IT's role within most organizations is changing, and today's chief information officers need to change as well, switching from a traditional CIO role to that of a service-oriented CIO. That insight comes from Jay Anderson, CIO of ServiceNow, an IT service support management provider. In an interview with The Enterprisers Project, he explains why this is important, and how to make the transition.
The Enterprisers Project (TEP): How is a service-oriented CIO different from a traditional CIO, and how does this difference benefit the organization?
Anderson: The service-oriented CIO is one who provides services that transform how work gets done across all parts of the organization, not just in IT. This is very different from the traditional role of the CIO, focusing on maintaining the IT infrastructure and operations. Cloud computing is the primary driver of this evolution because cloud software does not require IT to devote the majority of its manpower and budget to implementing, maintaining and upgrading systems in the data center.
It is a change CIOs should embrace. IT professionals can have a broad impact on the organization's ability to meet its business goals. They can help sales, marketing, HR, legal, finance, customer service, really all departments, be more efficient and effective.
I've seen first-hand how this transformation can benefit an organization. A few years ago, opening a purchase order at my company was done via email. Employees initiated requests by filling in a spreadsheet form and sending it to a purchasing email alias. That led to more people sending more emails and manually updating more forms. We used 30,000 emails to process 2,000 requests — that's 15 emails per request — and with no transparency. There was no way to see how quickly a request progressed from initial submission to cutting the purchase order.
In 2013, we built a workflow to automate the process. Now a request is routed immediately to the appropriate departments and personnel, and everything is recorded in the single system of engagement. Our purchasing manager can see the state of all the work, re-distribute the work as needed, and has an audit trail in the system. That makes her a more effective manager and her team can focus on valuable tasks instead of routing emails for approval. The cycle time from initial request to PO dropped from five days to two.
TEP: You suggest that CIOs consumerize their own IT. How can CIOs achieve this, and how do they get IT staff on board?
Anderson: This is a frequent topic of discussion when I'm at an event or on a panel discussion with other CIOs. We need to take a user-centric view when introducing services and applications. This includes making services accessible from anywhere on any device, including mobile. IT is best positioned to enable this shift because IT is best at managing processes and workflows.
Think about your experiences when you're using the Internet for shopping, planning a vacation, banking, or searching for information. You have a wealth of beautifully-designed, easy-to-use apps and e-commerce websites that have personalized and defined methods of interacting with you. You don't have to call someone or send emails and wait for replies. You can connect to these companies on your social media platforms, track packages in real time, and do your own research to get answers to your specific questions. You know what's going on with your request because you receive updates from the company or can get that information on your own. And, critically, you can do it on your smartphone and other mobile devices, not just a PC.
Then you come to work, and that elegant user experience disappears. You deal with clunky interfaces that are the opposite of the consumer experience you have at home. A prime example is our old purchasing system I describe above. There were no progress bars, no data, no usable information — no transparency.
We as IT leaders need to scrutinize those processes and bring personalized, automated experiences to the workplace. It makes everyone more productive.
For example, IT can create a shared services portal that includes a service catalog so employees can ask IT for help, request a contract review from legal, or make changes to health care benefits. They can do all that and more from a structured starting point instead of asking others by sending emails or making phone calls.
Change can be hard but we know that if we don't change, we risk becoming irrelevant. The lines of business will stand up cloud services that meet some needs but are not integrated. IT will be the janitorial service cleaning up that mess. Part of the process of getting the team's support is to position the broader opportunity ahead of them and clearly articulate how much more important their work will be to the enterprise as a result.
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ServiceNow CIO, Jay Anderson, oversees the company's global IT strategy aligned with managing tremendous growth in employees, customers, partners and suppliers. Jay’s technical career spans leadership and executive roles in development, customer support, engineering, IT and manufacturing at industry leading companies including, Data Domain, Datrium, EMC, Pinnacle Systems and Hewlett Packard.
