CIO CIO

Real-world examples of failures caused by organizational silos are plentiful. The tragic Boeing 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 serve as a stark reminder of the dangers associated with fragmented communication and isolated teams. In the years leading up to the certification of the 737 Max, new Boeing software — Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS — was implemented to enhance the aircraft’s handling characteristics. However, the engineering team did not effectively communicate the system’s design, its implications, and potential risks to other departments, including safety and training teams. This breakdown in cross-functional communication had catastrophic consequences. In another example, the 2017 Equifax data breach exposed the personal information of approximately 147 million consumers. It was caused by a vulnerability that went unpatched due to a breakdown in communication between separate departments. This incident highlighted a severe lack of cross-functional security awareness, resulting in massive financial losses. These disasters emphasize the need for seamless collaboration across functions. In regular business life, the consequences are less dramatic but significantly impact resilience, innovation, and sustained growth. Understanding the urgency to break down silos The ability for teams to collaborate across the enterprise is directly linked to business success. IDC’s April 2024 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, Wave 4, showed that 43% of companies with a high level of success (greater than 80%) in GenAI proofs of concept and production rollouts have an effective process for coordination between IT and LOB teams. Furthermore, 47% of highly successful companies maintain strong relationships with strategic GenAI partners. As technology becomes increasingly central to business strategy, the need for IT to work seamlessly with other departments has never been more critical — yet many IT organizations still operate in isolation, focused on technical minutiae rather than broader business outcomes. Silos impede communication, stifle creativity, and hinder the agility needed to compete in a fast-paced business environment. This separation leads to redundant efforts, a lack of synergy, and a fundamental misalignment between IT capabilities and business needs. As CIOs, the task at hand is not just a nicety — it’s a strategic necessity that influences every facet of business. The CIO as a cross-functional leader In the “AI everywhere” era, the CIO’s role has evolved from merely overseeing IT infrastructure to becoming a pivotal force in driving cross-functional collaboration and organizational unity. To effectively break down silos and foster a culture of collaboration, CIOs must embrace an adapted leadership approach. The figure below provides an overview of the CIO as a cross-functional leader. IDC Holistic CIO leadership Modern CIOs must embrace holistic leadership, balancing technical expertise with business acumen and ethical considerations. This involves whole-brain thinking, adaptability, and an ecosystem orientation that views the organization as an interconnected system. Breaking down silos CIOs play a critical role in identifying and breaking down organizational silos. This includes program management to implement strategies for breaking down silos, such as analyzing current structures, information flows, and workflows. This involves setting shared goals and creating compelling narratives that resonate across departments. It also concerns identifying communication gaps and redundancies and proactively removing these barriers through strategic initiatives and the use of technology to improve communication between departments. Catalyst for synergies The effective CIO acts as a catalyst for cross-functional synergies, creating an environment where diverse teams can collaborate seamlessly. By fostering open communication channels and promoting a culture of shared goals and mutual respect, CIOs can unlock unprecedented levels of innovation and productivity. Embracing paradoxical leadership CIOs must effectively balance seemingly contradictory approaches such as strategy versus execution, innovation versus risk, and centralization versus decentralization. By seeking synergistic solutions, CIOs can create win-win scenarios that maximize benefits across multiple stakeholders’ perspectives. Systems thinking in action: Fostering empathy and integration CIOs must demonstrate systems thinking, which involves understanding how changes in one part of the organization can affect others. They should also cultivate cross-functional empathy — appreciating the challenges and priorities