British construction and support services company Carillion was created in 1999 by a demerger from Targer, itself founded in 1903. Since the split major construction and service-management organisations have been acquired by Carillion, including Mowlem in 2006, Alfred McAlpine in 2008 and energy services specialist Eaga in 2011. Richard Gifford, in the 2013 CIO 100for his work at the Kent and Medway Health Informatics Service, is also a former IT director at Whitbread and took over from Steve Connor at the beginning of 2013. Gifford told CIO UK Editor in Chief Mark Chillingworth about Carillion's transformation plans in March 2014. What is your job title?CIO and Transformation Director When did you start your current role?January 2013 Have you completed an MBA?Yes Order the following sources of advice/information by value to you:1. In-house2. Consultant3. Vendors4. Peer group5. Analyst Technology strategy and spending What is the major transformational IT project that has been recently completed, or is underway at your organisation?BPO/ITO Outsourcing, and many others What impact will it/does it have on the organisation?Significantly drive down the run costs enabling investment to drive both innovation and process efficiency What new strategic technology deals has your organisation struck and with whom?Microssoft – Enterprise agreement. This is an enabler to create a single global architecture which will include cloud technologies – office 365, Lync, storage.Oracle – ERP platformTagetik – Corporate PerformanceCommon Time – MEAP Name your strategic technology suppliers?OracleMicrosoftBTAccenture What is the IT budget?£52m What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?To drive the bottom line funded by a significant shift in the run costs Transformation achievements Would you describe the CIO role as a transformation leader in your organisation?Yes Describe the transformations you have led / been involved in, how did they transform operations, customer experience or the organisation?Outsourcing – transforming and modernising the 'heart and lungs' of the organisation. Leveraging the go-to market opportunitiesFinancial supply chain re-engineering – making a significant impact of the cash position through implementation of a reverse factoring processMobile apps – transforming the way quality is improved on construction sites and speeding up delivery Beyond technology, can you describe a business transformation programme that you own or contribute to?Building Information Management – speeding up the flow of information throughout the entire supply chainEfficient service delivery models What key technologies are being considered to enable transformation?MEAP, Portals, CRM, business analytics What percentage of your applications / infrastructure is run from the Cloud?10% with a view to grow this significatly in the public cloud for both infrastructure and applications How is the use by employees of their own technology, use of mobiles and social networking impacting operations, customer experiences or the organisation at present?We have implemented an internal social media which is expediting problem solving for both internal facing and external facing issues with results both in operational performance and customer service. We have a drive toward mobility focusing on driving up internal productivity/quality. Do you have a plan in place for how to deal with shadow IT and BYOD. How do you influence and engage executives, place the right controls around employee choice and engage with the organisation on this issue?Yes we have a plan. Our first step is to implement a single global infrastructure which has been built with security which will enable BYOD. Our Exec and staff are pushing for this which we plan to deliver towards the back end of 2014. Our first deployment will be through a choose your own device such that we initially have some control over the devises before widening the initiative. Where do you seek transformational inspiration from?We look to other industries where they have been successful and seek opportunities within the group. The CIO role in the business Who do you report to?CFO Do you have a seat on the board?No How often do you meet with the CEO?Monthly Does your organisation have a digital leader and what is the difference in their responsibilities to yours?No What percentage of IT budget do you control and what percentage of IT budget does your digital peer hold?100% The IT department How many staff make up the IT team?(What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff)320 people split 140 in house 180 outsourced. This will reduce to a 20/80 split after the outsourcing project concludes Describe the CIO’s management team, do you have direct reports that develop the relationship and services between the business and IT?The organisation has a commercially driven approach and is split functionally between demand and supply. On the demand side we have Transformation, BRMs, CIO Office, Work winning and on the supply side Service Delivery, Enterprise Architecture and Chief Information Security Officer And how many log-in accounts do you issue across you organisation?20,000 What is the primary technology platform? ( for example ERP, Website, trading system)ERP