Entrevista a Santiago Olmedo

IT Metrics - CIO Agenda and challenges

Today’s role of CIO is probably the hardest and complex role you can find in any business organization. A CIO has to properly combine multiple skills and competences to become effective on the way he/she manage both, business and IT requirements. This is to me the main difference when comparing the CIO’s role with other C-level executives. While the COO, CFO, etc. are mainly focusing on their own areas of responsibility (Operations, Finance, Marketing, etc.), the CIO has to drive a complex agenda to accommodate IT related matters to what the rest of the business organization require from them. This is one of the reasons why IT/IS has always been seen from the rest of the business as support function and not as an add value activity by itself, unless when we talk about technology or innovation companies where IT is perceived as a key business driver. Today’s CIO has to drive business processes innovation in a way that the rest of the C-level c...

IT Metrics - IT positioning at business level

An IT department has to be technology or management driven organization? This is a key question mark for many CEOs when confronted with the need to bring their own IT organizations to a different level of maturity. If he decides in favor of a technology driven organization then the IT department and its responsible person will be normally subordinated to someone at the Company Board level. In Europe the Finance Director is one of the first and common choices that many companies are following, as historically the Finance Director – CFO has been in charge of large company projects having high financial impact. If on the contrary the CEO decides that there is a clear need for the business organization to improve the overall IT performance then he will take the decision to bring his Head of IT to the Board level position. This dilemma differs between regions when comparing the number of companies in Europe having the IT responsible at the Company board level with oth...

IT Metrics - How we should manage Information Technology

The management of IT must be based on three key elements; - Focusing on expertise - Ensuring business integration - Generating a new breed of innovative strategic thinking Nowadays the Time to Market concept is a major business requirement, not only for the Fast Consumer goods companies but for all the business that really desire to be succeed in a very competitive and changing environments, hence the need for the IT departments to organize their own resources focusing mainly on a primary activity or function. Doing that way we will increase efficiency (by reducing development and deployment required times) but also effectiveness (maximising the project benefits by reducing costs throughout the entire innovation funnel). Integration with the rest of the business in an intimate relationship is also key as it will increase business knoledge and sense of belonging. The first one is a fundamental enabler for IT organization to properly and timely traslate business requirem...

IT Metrics - How to manage IT while adding value to the business

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