CIO CIO

“In tech, every tool, software, or system eventually becomes outdated,” he adds. “You can be confident in your infrastructure today, but if you’re not constantly reassessing, it’ll catch up with you. Any tech at any given time is just one step away from obsolescence.” Keeping pace with the business CIOs need to continually assess their IT systems to ensure they’re still meeting the organization’s needs, he says. “We also need to understand where business is heading and update our architecture and tech stack based on future business needs,” Ivashin adds. “Some systems become useless as business needs change, so instead of maintaining them, we retire them.” In some cases, it’s the IT employees, not the CEO, pushing for shiny, new IT tools, he says. And in some cases, the CIO may want to allow IT employees to experiment with new technologies to keep them engaged and retain their services, he adds. source

Data is the lifeblood of the modern insurance business. It is the central ingredient needed to drive underwriting processes, determine accurate pricing, manage claims, and drive customer engagement. Yet, despite the huge role it plays and the massive amount of data that is collected each day, most insurers struggle when it comes to accessing, analyzing, and driving business decisions from that data. There are lots of reasons for this. In the health and life insurance space in particular, strict guardrails around data privacy and data security can make it difficult to access a complete picture of an individual patient experience across different care channels. Segmented business functions and different tools used for specific workflows often do not communicate with one another, creating data silos within a business. And the industry itself, which has grown through years of mergers, acquisitions, and technology transformation, has developed a piecemeal approach to technology. Today, multiple different systems and internal protocols must be navigated before it’s possible to see a complete, real-time picture of the member population. Growth of AI Forces Conversation About Data Meanwhile, the growth of AI-powered analytics, workflow management, and customer engagement tools has promised to revolutionize every aspect of the insurance business from underwriting to customer engagement. However, as many companies are finding out the hard way, there is a big leap to get to the promise of AI from the fractured data foundation inside many businesses. The fact is, even the world’s most powerful large language models (LLMs) are only as good as the data foundations on which they are built. So, unless insurers get their data houses in order, the real gains promised by AI will not materialize. Over the course of our work together modernizing data architectures and integrating AI into a wide range of insurance workflows over the last several months, we’ve identified the four key elements of creating a data-first culture to support AI innovation. Leadership Buy-In: The first and most critical step to developing a successful data-first culture is support from the top. The process is going to require significant investment and important decisions about what gets prioritized, which legacy processes should be removed, and what the end goals of the new data infrastructure will be. That commitment must begin at the C-suite level. Leadership must prioritize data-driven strategies across all business functions. Cross-Functional Collaboration: It is also important to recognize that in a data intensive business such as insurance, a change made in one place will create ripple effects that reverberate throughout the entire enterprise. For that reason, data needs to be centralized, and leaders must encourage and incentivize collaboration between IT, data scientists, and business units to ensure data informs decision-making at every level. Data Literacy: Once data is centralized and accessible across multiple different business functions, it becomes important to educate employees, ensuring they understand how to read, interpret, and act on data insights. In our case, a key priority in our data modernization effort was to move our organization from reactive to proactive decision making based on data-driven insights. That’s more than just a philosophical shift; employees need to be trained in how to incorporate this type of information into their day-to-day workflows. Building a Center of Excellence to Drive the Project: Data modernization cannot be a side job. Organizations must invest in setting up a center of excellence or a dedicated team that will ensure the acquisition, ingestion, availability, accuracy, compliance, security, and availability of data to the rest of the organization. The Data-Driven Value Proposition There is a tendency when thinking about data modernization or AI-enablement efforts to compartmentalize them as the domain of the back-office tech team, or an ancillary part of the core business. Today, that is no longer the case. The companies that deliver superior levels of customer experience foster loyalty and brand advocacy, as well as drive increased efficiencies. This allows them to anticipate client needs, deliver faster claims processing, and offer highly personalized products. At their core, all these value propositions are driven by data. Increasingly, an insurer’s ability to harness their data and use it to power better customer experiences will soon become the key differentiator separating world leaders from the rest of the pack. Learn more about how to turn your data into actionable insights, visit us here. About the authors:Munish Mahajan is senior vice president, data modernization at EXL and Diana Steinhoff is president and CEO at Renaissance Life and Health Insurance Company of America source

