Leveraging Greater Influence and Deeper Business Engagement

This year, CIOs withstood numerous crises to bring instant stability and sustained productivity to their organizations. By rising to the challenge under tremendous scrutiny, they challenged peers across the enterprise to reimagine what is possible when technology takes the lead, according to a recent conversation from a group of leading large-enterprise executives in the Atlanta area.

With change in the air, opportunity abounds and in September 2020, the Atlanta CIO community joined an interactive town hall discussion on “Leveraging Greater Influence and Deeper Business Engagement.” This Atlassian-sponsored panel was moderated by Jaspal Sagoo, CTO, Department of Health and Human Services - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was joined by Gaurav Singal, VP of Technology and Chief Information Officer, Georgia Lottery; Martin Davis, EVP & CIO, Southern Company; and Cameron Deatsch, Chief Revenue Officer, Atlassian, who shared insights on how executives can take advantage of this moment to cement their strategic influence.

IT may not be in control, but IT is critical

With the quick pivot to virtual in the spring, the timeline for executing IT projects accelerated, and many organizations saw an immediate and sharp increase in demand for long-discussed tools and technologies. This urgent surge in requests provided an opportunity point where CIOs partnered closely with senior leadership while ruthlessly prioritizing strategic versus non-strategic initiatives across the organization. More than half a year into the “new normal,” there is more synergy between IT and their C-suite partners than ever before. 

No one has full control of business outcomes in the current situation; everyone is reacting as best they can. By positioning themselves as essential strategic partners, CIOs have the opportunity to offer their perspectives and demonstrate how IT can deliver value to other business units. Retail companies ramped up ecommerce options, suppliers who previously relied on trade shows had to turn their entire customer engagement online quickly, and telecommunications companies fast-tracked services to cope with increased demand on home networks while handing their own shift to remote work internally. IT may not be in control of all strategic initiatives, but IT is critical to the success of these initiatives. 

Short- and Long-Term Ruthless Prioritization

For the first few months of the pandemic, CIOs were concerned with the immediate business needs – how to deal with a suddenly remote workforce, how to speed up long-planned technology upgrades and roll out new tools, and how to meet increased demand for data and analytics. As 2020 draws to a close, now is the time for CIOs to think strategically about the long-term and begin plotting a path for new normal business operations. The technology transformation and acceleration forced by COVID-19 completely shifted the strategic landscape of most companies, and CIOs are uniquely positioned to shape future business planning.   

In this new era, businesses have completely changed how they roll out new tools and technologies. While some retail businesses might previously have tested a product in stores before launching a digital version, these days the digital and physical products are rolled out simultaneously. A notable percentage of customers and clients who quickly adopted the new digital option have stated that they have no interest in returning to shopping in stores, which forced stores to rethink their displays and overhaul the entire in-person experience. As companies ask for more and more digital products, CIOs are mindful that these new tools come with a living trail of regular costs associated with keeping it going, and rarely is a new tool a simple one-time expenditure.  

Previous investment in cloud and remote technologies paid off handsomely for savvy companies, but even the most prepared organizations had to put some IT projects on hold while they sent their entire workforce home. With the pivot to remote secured, this is a moment to revive those paused projects and conduct an analysis of the internal digital footprint. Are there duplicate products in use? Are there new features in existing tools that can fill gaps in demand? 

The CIOs’ ruthless prioritization of strategic initiatives is not confined to future planning, but is also required for current initiatives and existing processes.

Breaking the Silos

In some organizations, IT was treated as an afterthought in strategic conversations — and brought in only to discuss execution or to clean up legacy systems. Agile and scrum methodologies can provide a strong project framework and foster a cross-functional workforce; however, it is the partnerships between IT and business units that truly break down legacy silos of information and processes. In today’s environment, IT is an active participant in the frequent re-assessment of how individual projects tie into the overall corporate strategy and are engaged in early conversations of matching technology to business needs.

For some employees, there can be a disconnect between business strategy and their day-to-day work. When asked how to close this gap, panelists discussed the need for regular evaluations to ensure projects are aligned to specific company goals and the need for overcommunication with remote teams. The alignment starts at the C-suite, but trickles down to the entire company, so clearly linking tasks and activities to goals ensures scattered teams do not feel isolated or disengaged from the overall strategy.  

For many CIOs, 2020 has been ten years’ worth of IT projects crammed into one. Long-discussed initiatives became immediate priorities, while previously prioritized projects were shoved to the back burner. What COVID-19 enabled was not only a rapid acceleration of business, but a chance to evaluate the massive backlog of IT projects and quickly discard any projects that didn’t move the business forward. Within this unique environment, CIOs are well positioned to secure their place as an essential strategic partner in the business, offering their perspectives and ensuring that technology is pro-actively aligned with corporate goals.

by CIOs, for CIOs

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