CIO Blogs
Must-read commentary from expert contributors
5 ways startups are innovating with data
Successful data-driven business models can be built from finding, aggregating and repackaging niche data from unexpected sources.
Want to create a customer-centric culture? Meet your customers where they are
Digital evolution is challenging for a company as large as Qurate Retail Group. But CIO Karen Etzkorn is helping it succeed by creating a customer-centric culture and elevating digital experiences.
Beyond data recovery: A CIO’s perspective on digital preservation
Ensuring your valuable digital information remains accessible and usable is no small feat. It involves planning, resource allocation and application of preservation methods and technologies…and it goes well beyond backup/restore and business continuity tech.
Waste Management dumps legacy processes, drives digital change
By applying three levers of digital transformation, Waste Management is infusing technology into the business model to drive growth.
Transforming an insurance and financial services giant to meet customers’ digital expectations
Terrance Williams, President of Emerging Businesses and CMO, and Jim Fowler, Executive Vice President and CIO, on driving cultural change at Nationwide, one of the largest insurance and financial services organizations in the US.
5 ways to fast-track your next AI implementation
Some quick wins around this important enabling technology can further the business case for more investment in broader digital transformation and innovation initiatives.
Are you blinded by the promise of AI?
While many businesses are fueled by their ambition to implement AI initiatives, few understand how it can work for their businesses. How do we keep our AI ambitions in line with the business needs of our organization?
Driving digital innovation: 6 steps to get company leaders on board
With technology revolutionizing the construction industry, Structure Tone needed to get company leaders up to speed and on board with digital innovation plans. So, the CIO created a six-step strategy.
Digital transformation – don’t leave talent development crumbs on the table
When it comes to digital transformation, if you don’t recognize next generation talent development opportunities at the very beginning, the overall benefits derived from the program will be much less.
CIOs must embrace a whole-brain approach to leadership. Here’s how
Leadership teams that embed whole-brain thinking across the enterprise drive greater financial results than those that don’t. These steps will help CIOs become whole-brain thinkers.
How to get that CIO position
Atilla Tinic, the new CIO at DISH Network, shares his strategy for pursuing and getting the position, plus how he approached his first 90 days on the job.
What cloud vendors really want from their customers
Knowing what matters most to your current cloud vendors, those you are considering and those you ultimately add to your portfolio of cloud products and solutions in the future, will help you assess what leverage you have when it comes time to negotiate your initial deal or your upcoming renewal.
Proven levers to reduce hardware and software maintenance
7 short-term actions you can take now to produce meaningful in-year reductions to your budget.
Wyndham’s digital innovation elevates the customer experience
With its five-platform digital strategy, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts improves the experiences of all its customers: guests, franchises, and internal team members. CIO Scott Strickland explains how.
Kaiser Permanente’s digital transformation is creating a healthier America
Kaiser Permanente uses technology to improve personal health, community health, and medical excellence. EVP and CIO Dick Daniels explains how they do it.
5 ways to kick-start your platform strategy
Data-driven business models often rely on building platforms that bring users and suppliers together in mutually beneficial ways. However, attracting your first customers to a platform that has little to offer can be a stumbling block for many companies.
CIOs must play a key role in ecosystem strategies
Ecosystems have evolved as a method to bring new digital capabilities, among others, to businesses. As such, CIOs should have a strategic role in developing them.
System integrator risk mitigation processes often have the opposite effect
Relying on your SI to tell you how to mitigate risks is a flawed strategy that often does not have a happy ending.
Bringing new sources of energy to life at National Grid
National Grid’s digital strategy is all about developing frictionless processes to bring energy to customers safely, faster, and easier, explains Adriana Karaboutis, chief information and digital officer.
Companies are gaining clarity about their digital vision
More executive committees say they understand how digital impacts their business strategy.
Running with data: Under Armour creates immersive, digital customer experience
Under Armour combines its physical and digital products to help its customers achieve their fitness goals.
Fear of premature escalation (FPE): Diagnose and treat this silent ERP program killer
Recognizing the early warning signs and taking appropriate action can reduce the overall impact of this affliction, which can be deadly for an ERP project.
CIOs who foster a culture of equality empower innovation
When you have a culture of equality, employees feel valued and are more willing and able to innovate. Achieving that in IT comes from the CIO setting the right tone.
Tech days of reckoning
Even for technology veterans, keeping pace with advancements is like chasing a moving train that will always be just a bit faster. Try as you may, you can never quite catch up and, if you stop trying, you will never catch up.