Innovators have the unique ability to see what’s possible, bringing together in new ways, acclimating to change and thriving within it, and creating true transformation. Few people are true innovators, but it’s those characteristics that make an innovator worthy of the title “Outlier.” Jason Peoples is one of those rare people. Trace3 recently awarded Peoples its highest honor, the Outlier Award. Peoples, director of technology and innovation at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has spent the last several years leading the hospital toward dynamic innovation, all through an IT lens. Peoples comes by his drive naturally. A tragic childhood accident started his trajectory, changing the course of his life and causing him to develop a fierce passion for improving healthcare. Over time, he saw that the best way to make a difference was by combining that passion with his natural abilities as a technology expert. “I always like to challenge the status quo. Just because we’ve done it this way doesn’t mean we always have to do it that way,” he said. “It’s about thinking, how could we do something different, more efficient, or more effective.’” Part of challenging the status quo is his out-of-the-box thinking about the role of IT in the organization. Peoples views IT as an equal team member in providing critical healthcare services, on par with all others in reaching those goals. As part of a collaborative team that spans Mary Free Bed’s departments and functions, IT listens to and works with clinicians, the legal team, the compliance team, and others to provide exceptional patient care. “I’m a big believer in culture, and we’re all about the spirit of meeting people where they are. When we hire, we look not only for phenomenal customer service, but those who can talk about technology in a way that’s digestible for all audiences,” he said. “And when we work with other internal teams, we focus on evaluating risk tolerance, managing quality outcomes, and securing our perimeter, all with a collaborative spirit.” Bringing together that collaborative spirit, innovative mindset, and technology expertise has created some real wins for Peoples and his team. For example, leveraging his expertise in telehealth, Peoples spearheaded a project to develop a machine learning algorithm with an artificial intelligence output as a screening mechanism for children’s movement disorders. The goal, Peoples explained, is to screen for abnormalities or movement conditions more quickly, because earlier interventions typically lead to better outcomes. The team has already proven the concept and is working on bringing a solution to market that can both detect and evaluate upper and lower extremity movements. Peoples described another exciting project that will eventually enable Mary Free Bed and its partners to collect and analyze patient data from across the country to glean valuable insights. Projects like this are becoming both more important and more possible and could have tremendous implications for the healthcare field. As for the award, Peoples said he is humbled and gratified, and hopes to use it as an opportunity to provide different perspectives that challenge the status quo. “We use technology all the time and expect it to work, but we have to challenge that status quo and think about the future. What are we trying to solve, and how can we get there?” Peoples said. “If we can use this platform to share an experience that might resonate with others, that can propel others to take it to the next level.” To learn more about the Trace3 Outlier Award, visit: https://www.outliercioaward.com/ source

