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SAP has appointed a new global head of artificial intelligence, Walter Sun, after the previous post-holder quit to found her own AI startup.

For the past 18 years, Sun worked at Microsoft, most recently as VP of AI for its business and applications platform group. Sun has a PhD from MIT and continued to publish academic research papers during his time at Microsoft, in addition to teaching at Seattle and Washington universities.

As part of Microsoft’s development team, Sun created Bing Predicts, the inference engine that provides the “favored to win” forecasts beneath search results for sporting fixtures and attempted to predict the 2016 US presidential election winner. (Spoiler alert: it failed.)

More usefully for enterprises, he also helped develop Dynamics 365 AI for Market Insights, a feature for Microsoft’s ERP and CRM platform that scans search data to provide enterprises with information about emerging trends in social interest and sentiment around their brands. Most recently, he was involved in the introduction of Dynamics 365 Copilot, which draws on OpenAI’s GPT-4 generative AI model to, among other things, help marketers write engaging sales pitches. In a recent blog post, Sun described how Microsoft researchers conducted experiments to compare the performance of different AI models for use in Dynamics 365. His colleagues also studied how to write the most effective prompts for soliciting useful responses from generative AI systems.

Sun replaces Feiyu Xu as SAP’s global head of AI. She joined the company in 2020, after a three-year stint in a similar role at Lenovo. Prior to that, she had worked for two decades at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI.

In the three years Xu led SAP’s AI initiatives, the company introduced AI technologies to many of its products, including tools for supply chain planning, expense management, customer experience, and online commerce. In May 2023, around the time Xu announced her intention to leave the company, SAP said it would embed IBM’s Watson AI technology into its products.

SAP’s AI product team

The entire AI unit that previously reported to Xu will now report to Sun, an SAP representative said. Sun’s team will include two VPs of AI technology, Sebastian Wieczorek and Ulf Brackmann; a CTO, Johannes Hoffart, and a global AI product manager, Nadine Hoffmann.

Sun will report directly to Philipp Herzig, SAP’s head of cross-product engineering and experience, who reports to SAP’s executive board member for product engineering, Thomas Saueressig.

SAP couldn’t say whether Sun will have a seat on the company’s AI Ethics Steering Committee as his predecessor, Xu, did. For now, the only representative of the AI team on the committee is Wieczorek, the VP of AI technology. The other eight committee members hold senior posts with responsibility for marketing, data protection, government affairs, legal, diversity, customer data, quality, and sustainability.

As for Xu, after leaving SAP, she co-founded Nyonic, a Berlin-based startup that aims to build industry-focused, multilingual AI models that meet European ethical and legal standards. Xu is Nyonic’s chief innovation officer, and her co-founders include serial AI entrepreneur Han Dong as CEO in Shanghai, NLP expert Johannes Otterbach as CTO, computational linguist Hans Uszkoreit as chief science officer, and Vanessa Cann, a board member of the German AI Association, as CEO for Europe. The company is hiring engineers in Berlin and Shanghai.

Enterprise Applications, SAP

Posted on Posted in Digital transformation, General topics Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Movers & Shakers is where you can keep up with new CIO appointments and gain valuable insight into the job market and CIO hiring trends. As every company becomes a technology company, CEOs and corporate boards are seeking multi-dimensional CIOs with superior skills in technology, communications, business strategy and digital innovation. The role is more challenging than ever before — but even more exciting and rewarding! If you have CIO job news to share, please email me!

Nordstrom announces Jason Morris as CTIO

Jason Morris, CTIO, Nordstrom

Nordstrom

Founded in 1901, Nordstrom is a specialty retailer based in the US. Morris joins Nordstrom from Walmart, where he most recently led global enterprise technology as SVP of Enterprise Business Services. He has a BS in mathematics and computer science from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

US LBM names Andrew Campbell CIO

Andrew Campbell, CIO, US LBM

US LBM

Founded in 2009, US LBM is a distributor of specialty building materials. Campbell was most recently SVP and CIO with Terex. Prior to Terex, he held roles with GE and Xerox. Campbell is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and is a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Adventist Health promotes Jennifer Stemmler to CIO

Jennifer Stemmler, CIO, Adventist Health

Adventist Health

Adventist Health is a faith-based, nonprofit, integrated health system serving communities on the West Coast and Hawaii, with over 400 sites of care. Stemmler joined Adventist Health in 2013 and most recently served as Chief Digital Officer. She held previous positions at Cedaron Medical and McKesson Health Solutions. Stemmler earned a BA from California State University – Sacramento.

Jackson names Michael Hicks as CIO

Michael Hicks, CIO, Jackson

Jackson

Jackson provides annuities for retail investors and fixed income products for institutional investors. Hicks joins Jackson from AF Group, a provider of workers’ compensation insurance solutions. He earned a BA in Liberal Studies from Boston University and an MBA in Global Business and Leadership from the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.

Proterra announces appointment of CIO Dustin Goodwin

Proterra is a designer and manufacturer of zero-emission electric vehicles and EV technology solutions. Prior to joining Proterra, Goodwin served as CIO of Icahn Enterprises. He previously held leadership positions in information technology with the Royal Bank of Canada, the Blackstone Group, Cisco Systems, and Citigroup.

Conrad Band is named CIO of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

Conrad Band, CIO, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is a pediatric health care organization. Band has been with CHLA for six years and has held the interim CIO role since May 2021. Earlier, he held roles at Verity Health System, Kootenai Health, T2 Technology Group, and Intrinium. Band has earned a B.S. from Eastern Washington University.

Duane Morris names Michael Bruckner as CIO

Michael Bruckner, CIO, Duane Morris

Duane Morris

Duane Morris LLP is a law firm with more than 900 attorneys in offices across the United States and internationally. Bruckner most recently served as CIO at Buckley LLP. He earned a B.A. from George Washington University.

Alistair Erskine is appointed CIDO of Emory Healthcare

Alistair Erskine, CIDO, Emory Healthcare

Emory Healthcare

Emory Healthcare, part of Emory University, is a comprehensive academic health system in Georgia, made up of 11 hospitals, the Emory Clinic, and more than 250 provider locations. Erskine comes to Emory Healthcare from Mass General Brigham and, earlier, held roles at Geisinger and Sidra Medical and Research Center. Erskine earned his MD from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Brown University. He also holds an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Lockton elevates Byron Clymer to Global CIO

Byron Clymer, Global CIO, Lockton

Lockton

Lockton is an insurance brokerage firm that provides clients around the world with risk management, insurance, employee benefits consulting, and retirement services. Clymer joined Lockton in 2018 and most recently served as US CIO. He held prior roles at Freightquote.com, CenturyLink, and Sprint. Clymer earned a BS from Nebraska Wesleyan University and an MS from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

William Walders is appointed CIO at BayCare

William Walders, CIO, BayCare

BayCare

BayCare is a healthcare system that provides a wide range of services throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. Walders comes to BayCare from Health First in Melbourne, Fla. He is a retired US Navy commander and served as global VP of Data Platforms and Enterprise Services at the Defense Health Agency, and CIO of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Walders earned a BS in management information systems from the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in business/healthcare administration from University of Florida.

