I’ve been writing for months (years?) about the changes coming to IT and the role of the CIO.  My “New CIO” topic is littered with posts about the changes being seen today and those changes that are coming down the road.

Many others have been writing about it too. Joel Dobbs talks about topic (and his previous musings on the topic) over on the Enterprise CIO Forum in a post titled The times, they are a changin’—Fast!. There are many many others out there writing about the topic too. At last count, there were 976K results in google on the “changing role of the CIO”.

So…obviously there are a lot of people thinking about the topic and writing about the topic.

I just wonder…who’s doing anything about the changing role of the CIO?

Is the CIO and/or IT group taking the reigns in hand and driving their future?  Or…are we in IT allowing others to plot our course for us?

Reading some of the articles/posts out there…I see many instances where the organizational leadership is directing the changes being seen by CIO’s and IT professional. Take for instance, the description of the creation of the “Chief Digital Officer” by Starbucks. This doesn’t appear to be a CIO or IT driven change.  Also…take a look at the recent hiring of a Chief Technology Officer at JC Penney’s.  Again…doesn’t appear to be a CIO/IT driven change.  But…both changes will lead to a dramatic effect on IT and the CIO role.

These organizational driven changes are happening for a reason. For too long, the CIO has been focused on ‘keeping the lights on’. They’ve been plumbers and electricians doing what they are asked by the larger organization…and charging an hourly rate to do it.

Now…every organization needs someone to keep the lights on. We need IT operations…a much aligned and overlooked aspect to IT. But…IT operations is becoming a commodity (or has become a commodity).  Do we need a CIO focused on operations…or do we need a CIO focused on strategic initiatives and how the organization can use technology, information and knowledge to grow and be more competitive?

The answer…at least for me…is the latter.  In fact, I wrote a post last year titled Splitting IT – Operations and Innovation where I touch on this very topic where I wrote:

I see organization talking about, and moving to, a split between Operational IT and Strategic IT.  Most organizations have already done this to a point…but i see this split happening much more broadly in the near future. Operational IT contains much of what we see today with IT operations. Security, servers, infrastructure, Support and all those things that help ‘keep the lights on’ for organizations. Strategic IT contains the enterprise architects, business analysts and business technologists.   This is the team that drives innovation. This is the team where you hire extremely creative people and point them at the business problems and ask them to solve those problems.  Maybe the name of this team/group changes from Strategic IT to something more along the lines of Business Technology…because that’s what they need to focus on.

A lot of the changes I’m seeing today in organizations are following this same type of thinking. The old IT guard are being relinquished to the “operational IT” group while the more progressive and forward thinking of those in IT are being asked to help drive technology from a strategic standpoint. These people are being moved into other groups in the organization and given “non-IT” roles…which is sad…because they could just as easily have done their role within the IT group…if the CIO & IT group would have had the foresight / ability to drive real change and value.

CIO’s and IT Pro’s – what do you want to be in 2 years….the person/team that keeps the lights on…or the person/team that gets to play with all the new technology?  I prefer to be a part of the teams that get to play with the new stuff and I’m helping my clients move in that direction.

What about you…are you driving your change and complaining about others forcing change upon you?

Image Credit: change By busy.pochi on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

The Cloud.

We all know about it.

We are probably all tired of every blog talking about the Cloud.

Some call the Cloud a fad. Some call it the trend of the future. Others…call the Cloud reality.

So which is it… Trend, fad or reality?

All three. Yes…all three.

In a recent post titled Cloud, a trend, an opportunity or a must?, HP‘s Chief Technologist Christian Verstraete writes:

…the business is looking to become more agile and responsive and this is particularly important in the current, volatile, market environment. To do that, companies should have a better understanding of their marketplace, customers, competition, partners etc. And obviously they want to do that at lower cost while freeing up as much capital as possible. So, the CIO is confronted with a need to respond faster to ever changing requirements while providing an increasingly flexible infrastructure. And that is where cloud comes in. It provides the required infrastructure at lower cost…

Great paragraph that. The last sentence is one that many people might argue with though…although I’m not one of them.

The Cloud is a trend. We are moving toward a more robust, agile, “not here” infrastructure.  The cloud gives IT & organizations the opportunity to move, grow, react and deliver. The cloud is a trend just like computers were a trend when they first hit the business world…and that trend is still being ridden.

The Cloud is a fad.  We’ve heard about things like the cloud before. Those things that are going to “change IT forever”.  I don’t know how many meetings I’ve sat through  where’s I’ve heard “this is the next big thing”. Rarely…have those ‘next big things’ really been just that.  The cloud is a fad just like the computer was a fad when the first hit the market. Fad’s often morph into reality.