of different departments — and promote integrated problem-solving that brings together diverse perspectives. These skills are crucial for a CIO who wants to promote collaboration. By appreciating the interconnectedness of various functions and demonstrating empathy toward their unique challenges and perspectives, CIOs can drive integrated and innovative solutions that benefit the entire organization. Orchestrating governance frameworks A robust governance framework is essential for sustaining cross-functional collaboration. CIOs must orchestrate these frameworks to provide the necessary structure and oversight, ensure alignment with organizational goals, and facilitate quick adaptation to changes. This governance is the backbone for continuous improvement and effectiveness in collaborative efforts. Enabling technology Technology serves as an enabler, bridging gaps and connecting teams. Implementing advanced data-sharing platforms, communication tools, and collaborative software can significantly diminish the physical and cognitive boundaries between teams. CIOs must champion these technologies while maintaining security and leveraging AI-powered solutions to identify collaboration opportunities and automate processes. By embodying these principles, CIOs can transform their organizations into agile, collaborative powerhouses ready to tackle the challenges of the digital economy. As cross-functional leaders, CIOs not only drive technological innovation but also foster collaboration that percolates through the entire organization, ultimately leading to enhanced efficiency, improved customer experiences, and sustained competitive advantage. A strategic call to action Breaking down silos requires a structured approach. Here’s a road map for CIOs: Short-term initiatives Begin with small, impactful steps: conducting audits to identify silos and initiating pilot projects to demonstrate the value of cross-functional teams. Create pilot cross-functional teams to tackle specific challenges. Provide visibility and celebrate success to engage with more stakeholders. Medium-term tactics Scale successful pilots and formalize governance structures to build momentum. Invest in shared understanding by establishing a common language and aligning on shared goals. Create a dedicated platform for data and resource sharing. Long-term vision Maintain collaboration through regular review and refinement of processes. Build a resilient and adaptable IT organization with flexible structures. Measure success through collaboration-focused KPIs and OKRs. Conclusion By implementing these strategies, CIOs can transform their organizations into agile, collaborative powerhouses ready to tackle the challenges of the

The value packed into mainframe data is immense. It’s decades of transactional data and history, it’s a comprehensive log of customer engagements, and it’s a view into how the operations of a business have evolved. But for as much value as it already holds, there’s even more potential waiting to be found. This is part of what has been driving the push to modernize mainframe systems for years now. As new technologies and strategies emerge, modern mainframes need to be flexible and resilient enough to support those changes. At the same time, many organizations have been pushing to adopt cloud-based approaches to their IT infrastructure, opting to tap into the speed, flexibility, and analytical power that comes along with it. Particularly as markets become more competitive, the ability to feed data into analytical models in cloud-native environments can help deliver real-time insights and ultimately carve out a competitive edge. To get the best of both of these environments, many organizations are opting to take a hybrid approach—leveraging the security and trusted reputation of mainframe systems with the analytical prowess and flexibility of cloud environments. And as hybrid strategies become more common, they will also impact the way businesses define successful mainframe modernization for the future. Bringing the mainframe and cloud together Choosing to adopt a hybrid cloud approach to tackle mainframe data is more than just a modernization project. It’s a decision that maps back to the overarching goals of a business and how they want to leverage their data. Bringing mainframe data into a cloud environment has the ability to unlock a new level of real-time analysis and insight from data that can reshape the way operations are managed across the enterprise. Among other benefits, a hybrid cloud approach to mainframe modernization allows organizations to: Leverage cloud-native technologies which, in turn, help optimize workloads for performance and scalability. This integration enhances the overall efficiency of IT operations. Improve skill sets across teams and boost financial flexibility by better utilizing existing mainframe expertise while also building new skills related to cloud technologies. In doing so, this generates greater financial flexibility by optimizing the allocation of existing resources.   