Q&A: Clifford Hallam Healthcare CIO, Ged Halstead

Clifford Hallam Healthcare (CH2) CIO, Ged Halstead, has been with the healthcare logistics company for about six years. The company has undertaken a 10-year plan to improve its supply chain and warehouse initiatives to overcome data and traceability issues in the medical and pharmaceutical wholesale industry.

Halstead had a chat with CIO Australia about customer service and working with the supplier community, and prioritisation.

What does an average work day involve for you?

Mostly involved around working with my team, making sure projects are on track, issues [are] under control and our vast number of KPI reports have got off to our partners.

Most days have a good deal of interaction with our customers (large and small) as well as working with our supplier community.

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

Prioritising our workload and focus.

In the era of ‘best of breed’ computing, I find staying on top of upgrades and enhancements a major challenge. Let’s see if SaaS (software-as-a-service) really is the panacea for this one.

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

We have had success with our CH2 Gateway project, which is an online business intelligence portal for our suppliers.

What are the three biggest issues facing CIOs today?

Prioritising their resources due to the number of functions that in-house IT departments face, cost containment and making IT an attractive job role to the upcoming generations.

Favourite gadget?

Not a real gadget guy; family time is probably more a focus than gadget time.

I do enjoy watching others juggling the connected devices though. I still get plenty of mileage from the simple smartphone and laptop.

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