suspect that feigning interest is a decent approach and will get you more influence in a particular line of business. But then it's pretty easy, and embarrassing, when you're inevitably called out. Here are a few areas where I'm getting more involved. Our customers and potential customers are industrial companies, and we're late in establishing connections to them via social media and other Web channels. Vic, our VP of marketing, realizes that much of the global business community's marketing efforts are moving in this direction. And for our young guns in marketing, who grew up on Facebook and now Twitter and use Google in place of personal knowledge, that's just a given. Vic and I are now working together to understand how these customers learn, shop, and buy online. You might think this is really a marketing play, and as the CIO, I should simply enable access to the appropriate platforms. But this isn't the approach we're taking. Online search is evolving daily. Understanding the technical implications of authority and indexability, for example, is relevant. Creating digital media in a way that can be efficiently managed and accessed from many different entry points requires well-designed data architectures. Different rendering platforms, from smartphones to tablets to PCs, require different content design and branding approaches. A close partnership with marketing is a must if we're to be successful in this area. I'm also sticking my nose into our HR director's business. A new recruiting strategy is on Rich's to-do list, and I can help him with that. Is LinkedIn part of that strategy? What about commercial e-recruiting technologies and services? Should we integrate all of those directly with our HRIS? Are we using any social listening tools to find out what our employees and customers are saying about us? Our customer service organization now relies on GPS-based technologies to get the right technicians to the right clients. A few years ago this was all done on paper. This afternoon, I will be meeting with Sandra, our VP of client care, to explain how location-aware and event-based real-time alert systems can take our service to another level. While Sandra is a customer service wizard, location-based technologies are entirely new to her. I need to help her see the possibilities, and she needs to help me understand key drivers of customer satisfaction. If you're a vendor in our industry, consider my evolving role as you look for ways to build your business with me and my organization. I may not need help with your products; I may need a better understanding of manufacturing fundamentals. Or I may need to quickly learn the intricacies of foreign exchange hedging or reverse auction bidding. Our conversations need to change. Sticking my nose into others' business is becoming a career-building move. And I have the right nose for the job. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>.  <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://analytics.informationweek.com/abstract/81/7434/Business-Intelligence-and-Information-Management/informationweek-full-issue-june-13-2011.html"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1303/smallcov.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: Jun. 13, 2010 Issue" title="InformationWeek: Jun. 13, 2010 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><a href="http://analytics.informationweek.com/abstract/81/7434/Business-Intelligence-and-Information-Management/informationweek-full-issue-june-13-2011.html">Download a free PDF of InformationWeek magazine</a> (registration required)</div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center>  2011-05-14T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: Speed To Market Battles Consensus-BuildingAs the pace of tech change accelerates, we struggle with striking the right balance between risk-taking individualism and executive buy-in.http://www.informationweek.com/news/229402831?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioAnother two-day senior management meeting, and I wonder what we accomplished. On one hand, face time is so important in building an effective management team. Certain information is exchanged only over a meal or a drink at the bar. On the other hand, these meetings can seem frustratingly ineffective. Striking the right balance between risk-taking individualism and the comfort of consensus continues to be an elusive goal of ours. New ideas are at the core of every meeting, even when we discuss the most mundane topics, and IT pervades many of those discussions. Consensus lowers the risk of idea implementation and presumably results in higher organizational engagement and adoption of change. But consensus takes time--time we often don't have. The rate of change within our business has increased. We're in an era of disposable innovation. Innovate, and get on with it. If an idea fails, move on to the next one. We need to institute changes more quickly. We don't have the time we used to have to build consensus. Here's where I get into trouble. While I'm not afraid of failure, I also don't want my title changed to VP Of New Ideas That Turned Out To Be Stupid. Call it ego or risk aversion. Transforming apparent failure into career advancement is even tougher than it seems. My approach is to develop ideas into models that are visible and understandable. Recently, for example, I appointed one of our brightest analysts to oversee a number of development projects. Her job is to represent our users and their future needs. This position should be filled by an innovator from the relevant line of business, but that person doesn't exist