News
Articles by Doug Drinkwater
News Analysis
New health data strategy for England promises privacy, tackles COVID backlog
Health and Social Care Secretary of State Sajid Javid announced a new data strategy focused on giving patients greater control over their data, delivering faster treatment, and tackling the pandemic backlog
News Analysis
DCMS digital strategy bids to boost UK tech economy, close skills gap
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has released the long-awaited digital strategy, designed to attract foreign investors, close the skills gap, advance technological progress in AI and quantum computing, and give a shot in the arm to the UK economy.
News Analysis
UK’s new digital strategy promises change – will it deliver?
A new government digital strategy promises to deliver better citizen experiences, improved accessibility, shared data between central departments, and to upskill civil servants. But haven’t we heard this all before?
Feature
University Hospitals Leicester CIO deploys DaaS to improve patient experience
UHLu2019s CIO Andy Carruthers has deployed DaaS to improve colleague and patient experiences, and in turn reduce waiting times, as he discusses digital transformation and new demands on IT teams.
Interview
Times Higher Education CTO Freddie Quek on minority recognition and building diverse, effective teams
Times Higher Education CTO Freddie Quek mulls career progression as an Asian technology leader, the power of storytelling in the boardroom, and how the IT industry can address digital poverty.
Interview
Q&A: Mastercall Healthcare CIO Jonathan Ritchie on saving lives through digital innovation
Director of IT at the out-of-hospital provider of urgent primary care services, Ritchie spoke with CIO.com on the route he took to become an IT leader and how digital technology is being employed to empower patients to manage their own health care symptoms
Interview
Pets at Home’s CIO unleashes IT on customer experience
A boom in pet ownership and a growing multi-disciplinary business is pushing Pets at Home CIO William Hewish to co-create IT solutions with store colleagues, blur the boundaries between physical and digital for better customer experience, and invest in technology like never before.
Feature
Redefining the CIO role post-pandemic
A tumultuous two years have shifted expectations of what IT could and should deliver. Today, CIOs are taking stock and redrawing the boundaries around their role and responsibilities.
Interview
Places for People builds cross-functional IT for cloud transformation
Places for People’s technology officer Dean Garvey-North sees the business value of cross-functional teams and is looking to hyperscalers and an inquisitive IT group to deliver cloud transformation.
Interview
Exit interview: Williams F1 CIO Graeme Hackland to leave racing team in June
Williams F1’s long-standing CIO Graeme Hackland is set to depart and leave behind 25 years in motorsport. But he’s not retiring just yet.
News Analysis
UK’s DDaT procurement playbook draws mixed reviews from CIOs
The UK government’s digital, data, and technology playbook (DDaT) provides new guidance on how central government should source and contract with suppliers for digital projects and programmes. But will it be followed?
Feature
Royal National Lifeboat Institution CIO talks COVID-19 response, data, and mental health
Saving lives at sea, supporting volunteers and colleagues through social, economic, and political storms, and driving value from data are on RNLI CIO Claire Deuchar’s to-do list.
Feature
Southampton FC’s IT director changes formation
Southampton Football Club’s renaissance is pushing IT Director James Grove to modernise IT and data capabilities, improve fan engagement, and defend the boardroom from transfer fraudsters.
Feature
FOS CIO shakes up IT department, starts cloud migration
The UK Financial Ombudsman Service CIO Nicola Wadham is rebranding the IT department, going ‘cloud preferred’ to improve organisational agility, and fighting for digital inclusion and diversity.
News
UK Parliament CDIO Tracey Jessup to join DeMontfort University
Tracey Jessup, the chief digital and information officer (CDIO) at the UK Parliament, will become chief transformation officer (CTO) at DeMontfort University in Leicester.
News
UK Cabinet Office’s CDDO hunts for new chief digital officer
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) is on the lookout for a new chief digital officer, with Joanna Davinson set to retire.
Feature
Succession planning: A CIO imperative
CIOs should always have half an eye on the future, especially it comes to succession planning u2014 for their own careers as well as the good of their businesses.
News Analysis
Twinings CIO brews connected supply chain with SAP’s RISE
Twinings Ovaltine’s Global CIO Sandeep Seeripat explains how the tea brand chose SAP to build a connected supply chain which improves customer service, efficiency and cost control.
