BellSouth CIO Fran Dramis Discuss Its Technology Transformation
Sun, September 01, 2002
CIO — Change is hard. Even when the benefits are obvious, it takes a lot of determination to get an organization to do things differently. But Fran Dramis is a determined sort of guy; he’s developed a detailed blueprint for guiding corporations through the challenging process of technology transformation.
Dramis spearheaded major technology makeovers as a consultant to Bankers’ Trust, Citibank, Coopers & Lybrand, NASD and Xerox, and in the process he served as acting CIO for divisions of all those companies but Xerox. Now he is entering the final phase of a so-called technology transformation at BellSouth in Atlanta. As executive vice president and chief information, e-commerce and security officer, he’s helping the Baby Bell morph from what he calls a "transport company" optimized around voice circuit switching to an information services company that adds value to its voice and data transport business. (For example, customers might pay extra for prioritized routing or to have BellSouth store a backup copy of the information being transported.)
It’s no small task, but Dramis knew what he was getting into when he accepted the job at BellSouth in December 1998. One big condition was that he had to report to the CEO. Having led technology transformations before, he knew that "if it’s not center plate for the CEO, it takes twice the amount of time."
With the full backing of his boss, he launched into his tried-and-true change program. Dramis calls it a fairly straightforward gap-analysis process, which he refined during six years working as a consultant, CIO (at AT&T Information Systems and Solomon Brothers), president (of a utility industry software services company) and CEO (of a network integration company). The process has three phases:
1. Engage the business to develop a technology transformation road map.
2. Build the enabling technology necessary to get the company on equal footing with competitors.
3. Gain business leverage by moving toward the desired state of technology.
Phase 1: Create a Road Map
In this first phase, Dramis gives business unit presidents a series of questions about their technology, and makes them present their answers to the chairman and CEO and his staff at an all-day meeting. The questions range from the simple (How old is each system?) to those requiring more soul searching (How do the capabilities of your systems compare with those of your competitors?).
The questions are designed to help the executives assess their portfolio of systems and gauge whether they’re sufficient just to stay in business. Dramis refers to a shortfall as the enablement gap. Closing an enablement gap doesn’t produce a competitive advantage. It just gets you into the game and provides a base on which to build. "Many transformation efforts fail because businesses try to get a return on investment without closing the enablement gap," he says.