today. We develop skunk works projects, taking an idea from concept to working model or prototype. We then put the prototype in front of our management team and use it to help the team understand the value of our idea. Success depends on our ability to a) fund these projects and b) know our business well and thus present a compelling idea. Luckily, I have few issues with funding. However, knowing our business can be tricky. Ideally, I engage LOB help on a volunteer basis, but often I rely on IT project managers who really understand our business needs and can grasp the idea and its business value. A good example is a prototype we're developing of a new prospecting system. I believe we're leaving a key market segment untapped, and with the right data analysis we can open the door to new customers and sales opportunities. I have an IT project manager leading this effort, in lieu of a marketing manager. It's important that we get user screens developed and visually illustrate how the analysis and user interface designs can lead to new business. At some point, though, I will have to get this new system, and idea, in front of our management team. And then I face the dilemma: Either be patient and build consensus, or move ahead without the full team's support. Building consensus will result in a much stronger commitment to this new approach, but can we really afford the time to achieve it? With the rapid change in technology creating many new innovation opportunities, I wonder if we have time for organizational buy-in. My sense is that it's time for a change in approach--time for more personal risk-taking and less conventional wisdom. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>.  <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://analytics.informationweek.com/abstract/5/7034/Cloud-Computing/informationweek-full-issue-may-16-2011.html"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1300/smallcov2.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: May 16, 2011 Issue" title="InformationWeek: May 16, 2011 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><a href="http://analytics.informationweek.com/abstract/5/7034/Cloud-Computing/informationweek-full-issue-may-16-2011.html">Download a free PDF of InformationWeek magazine</a> (registration required)</div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center>  2011-03-23T08:00:00ZSecret CIO: Software Licensing: There's Gotta Be A Better WayI've been in this industry for many years and understand that pricing models must evolve with the times, but the current situation is utter nonsensehttp://www.informationweek.com/news/229400081?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioCan software licensing get any more ridiculous? My company recently concluded a $900,000 software purchase, after reviewing the products of three major vendors. Let's call them Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Doh, and Tweedle Dum. Tweedle Dee worked hard for our business, though none of the vendors took the time to really understand our needs. As for Tweedle Dum, it was our apparent honor to have this vendor grace us with a proposal. At one point in the review process, Tweedle Dum's technical expert made his presentation to us via cell phone, in the wind, while walking to another client presentation scheduled for the same time. The one sales executive in the room with us seemed unfazed. Tweedle Doh was somewhere in the middle. Its reps cared about the opportunity. They asked a few questions. We went so far as to hold a separate presentation with each vendor, to tell each one what we needed--to answer the questions the vendors should have been asking us. Tweedle Doh's rep attended this meeting, but failed to share any of the information with the rest of his team. After getting through the review process, we turned to pricing. I've been in this industry for many years, and with the changes in platforms, virtualization, hosted solutions, accounting treatments, and remote usage options, I understand that pricing models must evolve. But the current situation is utter nonsense. For each vendor, we were looking at an 80 percent to 90 percent discount from the list price. In what other market is an 80 percent discount the norm? "This new Lexus lists for $70,000, but we can get you into it for $14,000!" Let me guess: We now have to hunt through the contract for future fees that are based on the list price, right? More time spent negotiating maintenance and other aspects of the contract to avoid dependence on the five-times-higher list price. But wait, we're licensing a number of different software modules from the same vendor, so one licensing model should apply to all, right? Not so fast. Some parts of the suite are licensed by a named user--straightforward enough. But we're running a browser interface, and one user will access the system from many different browser-enabled devices. Does such usage require more than one named user license? Meantime, some software modules require a different level of named user license. And we need multiple levels of named user licenses, depending on the function of the user. Other modules within the same platform are licensed by company size--number of employees. Another module is licensed by CPU sizing. And yet another's licensing differs if you already own certain of the vendor's products, or if this is a new installation throughout the enterprise. This was one of the few times when I sympathized with the vendor reps closing this deal. It was difficult for them to communicate the licensing options and keep a straight face. Tweedle Dee indicated that while it had floated