Keeping up with a rapid change of pace in IT is tough enough when you’ve got just a single company to deal with, but imagine if you’ve got dozens – and are adding two or three more every year.
That’s what James MacLennan has to deal with as senior vice president and CIO at IDEX Corp., a $2 billion conglomerate in the industrial manufacturing space. The publicly-traded company’s growth targets are ambitious – and MacLennan points to IDEX’s focus on a mix of organic growth and targeted acquisitions.
IDEX is highly decentralized, meaning it treats acquired companies as independent, or “lightly connects” them, as MacLennan says. “In my role in corporate IT, we provide services like email and networks - but a big part of the job is acting more like an internal consultant, helping our business units understand how IT can transform the business,” he says.
Managing IT in large vs. smaller companies
Part of his job is to assist these companies when they implement new IT-enabled initiatives while maintaining their existing systems. “We separate the conversations,” he says, noting the company takes a relatively traditional view of IT when it comes to focusing on “keeping the trains running.” The key is to realize that the way things are done inside a $2 billion company is very different from that of a $50 million or even $100 million company.
In smaller firms, if there’s a problem you need to make people aware of, chances are you have a relationship with one or more key players, and you can simply talk to them. “In larger firms, that becomes more difficult, so you need more structure and processes in place,” he says. That means having more rigor and processes around things like change management, audit, and compliance. “Managing 2,000 PCs is a lot different from managing 200 PCs. It’s all about scale and thinking at scale.”
Regarding best practices to “keep the trains running,” the central IT group is focused on communication, collaboration, and engagement. “We spend a lot of time informing people how we do things, as well as actively listening, so we understand what people are asking for,” MacLennan says. “This isn’t something that comes quickly for most folks; paying attention to personal relationships within all areas of the business has helped change attitudes and the level of understanding.”
Consultants to IT – and the business
Developing those relationships helps when it comes time to implement new technology initiatives that employees may be concerned about or even fearful of. “A lot of it gets to how you talk to people, using their language, to get them to understand the value you’re trying to deliver,” he says. That’s where the central IT group goes into consultant mode. In some cases, it means helping individual companies with technologies such as mobility and video.
“For really transformational technologies like machine learning and Internet of Things, we’re introducing them to it.” Those conversations tend to be more with engineers and product managers, however.
“We’re not as much interested in putting a bunch of sensors on the shop floor and getting more optimized runs as we are in top-line efforts – putting IoT technology into the products that we sell to customers.” In that sense, then, MacLennan’s group is acting as a consultant to both IT and business development teams.
A different kind of change
Having been around IT for quite a few years, this isn’t the first time MacLennan has seen the sort of rapid change we’re now witnessing – the emergence of the Internet age comes to mind. But he does see a difference, this time, around.
“We’re getting to a point where as a society we’re starting to talk seriously about the fact that a lot of this technology is replacing jobs and creating change to the social fabric,” he says. “It puts more focus on ideas such as education and areas like STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) – there’s huge demand for people with certain skills. We can’t find them fast enough."
