The Meadows Sales Technology Corporation Blog

CIOs are faced with the challenge of becoming better corporate communicators. The CIO should be in constant contact with executives to get IT and general management on the same team. Jeff Kubacki, CIO of Kroll, a risk consulting subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, also recommends communication to ensure harmony between IT and business management. "If you get good at all this, selfishly, it's a good way to... stay in the chair another couple of years... and outlive the normal life expectancy of a CIO." As the contemporary trend of business/IT alignment continues, CIOs should keep in mind that communication is the key.

The topic of business and IT alignment begs revisiting because it plagues many contemporary managers. Proactive and effective IT governance and awareness comes from the top and is ingrained in any technology-related process discussion. Stuart McGuigan, CIO of $99 billion CVS Caremark, comments that “it’s about recognizing that there’s no such thing as technology projects. They are all business projects with technology components.” McGuigan strives to conjunct business and IT at CVS by stressing that business executives “unlearn their expectations” about technology projects and focus IT staffers on business needs first. “Technology starts with really good business thinking. And if you look at core strategy here, you’ll find the common theme which is a focus on customer experience and customer services,” says McGuigan. Overall, the fact that CIOs and CEOs must work in close conjunction to align IT and business as closely as possible is imperative for a company’s overall success and efficiency. A successful company is able to manage itself accordingly by strategically investing in technology to amplify its own productivity and efficiency.

A CEO should serve as an active champion of utilizing information technology to improve business processes. A fully integrated enterprise where there are no formal "business" and "IT" distinctions must be put into place by C-level officers because the attitude and culture required to embrace IT starts at the top. IT's capability must be viewed by business leadership as both a driver of growth and a tool to improve efficiency. "Bipartisanship" between business and IT must be strengthened for an enterprise to truly bloom. Therefore, today's CEO should be an active champion of IT so that business operations, efficiency and the CIO work harder to develop a broader perspective of IT's potential.

In the latest of increasingly intricate cyber attacks from China, a malware disguised as e-mail from organizers of the upcoming Shanghai World Expo targeted at least three foreign journalists in the country. The e-mail appeared to be sent from the Inbox of the Expo news office, but it was not sent by the Expo and targeted journalists who signed up to cover the event. The e-mail had a .pdf attachment that exploited a recently patched vulnerability in Adobe Reader.

Much discussion has been generated surrounding a recent disturbing Google Gmail hacking incident in China. The incident has sparked international concern and even prompted a direct response from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Chinese government officials have denied involvement in the cyber incident but U.S. based Google continues to voice its concern about Chinese censorship and the hacking of e-mail accounts belonging to human rights activists in China. The incident serves as an important reminder that  cyber attacks remain a serious threat in 2010. Thus, corporate security policies should be specific and comprehensive and access control systems must be thorough and up-to-date in order to guarantee on-going security monitoring when working internationally with China.

The evidence has proven that offshoring IT work to China does not automatically equate to cost reduction. The initial push for offshoring IT work is for cost savings but over time, making such a strategy work requires a focus on quality. An example of this type of focus is the case of Mike Tulloch, who became senior project manager for global plastics manufacturer Nypro's outsourcer in China in 2005. Tulloch did not speak a word of Mandarin and the company began to see a lot of back and forth technical issues which were specifically related to design. The number of review cycles necessary were much more than anticipated and a lot was being lost in translation. Once Tulloch was replaced by Mandarin-speaking Chinese national, Paula Yu, review cycle times decreased by 25 percent. Thus, quality can increase in a scenario where IT work is being off-shored but companies must invest in developing good governance models and best practices for knowledge transfer.