SESSION TOPIC: CIO Role: Enabling the Government of the Future

WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND:

State/Provincial and local points of view are important when considering the topics of innovation and performance in government. A significant amount of leadership has come from the US state level of government. As delegates from GTEC 2009 will remember, one of our banner keynotes from the event was from Teri Takai, the CIO of California, a state with a similar population to Canada, and about the same size budget as the federal government.

Rick Webb is a former state CIO now with Accenture, and he brings a wealth of experience and relevance to GTEC 2010’s theme of high performance government. As a former CIO, Rick can speak to the notion that for the CIO and IT Teams to be engaged as business partners, they need to move beyond the traditional systems view to one that balances policy, and value-driven objectives.

We think the combination of Rick’s background and Accenture’s depth in high performance research will make this presentation and exceptional one on the 2010 program.

SESSION ABSTRACT:

The business of government is never going to be the same. But what does that mean for public sector CIOs? And where should they focus to ensure the government’s success – and their own.

Governments across the world are caught in a perfect storm — and are being pummelled by the economic crisis, major demographic and political shifts, technology innovations, and citizen demands for greater transparency, accountability, and efficiency. In the center of this storm stands the CIO. Now, more than ever before, CIOs have the opportunity to enable government performance by leveraging and managing technology. But this will require new thinking, a new approach, and a new definition of the role of CIO. Time is now- The successful CIO must evolve to become both a ”business partner” – an executive who is able to engage agencies and business units in their language and understand their needs – and a ”value creator” – an executive who finds innovative ways to improve citizen service, not just the owner of a cost center. This session will explore key performance levers CIO’s can do to weather the storm, including best in class case studies.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES:

Rick Webb, Chief Technology Officer, Canada, US State and Local Government

Rick Webb is a senior executive at Accenture where he serves as the Chief Technology Officer for Accenture’s US State and Local Government practice. Rick joined Accenture in August 2003 and brings a wealth of experience from both the public and private sectors. He has worked extensively with state officials throughout the United States to carry out government transformation by implementing better IT management and e-government practices.

Beginning in September 1997, Rick served as Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the State of North Carolina for three years. In that capacity, he oversaw the State’s Office of Information Technology Services (ITS), which is responsible for managing the tactical, operational arm of technology and setting the offices strategic direction.

Prior to serving as State CIO, Rick was appointed by Governor James B. Hunt as the Assistant Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Commerce and led all economic development and business recruitment for the state as well as the President of the North Carolina Economic Development Partnerships.

Rick has been a featured speaker throughout the United States on both economic development and enterprise management of IT infrastructure, e-Government and IT transformation. He has worked with several states including Massachusetts, California, Kentucky, Texas, Oregon, and Virginia in development of enterprise IT strategies and e-government initiatives. He is former Chairman of the Corporate Leadership Council for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).

Online conversations are transforming the relationship between people and organizations. Are government bodies listening? By David Jacobson, PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada LLP

With blended or multimedia search results at our fingertips (including video, images, blog posts, and personalization searches), leisure and business are rapidly and dramatically changing and converging. Welcome to the age of the “selfsumer”. In this new era, Canadians use discussion forums, blogs, email, text messages and a variety of social networking tools to share what, when and how they buy. The way they communicate has changed the rules of business. If government and the public sector wish to participate, they cannot continue using only traditional approaches to connect with their staff and the public.

My experience as an emerging technologies director with PwC Canada indicates that selfsumers are a growing number of consumers and employees who search for, discover and create information on products, services and companies via multiple sources on the web. They collaborate online using various social media to find and make purchase decisions. This is a new type of consumer that is less reliant on hard sell commercials and more reliant on discovering products and brands using the internet and social networking.

With one voice that can morph into a community in minutes, selfsumers’ online influence has begun to alter the relationship between businesses and the public. This shift has challenged business leaders to think more creatively when developing new products, promotional content and e-commerce channels. Public sector leaders can do the same to increase their level of engagement with Canadians.

Analyzing selfsumers’ digital behaviour can help government organizations refine their ability to capture consumer intelligence, gain insight into their changing needs and build connectivity. It can also help cash-strapped agencies save money because targeted campaigns are supported by a deeper understanding of consumers which removes guesswork and decreases the likelihood of wasted time and financial resources.

Government executives must rely on their CIOs to translate selfsumers’ ideas into a business and IT strategy. To be fully effective, the IT centre will need different approaches to read digital behaviour and meet strategic goals.