Ed Wozencroft appointed CIO of New Jersey Institute of Technology

Ed Wozencroft, CIO, New Jersey Institute of Technology

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Established in 1885, New Jersey Institute of Technology provides educational services and certification programs to college students. Previously, Wozencroft held roles at Huron Consulting Group, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Marist College. He earned a BS in information systems and technology from Marist College and an MS in enterprise project management from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Gentell names Glenn Thompson CIO

Glenn Thompson, CIO, Gentell

Gentell

Gentell is wound care dressing manufacturer with plants in the US, Canada, Mexico, and China, and distribution facilities around the world. Thompson joins Gentell from T. Rowe Price, and he held previous positions at Wyndham Hotel Group, JPMorgan Chase, and SquareTwo Financial. 

New CIO appointments, April 2023

Workday names Rani Johnson CIO

Huntington Ingalls announces Chris Soong as CIO

USAA adds Suhas Yerra as CIO for its P&C company

The Hartford names Shekar Pannala CIO for Property & Casualty

McCain Foods announces Manoj Kumbhat as CIO

Jarrod Phipps joins Holman as CIO

Richard Mendola named CIO at Johns Hopkins University and Medicine

Heather Galvin promoted to CIO at DLR Group

Mary Kay appoints James Whatley as CIO

Donna Peters named CIO of TriHealth

JFrog welcomes Aran Azarzar as CIO

Vishal Bedi named Global CIO at JAS Worldwide

John Jackson appointed CIO at Montrose Environmental Group

Stack appoints Ravi Thota as CIO

New CIO appointments, March 2023

Tyson Foods promotes two to CTO and CIO positions

Southwest Airlines names Lauren Woods as CIO

Greg Fancher joins PetSmart as CITO

Mark Mazurkiewicz is CIO of Protective Industrial Products

Keith Aulson named CIO at Malibu Boats

Sean Moore rejoins CJ Logistics America as CIO

GA Telesis appoints Darryl Maraj as its first global CIO

Seneca Gaming names Les Leonard CIO

Peter Weis appointed CIO of ITS Logistics

Sumaria Systems Names Alex Wong as CIO

Jay Brodsky joins American Association for the Advancement of Science as CIO

R&R Express selects Mark Ohlund as CIO

Sage Dental Group promotes Daniel Mirsky to CIO

New CIO appointments, February 2023

Brown-Forman promotes Larry Combs to newly created role of CIO

Jared Price promoted to CIO at AMP

Rick Johnson named CDO at Marvin

Pritchard Industries appoints Chris Conway to CIO post

TYLin welcomes Stephen Cayea as CIO

Tarleton State University names Zach Gorman CIO

Joe Vande Kieft Named Central College’s CIO

Leaf Home hires Klarissa Marenitch as CIO

Matt Deres appointed CIO at Quest Software

Fleming Meng appointed CIO at Veritone

Michele Stanton joins HGA as CIO

Vijay Menta named CIO at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Quorum Software appoints Jan Manning as CIO

Steve Sharkey is the new CIO at Sunland Asphalt & Construction

Lubrizol appoints Shuja Ishrat as CIO

NCB Management Services hires Leonard Yampolsky as CIO

Zoom Appoints Cindy Hoots to Board of Directors

New CIO appointments, January 2023

Centene announces Brian LeClaire as CIO

Brad Miller joins Moderna as CIO

Colgate-Palmolive promotes David Foster to CIO

Annlea Rumfola named CIO of Yellow

Chicago Public Schools appoints Norman Fleming as CIO

Sampath Narayanan announced as CIO for Panoramic Health

Schneider Electric appoints Robert Cain as CIO for North America

Vantage Data Centers names Purnima Wagle as CIO 

Eliassen Group Appoints Rob Waddell as First CIO

Quickbase Names Dalan Winbush as New CIO

Nathan Thompson assumes the role of CIO of UBC

Keith Golden joins RGP as CIO

Thanigs Muthu announced as new CIO of LBMC

Associated Banc-Corp announces Terry L. Williams as CIO

Omer Grossman named Global CIO of CyberArk

Baiju Thakkar named CIO of Supreme Lending

New CIO appointments, December 2022

Apple names Timothy Campos as new CIO

Planet Fitness announces Paul Barber as CIO

Daniel J. Barchi named as CommonSpirit Health CIO

NCR has named Patricia Watson as CIO

David Yurman announces Christian Fortucci as CIO

Open Lending appoints Thinh Nguyen as CIO

Zoetis’ CIDO, Wafaa Mamilli, expands role to lead two major markets and customer experience

Extended Stay America announces John LaPlante as CIO

Mary Beth Eckert hired as CIDO of Pacific Life

Sumit Nair joins Essential Utilities as CIO

Hussmann announces Erin Williams as CIO

Douglas Torre joins White Plains Hospital as CIO

Smoothie King announces Juan Salas as CIO

Jess Evans named CIO for Vanderbilt University

New CIO appointments, November 2022

Karen Higgins-Carter joins Gilbane Building Co. as CIDO

Atefeh (“Atti”) Riazi Named CIO of Hearst

Jim Palermo moves into CIO role at Red Hat

Etsy names Rachana Kumar Chief Technology Officer

Crowley names Erika Graziuso as CIO

Thorlabs announces Michael Cheng as new head of IT

BakerHostetler names Katherine Lowry as CIO

Sheila Carpenter appointed CIO at Everbridge

Southwell welcomes James ‘Jamey’ Pennington as new CIO

Krishna Seetharam announced as new CIO of CyrusOne

Joyce Oh joins Moffitt Cancer Center as CIO

Columbia Bank appoints Manesh Prabhu as CIO

Scott Frost named CIO at 3Pillar Global

Pam Presswood is named CIO of Valor

Brian Wesselhoff promoted to CIO at Waterstone Mortgage

Alice Fournier joins ISS as CIO for Americas Region

New CIO appointments, October 2022

Allstate names Zulfi Jeevanjee to newly created CIO position

The NFL hires Gary Brantley as new CIO

Grady Ligon joins RE/MAX as CIO

XPO promotes Jay Silberkleit to CIO

Chevron Phillips Chemical expands remit of CIO Allison Martinez 

Delta Dental of California promotes two executives into CIO and CTO roles

Ryan Olivier is named CIO of AAM (American Axle & Manufacturing)

Excela Health welcomes Vasanth Balu as CIO

Velcro Companies selects Rob Trotter as CIO

Potawatomi Hotel & Casino welcomes Garret Finocchiaro as its first CIO

Slalom hires Michelle Grover as first CTO

Sharon Pitt is named CIO at Brown University

University of Cincinnati hires Bharath Prabhakaran as CDO

Vuori Clothing names Bryan Muehlberger to be its CIO

Eduard de Vries is named CIO for Axia Women’s Health

Matt Postulka returns to Arbella Insurance as CIO

Biju Samuel joins Frazier & Deeter as CIO

Creative Testing Solutions welcomes new CIO Jeff Modell

TGen names Kevin Campbell CIO

New CIO appointments, September 2022

Walgreens Boots Alliance appoints Hsiao Wang as CIO

American Airlines Names Ganesh Jayaram CDIO

Fletcher Previn is named CIO of Cisco Systems

Mike Sullivan promoted to CIO of Post Holdings

Omni Hotels & Resorts hires Lance Kobza as CIO

Water Street Healthcare Partners appoints Deepak Batheja as CIO

Aon appoints James Platt as Chief Digital Officer and Mindy Simon as Chief Operating Officer