Better leverage their mainframe data with near real-time access. This is made possible by incorporating cloud-based advanced analytics and AI applications and allows businesses to move toward a more data-driven decision-making process. Laying the foundation for successful hybrid cloud But for all those benefits, it’s important to not lose sight of the fact that a hybrid approach requires a robust, modern, IT infrastructure to support it. Accomplishing that means working with a partner that not only has a deep history of mainframe excellence and solutions that accelerate modernization, but also support bringing those systems together with cloud-native technologies. Whether it’s data intelligence tools that help democratize data and break down siloes, or data replication solutions that allow users to leverage mainframe data in cloud analytics models without exposing it to undue risk, the right modernization partner can help transform operations from the ground up. Learn more about how Rocket Software can help you make the most of a hybrid cloud approach to modernization. source

DocGo names Eiwe Lingefors CIO Brigham Young University appointed Brian Radford CIO New CIO appointments, September 2024 Truist names Steve Hagerman CIO Mike Guhl appointed CIO at PulteGroup Inc. Norfolk Southern welcomes Anil Bhatt as CIDO Nelly Jefferson named CIO of Avangrid Marjorie Hutchings joins Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies Workers Compensation Division as CIO Itamar Albek joins American Jewish Committee as CIO HEICO welcomes William Velez as CIO First Watch names Rob Conti as CIO Winston & Strawn appoints Robert Kerr as CIO Jovan Marconi joins Inland as CIO CoolSys appoints Danny Rodriguez as CIO Justin McWhirter named CIO for CCC Intelligent Solutions TAB Bank appoints Tami Fisher as CIO Queens University of Charlotte names Kenitra Horsley CIO New CIO appointments, August 2024 Nike appoints Cheryan Jacob CIO Mondelēz International named Filippo Catalano CIDO Keith Credendino named CIO of Macy’s, Inc. Kyndryl appoints Kim Basile as CIO Neeru Arora named CIO for Mazda North American Operations Dan Shull joins Hasbro as CDIO REI Co-op promotes Guillaume Ledieu to CTO Marco Deutsch named CIO at Baker McKenzie Adolfo Rodriguez appointed CTIO at Guitar Center Yeman Collier to join UChicago Medicine as CIO Subaru of America, Inc. appoints Aurelian Sin as CIO Alliant Credit Union welcomes Jamie Warder as CIO Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. appoints Bhupesh Arora as CTO Jamie Head joins Parts Town as CIO Lloyd Boyd named CIO for Park Lawn Corporation Ryan McEnroe named CIO at Reed Smith Unison Risk Advisors appoints Tony Martinez as CIO Martina Schubert joins Van Meter Inc. as CIO Atlas Van Lines promotes Ryan Parmenter to CIO New CIO appointments, July 2024 BNY names Leigh-Ann Russell as CIO Charles (Rusty) Patel joins Baxter as CIO Clayco names Jeff Miller as CIO Kevin Ruggiero named CIO of Parsons Corporation Urmila Menon joins Tri Pointe Homes as CIO Signature Aviation appoints Al Lettera as CDIO Boart Longyear names Niel Nickolaisen as CIO Jordan Ruch named CIO at AtlantiCare Holley Performance Brands names Charan Mann CIO Heath Tuttle named CIO at the University of Buffalo MEC appoints Daniel Bourquin as CIO George Haddad joins North American Partners in Anesthesia as CIO New CIO appointments, June 2024 Madhu Narasimhan named CIO of DaVita Cleveland Clinic announces Sarah Hatchett as CIO Quest Diagnostics appoints Murali Balakumar as CIDO Guncha Mehta joins Beyond as CDIO Gulfstream Aerospace appoints Anthony Newlin as CIO David Ugan named CTO for AAA, Inc. Mieko Shibata named new R&T Deposit Solutions CIO Keith Jones promoted to CIO at Cone Health Lendmark Financial Services announces Zaheer Khan as CIO Keith Correia named CIO at Portillo’s Freshworks appoints Ashwin Ballal as CIO Bill Shuler joins Planet Home Lending as CIO source

Akhtar will be kicking off FutureIT New York, a conference for IT leaders, on November 21 at Convene 247 Park. He will share his perspective on AI and other technologies and offer insights and questions that technology leaders should consider as they develop and implement AI-infused products that affect everyone. We’re also thrilled to announce that CIO will give away a pair of tickets to McNeal at the event. You must be present to win, so register now to join us. Also at the event we’ll be diving into successful AI case studies, learning how to use emerging technologies to drive efficiency and innovation, discussing IT leadership, and looking at the latest IDC research on the evolving open source ecosystem. source