To stay agile with changing digital conversations, CIOs need to be more creative when strategizing with the executive team. For example, they can deliver new types of lucrative business applications, uncover ways for departments and data servers to share information and knowledge, and improve data-warehousing to keep pace with growing amounts of information exchanged between Canadians on blogs and message boards. This creativity, agility and innovation will become more beneficial as selfsumers’ tastes and skills continue to influence more business applications and practices.

According to PwC’s study How the Consumer Conversation Will Transform Business, the number of online discussions about a customer-facing organization – its brand and reputation – can reach thousands or even millions per day. Aggregating and analyzing these online conversations will require increasingly sophisticated technology and a commitment to continually improve strategies to listen, process and quickly respond. Government agencies that embrace these methods demonstrate their commitment to helping Canadians.

For more information on the dialogue with consumers, read PwC Canada’s 2009 Report on Emerging Canadian Software Companies: A CEO Perspective and Navigating the Era of the Empowered Consumer.

By Ivan Milam, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

More than a decade ago, most Canadian public sector and government CIOs focused on providing “the pipes, power and ping” for their organizations. Their primary job was to keep the department’s IT infrastructure and applications running. Their priorities were often set by other executives whose primary purpose was to drive down cost while demanding increased service.  However, over the past 10 years public sector CIOs have increasingly come to the  understanding that to be an equal partner at the executive table they must break from their traditional “infrastructure delivery” roles and embrace a much more strategic one of an equal business partner in the organization.

As a trusted public sector advisor with PwC, I have helped many departments make this very important transition.  Through these experiences, I’ve witnessed CIO’s make this journey by using, to varying degrees, elements of the following 6 key activities.

1. Deliver core services efficiently

IT departments are continually asked to do more with less. CIOs who are strategic partners demonstrate to business executives that they’re delivering core services at the lowest expense while achieving high levels of client satisfaction.  Without this foundation piece, CIOs typically get stuck in the process of continually defending IT’s cost instead highlighting its value.

But doing so means utilizing all available options to enhance IT efficiency. These include outsourcing, co-sourcing, co-partnerships, and improving collaboration with other stakeholders and partners.  Leveraging all options to improve the day-to-day IT functions free up CIOs to do what CIOs do best – highlight strategic and innovation opportunities to help drive their organization’s to meet their strategic goals and outcomes.

2. Immerse yourself in the business and demonstrate your knowledge

CIOs must not only show value by delivering services efficiently. They must also develop a genuine understanding of the business outside of IT operations. High performing IM/IT executives learn about the business processes, business drivers, and strategic focus of all business units in their organization.  By showing their knowledge of the organization and selling ideas supported by data and a sound knowledge of the business, they demonstrate they are not only a technology person but a strategic peer at the executive level.

3. Align your innovation and ideas with the organization’s strategic vision using a structured process

Instead of taking orders at the board room table, leading CIO’s are proactive in presenting ideas that align IT’s investments with the organization’s priorities. One way to do this is to develop a structured process for prioritizing innovative ideas for IT investment. A structured process helps to identify, evaluate, develop and present new IT innovations to the organization. Then, as an executive team, they can determine the best ideas that align with the organization’s strategic vision.

4. Stay engaged by connecting with people

Gaining visibility at the executive, stakeholder and staff level with active participation and collaboration is another tool used by many CIOs. Building these relationships allows CIOs to share the organization’s vision and learn how vendors, suppliers or employees can contribute.

Successful CIOs are often seen engaging stakeholders by participating in local public speaking events to communicate where they’re taking their organizations and how stakeholders can help. Other platforms used to get the message out to staff include wikis, blogs and social networking tools. These methods contribute to collaboration and innovation, and build awareness around the IT department’s value to the organization.

5. Enable agility with effective architecture

Typically, a lot of companies have a complex IT architecture with different systems that do not work well together. This hampers innovation and the agility to solve problems quickly.

CIOs who bring IT from the back office to the executive table develop and more importantly implement architectures that provide flexibility to handle the changes that innovation brings. Reducing system complexity and increasing standardization are two key approaches that allow organizations to pivot on a dime when embracing new technologies or discovering new priorities.

6. Keep an eye on risk

The balancing act for CIOs is to bring value while remaining cognizant of risk. IT represents a significant area of vulnerability for an organization in different ways. Without adequate controls, companies may leave themselves open to fraud, security breaches, or a loss of intellectual capital. 

Effective CIOs balance security, risk and compliance requirements with innovation.

With technology playing such a large role in our lives today, CIOs must be equal partners at the executive table.  Today, an ever increasing number of CIOs are advancing down this path. For each CIO and each organization, the journey is different but many of the steps are similar.