Conagra promotes Tracy Schaefer to CIO

Robert Curtis is named IT leader at Danbury Mission Technologies

RealTruck hires Tom Luttrell as its first CIO

Wesley Eugene has been named CIO at IDEO

Andy Rhodes named CIO at Ultimate Medical Academy

Amit Gaur joins HALO Branded Solutions as CIO

Archkey Solutions names Scott Welch to lead IT

REV Group hires Sagar Murty as CIO

Marcus Manning is named CIO of Smart Financial Credit Union

Mark Sander is the new CDIO at Azurity Pharmaceuticals

Allied Electronics & Automation Appoints Jason Taylor as CIO

Michael Early is named CTO of Francesca’s

New CIO appointments, August 2022

Michelle Greene is the new CIO at Cardinal Health

United Airlines announces technology leadership promotions

McDonald’s appoints Brian Rice as CIO

Kimberly-Clark names Zack Hicks as chief digital and technology officer

Hyatt Hotels appoints Eben Hewitt as CIO

Kohl’s promotes Siobhan McFeeney to CTO

Denise Fleming is named CIO of Becton Dickinson

Bobby Aflatooni joins Dollar Tree as CIO

Patty Patria is named CIO of Babson College

Sevita hires Patrick Piccininno to be its CIO

Sharay Erkine is named CIO of Atlanta Community Food Bank

Cranial Technologies names Pete Foster CIO

Ryan Specialty hires Bradley Bodell as CIO

Dwain Wilcox joins J.M. Huber as CIO

Amalgamated Family of Companies announces Sanjay Chojar as CIO

Xerxes Gazder appointed as CIO of AAON

Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena announce Chief Innovation and Technology Officer Kimberly Rometo

Steve Klohn is named CIO of Dave & Buster’s

Julie Nash promoted to CIO at Arlo Technologies

Tom Sweet is named CIO of Industrial Refrigeration Pros

Christian Eidt joins Davis-Standard as CIO

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America selects Travis Gibson to be CTO

The Federal Communications Commission names Allen Hill as CIO

Owens & Minor elects Carissa Rollins to its board of directors

New CIO appointments, July 2022

Neeru Arora named CIO and CDO for Volkswagen Group of America

Monica Caldas will become CIO of Liberty Mutual

Deere promotes CIO Raj Kalathur to CFO, appoints Ganesh Jayaram as new CIO

Ingersoll Rand Names Kathryn Freytag Chief Information Officer

eXp World Holdings names Shoeb Ansari as CIO

FM Global promotes Todd Mazza to CTO

Enovis names Ariane Schiereck Chief Digital and Information Officer

Colonial Pipeline names Darrell Riekena CIO

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield announces Dorothea (“Dori”) Henderson as CDIO

Carol Lee Joins La-Z-Boy as CIO

Webster Bank appoints Vikram Nafde as CIO

Skillsoft has named Orla Daly as CIO

Brad Warezak Joins Rocket Lab as CIO

Milton’s Distributing and Gordon Logistics hires Scott Gardner as CIO

Baystate Health names Kevin Conway CIDO

Nicole White Joins Odyssey Logistics & Technology as CIO

FuelCell Energy hires John Dutsar to lead IT

Limbach Holdings promotes Christos Ruci to CIO

Yale University elevates John Barden’s CIO role

Medtronic appoints Lidia Fonseca as a new board director

New CIO appointments, June 2022

Northwestern Mutual appoints Jeff Sippel Chief Information Officer

Brett Craig promoted to EVP & CIO at Target

Springs Window Fashions names Chetan Balsara CIO

Chris Clark joins Black Rifle Coffee Company as CTO

Brown & Brown hires Kiet Tran as CTO

Craig Kwiatkowski, PharmD, named CIO at Cedars-Sinai

Donatos names Steven Graves Chief Information Officer

XIFIN appoints John Kelly as Chief Information Officer

Cenlar FSB appoints Steven Taylor as SVP & CIO

Foley Equipment welcomes Kirk Hay as its new CIO

Lincoln Electric names Lisa Dietrich EVP & CIO

Brown Harris Stevens names Chris Reyes Chief Information & Product Officer

Adventist Health appoints Jennifer Stemmler as Chief Digital Officer

First Bank hires Terrence Thomas as CIO

Saket Srivastava joins Asana as CIO

Mike Macrie has joined Melissa & Doug as CIO

New CIO appointments, May 2022

The Home Depot Promotes Matt Carey to EVP of Customer Experience and names Fahim Siddiqui EVP and CIO

Deb Hall Lefevre hired as CTO of Starbucks

Dentons Names Ash Banerjee as Global Chief Information Officer

John Hill joins MSC Industrial Supply as SVP and Chief Digital Officer

Carhartt appoints Katrina Agusti as CIO

Lenovo adds CTO of Solutions & Services Group to Arthur Hu’s CIO responsibilities

AMD appoints Hasmukh Ranjan to SVP & CIO following Xilinx acquisition

Craig Richardville named CDIO at Intermountain Health after merger with SCL Health

FirstEnergy Promotes Ernest N. Maley to VP & CIO

OneDigital Hires Marcia Calleja-Matsko as CIO

CarParts.com names a new CTO and a new CIO

Jessie Minton is the new CIO at Washington University in St. Louis

U.S. Medical Management appoints Kristin Darby as CIO

The Lovesac Company Appoints Todd Duran as CIO

Shokie Lopez is Santa Cruz Bicycles’ new CIO

Supplemental Health Care names Simon Curtis Chief Digital Officer

City of Oakland appoints Tony Batalla as new CIO

New CIO appointments, April 2022

PayPal Appoints Archana (Archie) Deskus as EVP & CIO

Jennifer Hartsock joins Cargill as Chief Information & Digital Officer (CIDO)

Rite Aid expands Justin Mennen’s role

Juan Perez joins Salesforce as Chief Information Officer

Mark Bloom joins Gallagher as CIO

Republic National Distributing Co. names Sanjay Shringarpure as CIO

Keolis North America appoints Alex Wu as CIO

Chico Moline assumes CIO position at Amentum

Partha Srinivasa is the new EVP & CIO at Erie Insurance

Waitr names Matthew Coy Chief Information Officer

Michael Smith is named CIO at InnovaPrep

Illumina welcomes Carissa Rollins as Chief Information Officer

Serta Simmons Bedding announces Shoukat Ali Bhamani as its new CTO

The CIA appoints La’Naia Jones as CIO of the agency

Dr. Karl Mathias appointed CIO for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Boston Mayor appoints Santiago Garces as new CIO

Monogram Foods announces incoming CIO Dawn Drewry

Ann Madea has joined Simmons Bank as CIO

Matthew Gunkel is named Associate Vice Chancellor & CIO at UC Riverside

WOWorks hires Kyle Mark as its first CIO

Insight appoints Sumana Nallapati as CIO

New CIO appointments, March 2022

Sanofi selects Lakshmi Eleswarpu as SVP & Global CIO

Dupe Akinyede is named CIO of Resideo Technologies

CME Group promotes Sunil Cutinho to CIO

Joe Carroll Named CITGO Chief Information Officer

Mark Mospan is the new CIO at Foundation Partners Group

Painters Supply & Equipment appoints Tareq Falah to CIO post

MarketAxess announces new CIO, Nash Panchal

Just Born Quality Confections names Chidi Alams to CIO post

United Natural Foods elects Shamim Mohammad to its board of directors

Cadence Appoints Mary Louise Krakauer to Board of Directors

Former Morgan Stanley CIO, Sigal Zarmi, joins BigID’s board of advisors

New CIO appointments, February 2022

Wayfair names Fiona Tan Chief Technology Officer

USAA appoints Amala Duggirala to Enterprise CIO post

Sharmeelee Bala named CIO of J.C. Penney

U.S. Senate Confirms Kurt DelBene as CIO of the VA

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield appoints Cindy Langston as its first female CIO