some pricing, it would work through the details only once we showed it we were serious. A published RFQ, four presentations, and an evaluation team of eight weren't sufficient evidence that we were serious? Why did I get so involved in the licensing details? I felt sorry for my manager who was handling the discussions. And once I dug in, I watched our vendor rep have to call home for help on several occasions. Nonetheless, we ended up selecting Tweedle Dee. Software pricing can and should be far simpler. Instead, the software industry is chasing the cellular carriers for the MLPMOTP award: Most Ludicrous Pricing Model On The Planet. I understand that our software vendors must earn returns that support continued investment and innovation. But how much time and effort would be saved by both parties with simpler, more transparent licensing methods? It's time for a change. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. 2011-02-12T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: Meet The Manager Who Will Replace MeWant to go from high-performing IT manager to someone on the CIO short list? Here's what gets my attention.http://www.informationweek.com/news/229200270?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cio In the first part of this two-part column, I described the traits of high-performing IT managers. Here, I'll lay out what I think it takes for those managers to go from high- performing to CIO-caliber. Future CIOs figure out the players. They get to know the senior line-of-business execs who deliver the core business results--on both professional and personal levels. They ask them how things really work, how decisions get made. They figure out the results those execs are accountable for, and, most important, how the execs' performance is measured. And they ask IT questions like: How do you know IT excellence when you see it? They then use this information to elevate their influence in the organization. When I was an IT manager, I interviewed our LOB VPs. During the interview with Reggie, our sales VP, he told me he would know that IT is well managed when every employee is using the same laptop computer. I was shocked. This was my opportunity to understand strategic selling and devise an IT strategy to make a difference, but Reg thought my job was to standardize on a laptop. Still, it gave me insight into what he valued in IT. In the coming months, I made certain he saw the standards we were implementing. And as I built credibility on his terms, our chats turned to strategic selling. Over lunches in the cafeteria, we collaborated on a CRM application that subsequently became a foundation for our company's sales strategy. Future CIOs understand the language of accounting and finance. Every VP or senior manager must understand those fundamentals. They set budgets, revise forecasts, approve fixed asset spending, understand depreciation's impact on profitability, and hold themselves and their teams financially accountable. Individuals who don't understand this basic language can't ascend beyond a midtier level. Future CIOs don't just complete a project; they create a solution to a business problem. And they make sure everyone knows it was their baby. For example, our VP of sales blamed our poor customer survey results on our phone system. We knew that old non-IP system had its limitations, but no one could figure out the root cause of customers not connecting to the right agent. I could have given the job to our communications manager, but I asked one of my top managers to solve the problem. Instead of embarking on a standard phone system upgrade, this manager--who will be CIO someday--took on the mandate to improve customer satisfaction. She established call-handling benchmarks. She interviewed VPs and LOB managers to understand how they measured customer satisfaction. She learned about call centers. She talked with customers. She put a technology project in place as well, and when process changes were completed, she demonstrated, using the same metrics, that satisfaction levels had increased significantly. She then presented those results in regional departmental meetings. Future CIOs keep the engine running. No one gets to be CIO if the core IT engine is misfiring. Networks must work--all the time. Same goes for Web services, ERP transaction systems, storage systems, virtualization environments, the public Web sites. Future CIOs make this happen through superlative people management. They develop and motivate their teams to work on the right things at the right times. They plan and execute aggressively. The managers who demonstrate these attributes will likely see their names on my succession plan. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. 2010-12-04T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: What Makes For A High-Performing IT Manager?Our intrepid CIO's views on the attributes that put IT pros on the fast track--and the qualities holding some of them back.http://www.informationweek.com/news/228500176?