Founded in 1849 by a group led by Quaker and prominent local grocer Samuel Fox, the Nottingham Building Society was the one of the first financial institutions to introduce connected banking in 1983 with its Homelink service on Prestel. The purpose of the society was to promote the construction of a better class of dwellings, suitable for the working and middle classes, as well as provide a safe and profitable place for small savings. Head of IT Jack Cutts joined the bank in March 2006 as head of development, and became overall head of IT in August the same year. When did you start your current role?2006 Have you completed an MBA?MSC in IT and management Order the following sources of advice/information by value to you:1. Peer group2. In-house3. Consultant4. Analyst5. Vendors Technology strategy and spending What is the major transformational IT project that has been recently completed, or is underway at your organisation?In July 2013 the Society merged with another Building Society . This was the first merger  the society had undertaken in over 30 years. On day one of the merger all customers were successfully migrated to The Nottingham's systems and both sets of customers could operate their accounts at any of new enlarged groups branches. All this was achieved in less than 6 months. What impact will it/does it have on the organisation?1. We now have a wider branch network, expanding our heartland for us to provide our services to more customers2. We have achieved significant economies of scale3. We have demonstrated  that we now have the capability to undertake this kind of project in the future. What new strategic technology deals has your organisation struck and with whom?We have signed a new long term contract with Sopra to provide us with package support for our main core mortgage and savings systems. This has given us the necessary technological stability for the business strategy to be built upon. Name your strategic technology suppliers?SopraVirgin MediaOracleMicrosoft How much is the IT operational spend compared to the revenue or company turnover as a percentage?18% What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?In addition to constantly driving forward efficiencies and effectiveness within the team we have a significant strategic project to fully integrate the recent acquisition of a large estate agency chain into our business and to ensure that we achieve the business benefits we expect. Transformation achievements Would you describe the CIO role as a transformation leader in your organisation?IT has to provide a leading roll in any extensive change programme. We need to be the glue that holds all of the strands together and ensures the results are delivered efficiently and effectively. Describe the transformations you have led / been involved in, how did they transform operations, customer experience or the organisation?1. A full core systems replacement project. Replacing every system and technical infrastructure of the business. This has driven efficiencies across all business operations and enabled a number of strategic objectives to be delivered such as the merger and funding requirements to be achieved. 2. The introduction of Internet banking into the society, allowing completely paperless opening of accounts enabling the business to provide a robust and secure system to our customers via anew channel and for the organisation to have access to timely funding at the lowest cost to support the strategic growth targets. 3. The move to a new modern consolidated Head Office facility bringing together disparate business locations into one consistent operating model. We now have all operations under one roof bringing significant cost and communication benefits to the society.. 4. The merger between the society and another building society bringing economies of scale and a larger customer heartland. Beyond technology, can you describe a business transformation programme that you own or contribute to?We are in the process of fully integrating a recent acquisition of a large estate agency chain into the business. Building and implementing a target operating model which utilises the best of both organisations. What key technologies are being considered to enable transformation?Enhanced telephony systems and cloud based systems are key technologies that are being utilised to support the integration of the new enlarged group. What percentage of your applications / infrastructure is run from the Cloud?5% 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?Over the last 2 years we have rolled out the use of connected tablets to a wide ranging part of trhe business, driving efficiencies and significant improving communications. This has been a significant factor in increasing the capacity of the business to undertake change programmes. The society has embraced social media to a wide extent. We are now the second most like building society in the country. 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 ensure that the senior executives within the organisation are early adopters of new technologies. This ensures that any decisions that are made are based on exeperience. We will be considering the wider use of BYOD during the year once we are confident the solutions we put in place are scalable and secure. Where do you seek transformational inspiration from?There is no simple answer to this, anywhere and everywhere. We regular ask for feed back from across the organisation at all levels on how we can improve. We collaborate with our peers and we are are always looking at examples of good practice from outside our market that we can the replicate internally. The CIO role in the business Who do you report to?COO 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)95% in house Describe the CIO’s management team, do you have direct reports that develop the relationship and services between the business and IT?We have three teams, development, Infrastructure and Architecture. The development team take responsibility for understanding their business areas at a detailed level. This feedback plays a key part of the input into driving the IT priorities. And how many log-in accounts do you issue across you organisation?700 What is the primary technology platform? ( for example ERP, Website, trading system)Sopra Summit for the core business, Inhouse systems for the Estate Agency Chain