FirstEnergy Names Steve Fortune Vice President & CIO

Research Triangle Institute International hires Jorge Elguera as CIO

Matthew Kurpinski named CIO for ITC Holdings

Matt Watkins is the new CIO at IMA Financial Group

EmployBridge appoints Don Sloan to Chief Digital Officer position

Neiman Marcus has promoted Vijay Karthik to SVP & CTO

Flexsys appoints Jose Boloqui to be CIO

Gelson’s Markets promotes Ron Johnson to VP & CIO

Integral Ad Science Appoints Robert Janecek as CIO

Innoveo Adds Veteran CIO Al-Noor Ramji to its Board of Directors

New CIO appointments, January 2022

TIAA Appoints Sastry Durvasula Chief Information & Client Services Officer

Fannie Mae appoints Ramon Richards as Chief Information Officer

John Sherman sworn in as Department of Defense Chief Information Officer

DXC Technology names Kristie Grinnell as its Chief Information Officer

Jane Moran has joined Mass General Brigham as CIDO

Genesys names Wesley Story Chief Information Officer

Farmers Business Network hires Kumud Kokal to be its first CIO

Dave Berry is the new CIO at Boardriders

Atlanticus Holdings promotes Kas Naderi to the CIO position

Matrix Medical Network Selects Tom Catchings as CIO

St. Luke’s names Chris Sorenson Chief Information Officer

Bindu Purushothaman named CIO of Satellite Healthcare

Ram Balasubramanian joins Canoo as Chief Information Officer

Careers, CIO, IT Leadership

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In today’s challenging economy, customer expectations are high, patience is low, and attention is at a premium. Your customers demand a seamless experience with your products and services, with easy access to detailed, helpful self-service support options. So how do you stay ahead of ever-increasing customer demands? Data. Harnessing numerous customer data points, often scattered across multiple departments, is the key to unlocking a proactive approach to customer satisfaction (and growth).

So your customer success organization is more integral to your brand than ever. And its job is significantly more complex, too. Your customer success team is tasked with ensuring that your customers have everything they need when they need it. And they must also offer a personalized experience that leads to increased product or service adoption and revenue growth.

Essentially, they need to act as a growth engine for your organization. So, instead of simply responding to customer requests, your teams should be proactive and prescriptive. Anticipate your customers’ needs, impressing and delighting them at every turn. The key to this transformation lies in intelligently using the data you’re already collecting.

Predictive insights. Self-service experiences. Highly satisfied customers.

Unifying data in the cloud to visualize it, analyze it, and apply tools like machine learning allows you to unlock new customer insights. Predict when they’ll need support. Better understand when they’re most likely to drop out of your lifecycle. Recognize when they’re most apt to increase their investment. And, of course, doing all this while carefully respecting privacy and adhering to laws regulating the use of data.

Armed with this information, and the right tech platform to glean insights from it, your teams can digitally engage with your customers at the right time with relevant content.

Like any business initiative, scalability is critical. You likely don’t have the workforce to connect with every customer personally. In an already overcrowded digital communication landscape, you’ll achieve greater success by putting the power back in your customers’ hands. Offer the self-service options they want, powered by elegant search experiences that deliver fast access to the information they need.

3 key customer experience drivers

There are three initiatives your customer success organization can implement now to ensure it proactively engages with your customers, offers a self-service experience, and generates continued and repeat business:

Ensure that a customer-first approach is baked into your organization’s DNA.

To position your customer success team as a growth engine, you must have alignment with sales, marketing, product, and other parts of your business.

Make sure everyone in your organization is on the same page about your data collection efforts. And, most importantly, evangelize how all your teams can use that data to set customers up for success and help them grow long-term relationships with your organization.

2. Identify and fill gaps.

What KPIs are important to your customer success team? Are you collecting the right data to report on them?

Ask the right questions of your data based on your KPIs, and you’re likely to uncover gaps or attrition points and identify ways to resolve them. Maybe your customers aren’t receiving enough training or information. Or your team is reaching out to them at the wrong times. Or not at all. When you understand the critical gaps, you can fill them to ensure a smooth road to customer loyalty.

Invest in documentation and metadata.

Your customers need to be able to search for, and quickly and easily find, tools and resources. Your metadata tagging strategy is vital to ensuring they can.

Many companies simply tag their content with internal or company-driven terms, but incorporating the language your customers use to search for information will help them find it faster. Continue to analyze your data over time to see if you’re missing additional content your customers need.

Your customers are at the heart of your organization’s success. And your data is what keeps it beating. When you leverage it strategically to delight your customers, you cultivate loyal customers who are eager to increase their investment in your products or services — a real win-win!

See how Elasticsearch helps foster a culture of customer success.

Rick Laner is the Chief Customer Officer at Elastic.

Data Management

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Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, Cloudist AB is on a mission to help managed service providers embrace the transformative potential of the cloud. But Robert Brink, the company’s cloud architect, notes there is a caveat.

“We want our customers to be able to provide their clients with high-performance cloud services from the Nordic region’s most secure data centers with one click,” says Brink. “We want them to take advantage of the peace of mind we offer – 100% predictable costs, no vendor lock-in, no commitment periods, and the scalability they need to remain nimble. But first and foremost, we want them to make a choice to create a positive change for the planet.”

This positive change is to address an issue that is more than a business imperative for Cloudist. It’s the very mission of the company: to decrease the carbon emissions generated by cloud services and the operation of the data centers that make them possible.

“Cloud-based digitalization is the future, but today’s cloud services are responsible for nearly 4% of all CO2 emissions,” adds Brink. “When you look at that in context – Climatiq for example estimates that commercial air travel is responsible for 2.4% – the importance of offering cloud services in a way that eliminates carbon emissions is readily apparent. We provide 100% green cloud services because we believe we have to, not just as a company, but collectively as providers of the IT services and solutions enterprises need to work smarter and more sustainably. Our mission is to be a pioneer and a driving force for positive change by offering green cloud solutions.”

All of Cloudist’s services use entirely renewable energy sources throughout the entire delivery chain. This includes facilities operated by Ecodatacenters in Falun and Piteå. Powered by 75% hydropower and 25% wind power, the data center Falun offers unparalleled security and is optimized for high-density applications. The data center in Piteå is powered completely by hydropower and in turn offers ironclad security and high availability.

Notably, Cloudist’s cloud services include Infrastructure-as-a-Service based on VMware Cloud Director and Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service based on VMware Cloud Director Availability. Some of the company’s many additional offerings include Storage-as-a-Service for S3 Object Storage and Cloudist’s Microsoft 365 Backup, a secure and complete backup for Microsoft 365 services that lets enterprises quickly get back to business after everything from user errors to ransomware attacks.

“We have a long relationship with VMware and know firsthand that it is trusted and relied on by organizations across industries,” says Brink. “With our motto being ‘Green Clouds Ahead™’ it is only natural and fitting that we would wholeheartedly support and participate in the VMware Zero Carbon Committed initiative.”

Brink stresses that Cloudist’s services are particularly impactful for small- and medium-sized enterprises that are often using legacy hardware and on-premises systems installed with little or no thought given to sustainability. Needless to say, power savings and the efficient use of heat were not priorities.