But adopting the technology is helping the company move forward, she says. “We’re dedicated to being industry leaders in a really dynamic space,” she says. “And even if today it doesn’t really save us time, there will be a point where it’s necessary — and where others would just be starting.” When it comes to gen AI, there’s a gap between what executives expect it to do and what the actual experiences of employees are, says Ashok Krish, head of advisory and consulting for AI at Tata Consultancy Services. After all, today’s generative AI tools are general-purpose, and in their early stages. “What’s available today barely scratches the surface of what generative AI will do to transform knowledge work in the near future,” he says. “This is a necessary stage of adoption we all have to go through. It’s like the early stages of the internet where only a small group of engineers and tech enthusiasts knew how to get value out of it.” So in the short term, employees will have to deal with getting used to a new, limited technology, and companies will have to deal with uncertain ROI. “Because if they don’t, they’ll be left behind when AI inevitably transforms all types of work in the coming years,” he says. Still, there are some things companies can do to hurry things up. “We’re seeing that the most productivity increases and ROI from generative AI come from highly targeted, industry-specific applications,” he says. It also helps, he adds, when companies get more employees involved and give them access to AI tools so they can develop their own ways to transform their jobs. source

Historically, data center virtualization pioneer VMware was seen as a technology leader, but recent business changes have stirred consternation since its acquisition by Broadcom in late 2023. New product bundling and pricing, reseller program adjustments, divestments, and unforeseen changes are driving CIOs and IT providers to reassess their strategies and technologies. “It’s going to change the relationship customers have with the company because Broadcom’s focus is on running as efficiently as possible,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, president and CEO of Nutanix, in an April 2024 episode of Bloomberg’s Tech Disruptors podcast. “That means for customers: price increases, potentially less support…and that’s creating a disruption in the channel partner community,” he said. “For us, it’s a multi-year opportunity.” Industry changes and fallout from disgruntled Broadcom VMware customers have been widely reported. In January 2024, The Wall Street Journal highlighted the attention Broadcom’s VMware overhaul drew from CIOs, followed by reports of pricing and reseller agreement changes. The Register later noted “whispers about a breakup with AWS,” despite Broadcom addressing the issue in a blog post. Many customers remain wary, prompting IT leaders to explore alternatives and adjust their strategies regarding VMware products. On the Tech Disruptors podcast, Ramaswami outlined how Nutanix is meeting the rising demand for simplified IT infrastructure and positioning itself as the easiest alternative for VMware customers seeking to reduce risk or dependence. Podcast host Woo Jin Ho, an analyst at Bloomberg, said: “From my math, it looks like [Broadcom] cut out roughly 10,000 channel partners out of their 28,000. [They are] now down to 18,000. Does that potentially expand the channel partner program for you guys?” Ramaswami confirmed. “We’ve certainly seen a higher level of engagement with many channel partners,” Ramaswami said, highlighting a recent announcement that WiPro created a Nutanix Business Unit to accelerate digital transformation and hybrid multicloud innovation. Many joint Nutanix and VMware partners are looking to renew their Nutanix partnership, especially those losing out of the top 2000 customers. “Many customers who knew the Broadcom playbook signed three to five-year enterprise agreements with VMware before the deal was closed,” Ramaswami said, adding this bought them time. Many see Nutanix as “the easiest alternative,” he said. “Not everybody is going to do wholesale migrations. Many might adopt a dual vendor strategy and might use Nutanix in a portion of the business.” Woo recognized the rising significance of hybrid multicloud following the COVID pandemic, a time that accelerated digital transformation to accommodate remote work and the surge in online commerce. “People