The Cloud is Reality. Yes…the cloud is here to stay.  But…let’s stop talking about it being the ‘next big thing’. The Cloud is simply another option for infrastructure for an organization. The cloud is here to stay…in a few years time it will be called ‘off-premise infrastructure’ or something…but its here to stay.

As Mr. Verstraete writes:

Cloud is there to stay, it may be called differently in the future, but the fundamental concept of running services on flexible environments owned either by the company or by service providers is a given.

Well said.

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

In the article, Dave describes what he calls ‘order takers’ and ‘solution creators’. The order taker does a good job of working with clients to deliver a widget but does very little to ensure that the widget actually will solve the clients’ long term problems.  Nothing wrong with order takers mind you…they can be very reliable and in some instances, order takers are perfect.

But other times, its better to be a solution maker/creator. In his article, Dave describes the solution creator as:

 They’re idea people, they’re results people–not just for themselves but for the customer.  They help their customers envision a new future.  They help their customers think about their business differently.  They help their customer change and improve.

Emphasis mine.

He also writes:

When they engage the customer they talk about what the customer is trying to achieve.  They don’t spend a lot of time on what their solution does, it’s features or capabilities.  They know it’s not about the product but what the customer is trying to achieve.  Instead they focus on outcomes and results the customer will achieve.  They quantify these results, so the customer can clearly understand the impact it will have on their business.

Emphasis mine.

Historically, the IT group has been an order taker. They have existed to do what they are asked to do…and for the most part, we’ve been good at being order takers.

Need a new server? Check….that’ll be $$$.

Need a new application?  Check…that’ll be $$$$.

Need your email backed up?  Check…that’ll be $.

In recent years, some organizations have begun trying to transform the IT group into something more than an order taker.  Some CIO’s and IT groups have even taken the initiative to try to transform themselves into something more than order takers.

Some have been successful. Many haven’t.  Most that have succeeded in this transformation have understood that the status quo will not work going forward. The IT of yesterday will not work for the organization of tomorrow. Business is moving faster and faster every day and the order taker and gatekeeper mentality of yesterday’s IT will leave many IT professionals behind if they don’t change.

I wrote an article a few months ago titled Splitting IT – Operations and Innovation that talks about the need for IT to change or have change forced upon us. In that post I wrote:

Operational IT will focus on the tactics necessary to keep the lights on and servers running. Strategic IT / Business Technology will focus on the strategy use of technology for the organization.   Both groups will co-mingle and work together of course…but the teams will have different goals and different types of people working within each.

Notice the difference between Operational and Strategic IT?  One difference is that one is an order taker while the other is a solution creator.  Operational IT will remain the order takers and the newly formed Strategic IT / Business Technology team will be the solution creators.

So…CIO’s & IT Leaders…are you transforming your teams into solution creators or are you happy being order takers?  IT Pro’s…what about you? Are you happy in the operational world of IT or are you chomping at the bit to help your ‘customers’ create solutions?

PS: A few other posts about similar topics that I’ve published are Driving transformation with IT starts with transforming IT, Not What, but How – Connecting IT and the Business and I own the technology, you own the content for examples. If you haven’t read them yet, I’d love to have you add them to your ‘to read’ list

Image Credit: The Order-Taker By mynameisharsha on flickr

I’ve been needing to re-write some scripts for data analysis for my research. I initially wrote some scripts in R but found that R is particularly slow when it comes to this type of analysis (more accurately I should say that my implementation of these analysis techniques is slow).

So..I started looking for a more economical way to do this analysis.  I’m using PHP to do some of the up-front data collection so my logical choice was to dust off my PHP skills and build some analysis scripts using PHP.

So I got out my PHP books and started coding. After a few days, I had a pretty impressive set of scripts that would take my collected data, run a bayes classification filter on that data for sentiment and then summarize that data.  I was proud of myself…until I realized that the implementation of my classification algorithm would be difficult to justify in an academic setting….or at least that I’d have to spend a lot of time defending and justifying it at a later date. This was also one of the reasons that I wanted to re-write the R scripts.

So…I revisited my approach.  Was there anything written in PHP that was well received in the academic world? Of course not.

One approach that is used by many researchers in  text classification and sentiment analysis is to use the Python language and the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) – and there are plenty of academic articles citing the NLTK…so that helps me with defending my algorithms in my dissertation work.