“Our customers want to make a difference and adhere to the corporate sustainability policies and goals they put in place,” he says. “We can help almost any organization make a meaningful leap in the right direction given our 100% fossil fuel-free services and carbon positive footprint, but for organizations that are making the shift from legacy, on-premises data centers the sustainability gains are truly dramatic right out of the gate.”

To Brink, these gains are far more than good business. They are personal.

“There are seven natural wonders of the world. Only one of them is in the clouds, the Northern Lights. We are from the North. We live and work in the North, but with the growing levels of cloud cover driven by climate change, we face a very real possibility that the northern lights will be forever hidden from view,” says Brink. “For all of us here at Cloudist, those same lights and their beauty and magic are our inspiration to do everything we can not only to ensure there are ‘Green Clouds Ahead™,’ but also that we collectively make real gains in reducing carbon emissions quickly. We don’t have time to waste in our collective efforts to combat climate change.”

Learn more about Cloudist and its partnership with VMware here.

Cloud Management, Green IT

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Creating new revenue streams, identifying untapped audiences and better engaging fans onsite and all year-round are just some of the wins iconic Australian sporting events are chalking up thanks to human-centric digital innovation.

If there’s any lesson brands should have taken from the last three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that investing in digital can deliver even more engagement – online and in-person. And with increasingly immersive technologies such as virtual reality, data-driven insight using artificial intelligence and creative video delivery coming to the fore, opportunities to unite digital with human-centred design principles to win in both physical and digital realms are growing.

The power of human-centric digital experiences is particularly apparent in the work Infosys has been doing to ensure leading sporting brands create unparalleled customer experiences. Here, we explore two stellar examples in the Australian Grand Prix and Australian Open.

Serving up digital innovations for the Australian Open

Using digital, immersive technologies and data to ensure fan engagement is even more immersive is also a long-term imperative for Infosys and Tennis Australia around the Australian Open. And this year’s event proved an unparalleled showcase of how physical and digital are coming together in innovative ways.

Among the highlights of the 2023 Australian Open were a revamped Match Centre 2.0, available on the AO website as well as mobile app for all matches throughout the tournament and providing fans with immersive insights such as Matchbeats, Stroke Summary, Rally Analysis, Courtvision and AI Commentary. A ‘win predictor’ also gave fans real-time predictions as each match progressed. Accessibility was equally in the spotlight, while an enhanced Infosys MatchBeats presented simplified game data and visualisations thanks to contrasting colour combinations that met Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA.

A host of AI Video Insights further powered on-court strategy and media reporting while giving fans, players and coaches unprecedented insights into every game.

In addition, an enhanced Player’s Portal with AI-generated videos democratised the level of insight available to players and coaches around game and competitor insights for post-match reviews and pre-game analysis. For example, Get into the Zone served up video montages of a player’s former winning performances, while an opponent tendency feature allowed players to view and analyse the statistical playing tendencies of their opponents.

And AI Shot of the Day also boasted of enhancements, enabling Tennis Australia’s media team to quickly analyse and post social media ready clips from the best shots of each day.

“For us, this has been a monumental and strong partnership with the Australian Open since 2019. Post each edition, our team takes a step back through an empathy led approach and assess data from all stakeholders engaging with the AO. This follows design thinking workshops to reimagine how our digital innovations can further enhance the stakeholder experience with the Happy Slam, make it more accessible, immersive and engaging. Our strength is digital whether it is AI, digital learning platforms or mixed reality and we combine it with a passion for tennis.

We’ve seen over 50 million fans engage with the digital innovations built by Infosys over the years with MatchBeats alone seeing 7.2mn views this edition, witnessed over 100 million views of footage generated by our AI driven innovations, launched physical platforms such as the virtual hub to engage 10,000+ key consumers of AO during the pandemic and are now going beyond with Infosys Springboard to nurture future leaders and Engage to leverage digital for sustainable futures. Over 11,000 fans engaged with our VR experiences which has doubled from 2022, highlighting a strong appetite for digital experiences. And being conscious of the future, our entire footprint this year onwards at AO 2023 was and will continue to be carbon neutral”, says Navin Rammohan, Vice President, Segment Head Marketing, Sponsorships and Events at Infosys.

Onsite, Infosys itself harnessed virtual reality in its fan zone activation. This allowed attendees to experience tennis in several creatively themed metaverse worlds, from a ride into hyperspace with moon tennis and battling thousands of flying tennis balls in a spaceship, to sparring with AO superstars avatars on centre court.

“Working with Infosys over the past five years has enabled us to set new benchmarks in fan engagement using digital technologies,” says Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open Tournament Director, Craig Tiley. “This partnership has enabled us to deliver new innovative digital experiences year after year for everyone associated with the tournament. We remain committed to making the Australian Open a global standard for a digitally-enabled sport that is inspiring, engaging, inclusive and sustainable.”

Focusing on the fans of the Australian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) General Manager of Marketing and Experience, Arthur Gillion, will never forget 13 March 2020. Just two days out from the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix sporting event in Victoria’s Albert Park Circuit, and hours before practice sessions were to begin, the event was cancelled due to Covid-19.  

“The world was watching. It was a hard moment to go through,” Gillion recalled during the recent Infosys Confluence event. “From a strategic perspective, what we had planned for the following years had to change. The way we approached brand management, from diagnosis, to strategy to tactics all flipped on its head.”

Yet even as the pandemic negatively impacted the physical race, it presented an opportunity for the AGPC to overhaul digital experience to create a more fan-fuelled approach.

“We couldn’t stop communicating or trying to provide some joy to the fans,” Gillion said. “The emphasis had to be on the digital experience. We were very innovative in that space to stay connected.”

Helping AGPC was strategic technology partner, WONGDOODY, the global human experience company of Infosys. Together, the pair reassessed AGPC’s digital ecosystem as a first step. Diving into data the organisation held about its fans to build insights that could be realised in added value and simplified, improved touchpoints was the overarching driving force.

“While AGPC had a lot of data, the team didn’t necessarily know what it was telling them,” WONGDOODY’s chief experience and design officer APAC, James Noble, explains. “The key was to work out what information was relevant, versus irrelevant, then use that to understand the different audiences and what each of those fans wants.

“Being able to convert that into a digital experience would make it easier for audiences to understand the Australian Grand Prix, lead them towards stronger engagement and in time, to purchase things like tickets.”

Focus shifted to digital content as the dominant mechanism for keeping fans connected, and to an annual timeline of engagement, rather than burst of activity surrounding the events. Owned platform articles, blog posts and a podcast series developed by AGPC took centre stage, with built-in capabilities making it easy for audiences to engage with and share content.

With the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix website the first point of touch from a brand perspective, giving fans what they want online is critical to any human-centric approach, Noble says. WONGDOODY helped AGPC understand its digital touchpoints, understood which customer segments AGPC were trying to attract, inform, educate and engage, and transformed this into a solution. The Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix caters to diverse customer cohorts, from motor and F1 enthusiasts, to those who come for the spectacle, ‘culture vultures’ wanting to be seen; families on a day out; and corporate and sponsor delegates.

“It’s working out not only the user experience but the content strategy and experience and how that leads you through the funnel, as opposed to having people floating around with no direction,” Noble continues. “Do you want them to press that button? Or talk to that person? What is it you want to happen next?”