News Analysis
UK’s Levelling Up misses the mark on skills and digital poverty
The Levelling Up whitepaper sets out the UK government’s vision to improve millions of lives. Whether it goes far enough on skills and digital poverty remains to be seen.n
Feature
From farming to e-commerce: Riverford CIO’s tale of organic growth
Anthony 'Roja' Buck, CIO at Riverford Organic Farmers, discusses doing more with less, reacting to customer demand and prioritising sustainability in a co-ownership business.
Feature
Boots CIO’s shopping basket: IT skills, experience and CEO dinners
Professionalising IT is top of the agenda for Boots’ CIO Rich Corbridge, fresh from a year standing up digital services for customers, supporting the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and making technology a grown-up boardroom conversation.
Feature
Virgin Media O2 CTO on changing IT leadership to meet post-merger challenges
As she settles into a new CTO role following Virgin Media’s merger with O2, Jeanie York discusses M&A job complexity, the advantage of a CIO, CTO and CDO triumvirate and readying the next-generation of STEM talent.
Feature
Philip Morris’ CDIO on self-development, product IT and a smoke-free future
Philip Morris International's Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) Michael Voegele discusses the importance of CIO self-development, aligning technology and product development for digital transformation, and his role in delivering a smoke-free future for a legacy cigarette company.n
Feature
How this borough council CIO saved lives, built diverse teams during COVID
CIO UK 100 2021 winner Paul Fleming discusses responding to a humanitarian crisis with low-code COVID-19 contact tracing, upskilling diverse tech teams and what’s coming up in the year ahead.
Feature
National Highways CDIO changes lane with Digital Roads strategy
Highways England’s Victoria Higgin is navigating a new Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) role, an expanded IT team and a Digital Roads strategy meant to pave the way to a future of predictive maintenance and autonomous vehicles.
News Analysis
UK tech spending ramps up, but CIOs face budget challenges
UK IT spending is forecast to grow faster than other EMEA markets, owing to remote work and education, telehealth and a dependency on consultancies, but CIOs face a shift in responsibilities, according to new research from Gartner.rn
Feature
UK tech leaders struggle for talent, diversity, says Harvey Nash report
The constant pace of change means that technology leaders are struggling to find tech talent, close the diversity and inclusion (D&I) gap and meet sustainability goals, according to a new report from recruitment agency Harvey Nash.
Feature
How WPP CIO Rachel Higham is simplifying IT and rethinking diversity
WPP’s new CIO, Rachel Higham, is consolidating IT and rethinking vendor partnerships to support the ad behemoth’s business transformation, as well as hit lofty diversity and inclusion (D&I) and sustainability goals.
Feature
How Boohoo’s CIO manages innovation, supply chain woes and M&A
From consolidating the tech stack, to supporting M&A and leading an internal change programme in the wake of supply chain controversy, Boohoo CIO Jo Graham sees innovation as part of the day job.
Interview
Bupa CTO goes all-in on public cloud, startups, and sustainability
UK-based Diana Kennedy is crafting a global public cloud strategy with Microsoft Azure, partnering with startups, and focused on sustainability. All in the hope of building a more customer-centric healthcare organisation.
Feature
Planning an IT strategy: The first 100 days for DS Smith’s new CIO
Six strategic themes focused on ensuring that IT adds to the bottom line, and women in tech are front of mind for Claire Dickson, as the new DS Smith CIO works through her 100-day plan.
Feature
Accelerating digital transformation for customer experience: A UK CIO’s workout
On-off gym closures, cancelled memberships and furloughed staff have given the Gym Group’s Jasper McIntosh a taxing workout. Now, he’s plotting a recovery as he pivots his digital transformation strategy, improves agility in the cloud and focuses on customer experience.
Feature
UK debt charity CIO banks on low code for scale amid uncertain future
StepChange CIO Lorna Allan has the unenviable task of scaling to future market demand, facilitating omni-channel experiences and supporting a changing workplace — all while the charity faces its own economic uncertainty.
Feature
A UK university CIO’s lessons: Fix security, power WFH, negotiate budget
A spate of cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities gave the University of Salford CIO Mark Wantling some sleepless nights. His homework? Protect the network, pivot to home learning, accelerate digital transformation — and ask the CEO for budget flexibility.
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