Now…I’ve never looked at Python. I couldn’t have written a “Hello World” program in python.  But…it needed to be done, so I found some resources on the web and dove in.  Over the course of a few hours I wrote my analysis and summary scripts in python….and was absolutely amazed at how quick this language is. My buddy Jeff is probably getting tired of me telling him how great python is … but oh well…he’ll keep hearing it

I was able to get the time that my analysis takes down from 8 to 9 hours in R to about 1.5 hours in python. Talk about a time saver!  Now…most of that time savings is probably due to new approaches to the analysis rather than just a pure python vs R speed issue….but the re-writing forced me to rethink my approach.

Why tell you about my newfound skillz (I’m told you have to use ‘z’ in this usage of the word)?

Part of me wanted to brag a bit

But, more importantly, learning a new programming language isn’t necessarily about the language itself…its about the discovery process.   For me, learning Python forced me to rethink my approaches to the data analysis I was working on…and the outcome is a faster analysis with potentially more accurate results as well as a more defensible algorithm. Learning a new language forced me to think through my approach. It forced me to think about the inputs and outputs.

When is the last time to you took a step back and rethought your approach?   You don’t need to learn Python to do it…just take a step back from your day-to-day grind and really look at what you are doing. Is it working for you?  Is it working for your team and/or organization?

If the answer isn’t an unequivocal ‘yes’, then maybe you need to rethink your script(s) and look for a new approach.

Paul Muller, and HP Blogger published a post on the Enterprise CIO Forum titled Twelve thrilling (or terrifying) thoughts for IT in 2012.

This time of year sees a lot of ‘prediction’ articles…most are worth the read and some aren’t.  Paul’s is worth a quick read. Rather than lay out a long, drawn out post about what he sees in the coming year, Paul gives a quick list of what he sees coming in 2012 based on what he’s hearing from his clients and colleagues.

Paul writes:

To be clear, predictions as a general rule are wrong the minute they’re made, mine doubly so! However, I have made a conscious decision to focus on what I’m seeing and hearing from practitioners versus theoreticians and I hope that they stimulate us all to think about the disruptions we might face and how we can be better prepared to respond if and when we need to.

Jump over to read all of Paul’s predictions for 2012. I provide some thoughts on some of the more interesting predictions below.

Paul’s first three predictions are most interesting to me. They are:

#1 IT as a team sport – IT management goes social.

#2 Death of the pager, IT management goes mobile.

#3 Breaking down the silos – agile, continuous delivery and devops.

Prediction #1 and #2 are coming (and are already here for some organizations). That said, I don’t see many people talking about them…so Kudos for Paul for including them.  Most IT professional’s find the ‘social’ world to be a frightening place due to security and process issues, but most people I talk with understand social is here to stay and there are plenty of benefits in adopting a social approach to their work.

Prediction #3 is where the real challenge lies in just about every organization today.  Regardless of what we all say, there are still silos in most organizations…and the IT group is the biggest silo builder (along with Finance and HR).  These silos are breaking down though.  Consumerization, social and Shadow IT are helping tear them down but they aren’t completely down.

The future of IT…whether it be in 2012 or 2020…will depend on the ability of the CIO and IT group to get things done. And by done…I don’t mean have them planned or have them ‘in progress’…I mean done.    The speed of business is getting faster and the IT group has to keep up.  Breaking down silos is the first step.

Here’s to hoping some silos are busted down in 2012.

Image Credit: Missing Silo Roof By kahala on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

Cloud computing is here to stay.

Oh wait…I hate statements like that.  Sorry about that.

Statements like the above are made by people trying to defend the ‘cloud’ or whatever new or important product/service they are trying to sell today (or one they want to sell tomorrow).

That said…the cloud is an important aspect of technology that every organization should have already adopted into their technology strategy and roadmap. Ignore the option of the cloud and you may find yourself without a job soon.

Many IT professionals look at the cloud through fear-filled eyes. They see the cloud as their competition. They see the cloud as their job.  This fear is natural and understandable…cloud services are a form of ‘outsourcing’.  But…IT Pro’s shouldn’t be fearful and/or ignore the cloud…we should embrace it and plan for widespread adoption.

If the IT professional doesn’t plan for the adoption of cloud-based services, others will.   Much like the world of Shadow IT within organizations…the cloud can enable an even greater Shadow…or it can help the CIO and IT shine some light within these shadows and start to transform Shadow IT into a properly managed technology infrastructure.

Terence Ngai, an HP Blogger and employee, writes about this very topic in an article titled Cloud computing puts an end to shadow IT on the Enterprise CIO Forum.  In the article, Terence suggests that the Cloud will end Shadow IT for good. I disagree with that premise but I do think the cloud is a good start to getting a handle on Shadow IT.