As AGPC began work to bring its physical event back, digital experience took on another vital role. A major achievement was improving the ticketing pathway online for the returning five-day event.

“There are lots of different permutations of tickets and it had been difficult for a consumer to understand what they’re buying,” Noble says. “We looked at the matrix of all the ticketing permutations and experiences you could have, put in a simpler interface and easier-to-use experience, and skipped all the doing it again to go straight to purchase. Just by that happening and knowing what ticket types were selling out, the AGPC team could make informed business decisions and understand where to adapt and create more of what’s popular.”

The work done as an organisation to lift digital innovation has without doubt delivered AGPC incredible growth. In 2022, almost 420,000 people came to the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, up from 324,100 in 2019, adding more than $170 million to the visitor economy. AGPC also saw a 154 per cent increase in digital traffic during event week and a 218 per cent increase in traffic in the months leading up to the event. It exceeded 2.6 million unique visitors to the site in 2022, a 200 per cent increase on 2019.

Importantly, the first release of Grandstand tickets for the 2023 event sold out in under 3.5 hours, testament to the seamless purchasing process. This ticketing architecture overhaul has since triggered changes to the physical environment and decision-making driving further revenue growth.

For example, pre-pandemic, the F1 event had four private lounges. In 2022, there were eight, and this year’s Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix has 14. Being in the fortunate position of having much demand and selling tickets faster enables AGPC to shift focus quickly, and use insights to innovate physical experiences.

“Because the team knows so far ahead about what kinds of tickets are being sold, there’s an opportunity to create another stand or another section. The forward planning is so much easier and it’s adding millions to sales generated,” Noble adds.

Infosys

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Industry body IT Professionals New Zealand has the election year in its sights as it aims to grow the capability of people in tech at all levels—from those entering the industry to new CIOs.

Formerly known as the New Zealand Computer Society, ITP has been operating for 65 years, and is focused on skills, talent and capability of those who work in the digital technology industry.

The organisation’s CEO, Victoria MacLennan, says ITP is working “to support both industry growth and maturity, and we work really closely with education providers to ensure their courses are grounded in industry needs, and are attractive to people who want to learn digital technology skills.”

The organisation has around 5,000 members and 2,5000 student members, and MacLennan is working to open membership to anyone who works in, or aspires to work in, the digital technology industry “because we want it to be an open, broad, supportive organisation,” she says.

So her ultimate goal is to change the face of the industry. “I want to make it easier for people to choose careers working with digital technology; easier for people we don’t usually see in the industry—women, Māori, Pasifika, people with disabilities—to take advantage of how awesome it is and to find that the environment is supportive, inclusive, and they can study and work here without facing discrimination.”

To support new CIOs and aspiring CIOs, ITP is launching its ‘How to be an effective CIO’ course, now in its fourth year. MacLennan said the training came about when a group of experienced CIOs, who went on to run the course, were looking at succession planning challenges for themselves and their own organisations, and wondered where the next cohort of CIOs was coming from.

“They got together to collaborate and design a program to help those who aspire to be a CIO, or they find themselves newly appointed into the role, looking for that kind of grounding that they need to understand how they take that step,” she says.

The 12-week course has a mixture of online and in-person sessions, with up to 20 participants working together in groups, and it’s run in chunks so people don’t have to give up a whole week to attend.

“I’m told all the time by people who’ve been through the course that they still communicate with their cohort,” says MacLennan. “They get together and they’ve got a really good peer support framework.”

The role of CIO has evolved, and MacLennan says people from all sorts of backgrounds are now taking up these positions.

“Times have changed, as we know, and we’re no longer in a world where a CIO is the most technical person who’s been promoted into that role,” she says. “An effective, modern-day CIO needs to be a people leader as much as a technology leader. They need great communication skills and a strong understanding of governance, strategy and how to make decisions for today while focusing on the future. When you’re making that step from being an operational, hands-on tools person to a strategic role like a CIO, how you make those decisions is a unique skill.”

CIOs also need a good grounding in risk,cybersecurity, as well as an understanding of emerging technology and an ability to work with boards and senior leadership.

The other way ITP supports New Zealand’s CIO community is by offering mentoring. “There are many good, really effective CIOs who are mentors,” she says. “They offer their time to support aspiring CIOs or those new to the role. So, for our members, there’s a good process to match you with someone who can help with your career, aspirations, and goals.”

Election year opportunities

ITP also plays a role lobbying Government on behalf of the industry to ensure policy and investment settings include digital technology, “It’s easy for them to forget about us and forget that digital skills are something that are required not only for digital technology industry organisations, but for every organisation that employs people in their IT departments,” she says.

With the NZ General Election coming up in October, MacLennan is pushing hard to remind the Government of the changes the industry wants to see.

“The Government is probably the largest employer of digital technology capability in New Zealand, and uses a mixture of permanent employment and contractors, she says. “But a lot of the challenges we have with the workforce and management of the workforce, particularly in Wellington, comes from the fact that Government suck everyone up.”

She adds that the Government needs to “get their own house in order as an employer and use the workforce and the space more effectively” by using things like the SFIA framework, which has become the globally accepted common language for the skills and competencies for the digital world, and which every organisation in New Zealand can use.

“If you join the government as a policy analyst, there’s really clear roles, responsibilities, and career progressions,” she says. “None of that is applied in a digital technology role context.”

The other area ITP is looking to change is in the education space.

“It’s hard for people to choose a digital technology career and easy for a 17-year-old to follow a construction career path line that’s all mapped out,” she says.  “We haven’t mapped it out to make it easy for digital technology. There are something like seven types of bachelor’s degrees offered across the Te Pūkenga network [the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology], for example, which are all digital technology related. We’ve got to find easier ways of making it possible for people to choose and be less confusing.”

And while it might be a bridge too far for the Government or the Opposition, MacLennan is also keen for procurement to be used as a lever with the private sector, so more investment is made in building new capability.

She points out that there is power in procurement and that it’s one way to get the private sector to look at things differently.

Education Industry, Government, IT Leadership, Technology Industry

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The CIO 100 returns for 2023 to showcase and celebrate the top 100 CIOs and their teams across the UK.


The Official CIO 100 Awards UK acknowledges the best and brightest CIOs and technology leaders in the UK, celebrating their digital transformation achievements, and reflecting on themes and ideas which emerged from submissions.

The awards are open exclusively to IT leaders in the UK, with winners receiving an invitation to the live awards to celebrate peers, announcements as a 2022 winner via CIO marketing channels, as well as further exposure of their success through CIO.com.

This year the CIO 100 Awards will be co-located with the CIO Summit, the annual thought leadership event held by CIO UK. The event will be held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel St Paul’s.

The winner of the 2022 CIO 100 was Joanna Drake, CIO of THG. In her interview with CIO.COM, she shared: “If this was about me, as an individual, I’d struggle to do a [CIO 100] submission, so it’s about the team and I’m blessed and honoured to work with some amazing people every day, with so much grit, determination and creativity”. She also added it was an opportunity to stop and reflect on how far they’ve come in a year, and how she fell into IT after a career in tennis failed to materialise, first starting in a help desk support before progressing into service management and engineering positions.  

New for 2023

Alongside the CIO 100, CIO UK will be sharing Industry Recognition Awards, highlighting outstanding applications in particular fields. Winners of the Industry Recognition Award can be part of the CIO 100 but can also be recognised outside of it. Categories for the 2023 Industry Recognition Awards are:

Large Enterprise

SME

Public Sector

Outstanding Application

Security

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)

The same application can be used for both the CIO 100 and industry recognition awards, there will be an opportunity at the end of your submission to choose which category you would like to be considered for.