Campbell’s CIO: For digital transformation to succeed, connect IT to business strategy
At Campbell Soup Company, business relevance is the foundation of all digital transformation initiatives. It’s about leveraging IT to achieve business goals, says CIO Francisco Fraga.
How CIOs become visionary communicators
The best CIOs give their communications leaders a seat at the table, partnering with them to improve their own communications and the IT team’s communications.
Don’t become a digital transformation horror story: Implement solid risk management
The only way to eliminate risk entirely is to do nothing at all, which of course brings its own risks to the business.
How CIOs communicate success — and elevate their game
Communication – whether internal or external – is a key part of the CIO’s job. A strategic partner in this effort is the IT communications lead.
How to reconstruct your business’s value chain for the digital world
Digital technologies change everything. The key is understanding and creating a new value chain, not adding technology just because it is new, says pharmaceuticals CIO Guy Hadari.
Profiting from free and underused data
Data that firms can use to increase revenues and reduce costs may be more abundant than many realize. Neglected internal data assets as well as freely available information from the web and public sector could be just what your company needs to streamline your operations and beat the competition.
Building a digital learning culture at Avery Dennison
Your digital strategy is only as strong as your least digital employee. That is why Avery Dennison built digital literacy into its multi-pronged digital transformation strategy.
CIOs create a STEM Advantage, develop program to cultivate IT talent
A group of CIOs couldn’t find the IT talent they needed, so they created a program to encourage and prepare women and underserved communities to pursue STEM careers through paid internships.
Moving IT closer to the action at Ryder System
By shifting more IT activity into the business units, Ryder System CIO Rajeev Ravindran ensures a collaborative approach to technology innovation at the $8.4B transportation and supply chain management company.Sole sourcing negotiations: SI tactics and CIO countermeasures
How CIO’s can ensure they maintain control of their sole source negotiations.
#MeToo in tech: how to go from window dressing to action
The #MeToo movement ushered in a wave of gender parity awareness in nearly every industry, yet many women are still feeling underrepresented in tech. Can we do more to make IT more welcoming to women?
Developing a business-driven, customer-obsessed IT strategy
For Oshkosh Corporation CIO Anupam Khare, the goal is for IT to enable the business strategy and add significant business value – all the while ensuring customers’ needs inside and out of the company are met.
5 reasons why your business model may need an API
APIs offer businesses more than just an efficient way to get data to end users. They can also be used to generate new revenue streams and extend your market reach.
The 'Five Ps' of business (and personal) transformation
On her journey to becoming CIO, Daphne Jones discovered it takes purpose, priority, preparation, performance, and perseverance for business, as well as personal, transformation to occur.
Waning or waxing? What’s happening to CIO influence?
Those who want to see their influence grow rather than shrink need to look for opportunities and partners rather than losses and interlopers.
Introducing the “lazy economy” business model and implications for CIOs
As you explore the art of the possible around the lazy economy, here are three implications and recommendations for senior IT leaders.How to amplify the value of your system integrator
A few ways to increase the value of your SI. If only these engagements came with a user manual…
How CIOs can become corporate board directors
Debra McCormack, managing director for the Center for Board Effectiveness at Deloitte, explains what it takes for CIOs to become corporate board directors.
Digital transformation is more than a slogan
Digital transformation requires vision, leadership, process change, and technology. Equally important, though, is to change the company’s culture, says Arthur Hu, CIO of Lenovo.
5 dirty little secrets of your system integrator
Ever wonder why companies still go over budget? Here are a few of the ways consultants pass that risk onto their customers.
Why the Internet of Things needs dynamic data exchanges
The IoT promises an exciting future for the creation and exchange of data that could transform business processes and drive the next wave of innovation. However, much work needs to be done in building the data exchanges that will provide the liquidity for this new market.
Exploring the ‘unknown unknowns’ in IT-enabled digital transformation estimates
Recognizing and acknowledging your own blind-spots can be tough to swallow, but wouldn’t you rather understand your blind-spots before you start your journey rather than when you reach the precipice of a failure?
A CIO’s experience as a start-up founder
Michael Gabriel, former CIO of HBO, offers lessons learned from his entrepreneurial adventure.
Why fixed prices won’t fix IT budget overruns
Effectively managing to an IT project budget is a shared responsibility between the vendor and the client. Expect change, but don’t let it derail your budget and project goals.
How Caesars Entertainment became a ‘digital first’ business
For Caesars Entertainment's CIO, Les Ottolenghi, the keys to the transformation at the global gaming giant were vision, communication, and a common cloud platform.