Myron Hrycyk joined Severn Trent Water when the organisation needed to recover from a major compliance issue from the industry regulators that saw the now Coventry based organisation face major fines. As part of the senior leadership Hrycyk has been part of the business reorganisation and headquarters move. What the judges said: “Focusing on the customer journey via digital is leading edge for a Utility, but you do have guaranteed profits and the regulators tell you to spend a certain amount on the network and service,” Ian Cox “He’s been championing agile and that is impressive in the Utility market, but I’d like to see what he and Severn Trent can do with M2M technology like Hive,” Mike Altendorf When did you start your current role?April 2008 Have you completed an MBA?Yes Order the following sources of advice/information by value to you:1.    Peer Group2.    In-house3.    Analyst4.    Consultant5.    Vendor Technology strategy and spending What is the major transformational IT project that has been recently completed, or is underway at your organisation?Transformation of our customer engagement and the experience they receive when contacting us.  This is being addressed through transforming our operational processes and technology to increase productivity/efficiency and through utilising consumer technology e.g. mobile phone payments, mobile phone customer self serve and advanced telephony systems. we can offer a better customer interaction. In additon we have continued to develop our workforce mobility across operatinal field work crews and back office workers – work is what they do not where they go. What impact will it/does it have on the organisation?Delivering the highest levels of customer experience is our highest priority, delviering a great service and keeping costs down.   Developing customer journeys and a multi technology way in which customers can interact with us is driving up the quality and speed of our customer interaction.  The new mobile technolgoy tightly integrated with our core systems ensures we fix the problem right first time driving down operational costs, increasing productivity and keep customers informed. What new strategic technology deals has your organisation struck and with whom?We have deployed a range of cloud services.  These include Cloud based Workday HR solution and cloud based MS Office 365 for our non-regulated business, a cloud service to deliver our customer self serve applications to customers handsets whether they are IOS, Android, Blackberry or Microsoft based. Major deal with Hitachi Data Systems for massive data storage. Name your strategic technology suppliers?SAP, Click, Microsoft, Oracle, Avaya, HP, HDS, Sunguard What is the IT budget?£40m p.a. IT operational spend compared to the revenue or company turnover as a percentage?3% of turnover What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?Our IS Operating Model Transformation programme just launched states: "To go beyond providing a great service and deliver transformation business change" We'll achieve this by:  being "One team, Driving for One Goal and Delviering One Strategy" Transformation achievements Would you describe the CIO role as a transformation leader in your organisation?Increasingly the CIO can drive real transformation, however a progressive CIO needs to drive people, process and technology change Describe the transformations you have led / been involved in, how did they transform operations, customer experience or the organisation?I was the Exec sponsor of our core business process change programme that combined the deployment of major startegic software e.g. SAP, the design and establishment of core processes and the re-skilling of our workforce.Following this successful implementaton I drove further business transformation building on the core processes.  This included transformation of Hiring, Procurement, Asset creation and Operation processes leadign to greater productivity and lower operating costs. Beyond technology, can you describe a business transformation programme that you own or contribute to?I am also the Executive level CPO.    This has invovled me in Procurement Strategies and the development of our One Supply Chain organisation used to deliver our £multi Bn capital programme What key technologies are being considered to enable transformation?Advanced telemetry systems, in-memory computing to process large volumes of data to manage the Water and Waste infrastructure.  Further mobility and cloud solutions 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?We have a trial BYOD programme in progresss.  Currently users can bring their own iPad, or Microsoft device and access our key systems 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?We have the advantage of being a centralised business.  Devices need to connect to the network so we can monitor any unauthorised usage. Where do you seek transformational inspiration from?I look to non-Utility sectors for advanced thinking around transformation. I look further out of the UK to other continents to see what they have done. The CIO role in the business Who do they report to?CEO Does the CIO 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?The CIO and the Custoemr Relations Director work together on digital strategies What percentage of IT budget do you control and what percentage of IT budget does your digital peer hold?I hold the budget. The IT department How many staff make up the IT team?(What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff)400 Describe the CIO’s management team, do you have direct reports that develop the relationship and services between the business and IT?IS is structured in terms of Supply and Demand.  On the demand side I have 3 IT directors facing off to the key areas of my business and are part of those areas operating boards.  On the supply side I have a SD Manager, Dev Manager and CTO.  In addtion I am driving the organisation to be closer to process design and development, indeed often I find that technology is not the answer. Instead the solution is in a process re-design, process compliance, people capability.  These solutions are far more effective in driving operational improvements.  I have a dedicated Process Solution team lead by a direct report. How many log-in accounts do you issue across you organisation?10,000 What is the primary technology platform?Microsoft SAP, Click – Workforce scheduling, Oracle database, Escada, In house CRM, HDS, HP, Citrix Avaya