Submissions can be made directly or on behalf of an individual. All entries are reviewed by an expert judging panel and winners are announced at the live and in-person event, which will include a three-course dinner and an awards ceremony. Editorial, networking, and event opportunities will also be shared exclusively, to apply for the CIO 100, follow this link. The deadline for submitting an application for the CIO 100 is Friday 16th June.

CIO 100

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It’s no secret that the labor market has been volatile in recent years, with workers moving positions in record numbers.

But it’s not just lower-level staffers making moves: Plenty of CIOs have been shuffling jobs during the past few years, too.

In its 2022 Global Leadership Monitor survey, executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates reported that 56% of technology executives moved to a different company during the prior year — a higher percentage than their peers in finance, human resources, legal, risk & compliance, and operations.

The same survey revealed that 50% of technology executives, which includes CIOs as well as CTOs, CISOs and chief digital officers, said they’re willing to change employers for the right opportunity. Half of that cohort further expressed “a strong desire to leave their current employer.”

But how do CIOs know it’s time to make a move — particularly when there are no real problems driving them out the door?

There are both telltale and personally-felt signs that indicate the time is right to move on — even if everything is going well in a current job, according to experienced CIOs, career coaches, and executive advisers.

“Jobs often have a natural ending,” says Trevor Schulze, who became CIO of analytics software company Alteryx in 2021 after three years as senior vice president and CIO at RingCentral.

Schulze, who says he has some strategies for knowing when to make a move, is thoughtful about what he wants to do for work, acknowledging that he has “a passion for building.” As such, he looks for roles at companies “that I really feel passionate about” and are looking to transform.

The Monday morning test

Even if he’s in a position that meets his transformative criteria, Schulze still keeps an eye out for signs that it’s time to depart. Here, the “Monday morning test” can be a key indicator for making that call.

“First, I’m honest [when asking myself]: Are you energized or deflated on Monday morning going into that workweek? Am I fulfilled in my role? With fulfillment for me meaning I’m learning and growing. Or have I hit a ceiling?” he explains, noting that he has mentored others to use such questions as they make career choices.

Schulze developed this litmus test early in his career when heading to work one Monday following a particularly tough stretch of days. Going into his office, he knew that he and his colleagues would be challenged with fixing some issues that had surfaced.

“So I tested myself by asking: Is this something I wanted to do?” he says. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I wanted to be a change agent. I saw exciting things ahead of me.”

Schulze has used this test ever since to help guide decisions on whether to stay in a current role — a practice that is particularly helpful for making the right call when he’s approached by recruiters.

“It’s human nature when you find something dangled in front of you to want to pursue it. But if you are doing a great job at a good organization and you are changing the organization, that’s a great thing and not something that I’d walk away from,” he says. “Technology leaders get approached constantly with new opportunities, and I’m no exception. But if I’m still energized with driving my [current] company’s agenda I say, ‘No thank you.’”

He adds: “I pass opportunities onto other people constantly, and I think more people need to do that. They need to have the courage to say ‘Not now.’”

On the other hand, there have been times when Schulze’s response to that test question has helped him realize it’s best to consider new opportunities. The tipping point? “When too many Monday mornings you feel you don’t want to do this anymore.”

Breaking points

There are, of course, many circumstances that would prompt a CIO to leave. CIOs are sometimes pushed out, something they may recognize is evolving when they’re excluded for strategy sessions or sidelined to special projects. In such cases, advisers say most CIOs can read the tea leaves and know it’s time to put themselves back on the job market.

But veteran CIOs, executive advisers, and recruiters say it may take some introspection and good observation skills to understand other scenarios that might indicate that it’s time to exit a position on a high note.

For example, CIOs who find that they’re transforming elements that they already transformed at least once before often see that as a good time to break away.

“Some CIOs can start again, but others, or even more CIOs, say, ‘I’ve done this and I’ve had a good run.’ And once they get through one transformation, they may not want to do it again there,” says John-Claude (JC) Hesketh, the London-based CEO of global executive search and leadership advisory firm Marlin Hawk.

Coming to such realizations takes time and attention.

“There’s no one clear ‘That’s it, this happened, that’s the linchpin, it’s time to go,’” says Kristen Lamoreaux, president and CEO of Lamoreaux Search, who has seen plenty of CIOs opt for graceful exits by departing while they’re still effective in their roles.

In many cases, she says, CIOs who leave on a high note recognize that the role or its mission are changing in ways that they don’t want or aren’t suited for. A CIO who excels at growth, for example, may see the company — and thus IT — heading into maintenance or cost-cutting mode and, being self-aware about their strengths and interests, see that as a good time to start looking.

“They know it’s not going to be a good fit,” Lamoreaux says, adding that some CIOs have told her that they recognized a need to move on when they started to feel stunted or worn down in their current role, rather than energized.

Still other CIOs decide to leave once they’ve accomplished what they set out to do, she says.

“When you hit certain stage gates, when you can say, ‘I did this. It’s going well. Wow, look at what I did.’ When you’re crafting those bullet points to go your resume and you say, ‘I don’t think I’m going to top that,’ then it may be time to look,” she adds.

Establishing the exit signs in advance

Raj Iyer had an approach like that when it came to his position as CIO for the US Army. Iyer accepted that post in late 2020, after working nearly six years at Deloitte Consulting first as senior manager for Technology Strategy, Defense and National Security and then managing director for Government and Public Services.

Iyer says he decided to take the Army CIO job because it “was a tremendous opportunity to serve our nation and give something back and to help shape its future.”

But he adds: “I also knew I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my career there.”

Iyer says he took the position with a transformation mandate, one that would require “running at 200% all the time every day” to create a “future-ready” organization that he outlined in his Army Digital Transformation Strategy.

He set objectives and deadlines, saying that having these in place motivated everyone to get the work done quickly and on time. And he gave himself a deadline of three years, aiming to hit the markers he had established for himself as CIO and then transition out.

“I knew I had to drive a sense of urgency, and to do that, I knew I had to put time limits on myself so I could pull everyone at a quicker pace than they were used to,” he says, noting that “the sooner I worked myself out of the job, the better for the Army and the nation.”

He further explains: “When you want to be a transformative leader and a change agent, there’s a certain lifespan you have. You can come in as an outsider, question the status quo, make changes. But the longer you stay, you become the status quo, and someone else then has to come in. And so I told myself when we got to a point where we had critical mass, where we built irreversible momentum, it was going to be time for me to leave.”

Iyer stepped down as Army CIO in March 2023 and joined ServiceNow as head of its Global Public Sector business.

Iyer says he has not set deadlines for himself in this new role, noting that his work and the sense of urgency are different at ServiceNow than they were at the Army. He says he’ll stay “as long as I’m challenging myself and I’m in positions where I am learning and can grow and work in a bigger scale than I was before.”

Seeking more challenges

The desire for growth is, in fact, a common refrain among CIOs as they talk about their career decisions and their decisions about whether to stay or leave.

It’s a big part of Mojgan Lefebvre’s story and her three-decade tech career. Lefebvre has been CIO at four companies, explaining that she decided to leave each role despite all their positive aspects for the chance to tackle new challenges.