It can be said the CFO and CIO are rowing in the same boat – they have a shared destination (success for the business), but differing priorities can mean sometimes each is rowing at a different pace, or even in a different direction. In addition, since each sits in a different position, they can identify obstacles and opportunities on their side of the boat that their partner may not see as clearly. According to a recent Censuswide survey of more than 400 CFOs and CIOs across North America, 72% of respondents believe the relationship with their counterpart has strengthened, which directly led or contributed to positive business results. This indicates a strong partnership between CFO and CIO is not simply a matter of getting along with your colleague – it can directly boost the bottom line for the organization. On the other hand, there were also misalignments on priorities – notably, on cost flexibility and risk versus innovation – which can strain the CFO/CIO relationship and hinder growth and innovation. Though they share a common overall goal, business and IT could be making decisions that are out of sync with each other’s individual priorities, slowing down the organization’s progress. Looking at the Censuswide survey results, we offer four major insights into how business and IT leaders can strengthen their collaboration. Top goals for 2024 When asked their top goals for improving their business in 2024, there was a remarkable alignment between CFO and CIO responses – with one notable exception: CFOs prioritized growth (30%), improving profitability (24%) and risk reduction (23%) as their top goals CIOs were tied on growth and improving profitability (both 28%), followed by risk reduction (25%) and technology improvements (25%) In this case, both sides are rowing in almost perfect unison, yet one side may not see an opportunity for improvement that the other side clearly does. While business and IT leaders share an overall vision for driving business success, CFOs could be undervaluing the role that technology plays in achieving that vision. Insight The fact that CIOs place more emphasis on tech improvements, while the issue isn’t even in the top 3 for CFOs, could slow down digital transformation initiatives. CFOs should consider that technology isn’t simply a cost center but a critical enabler for growth and profitability for an organization – especially when you maximize existing IT investments, which can provide flexibility and cost savings that can in turn be utilized to fund innovation and growth. Why did the CFO/CIO relationship grow stronger? Survey results found that while both leaders valued collaboration, they had different motivations for improving it: CFOs said the partnership increased due to a focus on security, compliance, and risk (46%) CIOs thought it was due to an urgent need to collaborate to make nimble technology decisions (42%) CFOs were driven by the need to manage risk and security concerns, whereas CIOs were concerned with agility in decision-making to enable rapid digital transformation. Though different, these aren’t incompatible goals, as the ability to make informed, quick technology decisions can be a critical advantage when dealing with security issues. Insight When they consider the motivations of their counterpart, leaders can help each other enhance both organizational resilience and agility. By highlighting complementary goals, CFOs and CIOs can improve their partnership to an even greater degree in future collaborations. Though both sides are rowing strong in this case, they can help each other row with even greater power next time. What made the CFO/CIO relationship worse? Although survey results showed an improvement in the CFO/CIO relationship, there were some cases in which the opposite occurred. Ironically, C-level leaders mostly agreed on why their relationship eroded: CFOs blamed a lack of flexibility on identifying ways to cut costs (35%) CIOs concurred on the lack of cost-cutting flexibility (36%) but were equally upset by a frustrating lack of urgency (36%)  While both leaders shared a mutual frustration with rigid financial controls, CIOs also felt held back by slow decision-making. This mirrors findings where CIOs felt their partnership improved due to nimble decision-making with their CFO counterpart. For better and for worse, CIOs place great value in the ability to act quickly when making technology decisions. This viewpoint can clash with CFO priorities, which are more driven by financial discipline. Insight In an era of digital transformation, it’s important to find a balanced approach between cost-cutting and the urgency of technology adoption. Row too slow – or too fast – on either side of a boat and you could end up going in circles instead of speeding toward the shore of innovation and growth. The same tool, used for different purposes Finally, one key area of misalignment between business and IT leaders was in the use of business cases: CFOs use a business case to provide a consistent framework for comparing proposed investments against each other (37%) CIOs use a business case to ensure projects meet prescribed metrics for ROI (40%) In keeping with their financial oversight role, CFOs use business cases to compare different technology investments. Meanwhile, CIOs use business cases to determine the ROI of individual projects. Using the same business tool for different purposes could lead to friction if not aligned. Insight By working together to determine a consistent, unified approach to business cases, C-suite leaders can streamline decision-making, reduce conflicts and accelerate technology investments. It makes little sense to use one oar for rowing and another as a rudder – especially if neither partner informs the other of their plan. Smoother sailing on rough waters Survey findings from CFOs and CIOs across North America demonstrate that by aligning on priorities, strategies and concerns, business and IT leaders can be better prepared to face the turbulent challenges of the modern business world. A strategic partner like Rimini Street can be the experienced guide that helps CFOs and CIOs navigate those rough waters. With nearly 20 years of experience, we provide expert third-party support and services that deliver exceptional cost savings, flexibility, and risk mitigation – directly addressing C-suite leaders’ focus on growth,

