Winners of the 2014 'Ones to Watch' awards say they're trying to reduce the distance between corporate IT and external customers.
Nick Sewell sounds more like a marketing manager than an IT leader. He talks about the need to understand what customers want, to deliver products that fulfill customer needs, to stand up for the customer.
But Sewell, director of IT programs for Western Union Business Solutions, knows that technology plays a vital role in keeping customers happy as they use Western Union to move their money around the world. “Technology,” he says, “is absolutely a differentiator in the market.”
Sewell is one of the up-and-coming executives honored this year by the Ones to Watch awards program, which is administered by the CIO Executive Council to identify promising IT leaders. Many of the 2014 honorees–like Sewell–are focused on using IT to serve external customers and develop new products or services.
“The biggest trend I’ve seen is turning away from an IT-centric view to a customer-centric view of how we give service,” says honoree Carrie Rasmussen, vice president of IT customer service and support for the grocery and drug retailer Safeway.
That shift comes with a new set of challenges and skill requirements.
For example, Sewell and his 50-member IT team need to understand what the company’s 100,000 business customers need from Western Union and then deliver systems that make them want to pick Western Union over its competitors. For traditional IT departments, that’s a new way of thinking.
Miles Apart
“The distance between us and the customer is traditionally far too big. It’s immense. You might have a guy doing coding or testing who will take his requirements or direction from a project manager who might work with a business analyst who works with a product person who works with a salesperson who talks to the customer. There are five or six steps between the person providing us with the real need and the person actually delivering that. My view is, you have to cut all those steps out and have as much direct contact with the customer as possible,” Sewell says.
He’s doing just that, talking directly with key customers and assigning IT staffers to work with Western Union’s client advisory council so they meet with customers, too.
Tina Gehrts, vice president of management information systems with Thomson Reuters, is taking a similar approach. Gehrts and her team reach out to e-commerce clients in new forums like sales meetings to find out what they need and how they want to interact with her company.
“You have to put yourself much more into an end customer’s mind, make sure you’re attuned to what they need and be attentive to the different end markets,” she says.
Technology can help IT better understand those external customers, Rasmussen says. Safeway uses data gathered from call centers, field services and other sources to help her team identify what shoppers want from mobile apps, Safeway portals and self-service technologies.
The additional challenge for IT teams working for external customers is contending with a wider range of technology platforms as well as end-user skills. Rasmussen, for example, says her team must deliver applications that work for all types of mobile phones, tablets, desktops and laptops. They must also develop applications that work for users at all skill levels, because external customers can’t be brought in for mandatory training on new systems the way internal folks can.
Not So Different?
But Ones to Watch honoree Jim Dolphin, CIO for retail and direct bank at Capital One, says developing for external customers isn’t completely different than what many IT departments already do. He says the 1,000 associates in Capital One’s IT department are expected to think about the same questions regardless of who ends up with the technology: How will the technology help? What will the experience be like for the user? How can we give them the best experience?
So Dolphin says the skills that IT workers need when serving external customers are similar to those generally sought in technologists today: the ability to communicate and understand business needs, coupled with technical aptitude.
Yes, it’s a tall order. But these award-winning IT leaders say they’re training their staff members to ask the right questions, to explore customers’ responses, to tease out what’s bothering customers and what they’re trying to achieve, and to take ownership in meeting those needs. And that, these up-and-comers say, is just an extension of what they’ve been doing all along.
Ones to Watch Winners
Judges in this annual awards program — administered by the CIO Executive Council — selected the following rising stars of IT. To be honored, these future CIOs must have demonstrated leadership, driven innovation and delivered business value.
Omer F. Awan
Administrative Director
Memorial Hermann Health System Bob Bruns
VP of Infrastructure Services
Avanade Frank D. Cavaliere
Director of Infrastructure and Operations
Covanta Energy Corp. Michael Cirafesi
CTO & Partner
CSC Consulting Carole Davidson
VP of IT, Business Collaboration, Strategy and Integration
The Clorox Company Adrianne Day
Chief of IT Governance, Business Management and Project Management Office Divisions
Army Contracting Command Richard de Lange
Asia CIO
General Electric Energy Management Jim Dolphin
SVP, Retail & Direct Technology
Capital One Arun Ganesan
VP of Infrastructure and Data Services
Esurance Tina Gehrts
VP of Management Information Systems
Thomson Reuters Linda Howard
SVP & Deputy CIO
SAIC Travis Howerton
CTO
National Nuclear Security Administration Ajoy Kodali
VP of IT for Digital, Data and Analytics, and Enterprise Architecture
Humana Ashok Kumar
VP of Self-Service, Consumer and Mass Business
Verizon Kelly LoParrino
VP of IT Planning and Service Management
Endurance Judd Nicholson
Deputy CIO
Georgetown University Patrick O’Keeffe
VP of Passenger Services System and Corporate Technology
American Airlines Pam Parisian
SVP of IT Mobility
AT&T Services Inc. Carrie Rasmussen
VP of IT Customer Service and Support
Safeway Inc. Nikhil Reddy
SVP of Information Services Investments
Baylor Scott & White Health Dr. David M. Seo
Associate Vice President for Clinical Applications,
Chief Medical Informatics Officer,
Chief Research Information Officer
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Nick Sewell
Director of IT Programs
Western Union Business Solutions Garland Straub
Director of Technology
Yum! Brands, KFC Division John Swieringa
VP of IT Application Development and Architecture
DISH Network Mark Wilson
VP of Product Development
SquareTwo Financial
Ones to Watch Judges
Special thanks to the esteemed judges who evaluated nominations for the 2014 Ones to Watch awards program, which is administered by the CIO Executive Council.
Yuri Aguiar
Senior Partner & Worldwide CIO
Ogilvy & Mather Rex Althoff
CIO & President of Technology
Federated Services Larry Bonfante
CIO
U.S. Tennis Association Tom Cullen
CIO
Driscoll’s Jeri Dunn
Former VP & CIO
Bacardi-Martin John Edgar
VP of IT
U.S. Postal Service Robert Fecteau
CIO
SAIC Victor Fetter
CIO & Managing Director for Business Technology Services
LPL Financial Ken Grady
CIO
New England Biolabs Steven R. Hanna
VP & CIO
Kennametal E. Jeffrey Hutchinson
SVP
SAP Tim McCabe
SVP & CIO
Delphi Georgia Papathomas
Group CIO & VP of IT Pharmaceuticals
Johnson & Johnson Ken Piddington
CIO
Global Partners LP Rebecca Rhoads
CIO & President of Global Business Services
Raytheon Doug Rousso
SVP & CTO
CBS Corp. Hugh Scott
President
NRG Residential Solar Solutions Mike Skinner
CEO of Brokerage Operations & CIO
Eurpac Joe Spagnoletti
SVP & CIO
Campbell Soup David Thompson
EVP & CIO
Western Union Robert Urwiler
CIO
Vail Resorts Bill Weeks
SVP & CIO
SquareTwo Financial Gordon Wishon
CIO
Arizona State University
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