The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare and George Eliot. Warwickshire has a two-tier structure of local government. Warwickshire is divided into five districts each with their own district councils. When did you start your current role?2007 Have you completed an MBA?No Order the following sources of advice/information by value to you: 1.    Peer Group2.    Analyst3.    In-house4.    Consultant5.    Vendor Technology strategy and spending What is the major transformational IT project that has been recently completed, or is underway at your organisation?Move to Google e-mail and Apps for 5,500 users completed in summer 2013. What impact will it/does it have on the organisation?Google email and Apps have delivered new flexible working working options and collaboration facilities to staff to support the delivery of improved services to our citizens and businesses.  It has also enabled use of more flexible devices encouraging increased use of technology within the organisation. It has also delivered over £250,000 savings p.a. in the ICT costs of the business. The implementation has also seen further improvements in customer satisfaction with the ICT service. What new strategic technology deals has your organisation struck and with whom?Also have entered contracts for BDUK roll-out for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire, and sign up to Public Services Network for Warwickshire as phase 1  of West Midlands Project Name your strategic technology suppliers?Google, Microsoft, Oracle, BT, Virgin What is the IT budget?£10.6 million pounds revenue budget but this excludes, schools expenditure, BDUK project capital expenditure and some software contracts paid direct by services. What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?To maintain and continue to develop services while delivering a four years saving plan of £2.1 million pounds due to be confirmed in early February. Within here we will continue to explore improved business systems particularly in the area of Social Care and Business Intelligence facilities. Transformation achievements Would you describe the CIO role as a transformation leader in your organisation?I operate as a key player working alongside other senior management. Describe the transformations you have led / been involved in, how did they transform operations, customer experience or the organisation?Mobile and flexible working as part of the Google Apps implementation increasing customer and partner contact for staff, and increased collaboration on servicesLead officer for proposed roll-out of improved broadband to 46,000 premises in Warwickshire to improve economic and educational opportunities for citizens and businesses of WarwickshireKey lead partner for Digital by Default campaign to increase take-up of and benefits of digital services for Warwickshire customers, this will both improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs allowing us to protect other front line services. Beyond technology, can you describe a business transformation programme that you own or contribute to?Digital by default is more than just technology, it is about redesign of services around customer requirements What key technologies are being considered to enable transformation?Cloud technology, as well as Google email and Apps, we are using cloud in telephony, CRM and training environments. Virtualisation in our datacentre. Mobile devices to encourage wider adoption of technology. We are also acting as Local Government lead in a national OIX Identity project looking to develop standard approaches in this area.. What percentage of your applications / infrastructure is run from the Cloud?Difficult to measure in terms of budget/infrastructure size, but we use Cloud in the areas described above plus Office 365 in the schools email and learning platform. 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?It has transformed the attitude to the use of ICT to deliver services. Having spent my first 20 years in IT encouraging staff to utilise technology, now the debate is how to use their technology safely. The use of this technology has increased both the quality of information they have available in customer contact and the productivity of the staff. Reflected in improvements in staff satisfaction scores on questions such as How well does ICT support the delivery of high quality services? 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?The use of Google email and Apps has headed off some of this debate, staff are able to use modern devices, usually offered as managed devices because of Government restrictions on BYOD. Browser access is also available on personal devices. This use has avoided staff having to utilise shadow cloud document storage facilities. My involvement in the G-Cloud Board that put the Cloudstore in place means that we have developed a Cloud policy that encourages the business to explore Cloud services as part of the business options. Where do you seek transformational inspiration from?From peers and similar organisations. I am not ashamed to steal ideas, I believe there is plenty of room to exploit others ideas rather than just re-inventing the wheel. Look across private as well as public sector The CIO role in the business Who do they report to ?CFO and Strategic Director for Resources Does the CIO have a seat on the board?No How often do you meet with the CEO?Quarterly Does your organisation have a digital leader and what is the difference in their responsibilities to yours?Head of Customer Services is lead to ensure business focus, but I am their key partner What percentage of IT budget do you control and what percentage of IT budget does your digital peer hold?I control 90% of IT budget,  Digital peer has separate budget equivalent to 10% of ICT Budget The IT department How many staff make up the IT team?(What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff)226 staff -213 FTE. We use external services but there are not outsourced staff Describe the CIO’s management team, do you have direct reports that develop the relationship and services between the business and IT?I have six reportsCustomer and Supplier Services with the business relationship roleProductionSystems Development and ArchitectureProgramme and ProjectsNetwork including BDUK roll-outServices to Schools How many log-in accounts do you issue across you organisation?Approximately 5,000 in the Corporate arena, tens of thousands more use our network and facilities in the schools arena What is the primary technology platform?We use Oracle for HR, Agresso for Financials, Google for e-Mail and Google Apps for Business, and Microsoft particularly in the Schools business area