May 2010 Archives

These recessionary times are definitely challenging for IT decision makers. As well as keeping the show on the road and reducing running costs, they also have to think about how to innovate on the cheap and retaining their best staff.

Given the pressure around improving collaboration internally, getting the best out of the department's skills, as well as engaging better with customers, isn't it surprising that many IT chiefs are still so reticent about social media?

That was one of the topics discussed last night as members of Computer Weekly's CW500 Club gathered to hear insights from BT chief scientist JP Rangaswami, social media adviser Mark Kobayashi-Hillary and the director of LinkedIn hiring solutions business, Ariel Eckstein.

Some of the points raised by the audience during the discussion revolved around the security implications around social media. Information leaks, risks around contextual information contained on Twitter streams and privacy were all mentioned as real concerns.

On security, JP maintains that the preventative approach - letting staff know what can be shared and where, as well as ensuring the appropriate controls are in place from a privacy and confidentiality standpoint is better than focusing on ring fencing social networks and creating an IT security nightmare - given the speed of evolution of sharing mechanisms online.

Moving on to the value of using these tools, JP talked about using social media to connect to and empower customers. He illustrated this with the successful approach of @btcare in answering client queries through Twitter, adding that happy customers can effectively become ambassadors for the companies that manage to get it right.

Dealing with the so-called 'digital natives' within the enterprise and the need for companies to  operate in a totally connected marketplace was another point he also touched on during his ten-minute talk. 

When it comes to using social media for career development purposes, Kobayashi-Hillary pointed out that despite the fact many CIOs do extremely varied and interesting jobs, they struggle to start blogging or tweeting.

The way to go, he said, is to look for people they trust for information online - peers, journalists, analysts, experts - so they can learn from them. He added that it is important that CIOs grasp the concept of content curation and let people know about their online interactions - as well as writing in a way that sparks debate.

IT leaders should also use social media to promote their companies as desirable places to work and attract talent, said LinkedIn's Eckstein. As an example, he mentioned consultancy giant Accenture is looking to hire 50,000 people and expects about 40% of these people to be sourced through social media channels.

Last night's discussion was very interesting, but the facts discussed are not new to any of us despite the fact social media is just pure nonsense to many seasoned IT managers. As one delegate put it, if his 13-year-old daughter was present, she would find that conversation bizarre. Of course, she does not know a world without the web, mobile phones, My Space.  

But there is still hope. According to a survey carried out by research house Vanson Bourne on behalf of CloudNine, some 64% of the 300 IT decision makers polled said they check online publications, IT blogs (52%), Twitter (20%), YouTube (19%) and Facebook (13%) to keep abreast of industry developments.

Given the scepticism of many IT leaders around social media, these survey results are somewhat encouraging, but it is clear the CIO community still has a long way to go in grasping the value of these tools to share information, instead of just consuming it.

JP's blog post about the 'Facebookisation of the enterprise' provides good advice to those still scratching their heads over the subject:

"The next time you look at Facebook, think about your IT department. Think about your shared service functions. Think about your company. Are you doing the important things?"

The world has changed and so has the way companies interact with their clients and their staff. It is not something that CIOs can put in the backburner; they must act on it now or else risk losing customers - and their best talent - to smarter competitors. 

Hello all - this is my first blog post in this space, where I plan to talk about IT management trends and current issues around leadership and skills that I have observed when talking to various influencers and observers in the sector.

Over the last few days, we have all witnessed a rollercoaster of political events and now we have a new leadership which, among other things, will seek to implement a cap on migration from outside the EU.

We have had some reactions from the people on the ground, but interestingly, some IT leaders in large UK organisations have started to hit back at the impending limits on immigration.

A case in point is Tony McAlister, chief technology officer at the world largest gambling exchange, Betfair. He told me recently that the proposals will only contribute to worsen the IT skills gap in the UK.

Although he is looking to hire locally as much as possible, there are some skills he simply can't find in the UK. It is an established fact that sharp leadership that combines business acumen and IT understanding is in short supply.

Therefore, the company had to start a global talent hunt. Most of Betfair's top IT executives are from the US (including McAlister himself), Poland, Denmark and a pool of other nationalities.

Betfair is also looking to set up centres of IT excellence in various locations abroad - Romania, Malta, Costa Rica are some of the countries where the firm is already running its tech operations. Their CTO is keen to stress that is not mainly driven by potential cost savings, but access to expertise he simply can't find here.

The coalition government is proposing to set caps each year according to the economy's needs; however the criteria that will determine these limits is still unclear.

In the meantime, McAlister might be setting a precedent for companies finding themselves in a similar predicament. While going global might not help an already fragile UK economy, the truth is that business will have to do it sooner rather than later if they want to remain competitive.