A major theme of the IT Directors Forum on board the
Oriana last week was that IT directors and CIOs should be a
dominant force driving change within their
organisations.
Tony Preston, business systems director at the Legal Services
Commission, said the key to business change was having experts who
understood the current way of doing things. This was the basis for
moving forwards to new business processes.
“The key is encouraging close ties between technology and
business people at the middle and junior levels – that will push
change upwards through the business,” he said.
Tim Gregory, Wiltshire County Council’s head of ICT, said, “It
is frequently the IT director who is going to drive change in the
organisation. The board then has to provide that leadership and
direction across the organisation or the change will not be
delivered.”
Owen Williams, partner and head of IT at global property firm
Knight Frank, said, “The key challenge of becoming a strategic
change leader is being seen as understanding the business rather
than being seen as the bloke who does the technology.
“You have to be calculating about who the key decision makers
are in your organisation and present yourself to them
appropriately.”
Some IT directors felt they should support, rather than dictate
the direction and pace of change.
John Shepherd, Gloucestershire Police’s head of information
systems warned that there was a danger of IT chiefs trying to usurp
the role of the CEO. “My remit is to deliver against my chief
constable’s plan for what he wants to achieve for the business as a
whole. We should use technology in support of the business, rather
than changing the direction of the business itself,” he said.
Christine Ashton, chief information manager for strategy and
integration, at oil company BP said there was considerable benefit
in IT leaders focusing on improving existing business processes and
then trying to align IT to a change agenda.