By the Computerworld Philippines Staff
July 1, 2008

It’s not “career is over” for them. In fact, chief information officers (CIO) today are given expanded roles and the right of passage to high level management meetings. And with the added business-oriented responsibilities, these high-tech executives could be well-positioned to be the next CEOs.

At Computerworld Philippines 6th monthly CIO Roundtable for the year, four IT executives revealed the new roles they’re playing today and the challenges they’re facing in trying to meet the expectations of management.

Moderated by the Computerworld editorial team, the participants of the CIO Roundtable were Ray Anthony Abanto, IT operations manager, Philippines Seven Corp. (7-Eleven); Mike Dela Cruz, IT director, DHL Logistics; Earl Ferrer, national information systems manager, DHL Express; and Jose Maria Valdes, chief information officer and vice president for IT, Export and Industry Bank.

The following are the excerpts of the roundtable discussion sponsored by Acer Philippines Inc. and held at the Regus.

Computerworld: How would you describe your role as CIO or head of the IT department of your company?

Valdes: The role of the CIO in a bank is strategic. We develop plans in accordance with the business direction given in the annual planning session. As a CIO, I develop a strategy in line with whatever technologies will enable the bank to achieve the business objectives. We are fond of saying that “it’s not just IT supporting the business objectives, it’s IT already enabling the bank to achieve its business objective.” So, technology and banking are already synonymous. Whatever business directives you go into, whatever products you develop, whatever services you develop, technology is already inherently part of that, and it’s just a question of which particular technology you will adopt.

Dela Cruz: “Challenging” is an abused word but, in fact, my role right now in the company is really a challenge for me. Reason being is that, although I’m part of the DHL Logistics entity, in reality, I’m supporting two different companies so one is the DHL Global Forwarding and the DHL Exel Supply Chain. I report to the country managers of the Philippines of the two entities here—with a dotted line—and I report directly to our regional office in Singapore.

Anyway, about five to eight years ago—it was very rare—for example, that the country manager or the CEO would invite the IT manager to participate in management meetings and be part of the strategic planning of company. Today, if I’m not at the any of the management meetings, the country manager would look for me. So I think the role of the CIO or the IT manager has now evolved from just providing the infrastructure—the PCs, the telephone lines, etc.—to being forced to learn the business side of the operation. IT now has better understanding of the requirements of the company. We are no longer the backend people. IT is now exposed to the eyes of the customers—talking to customers whether those are internal or external customers. So, the CIO along with the IT team now is customer-oriented. We are now in the frontlines of the company.

CWP: Do you welcome the change or you see that as an added burden?

Dela Cruz: I welcome the change very much.

Ferrer: As the head of IT and as part of the management team, the role has evolved from being a technical guy to being a business person with a good knowledge of the tools available in the market.

Being in IT provides me a unique insight of all the information required and used by all the business function. With that at my disposal, I have the responsibility to leverage on all the resources to provide a distinct advantage to the organization.

My role as a CIO now is like being an evangelist. The role is not to say “this technology is good or that technology is not good,” but to evangelize to users and management what IT can do and let them think of what it can do better. So the idea is to evangelize with all these technology tools and all the information they need so that, on their own, they can think of ways to do things better with IT. So change management will be out of the picture because it’s their own idea already and we don’t have to convince them.

CWP: So right now how can you rate yourself as an evangelist?

Ferrer: I think in some way I hope I’m doing good because, outside of IT, I already have a big role in DHL Express. I’m actually doing a commercial role—I handle our biggest agents right now which contribute 70% of our business. That’s technically a non-IT job. I figured that they gave me that type of work because I was able to grasp the ideas of the business. Hopefully, it’s not to get me out of IT but because I’m able to think in behalf of the company and be able to move further down to our partners, not generally using IT but using the knowledge of the business.

In fact, I’ve been in this role for around nine months now and we’ve never really implemented anything on IT between us and our partners. We do a lot reporting stuff and synchronization on how we look at things but non on the IT side which is really fun. I think if you really do well in your IT role and not be so technical you might get a good grasp of the business. So I would guess I’m doing fairly well with my role right now because I’ve been given a role outside of IT to encourage other companies to think the way we are thinking and still have that IT role within my belt.