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cio Talk all you want about the innovation budget, alignment with the business, and a seat at the table, but if you can't translate opportunities into results, none of that matters. Like most CIOs, I count on my key managers to make it all happen. What makes for a high-performing IT manager? Consider this one CIO's views. Judge for yourself if your CIO shares some of them. >> Are you sure you want to do this? My best IT managers focus on managing people. The soft stuff becomes the hard stuff. To be effective, they must also evolve from technology specialists to generalists in some new areas. The question for many is: How do I go from here to there? In some cases, the more important question is: Do I really want to? A discussion with one of our talented IT specialists highlighted what is often a personal dilemma. Steve is one of our networking gurus. He also has strong interpersonal skills and is comfortable in front of non-technical peers. He has management potential. But when given project management opportunities, Steve has struggled. He complains that no one can predict the results of testing new gear, so it's impossible to commit to deadlines. And he'll remind me that "a new release is just around the corner, so we should probably wait for it before making a final decision." Until Steve is ready to reconcile himself with what he sees as an unfair trade-off, management work will frustrate him. Effective IT managers don't give up their passion for technology, but they learn to subordinate it to reach larger objectives. They stay hands-off when they would rather be hands-on. They spend more of their time talking about the how rather than the what. >> Have you learned another language? Effective IT managers spend time with their business counterparts. They ask questions and broaden their perspectives. In a public setting, they keep their dweebiness to themselves. "I can't understand a thing he says," remarked Randy, one of our division VPs. He was talking about Rod, one of our technical support supervisors, who also has management potential. "Megabits, DSL speeds, WAN acceleration, caching? The computers are slow at the branch office—can't you guys fix it?" Rod's explanation to Randy contained a positive message: Our pending implementation of WAN accelerators will speed things up noticeably. But that's not what Randy heard. >> Have you found the right balance? An IT manager's staff needs to know that their boss understands their pain and doesn't make unreasonable requests. It's for this reason that most LOB managers make poor IT managers. When I was a programmer, our VP of IT was replaced with an LOB VP to "get IT more focused on delivering what the business needs." Peter, a personable guy, understood nothing about IT. Once a few key people, including consultants, figured that out, they swayed him easily to their preferred tech solutions. And once we figured out he had no clue about what we did, we tuned out. Some of the most critical IT work happens in the background. Peter cared little about this work and constantly wanted it cut back. Some of our best people left for companies where they felt appreciated. My best managers don't let go; they loosen up. Sure, there are times when they're into more detail than I want to hear about, but as long as they're working on getting their balance right, I'm OK with it. The managers who will replace me, however, are taking things to another level. More about those folks in the coming weeks. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. 2010-10-30T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: Making The Most Out Of A Flawed Budget ProcessOur company doesn't shoot from the hip, nor does it waste inordinate amounts of time negotiating budget charge-outs.http://www.informationweek.com/news/228000275?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioI've been through many budgeting processes in my career. At the simple end of the spectrum, you estimate the costs of the items you know about, take an educated guess about what you don't know, add the two, and that's your budget. Then, as the year unfolds, you do what you need to do and spend what you can afford. At the other end of the spectrum, you cost out every possible item. Business units scramble to make up some list of initiatives that may or may not be related to their business plans. The numbers get massaged, analyzed, modified, adjusted, and readjusted. The business units sign off on their list of initiatives and agree to accept the corresponding IT charges. This approach leaves no room for new ideas during the course of the year. Longer term, it often produces a three-year idea-to-market cycle, which for IT is brutally slow. In Year 1, you budget for the idea assessment and business case. Year 2 is for the pilot program, and Year 3 is for rollout. You can't move faster, because you need the results of each phase to establish the budget for the next. Large companies think this process achieves tighter fiscal control, but they become dreadfully, frustratingly slow in their ability to innovate. And they wonder why their IT solutions seem out of date as soon as they're delivered? Fortunately, our company is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. We don't shoot from the hip, nor do we waste inordinate amounts of time negotiating budgeted charge-outs. We develop our plan with sufficient detail to give us a clear financial view of how we expect the year to unfold. However, we do play the add-and-remove game, and it drives me nuts. We review our infrastructure plans, identify what was deferred during the recent slowdown, and ensure we have plans to address our needs. Our application leads meet with all of their business counterparts and review our lists, prioritize, and agree on the set of app development and enhancement priorities. We consolidate the details, review the overall spending plan, and ensure it's based on a bottom-up view of our needs. We then assess the top-down view: Does the overall spending align with the expected business climate? Have we left room for our skunk works projects, which often seed our most progressive business change initiatives? But then I get the inevitable note from Ron, our