Q&A: BOQ Finance CIO

What does an average work day involve for you at BOQ Finance?

Turnbull A blend of people management, strategic planning with the business and enterprise architecture group, vendor engagements and assisting the business leaders in solving tactical situations and initiatives.

What are some of the major challenges you face in the role of CIO?

We are in the middle of a major program of work to introduce our next generation architecture and overhaul our core business platforms and processes.

As we work through this program, our challenge is to identify ways to extract additional business value out of our existing technology portfolio without slowing down the delivery of the new platforms and services.

Our other major challenge is the increasing expectations of our user base. The consumerisation of smartphones and Cloud services are driving our user base to demand this type of seamless anywhere, anytime, any device access to our enterprise environment.

What are some of the recent projects you have been working on?

The decoupling and transition of our business and technology portfolio into a new environment after BOQ acquired the South Pacific business from [financial services organisation] CIT Group in July 2010.

The recruitment of a multi-skilled and passionate ICT team capable of supporting the recently established BOQ Finance business.

The delivery of our next generation architecture including the introduction of an enterprise services platform, business to business [B2B] and business to client [B2C] services and alternative delivery channels such as the Apple iOS, Android and HTML5.

What are the three biggest issues facing CIOs today?

Successfully harnessing the scalability of Cloud services and capabilities and merging them into the traditional delivery of in-house business and technical solutions.

Distinguishing meaningful strategic and operational information within the increasingly diverse range of business and IT metrics available.

Moving from the traditional domain of a technology leader to a business leader involved in the strategic planning, decision making and direction of the business.

What’s your favourite gadget?

My Windows 7 phone running Mango and my iPad2.