The UAE made headlines by becoming the first nation to appoint a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in 2017. This move underscores the country’s commitment to embedding AI at the highest levels of government, ensuring that AI policies and initiatives receive focused attention and resources. The country also launched Smart Dubai, an initiative under the Dubai Future Foundation, Smart Dubai aims to transform Dubai into the world’s smartest and happiest city. AI is at the core of this vision, driving smart governance, efficient resource management, and enhanced quality of life for residents and visitors alike. According to Boston Consulting Group (BGC) survey, artificial intelligence isn’t new, but broad public interest in it is. The survey found that people are surprisingly knowledgeable and excited about AI and business leaders should understand and not underestimate consumers when developing and deploying AI-enabled solutions. Overall, 75% of survey respondents have used ChatGPT or another AI-driven tool. In markets such as India, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates, AI usage exceeds the levels in so-called mature markets. In the UAE, 91% of consumers know GenAI and 34% use these technologies. Governments like the UAE showcase robust AI engagement, with initiatives like the Falcon 2 AI model, designed to compete with Meta and Open AI. Positioning the country at the forefront of AI development. This highlights the region’s commitment to integrating AI across industries. source

The firm was using Deltek Vision, which Stanton says is “not well-suited for that — it’s a transactional system, not a data analytics system.” She realized HGA needed a data strategy, a data warehouse, and a data analytics leader. She hired Ryan Haunfelder as director of data and analytics, and they formally embarked on an upgrade to Deltek Vantagepoint. HGA is a longtime Microsoft shop so Stanton and Haunfelder performed the upgrade using Microsoft Fabric while also implementing a data governance structure. This “put some structure around data quality and data security,” she says. Michele Stanton, CIO, HGA HGA HGA completed the upgrade but not without some bumps in the road. While Deltek provides the ability to build custom code, if the data changes, “everything has to respect the change,” Haunfelder says. “So it’s not just a migration for the ERP; it’s a migration for pretty much every custom application our firm had ever built,” and all the custom code had to now reflect the business logic in Vantagepoint. This included 10 to 15 apps and hundreds of pieces of one-off code, so Haunfelder set up a development environment to install the ERP and test everything. If Stanton and Haunfelder had more time to plan the upgrade, they would have “stripped out all the stuff that doesn’t belong in” the ERP system, she says. Ryan Haunfelder, director of data and analytics, HGA HGA “So our goal was to almost create an apples-to-apples capability in the new platform with a better user experience, but not really changing the way people work,” she says. “The upgrade went as well as could be expected, but it’s not like we completed a digital transformation.” To realize the full benefits of a digital transformation, there has to be data standards and data quality processes, she says. “You would have data governance in place so that you know your ERP data could be feeding deep insights and analytics for your organization.” Being brand new to the industry when she joined HGA, and with the upgrade work already started, “I wasn’t in a position to say, ‘Hey everyone, just stop; we’re going to rethink this whole thing, which by the way, is going to take two years and then we’ll talk about Vantagepoint,’” Stanton says. That said, she feels good about the work IT did and that they got the right business stakeholders engaged and are now more data literate. Tips for getting ERP upgrades right Allegis’ Shannon says IT leaders need to not only have a solid understanding of business requirements but also understand business users’ jobs. “It’s really easy to sit back in my chair and say, ‘Okay, go to the order entry screen and fill this out.’ It looks straightforward, but you’re not doing that job, they are,” he says. IT must also understand the complexities business units face and what will help them be more efficient, especially with respect to satisfying customers’ requirements. “There’s no way to appreciate that,” Shannon says. “The first time around we probably took for granted that we understood what they needed.” Shannon put together a bigger team for Allegis’ Prophet 21 implementation, assembling “the right people in all the functional areas of the business,” emphasizing that they had an equal voice in this deployment. “When you empower [people] and give them an equal voice at the table, you end up with a better solution,” Shannon says. “Because they’re involved along the way, onboarding and training become much easier.” He also advises understanding what a vendor means by “partner.” Sometimes vendors just want to partner on getting a deal done; in other cases, they want to understand your business and work together to make your job easier, Shannon says. LeeSar’s Neumeier agrees, saying his firm emphasizes collaboration with its implementation partner and Oracle. “We are all after the same thing, which is a wildly successful implementation,” he says. “To do that, eliminate the us-versus-them language and emphasize working assumptions often.” “Offer grace if a mistake is made and make it right if you missed something,” Neumeier adds. Further, CIO’s should frame ERP modernization as a business initiative, not an IT project, he says. “Modernizing our ERP/WMS cannot be something that IT alone does for the business, and so we are involving every department in our business in the implementation.” The team is also injecting a bit of fun into the project, Neumeier adds. “As new members come on … we invite them to add a song to our implementation playlist” that motivates, energizes, or puts a person in a good mood, he says, “because we know we will hit bumps, get frustrated, or feel the stress of a looming deadline.” When modernizing an ERP system, go into it with your eyes open, says Allegis’ Shannon. “Probably the most disruptive thing you can do is swap out your ERP system. It touches every aspect of the business, so it’s not something to be taken lightly,” he says. “While you’re going through the process — and sometimes even after — you can start working on the tool and stop working on business.” source