VP of finance: "John, your budget has increased 11% vs. last year. Please reduce it." It's a game all departments, not just mine, must play. As managers learn the game, they include in their budgets amounts that they will remove to pass the first stage of approvals. The finance group's behavior is reinforced, and so we have our cycle of wasted time. I don't like it. I prepare a plan I think is best suited to meet our company's needs. If we remove items, we will feel it. However, our biggest challenge in IT is with development and enhancement, those areas that depend on our units having insight into expected changes to their business. Rarely do we have the granularity of detail needed to estimate those needs accurately. With many of our business unit managers, we have the "make sure you budget for what I will need next year" attitude. Nevertheless, I can live with this approach. I see it as a form of trust. It may be frustrating, and I will be defending certain phantom plans to our finance cops, but this has become our equilibrium point in a flawed process. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. 2010-09-15T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: When The Finance Chief Flouts His Own RulesAll IT projects must undergo a rigorous financial assessment, says Ron, our new VP of finance--except those involving the finance department.http://www.informationweek.com/news/227300399?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioRon is our VP of finance. He joined our midsize manufacturing company several months ago, coming from a similar position at a larger company in the insurance industry. Our business doesn't generally follow some of the more rigorous processes that larger companies embrace, and this has been a challenge for Ron. One area of friction is our process for justifying IT investments. While we set an IT budget every year based upon specific project assumptions, we leave a great deal of room for adjustment. I often approve work that isn't in the budget, if I think it's the right thing to do. Ron, a stern advocate of fully quantified financial assessments for any investment, is taking issue with our more flexible approach. I have no issue with ensuring that we put more meat on some of the bones of our IT projects, but the five-page Excel worksheet model he prepared seems to intimidate all but the graduates of accounting programs. Nonetheless, most of our company's departments have adopted Ron's model, at least in part because everyone likes to have the finance chief's support when seeking to spend money. However, I've noticed that every IT initiative that comes from the finance team doesn't seem to require a business case. Should we assume that, if finance suggested it, the case must be so darned obvious as to not require a rigorous assessment? A Tempting Target IT is one of the largest administrative costs at our company, and it makes for a tempting target when Ron is looking to trim the budget. Sometimes, I have to creatively camouflage certain IT projects--hide them in the bushes. Sales, marketing, and manufacturing also have to dust off the PowerPoints from time to time to withstand the additional financial scrutiny. Finance projects, however, are generally safe. Ron, Sam (our CEO), and I recently discussed one of the major finance projects under way in our IT organization. We're working with one of our key financial suppliers to build linkages between our systems, and Ron is convinced that our supplier will reduce our fees once the new connections are in place. I have my doubts. The design is highly customized, requiring many specific rules programmed into the code. The annual maintenance costs may easily erode any savings from fee reductions, if they even materialize. It wouldn't surprise me if our fees increase, as the supplier adds a "convenience charge" to cover its system implementation costs. In our meeting with Sam, Ron was pushing to expand the project's scope, and I was pushing back. I suggested to Ron that maybe a business case would help us resolve the impasse. His reply: "We can't afford not to do this. A business case won't change that." Of course, I was tempted to point out Ron's "do as I say, not as I do" mentality. But getting in the face of the new exec is rarely an effective team-building strategy. Best to take a positive attitude and see the bright side: I do have a VP of finance who supports IT projects--even if they're mostly for the finance department. With three major IT-driven finance projects on the go, so far I'm batting zero: three business cases requested, none received. I need suggestions on how to get the cops to abide by the law they established. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. (Editor's Note: This ongoing series of Secret CIO columns is unrelated to an earlier series featuring Herbert W. Lovelace. You can access those archives at informationweek.com/secret-cio/lovelace.)2010-07-10T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: Deliver Strategic IT ... And My iPhone On MondayDid our CEO conclude that the iPhone can help our company deliver more shareholder value--and did I miss the memo?http://www.informationweek.com/news/225702690?