Terence writes:

Cloud computing gives business execs and IT leaders a unique opportunity to work together to develop an IT strategy that really meets the needs of the business. Why? Because more than any other technology, cloud computing offers undeniable benefits that can close the gap between business and IT.  Line of business owners can quantify the business value of needed resources. And IT leaders could use that info to create a winning business case for cloud computing and demonstrate the value of IT.

I don’t disagree with that at all.

Terence implores business leaders to learn about Cloud technology and services and then help guide their IT groups towards those services.  Not a bad approach for selling more services into the enterprise

One thing that bothers me about Terence’s suggested approach is this: If there’s a CIO or IT group out there that hasn’t already developed a technology strategy that includes the cloud, the leadership of that IT group should be replaced immediately.  That doesn’t mean that their strategy should be to use the cloud…just that they’ve thought about how the cloud can be used when it is needed.

Personally, I don’t think the cloud will end Shadow IT.  The cloud is an enabler of shadow IT…and if a CIO or IT group cannot find a way to insert themselves into the discussions around Shadow IT and moving services to the cloud, they’ll find themselves without jobs in the near future.

The cloud is here to stay (ack!)…and those of us in IT need to find ways to ensure cloud based services are used in a secure and professional manner. We know people within the organization are going to the cloud for services that they can’t get from IT (or at least think IT is too slow to deliver those services in a timely manner) so let’s help them understand the benefits and the challenges of the cloud.

By developing a technology strategy that includes the cloud and cloud based services, maybe…just maybe…shadow IT can be managed. It won’t be completely banished but at least IT professionals can get a better grasp on situation.

The cloud has helped to expand Shadow IT…its time for IT groups to incorporate both into technology strategy and roadmaps.  Without embracing the ‘clouds and shadows’, the organization will continue to move faster than the IT group and continue to make IT and the CIO less relevant and less valuable.

Image Credit: Cloud & Shadows

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

In my last post titled Driving transformation with IT starts with transforming IT, I pointed out a nice video on the Enterprise CIO Forum of Canadian Pacific’s CIO Heather Campbell titled describing her work of transforms the Canadian Pacific IT function by focusing on the needs of the business (among other things).

After I wrote that post, I saw part 1 of that series…which is just as good as the other video I pointed to.  The other video, titled Canadian Pacific: When outsourcing goes too far is a great one to watch as well.  Jump over and watch it…and come back for a brief analysis and my thoughts.

The premise of the interview is this: At some point, the majority of the Canadian Pacific IT group was outsourced. This outsourcing destroyed their ability to function, destroyed morale, careers, ambitions and a long and thorough knowledge base held within the IT group.

I’ve seen the effects of outsourcing on IT groups…and in most cases, it is devastating.  That said…we aren’t here to debate the pros/cons of outsourcing…we’re here to see how Ms. Campbell was able to recover from the devastating outsourcing that occurred at Canadian Pacific.

According to the interview, Ms. Campbell joined Canadian Pacific as CIO and had the difficult task of rebuilding the IT group.  What was her first task? Was it to clean house and bring in her own team to run things? Nope.  Her first task was to get to know her team.  Simple but powerful.  How can you “clean house” if you don’t understand how the house got dirty (or if its really dirty at all)?

Rather than clean house, she started another tough task…changing the culture of IT. She began helping her staff rebuild their skills (and their confidence?).  Rather than just focus on pure technical skills she also helped her team build / rebuild their project management skills.  Why PM skills specifically?  So she could be sure the projects that they needed to get done actually got done on time.

The key outcome here is this:  Ms. Campbell was able to rebuild her staff’s skill-sets, their confidence and their capabilities by focusing on them rather than on how much more to outsource or how to save more money.  She focused on her people first and their capabilities.  She turned a staff of IT ‘workers’ into IT Professionals…she turned a group of people who were embarrassed to call themselves IT employees and made them proud of what they do and who they are.

Kudo’s Ms. Campbell and to the Canadian Pacific Team.

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

I was just perusing the Enterprise CIO Forum and noticed the video of Canadian Pacific’s CIO Heather Campbell titled Canadian Pacific CIO transforms IT function.  In the video, the CIO describes the transformation if the Canadian Pacific IT group and their long road from an ‘under-performing’ group that was underfunded to a group that could deliver strategic technology projects to their clientele within just a few weeks.