are finding that steady-state workloads can be run much more effectively and cost-effectively in their own data centers,” said Ramaswami, highlighting how X (formerly Twitter) optimized its cloud usage, shifting more on-premises and cutting monthly cloud costs by 60%, data storage by 60%, and data processing costs by 75%. This is prompting the CIO shift to hybrid and multicloud. In Nutanix’s recent Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) – which surveyed 1,500 IT, DevOps, and platform engineering leaders globally – over 80% of organizations viewed hybrid IT as essential for managing applications and data. Nearly half indicated that implementing hybrid IT is a top priority for their CIO. The interview hinted CIOs are cautious with their IT budgets and that while there is spending it’s with a total cost-of-ownership (TCO) mindset. “We have a TAM (total addressable market) of about $76 billion and that includes software-defined compute, storage, and networking,” Ramaswami said. Disruption from the Broadcom-VMware acquisition “gives us an opportunity to grow [market] share faster than we probably normally have into that TAM. I would see this as an acceleration.” Ramaswami discussed growth among both large Global 2000 and smaller companies globally, with many looking to expand their use of Nutanix. A major APAC company that ran a dual Nutanix and VMware strategy recently chose Nutanix over VMware for an expansion, while smaller customers show potential for full migration to Nutanix. And he noted, after the Broadcom deal closed, a smaller public healthcare system accelerated its shift to Nutanix, finishing in just 90 days. “We have done a lot of work on automating migrations for simpler environments, but also for very complex environments,” said Ramaswami. Learn how Nutanix can accelerate your hybrid cloud journey and transform your business. Disclaimer: Nutanix, Inc. is not affiliated with VMware by Broadcom or Broadcom. Ken Kaplan is Editor in Chief for The Forecast by Nutanix. Find him on X @kenekaplan. source

AIAP in the beginning: Goals and challenges  The AIAP started back in 2017 when I was tasked to build a team to do 100 AI projects. To do that, I needed to hire AI engineers. Like any other hiring manager, we started with the traditional route of putting out a job description and trying to recruit. But the applications that came in, while not bad — we had 300 from all over the world — only 10 were from Singapore. As a Singaporean AI R&D outfit, I couldn’t have only 10% of our engineers be Singaporeans and the rest foreigners. I needed the ratio to be the other way around! So, based on a hunch, we created the AI Apprenticeship Programme. The hunch was that there were a lot of Singaporeans out there learning about data science, AI, machine learning and Python on their own. There’s a lot of buzz around it, and these are people who could be quickly brought in and, given the right training and guidance, become real-world AI engineers.  Very early on, we knew that we wanted to bring in people with the right skills and attitude; academic qualifications or background wasn’t a primary concern. So, AIAP was open to anyone with any background as long as they could pass our technical assessment, which assesses whether they can do the job of a junior AI engineer. That’s the role we expect an incoming apprentice to be able to fill. And why that role? Because a lot of Singaporeans and locals have been learning AI, machine learning, and Python on their own. They know enough to do that, but they don’t get hired by large organizations because they lack real-world experience. With AIAP, coupled with 100E, we solved that problem. It becomes a win-win-win situation: the apprentice gets to work on real-world problems and beef up their resume, I get good enough AI engineers working alongside my more experienced engineers to deliver on the 100E projects, and the company gets an AI model or product developed in seven months.  The impact of AIAP on individuals, companies and the AI ecosystem in Singapore  Over the last seven years, we’ve approved nearly 180 projects, of which more than 100 have been completed. We’ve trained more than 400 Singaporeans to become AI engineers, and nearly all of them are today AI engineers, AI consultants, managers, or data scientists. There’s no other program in Singapore, or I guess in the world, that has nearly a 100% placement rate of their students into the role they were trained for! We are thrilled with the outcome and honored by the support of Singaporeans who have given up their jobs to join AIAP, and the companies that took the risk to work with us in the early days when we were new and untested.  source