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioI've just about had it with the iPhone, and not because of a reliability or usability issue. No, the issue I'm referring to is the fact that supporting Apple's consumer phone is the new corporate test for CIOs, administered by their bosses. "John, thanks for the quarterly update on our strategic, business-driving IT projects and plans," my boss and the company's CEO, Sam, said to me during a recent review. "Now, I realize that our corporate standard is RIM's BlackBerry, but I want an iPhone by Monday. Can you do that for me, John? Consider me a test pilot." It's not that I don't have time for this. Well, actually, that is part of the issue. I don't have time for this. This is a test, and I'm not the only CIO recipient of this test. I've heard the same from peers. Why do we need to be tested on our ability to quickly implement nonstandard technology for use by our most important user, with virtually no in-house technical support available? Maybe everyone is a bit of a gearhead deep down, and our CEO is no exception. Maybe he wants to impress his kids. Maybe he thinks the iPhone will solve some business problem I'm not aware of. "Sam, are you having any problems with your BlackBerry?" I asked him. "No, the BlackBerry is great--no problems at all," came his reply. "I'll be in late in the morning on Monday. I can pick up the iPhone then." I know what will happen if I agree to this request. The device won't do everything Sam would like it to do, and I will have to tap the best iPhone user in our IT organization, whoever that may be, for support. With my luck, that user will be someone like Al, who's not particularly comfortable discussing technology with the top exec in our company. This situation could become embarrassing. I can hear Al now: "Gee, I don't know why John doesn't approve these, Mr. Sam. This is the best device ever invented. Ever. It never breaks, and it's a breeze to support." But what choice do I have? Pushing back would be tantamount to joining the "resistant to change" crowd I frequently complain about. Maybe I am indeed the problem. Should I be looking in the mirror for the answer? Have I grown cynical, too focused on delivering IT-enabled change that's reliable, consistent, and cost-effective? I happen to believe there's a time and place and priority for new technology. We look for technologies that deliver tangible additions to shareholder value--lower costs, higher revenues, increased customer satisfaction. Did our CEO already come to this conclusion about the iPhone, and did I miss the memo? I have no problem with trialing new options. In fact, it's a critical (and fun) part of my job. But I might choose someone other than my boss and the company CEO to be our test case, especially if we have security questions about a new device. Don't get me wrong: I love Apple's products and technologies. But I'm not sure Apple really "gets" enterprise IT. In fact, InformationWeek <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/06/why_steve_jobs.html">editor Chris Murphy recently suggested</a> that Steve Jobs hates enterprise IT. That sentiment's a bit strong, but a general feeling of apprehension may be mutual among enterprise IT organizations. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences under the pseudonym John McGreavy. Got a story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:jmcgreavy@techweb.com">jmcgreavy@techweb.com</a>. (Editor's Note: This ongoing series of Secret CIO columns is unrelated to an earlier series featuring Herbert W. Lovelace. You can access those archives at <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/LP/columnists/herbertwlovelace.jhtml">informationweek.com/secret-cio/lovelace</a>.) 2010-06-05T00:00:00ZSecret CIO: A Simple Scoring System For Complex TimesOur IT group scores its accomplishments (or lack thereof) according to three simple numbers: -1, 0, and +1. That's it. Here's how it works.http://www.informationweek.com/news/225300305?cid=SBX_iwk_related_mostpopular_Executive_insights/interviews_global_cioThere are some fundamental differences between what you learn in school and what you need to do in business. For example, I was taught that if you have three hours to finish an exam, use the full three hours. If you're done in an hour, spend the next two hours reviewing and checking your work. But in the workplace, if you can complete an objective in one-third the time, get on with the next assignment. Spending time working for diminishing returns is generally a bad strategy in business. Another major difference is the way you're evaluated. At the $1 billion-plus company where I'm the CIO, instead of assigning our IT organization standard letter grades for various initiatives, we score our accomplishments (or lack thereof) according to three simple numbers: -1, 0, and +1. That's it. Here's the breakdown. We reserve the +1s for the clearly visible "wins"--new functionality and enhancements and new products that create noticeable, tangible business improvements. These are the IT deliverables that the top execs and end-user employees alike talk up without any prompting. It's the stuff we're most proud of. We give 0s for doing the expected--for keeping e-mail and other critical applications up and running nonstop year after year, for picking the right software platforms, for completing projects on time and on budget. The dreaded -1s are handed out for the screw-ups--for when the corporate e-mail system goes down, the smartphone e-mail gets disrupted (doesn't matter that some third-party cloud provider is responsible), system upgrades go wrong, projects spill over budget, customer invoicing is delayed, etc. Sure, we run many reports and keep track of scorecards, benchmarks, and other metrics, but few non-IT execs really understand that complex collection of data. The -1, 0, +1 system is the way things work here, even if this system's numbers aren't published. My personal scoring system is a translation of the true assessments of my peers and boss. The Dreaded -1s Shots at IT from