Frank Modruson CIO, Accenture

How long at current company: 20 years

Career accomplishment you're most proud of: We spent a lot of effort between 1999 and 2004 getting rid of duplicate technology platforms and migrating 277 of our 280 business applications to a single technology platform. In 2004, we replaced 450 financial applications with a single ERP instance. Recently, we consolidated 46 recruiting systems to one.

Most important career influencer: My Uncle Mac got me interested in technology with his work in network television in the early '70s using computer graphics. It was because of his influence that I went on to study computer science.

Decision I wish I could do over: For years I regretted not pushing harder to move off a particular platform because I knew it was not the best solution for us, and we would eventually have to switch. In the end, by the fate of technology, it benefited us to wait because we wound up migrating to a better solution, which wouldn't have been available had we done it earlier.

Size of IT team: Approximately 3,400

Three top initiatives for current year:

• Accenture Collaboration 2.0. Our anyone, anyplace, anytime approach to collaboration and connectivity among our workforce of 175,000. One key element is a personalized portal, with people pages much like social networking sites.
• Supporting the Industrialization of Growth. Integrates sales projections, financial forecasts, and plans for use of resources (including labor) to direct our business strategy.
• Operational Scorecard. Provides a consistent and up-to-date view of business information across 11 measures of market performance on a monthly or quarterly basis. These measures include book-to-bill ratios, project pipeline status, and penetration of thought leadership.

The next big thing for my business will be ... next-generation collaboration technologies that will enable even better connectivity and networking.

Best piece of advice for future CIOs: Focus on how IT serves the business and work to make IT invisible. Also, stay the course; think broad, not deep; and focus on attracting and retaining top talent.

How I measure IT effectiveness: An IT scorecard that measures 24 performance and satisfaction metrics that businesspeople can relate to.

Colleges/degrees: BS in computer science from Dickinson College; MS in computer science from Pennsylvania State University

Best book read recently: Moon Shot, by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton

Activities: Lyric Opera of Chicago's board, volunteer firefighting

If I weren't a CIO, I'd be ... a firefighter.