Up-and-Coming IT Leaders Focus on Business Customers

Nick Sewell sounds more like a marketing manager than an IT leader. He talks about the need to understand what customers want, to deliver products that fulfill customer needs, to stand up for the customer.

But Sewell, director of IT programs for Western Union Business Solutions, knows that technology plays a vital role in keeping customers happy as they use Western Union to move their money around the world. “Technology,” he says, “is absolutely a differentiator in the market.”

Sewell is one of the up-and-coming executives honored this year by the Ones to Watch awards program, which is administered by the CIO Executive Council to identify promising IT leaders. Many of the 2014 honorees–like Sewell–are focused on using IT to serve external customers and develop new products or services.

“The biggest trend I’ve seen is turning away from an IT-centric view to a customer-centric view of how we give service,” says honoree Carrie Rasmussen, vice president of IT customer service and support for the grocery and drug retailer Safeway.

That shift comes with a new set of challenges and skill requirements.

For example, Sewell and his 50-member IT team need to understand what the company’s 100,000 business customers need from Western Union and then deliver systems that make them want to pick Western Union over its competitors. For traditional IT departments, that’s a new way of thinking.

Miles Apart

“The distance between us and the customer is traditionally far too big. It’s immense. You might have a guy doing coding or testing who will take his requirements or direction from a project manager who might work with a business analyst who works with a product person who works with a salesperson who talks to the customer. There are five or six steps between the person providing us with the real need and the person actually delivering that. My view is, you have to cut all those steps out and have as much direct contact with the customer as possible,” Sewell says.

He’s doing just that, talking directly with key customers and assigning IT staffers to work with Western Union’s client advisory council so they meet with customers, too.

Tina Gehrts, vice president of management information systems with Thomson Reuters, is taking a similar approach. Gehrts and her team reach out to e-commerce clients in new forums like sales meetings to find out what they need and how they want to interact with her company.

“You have to put yourself much more into an end customer’s mind, make sure you’re attuned to what they need and be attentive to the different end markets,” she says.

Technology can help IT better understand those external customers, Rasmussen says. Safeway uses data gathered from call centers, field services and other sources to help her team identify what shoppers want from mobile apps, Safeway portals and self-service technologies.

The additional challenge for IT teams working for external customers is contending with a wider range of technology platforms as well as end-user skills. Rasmussen, for example, says her team must deliver applications that work for all types of mobile phones, tablets, desktops and laptops. They must also develop applications that work for users at all skill levels, because external customers can’t be brought in for mandatory training on new systems the way internal folks can.

Not So Different?

But Ones to Watch honoree Jim Dolphin, CIO for retail and direct bank at Capital One, says developing for external customers isn’t completely different than what many IT departments already do. He says the 1,000 associates in Capital One’s IT department are expected to think about the same questions regardless of who ends up with the technology: How will the technology help? What will the experience be like for the user? How can we give them the best experience?

So Dolphin says the skills that IT workers need when serving external customers are similar to those generally sought in technologists today: the ability to communicate and understand business needs, coupled with technical aptitude.

Yes, it’s a tall order. But these award-winning IT leaders say they’re training their staff members to ask the right questions, to explore customers’ responses, to tease out what’s bothering customers and what they’re trying to achieve, and to take ownership in meeting those needs. And that, these up-and-comers say, is just an extension of what they’ve been doing all along.

Ones to Watch Winners

Judges in this annual awards program — administered by the CIO Executive Council — selected the following rising stars of IT. To be honored, these future CIOs must have demonstrated leadership, driven innovation and delivered business value.

Omer F. Awan

Administrative Director

Memorial Hermann Health System Bob Bruns

VP of Infrastructure Services

Avanade Frank D. Cavaliere

Director of Infrastructure and Operations

Covanta Energy Corp. Michael Cirafesi

CTO & Partner

CSC Consulting Carole Davidson

VP of IT, Business Collaboration, Strategy and Integration

The Clorox Company Adrianne Day

Chief of IT Governance, Business Management and Project Management Office Divisions

Army Contracting Command Richard de Lange

Asia CIO

General Electric Energy Management Jim Dolphin

SVP, Retail & Direct Technology

Capital One Arun Ganesan

VP of Infrastructure and Data Services

Esurance Tina Gehrts

VP of Management Information Systems

Thomson Reuters Linda Howard

SVP & Deputy CIO

SAIC Travis Howerton

CTO

National Nuclear Security Administration Ajoy Kodali

VP of IT for Digital, Data and Analytics, and Enterprise Architecture

Humana Ashok Kumar

VP of Self-Service, Consumer and Mass Business

Verizon Kelly LoParrino

VP of IT Planning and Service Management

Endurance Judd Nicholson

Deputy CIO

Georgetown University Patrick O’Keeffe

VP of Passenger Services System and Corporate Technology

American Airlines Pam Parisian

SVP of IT Mobility

AT&T Services Inc. Carrie Rasmussen

VP of IT Customer Service and Support

Safeway Inc. Nikhil Reddy

SVP of Information Services Investments

Baylor Scott & White Health Dr. David M. Seo

Associate Vice President for Clinical Applications,

Chief Medical Informatics Officer,

Chief Research Information Officer

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Nick Sewell

Director of IT Programs

Western Union Business Solutions Garland Straub

Director of Technology

Yum! Brands, KFC Division John Swieringa

VP of IT Application Development and Architecture

DISH Network Mark Wilson

VP of Product Development

SquareTwo Financial

Ones to Watch Judges

Special thanks to the esteemed judges who evaluated nominations for the 2014 Ones to Watch awards program, which is administered by the CIO Executive Council. 

Yuri Aguiar

Senior Partner & Worldwide CIO

Ogilvy & Mather Rex Althoff

CIO & President of Technology

Federated Services Larry Bonfante

CIO

U.S. Tennis Association Tom Cullen

CIO

Driscoll’s Jeri Dunn

Former VP & CIO

Bacardi-Martin John Edgar

VP of IT

U.S. Postal Service Robert Fecteau

CIO

SAIC Victor Fetter

CIO & Managing Director for Business Technology Services

LPL Financial Ken Grady

CIO

New England Biolabs Steven R. Hanna

VP & CIO

Kennametal E. Jeffrey Hutchinson

SVP

SAP Tim McCabe

SVP & CIO

Delphi Georgia Papathomas

Group CIO & VP of IT Pharmaceuticals

Johnson & Johnson Ken Piddington

CIO

Global Partners LP Rebecca Rhoads

CIO & President of Global Business Services

Raytheon Doug Rousso

SVP & CTO

CBS Corp. Hugh Scott

President

NRG Residential Solar Solutions Mike Skinner

CEO of Brokerage Operations & CIO

Eurpac Joe Spagnoletti

SVP & CIO

Campbell Soup David Thompson

EVP & CIO

Western Union Robert Urwiler

CIO

Vail Resorts Bill Weeks

SVP & CIO

SquareTwo Financial Gordon Wishon

CIO

Arizona State University

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