Abanto: I’ve only been in this role for nine months so I’ll just talk about IT in our industry. IT is not the core in our industry. It is perceived to be a technical department but one that gives value to the organization. We provide the business information on what our market is, how old our customers are, and what they like. IT houses a lot of information for the business. Our president is very techie so he’s always asking for reports. So while IT is not the core business, it is very crucial to our operations so IT should be very cost-efficient for us. We tend to get entrapped with all the new technologies but not all of them will provide the returns on investment. Since my boss and our president are techies there should be someone to stop them from buying any technology that’s new. Not all innovations are for all organizations.

CWP: So you stop your bosses from spending?

Abanto: Yes, basically I stop my boss from over spending on IT. He’s actually really good; he just needs to be provided with additional information or reports regarding the new technology because he may miss out on the important details.

CWP: The role of IT is said to be evolving in business, does this also mean your role as CIO or head of IT has changed? If so, are you happier now with your expanded growth?

Valdes: Yes. It’s not just technology that I’m focused on now. Before, IT was in charge of infrastructure, network, and applications. But the coverage of the role is beyond that already. The CIO role has stepped up one level to provide first level of management information. You have to come up with strategies using statistical analysis and business intelligence.

Ferrer: The role is definitely evolving. IT is now a vital function in the company, less of ensuring that the infrastructure is up and running and more of finding ways to improve client brick walling (via various client facing systems), increase operational efficiency and productivity and being the catalyst of new ways at looking at the information available in the business critical in creating strategic, tactical and operational plans and decisions.

IT is now being asked to join strategic planning sessions, unlike before the plans are cascaded from management down to IT. You have to do what they tell you to do. Now, from the start of the planning you already can voice out your concerns about the limitations and the potentials of technology. You are no longer slapped on the face with a plan you have to execute.

Not all companies are willing to get IT on board the management team. Honestly, I think it’s not the company but the way the person in the company was able to evolve that under the management team. I started with the company way back when IT reports to the finance head, after some time the finance said, “you know what, I can no longer manage you I might as well ask the president if you can be a direct report.” So it really depends on the readiness of the IT person. Is he willing to evolve or is he happy with just being a technical guy? The role changes depending on who the IT person is.

CWP: Does an IT professional need training to be able rise up the ranks to CIO level?

Valdes: Is there enough training for that? No I don’t think there’s enough training for that; it’s more of experience than anything else. What is really required in that particular role is the knowledge of the business. If you don’t know the core business of your company and there is no strategy you can think of then you are just a technical person that has a supporting role. But when you inject a business model and say that IT can give support in developing or launching a certain product then you are already part of the strategic planning. So the exposure you have in terms of the core business of your company will matter if you are able to contribute to the strategy.

Ferrer: I think it’s an evolution. You cannot teach somebody to run 10 kms unless he can jog 5 kms. You need to evolve an IT person at a certain level. The challenge is how fast can that person evolve; but the bigger challenge for the managers, which would be us, is do you think that person is capable of setting up a strategy?

Dela Cruz: Three to five years ago, when it came to developing people I’d rather let them develop or mature in their current goals before I promote them; but I think that method is not effective nowadays especially when Filipinos nowadays are more inclined to going abroad; so I really feel that’s not the direction now.

So if you see a bit of potential in a staff, then why not promote that staff and let him mature to that new role. Our experience in the past is that when we’ve trained and nurtured a person, he’ll leave after a while. So all the effort and time spent on developing that person is wasted.

CWP: Is that what happened to you, Ray?

ABANTO: I was put into IT because of the exposure I had in retail. I started in 7-Eleven as a management trainee in corporate planning. I was supposed to stick it out with corporate planning but since IT had shortage in manpower I was put there.

I think the biggest reason I’m here in my position right now is I understand the customers of IT in our organization. IT people shouldn’t bind themselves to their desks or computers. All jobs at some point will require you to interact with other people.

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