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Microsoft Looks To New CIO To 'Share Best Practices'

As expected, Microsoft named Tony Scott, former Disney CIO and GM CTO, as its new CIO today. What does Scott, an IT veteran, bring to the table that Microsoft might be looking for? Perhaps an ability to connect with other CIOs.

Microsoft made it official in a press release: Tony Scott, most recently CIO of Disney, is the software vendor's new CIO. That fills the void left by the abrupt departure (read firing) of Stuart Scott last November.

Tony Scott will report to Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner, who said in the release:

"Our internal IT systems and operations play a critical role in the success of our business and how we deliver new technologies and advancements to our customers in the marketplace," Turner said. "We will leverage Tony's deep experience in running global IT organizations, and his focus will be in three key areas. First, we want to run a world-class IT department, leveraging Tony's track record and deep knowledge of operational excellence to achieve the highest level of business value by utilizing IT. Second, as Microsoft's biggest user of our products and solutions, Tony and the IT team will drive our solutions and deployment throughout our enterprise and provide valuable input and feedback to our product groups. In turn, this will ultimately improve our customer satisfaction in the marketplace. Third, we will call upon Tony to connect and collaborate with CIOs around the world to regularly share best practices with our customers and partners."

That may be a big fat clue as to why Microsoft chose Tony Scott. When I first heard about Scott going to Microsoft, I immediately jumped to the Disney connection: Microsoft is looking to leverage Scott's consumer tech savvy. After all, the CIO before Stuart Scott, Ron Markezich, is now head of Microsoft's online services effort, a part of Microsoft that competes directly with Google.

But Turner's statement makes me think that Microsoft tapped Tony Scott to leverage his reputation in the industry, which is a good one. Before Disney, Scott was the chief technology officer at General Motors, where he worked with CIO Ralph Syzgenda on the automaker's IT overhaul. And before that he was VP of IT at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he helped overhaul the drug company's IT infrastructure.

Microsoft has never had what you'd characterize as a great relationship with the CIO community. It had made headway with the combiination of Turner, former CIO of Wal-Mart, and Stuart Scott, but the "violation of company policies" debacle with Scott left a bad taste in almost everyone's mouth. Microsoft is undoubtedly looking to someone of Tony Scott's stature to help keep communication flowing between Redmond and the highest tech executives offices.

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