“I knew I was ready to move,” she says, noting that they were calculated even if they weren’t easy to make.

As an example, she points to her decision to move in 2010 from her job as corporate vice president and global CIO of the French company bioMerieux to work as SVP and CIO of Commercial Insurance Business at Liberty Mutual Insurance.

“That was a tough call for me,” she says.

She had to weigh what she was getting versus what she was giving up, explaining that she would head up IT for a division that was bigger than bioMerieux but would no longer be reporting to a CEO but instead Liberty Mutual’s global CIO.

Lefebvre made the call to leave bioMerieux after a mentor advised her the move to Liberty Mutual “would be the best move you could make” if she aimed to someday be CIO of a large organization.

In fact, she credits that move for putting her on the path to Travelers. She left her position as senior vice president and CIO of Global Risk Solutions at Liberty Mutual in 2018 to become CIO at Travelers. She is now Traveler’s executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer.

Careers, CIO

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The emphasis Huawei has placed on a wave of investment in optical fixed line networks is bearing fruit. At MWC 2023, the company unveiled a range of F5G
(Fifth generation fixed network) solutions for vertical industries. For Gu Yunbo, who manages the part of Huawei that sells optical network products to enterprises, this is the start of something big: a new wave of “green technology and digital transformation”.

Since 2020, Huawei has been working with industry parties on nurturing emerging standards for all-optical F5G. The reason for this investment in F5G includes spiraling traffic volumes on existing fixed line networks, caused by the roll-out of 5G and continuing digital transformation efforts.

Huawei describes F5G as “future-oriented strategic infrastructure”. Gu foresees widely available “ultra-high bandwidth, with optical networks directly connected to desktops, Wi-Fi access points and [IoT] machines”. For end users, he describes the result as having “almost zero latency and zero jitter.”

According to the management consultancy EY, global expenditure on F5G is growing at a rapid pace (18% CAGR). By 2025, EY expects the market to be worth over €400bn annually.

Much of the demand for fiber networks comes from consumer-facing industries (including cloud-based gaming, AR/VR, UHD video, smart transportation and smart home applications).

But Gu also sees F5G opening up new possibilities for employee productivity and digital transformation.

Gu says: “Huawei has released five solutions for digital transformation scenarios in various industries. These include campus networks, WAN production networks, industrial IoT, data center interconnects, and all-optical sensing solutions.”

At MWC, Huawei unveiled a 50G POL prototype designed to upgrade campus networks. Initially, the aim is to support the roll-out of ultra-fast “Wi-Fi 7-oriented” green campus networks, particularly in educational and healthcare scenarios.

“In practice,” says Gu, “we find that although 10G PON can meet campus requirements in most cases, the rising use of AR/VR teaching, 3D medical imaging, and remote interactive office poses new requirements and challenges on network bandwidth and latency.”

Huawei has also been working on digital transformation projects that directly rely upon optical networking scenarios. In electrical power generation, for example, optical F5G networks, alongside video and sensors, will play a key role in enabling remote inspection of power lines.

To underpin solutions like this, Huawei unveiled the industry’s first end-to-end OSU product portfolio at MWC. Gu describes the portfolio as “building a reliable optical communication base” for energy, transportation and other industries.

In the interview, Gu also described three additional optical-related launches at MWC. These included a lossless industrial optical network solution to improve working conditions and efficiency in large-scale industrial scenarios and a high-precision optical-visual solution for perimeter inspection at large facilities such as railways and airports.

In a sign of things to come, Huawei has also been building F5G solutions for the data center, including storage-optical interconnects (SOCCs) for financial transactions where speed and reliability are at a premium.

“We are continually working with industries to promote wide application of F5G in various industries,” said Gu. “We believe that F5G, as it evolves, is going to strengthen the level of innovation and reshape productivity.”

Find out more about Huawei’s optical solutions here.

Digital Transformation

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Gartner recently cut their expected IT budget prediction from 5.1% to just 2.2% in 2023. This is three times lower than the projected 6.5% global inflation rate. As the world continues to experience economic uncertainty, IT leaders look to tighten budgets, consolidate tools and resources, and generally become more risk-averse when evaluating new investments. So how can you request a new investment from your decision-makers while ensuring minimal costs and maximum ROI this year?

Here’s four pieces of advice from procurement on how to evaluate and propose new IT investments during an economic downturn.

Involve your procurement team from the beginning

McKinsey surveyed more than 1,100 organizations worldwide and found that the best-run procurement teams can generate twice the annual savings of those in the lowest quartile. Procurement professionals are skilled at negotiating contracts, identifying cost-saving opportunities, and evaluating vendors.

By bringing them into the conversation early on, you can leverage their expertise and get the best cost and contract structure available upfront while you focus on the technical requirements. This can also help you avoid a long and onerous contract process with better quality in the long term.

To get started, develop a list of criteria your IT and security investments should meet. This might include things like cost, feature set and functionality, reliability, scalability, and vendor support. Once you have this list, work with your procurement team and use it to evaluate potential solutions and vendors.

Consider the total cost of ownership

When investing in IT and security, businesses need to consider more than just the initial purchase price. The total cost of ownership (TCO) considers all costs associated with an asset over its lifetime, including shipping, taxes, installation, training, maintenance costs, and more.

In a survey by Deloitte, 65% of organizations reported that cost reduction was a top business priority, and 52% cited TCO reduction as a key strategy for achieving this goal. By evaluating TCO, businesses can make more informed decisions and avoid unexpected expenses down the line.

Reduce the perception of cost

Change can be scary, especially if there are dollar signs attached to it. By reducing the perception of cost and associated risks, you can help decision-makers feel more comfortable with investing in new solutions and technologies.

To do this, consider taking the following steps:

Validate proof: Check references and testimonials, ask for proof of concept, and talk with the vendor’s partners. Compile this information and use it as part of your analysis and presentation to decision-makers.Focus on positive impact: Focus on the benefits and ROI of the proposed investment, such as increased productivity, better security, or improved customer satisfaction. Present these benefits in a clear and concise way, using data and real-world examples to support your case.Consider your company scorecard: Your procurement team has a scorecard with clear metrics to evaluate purchase decisions. Consider their metrics to make informed decisions and best support your proposed investment.Present the facts and numbers: Be transparent about the costs associated with the investment. Provide detailed information about the total cost of ownership, including any ongoing maintenance, support, or upgrade costs. This can help decision-makers understand the full picture and make informed decisions.

Evaluate the risk of doing nothing

In addition to ROI, it’s also important to consider the risk of doing nothing. This may include lost productivity, increased downtime, and slower time to market. Provide decision makers with credible industry research, as well as your own team’s statistics to support your request.

For example, if you’re proposing to invest in a security solution powered by AI and machine learning, it would behoove you to present cost savings from automated security, such as that from IBM.

Or if you’re finding that building your in-house web application platform is locking you in, report on the specific challenges associated with the project, such as hidden costs, maintenance fees, and compliance issues your team faces. These are common problems that procurement and IT/security professionals should work together to address.

Wrapping Up

Collaboration between procurement and IT/security professionals is crucial to evaluating current and future investments in order to minimize costs and maximize ROI, especially during an economic downturn. By clearly defining needs and requirements, evaluating TCO, and performing risk assessments, these teams can work together to help their business leaders make more informed decisions for an improved bottom line.

Edgio’s holistic applications platform helps address challenges associated with website security and performance, hidden costs, maintenance, and compliance requirements. Learn more here.

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