senior executives score -1. My objective is to move them to a 0; rarely do they become a +1. We've had a few more of these lately. For example, Vic, our VP of marketing, has been under pressure to clear up some sales reporting issues, some of them a result of recent staff reductions. While our IT organization historically has had a fabulous relationship with the marketing group, "the system" has recently become a tempting target for them. We go on the defensive. I point out that the system hasn't changed in two years. The company has lost knowledge of business practices with the departing staff. Our team figures out where the problems are and helps create a plan to address them. I mention all of this to the company president, of course, because my scoring system is the one everyone else uses as well. And we move the score from -1 to 0. It's frustrating to take time away from building some +1 momentum in other areas in order to drag the slider from -1 to 0 in the marketing area. I try to ensure that we always have a base of 0s across the board. If that doesn't sound too inspiring, it's because it's not. That's one of the frustrating parts of being in IT: So much of the hard, creative, and innovative work being done--especially during a recession--is within operations to keep everything working smoothly at the most cost-effective level. And for this, we generally score a 0. Sure, we celebrate these important successes and yak about virtualization this and iSCSI storage that, but my score for them is still 0. I cringe when we score a -1. Our Internet provider dropped our headquarters connection for three hours a few weeks ago. We do have redundancy, but part of the circuit is still part of the circuit, and an outage will be felt by some employees. We scramble and get service restored, but the score stands. Even the most rock-solid services fail from time to time, and a very small interruption will generate an immediate -1 score. Like at many companies, most of our senior staff access e-mail from BlackBerrys. Our aging BlackBerry Enterprise Server acted up a few weeks ago, delaying e-mail delivery to the smartphones for a few hours. After the second incident, there was no escaping the -1. Don't Be Perfect The -1s are a bit like getting traffic tickets: Eventually, they get erased from your record. As time goes by, over the course of, say, a couple of months, a -1 slowly becomes a 0 and fades into the background. The best outcome, of course, would seem to be to incur no -1s at all, but I believe that if a CIO has no -1s, he or she is spending too much money on something. Every aspect of IT is a balance between dollars spent and results received. If no one is complaining somewhere down the line, you're giving them more than they practically need. I'm sure this rule isn't universal, and I hope it doesn't apply to certain healthcare and airline applications, but in most companies it just does. We have had very few +1s in the past 18 months as we kept our heads down during a rough recession. Any we have had are more like 0.5s. We cut back, we saved money, we preserved our financial health as a company. During this time, we completed three major system conversions, with unbelievable dedication and hard work from a team of IT and business people who had their salaries frozen and bonuses cut. Generally, however, these qualify for a solid 0. Time For Wow No question, +1s are what it's all about. They're why most of us got into the IT profession in the first place--to create new capabilities that wow the organization, that everyone talks about and brags to their peers about. The competition envies these solutions. Vendors want to highlight them in white papers. We recently launched a customer collaboration Web site, which allows secured access to important technical information specific to each customer's unique needs. Combined with a consultative selling approach, we're now providing value our competitors don't match. Our company is proud of this differentiator, and I hear about it in casual conversations. Definitely a +1. +1s engage our people in ways they may not have thought possible. Often these changes are the beginning of a new future for some part of our business. Our internal implementation of GPS tracking of key mobile assets has helped us improve the utilization of those assets--and we're now considering selling this to our customers as a service. Keeping Pace With Change But we can digest only so many 1s. In fact, some IT solutions that should be 1s end up as 0s, because we can't absorb the pace of change, so we slow or dilute the initiative. But this is clearly where my colleagues and I prefer to spend our time. Most IT organizations either a) need fixing, because things aren't working; b) are doing OK because nothing's on fire; or c) are enabling competitive advantage by boosting revenue, cost savings, customer satisfaction, and overall business value. With the economy finally showing signs of life, it's time to get back to scoring more +1s and delivering on c). The key to keeping the +1s flowing is staying connected with our business strategies. +1 initiatives reverberate throughout our management team--even Vic can recognize a strategic IT lever when he sees one. But equally important is to minimize the -1s, which undermine our IT organization's credibility and shake management's confidence in our ability to execute on +1 ideas. The author, the real-life CIO of a billion-dollar-plus company, shares his experiences anonymously to protect the innocent. Got a Secret CIO story of your own to share? Contact <a href="mailto:rpreston@techweb.com">rpreston@techweb.com</a>.