We're getting deeper and deeper into
our digital transformation framework building blocks.
And we've talked about technology,
a very important function.
Today, I'm very happy to have with us Stefan Mohr.
Stefan is a senior partner in our Sydney office.
He's also the head of our technology advantage office in Asia-Pacific.
Stefan, thank you for being here.
Thank you.
So, Stefan, let me ask you a first question that's probably
something that people wonder about quite a lot those last couple of years.
We talked about digital transformation a lot.
What is the wall of the technology function in such a digital transformation?
In 2003, an article made the rounds in the IT community and created a big stir.
The main point of the article was IT doesn't matter.
Go forward 15 years,
and I would say technology and data matters more than ever.
What is probably true is that a lot of IT has been commoditized,
and many of the basic services,
take processing services, storage services,
transmission services are more of a utility today.
However, when you think about other parts of technology and data,
they are really playing a value adding role,
a value adding role to the business to the point
where when you listen to company leaders,
regardless of industry, they often think and talk
about themselves as a technology company.
And therefore, for me,
the corollary of that really then is that
the technology function plays an enormously important role.
And when we think about technology and the role and data,
and the role it plays to change our products and services,
often they have technology and data embedded in them,
or they are an add on that creates real value,
or the role of technology and data to streamline our processes make them simpler,
more convenient for customers,
and cheaper as well.
So, in a nutshell, I think,
the technology function is really important in today's companies.
So how does it take function,
organized to fulfill that new role in the new business world?
I think in many ways,
structure actually doesn't matter as much.
What I think is really more important is the mindset,
it's the capabilities, it's the ways of working.
Let me highlight sort of three points that I think are critical as we move forward.
One is really business alignment.
Business alignment is the role of the technology function in helping business leaders
think what existing technologies and
technologies that are on the horizon can do for them.
It's not something that business leaders will know about themselves.
It's something where technology will help them reimagine their products and services,
help them think about how they can reinvent
processes through the use of technology and data.
But it's not only at these initial stages when we inform strategies,
when we inform investment priorities,
it's also business alignment in the way we deliver,
because we need to have a much closer integration between business and IT.
It always sends shivers down
my back when I hear we are riding a business requirements document,
we give it to IT and then IT goes away and delivers it.
In today's world, we need to work hand in hand.
We need to work very closely together to
really evolve these priorities more incrementally.
So, what do we deliver in the end will really meet the business need.
The second point, which is related,
is around being more agile.
We need to move at speed in an environment that is less predictable than it used to be.
So, some of the traditional ways of working which were more the waterfall model,
they are not right anymore today.
We need to have a second gear,
a much faster speed.
And that means, the way we organize ourselves in integrated teams,
the way we deliver these projects in incremental sort of test and learn approaches.
That is really essential today.
And the last point around the IT function really is
around providing equal emphasis on technology and data.
I would still observe there is more emphasis on technology,
and data is the forgotten asset.
But as we move forward,
data will become more and more important,
and we need to think how do we build the capabilities
necessary to take really advantage of that asset.
One structural point I want to make however,
given the importance of technology,
what I think is really important that IT is represented at the top tables,
that we do have a voice at the executive level,
whether it's at the group level,
but also in each of the business units because only
then will we be able to have these types of conversations,
to have the right engagement between technology and the business.
And Stefan, I know you have been leading in the last few years
a reorganization to a technology function in one of our mining clients.
Can you tell us a little bit more about how you ran this,
and what were the critical steps,
the critical elements to get it to a success?
Sure. I work actually with quite a few companies
in helping IT functions get ready for the digital age.
One observation I would have is,
when you look at services industries,
financial services, telecommunications, et cetera,
they have made some of the changes earlier than
manufacturing companies because the forces of
digital disruptions were on them a lot earlier.
But manufacturing companies are catching up very,
very quickly as well.
And the mining company you mentioned that I've been working with,
they had done a really good job in terms of setting up the basic IT infrastructure.
As a global company, they globalize services,
they make them more robust, a lot cheaper,
and it was all the traditional IT infrastructure services plus having
a very strong global ERP system to look
after functions such as finance and HR, et cetera.
But where they were struggling with were how do we now take that next step,
how do we make technology a business enabler.
And when you listen to the business,
it was, we want more from IT.
For example, how do we use data a lot better to
do predictive maintenance in our various business units?
The second challenge they were facing was being a manufacturing company,
and you do not only have IT,
you also have operations technology.
And a lot of the operations technology is now becoming IT-enabled.
And all of a sudden,
these pieces of equipment,
I exposed to the same vulnerabilities,
cybersecurity risks, as IT systems,
but the disciplines within the operations technology functions were not the same.
So how could we bring some of
those really good disciplines into this part of the business?
And the third challenge,
and again related to it,
was really around data.
Especially being a manufacturing company,
some of the equipment being IT-enabled,
there's a lot more machine data that you can leverage,
but that data was not being used,
not being used at all, like we did a great job having storage solutions,
but we didn't address data as an asset,
and the business was really screaming for how can we get more value from it.
So, what did we do?
I mean, there's still a work in progress,
things are going on.
But when you want more technology or business value from technology,
as I mentioned before,
we needed to put IT at
the top table with the business to have these types of conversations.
So we installed the CIO in each of the business units at the executive leadership level.
We then rethought how technology contributed to the strategic planning process.
They were traditionally a recipient of strategic priorities,
but now they are much more engaged upfront to help the business think
through how that can take advantage of some of these technology opportunities.
We also helped to share some of
the great examples of
projects that were created in one business unit and leverage them across business units.
That wasn't visible before at all.
And just by being able to say,
"Look, what we do here,
might also be applicable over there,
how can we share that a lot more?"
A very simple thing, but a very effective thing.
The second on IT and OT,
we created much more,
much tighter integration between IT and OT,
and one specific recommendation was to make
the IT cybersecurity function also responsible for OT cybersecurity.
And lastly, on the data side,
as I mentioned, it wasn't really treated as an asset.
And when you looked around the organization,
you couldn't find a lot of people that really understood how to create value from data
because HIAD was a massive upskilling program recruiting external talent,
but also building some of the internal skills.
So, that helped them really to make one step
further towards technology creating business value.
As I said, it's still work in progress,
but I'm very hopeful they will move further ahead and
really being able to leverage technology and data a lot better.
Thank you Stefan. And if anything is a rebuttal for the IT doesn't matter model,
this one is definitely one of them. Thank you Stefan.
Thank you very much.