There are some pretty interesting things discussed in this video…I’d highly recommend jumping over to watch it…its short but packed with good stuff.  After you watch it…drop back over and let’s digest what was said…I’ll wait.

Let’s discuss…

Ms. Campbell had the wisdom to understand that the IT group was under-performing..and had historically under-performed for the organization.  She understood the issues and immediately sought to rectify them.

So…what was the first thing she did…or at least the first thing she reported she did?  She didn’t reorganize. She didn’t bring in consulting companies.  She did something much more simple…much more relevant.

She and her IT team sat down with the business to understand how they can work better together.  In fact, they initiated a strategic planning process to build the first IT and Business Strategy in the history of the organization.

The next step? Build an agile environment.  Not necessarily an “Agile” environment…but one of flexibility and agility.

Canadian Pacific build a fast moving, capable and responsive team that is focused on the business’ needs…and from our outside vantage point – things look really good for Canadian Pacific, their CIO and their IT staff. The Canadian Pacific IT team transformed themselves from an under-performing organization to one that is looked at as a business partner and one that provides true competitive advantage to the organization.

A great quick video and story of how a CIO and IT has transformed themselves – and their organization – by focusing first on the business and then on the technology to meet business objectives.

Image Credit: Change By tidefan on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.

The report provides the results of a survey completed by 596 IT and Business executives with the majority of respondents being IT professionals (476 out of 596 were IT professionals).

The results are interesting.  A quick summary of the results is provided below:

• 75% of respondents admit that their projects are either always or usually “doomed from the start”.
• 80% of respondents admit that they spend at least half their time on rework.
• 55% of respondents claim that business objectives of IT projects are clear
• 23% of respondents state that they are always in agreement when a project is done.
• 73% of respondents claim that the IT team is successful or very successful in delivering projects that meet the business expectations. Note: “successful” was claimed to be meeting 70% or more of the project goals.
• 75% of respondents  claim that IT is a valued, trusted partner and critical to the company’s success

Interesting stuff.  Good to see that last point for sure.

I wanted to take a second for a little discussion on a few topics…

At times, I think that part of the problem with most IT projects is the attitude of the IT team…and this survey seems to highlight that with the fact that 3/4 of respondents believed that projects are doomed from the start.  You start a project expecting it to fail, you are going to most likely fail.

Almost 3/4 of respondents claim the IT team is successful in delivering 70% or more in project deliverable.  Since when did meeting 70% of a goal mean success? Calling 70% of project goals a success is kind of like saying ‘meh…just do the bare minimum to squeak by’. In school, a 70% is a “C-”….I don’t know many teachers that would be telling a student that they were successful if they finished the year with a “C-” average.

If meeting 70% of a project’s goals is considered a success, then yes…the projects are doomed from the start.

Image Credit: 110..365 | The End? By Katkamin on flickr

The 8th Annual CSO Magazine State of the CSO report was released last month – I finally got my hands on a copy.  Thanks Colin!

Sidenote: Nice timing on finding this report since October is Cyber Security Month….read more on getting prepared for Cyber Security Month in Jerry Bishop’s recent Enterprise CIO Forum post.

The 2011 State of the CSO report outlines the results gathered from 229 respondents during a survey in March 2011.

Some key highlights from the survey:

• Fewer than 2/3′s of security professionals believe their organization’s employees are trained on security related topics
• Only 35% of respondents believe their organization’s employees consider security to be party of their daily responsibilities
• Nearly 1/3 of respondents plan to add staff to the security function of the organization
• Roughly 38% of respondents are planning an increase in security in the coming year
• 64% of respondents agree that senior management view security and the security leaders as important, permanent and strategic
• More than 60% of respondents believe that senior leadership is placing more value on security and risk management

Some interested responses but not surprising to me.  I’m not a Security pro at all but I would think that most organizations are focusing a good deal of effort and budget on ensuring both IT and Physical Security are improved throughout the enterprise.

One aspect that I found interesting is the area  focused on current and future trends that will most affect the security profession.  The responses were interesting…they are:

• 26% of respondents pointing to ‘ubiquitous data’ as having the largest impact on the security profession
• 21% of respondents believing technology as a service as having a large impact.
• 20% believe that  Gen Y & Millennials entering the workplace will have a considerable impact on the security profession.

Some interesting results there. Ubiquitous Data, defined by the survey as the ability for users to have constant access to data and services, is getting closer to being a reality for all organizations.

To grab a copy of the 2011 State of the CSO Report, jump over to CSO Magazine and sign up for access.

Image Credit: Security By edleckert on flickr

This post sponsored by the Enterprise CIO Forum and HP.