CIOopinion
CIO OPINION
“
CIOS HAVE
BEEN NOSE TO THE
GRINDSTONE ENSURING
SYSTEMS ARE SAFE,
SECURE AND ACCESSIBLE
FOR A RADICALLY
DIFFERENT WORKFORCE.
Gary Harrold, Chief Executive Officer at Swiss Post Solutions
UK & Ireland
CIOs seize operational
resilience as a
strategic imperative
Despite the current global
crisis majorly impacting
business operations,
technology leaders haven’t
forgotten about Digital
Transformation initiatives.
Gary Harrold, Chief Executive
Officer at Swiss Post Solutions
UK & Ireland, explains why
CIOs should grasp the current
situation with both hands and
reap the benefits in order to
digitally transform and build
operational resilience.
Operational resilience isn’t the
trendiest term in CIO circles
but in light of the recent
global crisis it has been propelled to
the top of boardroom agendas – seen
as a strategic imperative that CIOs
are expected to play a pivotal role in
delivering. Of course, during lockdown,
CIOs have been nose to the grindstone
ensuring systems are safe, secure and
accessible for a radically different
workforce. On the whole, they’ve done
an amazing job.
However, despite those best efforts,
there have been some tough lessons.
According to our joint research with
NelsonHall following the fallout of this
crisis, 96% of banking, insurance and
healthcare executives reported they
had suffered from a lack of Business
Continuity planning, with just 16%
believing their operations are highly
resilient to another crisis.
Conversely, 80% said they were confident
in the resilience of their cybersecurity
efforts, demonstrating the value of CIOs’
focus in this area over recent years. While
cybersecurity remains a high stakes
issue, times now demand that CIOs turn
the same attention towards designing
and implementing practical strategies
that ensure organisations can prepare,
respond and adapt to operational
setbacks, from minor disruptions to
chronic crisis.
Some of the challenges thrown up by the
current crisis have been obvious; increases
in remote working, health and safety of
staff, issues with physical spaces – and
many of those challenges are arguably
outside the direct remit of the CIO.
46 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com