This move highlights the UAE’s commitment to embracing technological advancements and promoting innovation. The AIATC will play a crucial role in shaping the future of the country’s digital landscape, paving the way for a more efficient and sustainable future. With the UAE at the forefront of technological innovation, this initiative is a testament to the country’s commitment to leading the way in AI and advanced technology. The council will be responsible for developing and implementing policies and strategies related to research, infrastructure and investments in artificial intelligence and advanced technology in Abu Dhabi. The establishment of the AIATC reflects a strong belief in the importance of technological leadership in building the economy of the future. The council will develop plans and research programmes in collaboration with local and global partners to enhance Abu Dhabi’s status in the fields of artificial intelligence and advanced technology. It complements Abu Dhabi’s strategy to position the Emirate as a world-leading hub for investments, partnerships, and talent in the sector. source

In addition to individual recognition, the programme includes: the Next CIO award as well as Team of the Year awards – spanning Innovation, Customer Value, Talent, Culture, and Sustainability. This year, CIO100 ASEAN saw expansive entries from the entire region – with tech leaders and teams represented across Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. All entries were reviewed by a select and independent CIO100 judging panel, who rated each pillar of the nomination to shortlist the winners. The most powerful nominations provided real-world examples of where people and technology successfully delivered value to organisations, driving innovation and leading teams. source

“What has been disclosed is that cash flows are not impacted, just the P&L. This leads me to hypothesize that the accountant changed the coding of these delivery transactions to charge the payments to a balance sheet account versus a P&L account. As a result, while the payments were appropriately recorded as cash outflows payments, the expense was never reported,” Carpenter said. “This coding could have happened at the time the transaction occurred, meaning it was tied to the transaction itself, or it could have been initially recorded to the P&L and a second journal entry was then posted to reverse the charge and move it to the balance sheet.” Carpenter suggested that enterprises could prevent this with some procedural changes. Accounting could require that purchases have to be approved and an account code assigned “before the spend or transaction occurs. In this scenario, when the transaction actually happens, it has already been pre-assigned to be recorded as a P&L expense. That would prevent someone coming in and putting in another account coding, such as to a balance sheet account.” Frank Dickson, the group VP of security and trust at IDC, was one of the few who thought that the employee’s actions likely went beyond aggressive accounting and were criminal. And he speculated that the lack of a reference to law enforcement was merely to allow Macy’s to control the situation a little bit longer. source

Traditional business continuity and disaster recovery playbooks are no longer sufficient. Governments, therefore, need to not only transform their business models, processes, and services, but create an adaptive government, like an adaptive enterprise, at their core, so support for change and intrinsic agility is engineered into current and future operations. The theory is straight-forward. Rather than being on the digital transformation treadmill and always transforming and reacting to change after the fact, let’s build more adaptability into how government agencies operate today so we can innovate preemptively. Much like the US military’s defense readiness condition (DEFCON) system — which prescribes five levels of readiness in terms of states of alert — this intrinsic ability to change makes it far easier and faster to react to dynamically changing and unpredictable conditions. The tools to implement this change are here today. They consist of both physical and digital enablers of adaptability, and include items such as modular design and construction, intelligent sensors, robotics and drones, AI/ML, blockchain and smart contracts, intelligent automation and RPA, digital twins, and much more. source