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CIO Values: James Mazarakis, Chief Technology Officer At T. Rowe Price
Market-leading companies will be those that find innovative ways to use online content to educate their clients or prospective clients, says CTO Mazarakis.
3 Min Read
Career Track
James MazarakisChief Technology Officer, T. Rowe Price |
How long at current company: Two years
Most important career influencer: A former manager at JPMorgan, John Schmidlin, would set strategy and then let us execute. He provided feedback when requested and encouragement all the time. He helped me understand how to answer my own questions.
How I measure IT effectiveness: Our ability to deliver on spec, on time, meeting our budgetary requirements. The success of a project in meeting the original need specified. There's always an ROI target that we try to meet. We approve $1 million-plus projects on a three-year TCO.
View on the benefits of offshore outsourcing: Sourcing provides several options for growth and skill acquisition. With the right processes and the ability to monitor quality, delivery, and TCO, outsourcing can be a supplemental resourcing strategy.
Best piece of advice for future CIOs: Listen to your business partners carefully.
Vision
The next big thing for my business will be ... The Web has reached critical mass. Broadband provides instant information everywhere. More and more innovation will be coming out. How do we use it and ensure that our clients get the most value out of it? How do we ensure that it's secure? I'm interested in Web 2.0 communities such as Second Life and other aspects of commercialization of application and content. That will continue to be an investment for us for the next few years. Companies that will be market leaders will find innovative ways to use the content to educate their clients or prospective clients.
On The Job
Three top initiatives for current year:
• We will continue to improve our top-rated retail client Web site, provid- ing a service-oriented, easy-to-navigate site. It's not a huge project, but we're constantly improving it and examining how the clients are get- ting value.• Our Discovery knowledge management system took first place in the SourceMedia 2007 Fund Operations Awards. We publish information on Discovery that has helped call-center staff answer clients' questions about tax issues, deadlines, and time lines. We're enhancing the system to add more content, categorize content to make it easier to find, and highlight information people look at most.• We continue to enhance our global capabilities, especially in India and China.
Personal
Colleges/degrees: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., BS in management; Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, N.Y., MS in management of technology
Best book read recently: Exceeding Customer Expectations by Kirk Kazanjian
If I weren't a CIO, I would be ... an artist or banker, I can't decide.
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