Galliford Try is a UK construction business, listed on the London Stock Exchange and currently a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. Created in 2000 through a merger of Try Group and Galliford, one of its most recent high-profile projects was installing the Centre Court roof at Wimbledon, and the restoration of the the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel opposite the CIO UK headquarters in London. CIO Mark Cotton was previously the change and IS director at Taylor Wimpey, and was also CIO for BDP, the architecture and engineering firm formerly known as Building Design Partnership. When did you start your current role?February 2011 Have you completed an MBA?Yes, Warwick Business School, graduated in 2008 with Distinction Order the following sources of advice/information by value to you:1. Peer group2. In-house3. Vendors4. Consultant5. Analyst Technology strategy and spending What is the major transformational IT project that has been recently completed, or is underway at your organisation?Replacement of legacy ERP system with Oracle E-business suite, Hyperion and OBIEE driving major process standardisation and reengineering. The existing ERP platform was old, support was incredibly difficult to come by and as such the risk to Galliford Try generally was signficant should anything hapeen to either the product or company that provided it. Oracle e-Business suite was chosen to replace it. From a standing start to first pilot implementation took 12 months, whilst the initial time and budget goal was achieved there still remainined a signficant amount of work to do to stabalise and improve the product so that at a minimum it could support the operations of Galliford Try. I was asked to take over the programme (and subsequently IT) and undetook a 6 month improvement programme to enable a more robust and resilient implenmentation. Resetting the project end date and dedicateing more budget enable the project to complete on time and on budget. Its important to recognise the scale of the challenge not just in the implementation of an ERP product but also the scale of change management and stakeholder engagement required to ensure the project compelted on time. As of today we have at least the foundations in place to build a solution that supports greater data analysis and the ever increasing requiremtn to rpovide information irrespective of location of device. What impact will it/does it have on the organisation?Galliford Try has grown signficantly over the last 10 years, not just organically but also through a series of major acquisitions. Whilst the mechanics of the acquisitions have been executed true integration and standardisation has not, the implementaiton of Oracle faciliated the standardisation of process across the divisions and put in place the foundations to deliver greater technology led efficiencies in the future. What new strategic technology deals has your organisation struck and with whom?Network and Telecommunications refresh – BT Global Services : key issue for construction companies is the ability to get communications to sites quickly. The revised agreement with BT GS facilitates a reengineering of our network, positioning us for a cloud/utility model in the future as well as introducing new solution that enable new sites to communicate quickly irtrespective of their location. Hardware refresh – SCC & Lenovo; With an ageing estate it was imperative to identify a supplier who could help Galliford Try move into the 21st centuary whilst also providing our hardware efficiently and at a cost competeitive price point. By selecting SCC and Lenovo we have reducued the unti cost of our hardware solutions whilst increasing our capability and capacity to support them. Windows 7 and Office 365 Upgrade – Microsoft and SCC. This is of course driven primarily by the withdrawal of support for XP but also by the need to rpovide fit for purpose applications to our intenral customers, many of which liaise with external third parties who often have more up to date veriuons of hardware and software! Through an imaginitive approach to licensing and utilising all the benefits available to us from our partners it will be possible to migrate away from our current third party email hosting partner to office 365 for no matrial increase in annual costs. Name your strategic technology suppliers?BT Global Services – Network and TelelcomsSCC – Hardware and Support ServicesOracle – Critical Business Applications What is the IT budget?£7 million What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?Improve efficeincy of Galliford Try through more cost effective delivery of technology; Improve Customer Satisfaction and provide higher quality service for less Transformation achievements Would you describe the CIO role as a transformation leader in your organisation?Yes, one of a number of transformational leaders Describe the transformations you have led / been involved in, how did they transform operations, customer experience or the organisation?Led the definition and delivey of one common business process across each major division within the organisation, using the implementation of Oracle e-Business Suite as a principle driver. This to a large extent has been the only focus of the IT organsaition for the last 12 months. Restructured IT department to enable a more customer focussed delviery and service, kick started technology refresh across group delivering real increases in the quality of IT hardware, IT Service and signifcant (up to 30%) reductions in ongoing operational third party expenditure. Beyond technology, can you describe a business transformation programme that you own or contribute to?Carbon Reduction Task Force – Group wide initivie to reduce the carbon footprint, contributions through analysis, energy efficient equipment selection, technology support of remote monitoring utility services What key technologies are being considered to enable transformation?Oracle e-Business Suite, Hyperion, OBIEE, Office 365, Sharepoint What percentage of your applications / infrastructure is run from the Cloud?10% 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?Increasing pressure on IT to match or better the "consumer" IT experience, especially with respect to cloud based services such as iCloud, Dropbox etc. 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, by embracing and encouraging innovation from any quarter within the business irrespecitive of which cost centre it comes from. Through the restrucutring of service team to focus more on being  business "Allies and Consultants", working closely with our internal customers to identify and capture area's of their responsibilities that can be improved through the use of technology. Where do you seek transformational inspiration from?Any source available, irrespective of the sector it sits in 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?Weekly 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)70 staff, some outsourcing but not signficant Describe the CIO’s management team, do you have direct reports that develop the relationship and services between the business and IT?Head of Infrastructure, Head of Service Delivery, Head of Business solutions, Project Portfolio Manager.All are responsible for customer engagement And how many log-in accounts do you issue across you organisation?4000 What is the primary technology platform? ( for example ERP, Website, trading system)Oracle e-Business suite