The 2009 Gonzo CIO Curriculum

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”  –Douglas Adams

School might be out for summer for the kids, but that doesn’t mean CIOs are excused from learning some new skills or refining ones they already have. Successful CIOs have to be fluent in a broad variety of topics, both technical and non-technical. As I think about the role, three primary disciplines stand out that a successful CIO must be proficient in: Technology Management, General Management and Domain Expertise.

Within those disciplines, several skills emerged in recent years as more important to CIOs as they made the transition from the custom development world to the integration world. Those skills are highlighted in bold in the diagram below. A CIO need not be proficient in all of these areas, but at least should know what skills he/she needs to acquire or develop within the I.T. group and the benefits they bring to I.T. and the organization as a whole.

CIO Survival Skills

So, on which topics should CIOs focus their energy? Reading my colleague T-Roche’s treatises on the CIO Curriculum from prior years, you’ll notice a heavy emphasis on emerging technologies, business processes where technology can make an impact and a sprinkling of general management skills for good measure. Why does that mix stay consistent? CIOs rock when 1) they work to understand emerging technologies and the benefits those technologies bring to key delivery channels or business processes within their financial institution and 2) can communicate those effectively to their colleagues.

I’d submit to you that last year’s batch is still relevant if any of those topics tickle your fancy—BSA/AML/Fraud Compliance, Mobile Banking, Collaborative Software, Project Resource Management, and Negotiation were at the top of the 2008 list. Let’s talk about a few more topics this year that I see CIOs and I.T. groups in general grappling with.

1. Communication. It’s easy to get caught in the trap of thinking results are going to speak for themselves. Think about it—CIOs have to make their cases every single day to their employees, their peers and their management, and without effective communication skills those results, regardless of how good they are, can get overshadowed by unintended communication faults. There are many directions this topic can take, including public speaking/presenting, written communication, providing feedback and persuasionnfluencing.While a bit more expensive, some of the best training involves videotaping individuals presenting on or making their case for a given topic. Non-verbal communication can be every bit as important as verbal communication and can dramatically alter the message a CIO is trying to send. Reviewing videotaped sessions brings those flaws clearly into focus so CIOs can eliminate them.Where to get it? Community colleges, leadership/communication trainers, local public speaking organization chapters, books and blogs. (While there are great samples of presentations and written communication online, I highly recommend an approach that involves doing vs. reading to perfect the skills.)
2. Information Management. A pattern I’ve seen at the couple dozen financial institutions I’ve worked with the past 24 months is that there is not a well-defined information management strategy. I’m describing information management as a data warehouse (or federated data sources), reporting and dashboarding tools that can present warehoused data, business intelligence/analytical tools that can assist in gleaning insights and the governance surrounding these tools.Typically, these warehouses or data marts are built on an ad hoc basis, information on what’s available in the warehouse (data dictionary, for example) is not readily available to users that need it, reporting/dashboarding tools or their availability are not adequate, and analytic capabilities are not mature or are nonexistent. I’ve heard executive after executive lament about the lack of dashboards to keep them informed about key metrics on a timely basis and analyst after analyst lament about the amount of time they spend cutting, pasting, merging and massaging data in Excel.This can be an efficiency play as well as an integration play. Leveraging a data warehouse can eliminate manual and potentially error-prone report creation processes and can reduce the number of point-to-point interfaces that I.T. shops have to support by replacing them with single extracts from source systems into the warehouse and extracts (or real-time calls) from the warehouse to systems that need the data.Where to get it? Conferences, blogs, vendor white papers, peers, trade publications
3. Imaging/Workflow. Most CIOs have already deployed some sort of document imaging solution and possibly other solutions that are workflow capable (e-form solutions, for example). Understanding how these tools can foster efficiency by eliminating paper, reduce errors through elimination of dual entry and improve controls through approval flows enables a CIO to proactively reach out to business and support units and support their efforts to improve efficiency.Case studies are useful in understanding processes that are ripe for workflow automation, key components of workflow solutions, specific metrics that can be improved with workflow and the order of magnitude of process improvement that is possible.Where to get it? Conferences, blogs, vendor white papers, peers, trade publications
4. Payments. The payments space continues to see dramatic changes, with mobile payments, contactless and micropayments getting a significant amount of attention recently. Stored value and serving the unbanked/underbanked are also areas getting their fair share of press.In addition to understanding new payment methods and which ones could be relevant to their organization’s strategy, CIOs can help their colleagues understand the impact of changes in the mix of existing payment methods. What happens to service charges as check volumes continue to decline in favor of electronic payment methods? When is it appropriate to outsource what’s left of a declining-volume check processing shop? What happens to EFT bills and interchange income as debit card usage is encouraged? How is the complexity of rewards programs changing to include non-card activity?Where to get it? Conferences, blogs, vendor white papers, trade publications (Download “What’s Going on with Payments? Trends and Predictions,” a presentation made by Cornerstone Principal and GonzoBanker Terence Roche at Fiserv’s Card Payments ’09 Conference in Las Vegas earlier this month.)
5. Software as a Service (SaaS) / Cloud Computing. As CIOs deal with both insourced and outsourced applications in their shops, it’s important to have a vision for how these applications integrate with each other, an understanding of security issues associated with SaaS and cloud computing, knowledge of potential data ownership challenges and a handle on where it’s most appropriate to use the cloud vs. locally hosted infrastructure.In addition to the point solution providers, Amazon and Google have been in the cloud computing business for some time, with IBM, HP and others close behind. CIOs should understand how these platforms might be leveraged for number crunching-intensive processes to avoid having to acquire hardware that only gets used during peak processing periods. Ultimately, entire applications can be offloaded into the cloud and internal hardware and related support eliminated.Finally, understanding the financial aspects of the decision to move applications off-balance sheet will positively impact conversations about SaaS/cloud computing projects with the CFO.Where to get it? Conferences, blogs, vendor white papers, trade publications

With ever-expanding demands on their time, CIOs can struggle to get those days of continuing education under their belts. Benjamin Franklin said, “Genius without education is like silver in the mine” – CIOs hopefully are doing some reading and are familiar with the topics discussed above but need to get away from the office, meet some new peers and come back with an understanding of how to communicate the benefits of and how to practically apply new technologies to make a positive impact on their institutions.
–Q

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