CASE STUDY
How are you actively addressing the digitisation requirements of your business and leading your team to success ?
We work with Safe 5.0 and use Microsoft DevOps for planning and running sprints . We have organised ourselves around DevOps teams for the development of apps , working with an integration team and an analytics team . We are applying the same approach now on the IT operations side and in areas such as security , basically trying to be as agile as possible .
Our success comes from our ability to understand the business . Whenever we talk to business , we firstly try not to talk IT , rather , we focus on the business . It is important to be an active listener , showing we understand their problems and suggesting the types of technology we could use to solve them . This leads to better engagement .
Another key factor in our success is our ability to reuse , innovate and scale . This is where having these foundational data models is key .
What does your technology roadmap look like in the long-term and what areas of the business will be prioritised ?
We prioritise these digital foundational platforms as they give us the muscles and power to solve complex problems consistently and move to controlled , scalable development . We are also looking to democratise our analytics capability , shifting the focus to Microsoft as it is central to our digital strategy . We continue to concentrate our strategy on building a modular digital ERP landscape to maximise our ability to be digital , resilient and adopt disruptive technologies or AI at scale .
FROM MY PERSPECTIVE , THE CLOUD IS SO
FUNDAMENTAL TO YOUR DIGITAL FUTURE THAT YOU
NEED TO CONTROL IT .
• Establish autonomy in everything , create accountability with individuals , teams , the organisation and create trust with everyone .
What ’ s one lesson you ’ ve learned along the way and how does this influence your business approach ?
I found the courage to make more decisions against a backdrop of market uncertainties without having a clearly defined plan . It enabled me to go into execution mode rather than planning around a set vision . Fundamentally , I didn ’ t follow the traditional cycle of planning , negotiating , asking , reconfirming , agreeing then implementing . Instead , we implemented something incrementally , then demonstrated it to the business , proving the business value rather than showing fancy presentations , which is a completely different approach compared to traditional strategies .
Focusing on delivering business value requires a strong committed team , relentless focus in execution , bravery in decision-making , incremental moves , aligning with business priorities and strategies to produce more scalable value and innovation for the organisation . p
What advice would you give to someone in your position on a journey such as yours ?
• You must take strategic decisions on the platforms you adopt . You should never wait for the business to ask for such investments . CIOs must make those decisions , as the business often lacks tech-savviness .
• If you don ’ t build digitalisation at scale and from the core of your business , you create significant risks for your company .
• You must consider the cloud as the core of your digital foundational platforms , otherwise you will fall behind .
• CIOs must take an incremental approach , plan less and focus on collaborative and relentless execution .
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