execblueprints-creating an indispensable it function

8/14/2019 ExecBlueprints-Creating an Indispensable IT Function

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Four top technology leaders from Xavier University, Premier

Health Partners, CareerSpecific.com, and VPI Pet Insurance

share their insights on:

Creating anIndispensable IT FunctionDavid W. Dodd

Vice President, Information Resources, and CIOXavier University

Mikki ClancyVice President and CIO, Premier Health Partners

Brian CainIT Director, CareerSpecific.com

Jonathan KassVice President, Operations, and CIO, VPI Pet Insurance

In todays environment of outsourcing and offshoring, alignmentis where IT adds value to the business. Transactional and purelytechnical functions are increasingly available at low cost out-

side the IT function, but strategic engagement with long-term busi-

ness goals is available uniquely to IT. The CIO must lead thisprocess, driving full integration of IT into the business units at allevels. At the top, the CIO must invite the other executives to playa role in determining ITs direction and focus, and how it positionsitself for the future. In the middle, every part of the IT organiza-tion must learn to measure success in business terms, not techni-cal terms. And at the bottom, IT must put itself in constant dialoguewith the end-users, providing training, asking for feedback, andresponding to emerging needs. In this way, IT becomes the businesssindispensable partner.

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Action Points

I.Aligning with BusinessITs principal challenge is alignment withthe mission and goals of the institution.

II. The Bottom LineAll assessment should be based onorganizational success.

III. Must-Haves for Filling Business

NeedsEncourage early communication,interactive development, and flexiblearchitectures.

IV. The Golden Rules for Keeping Tech

On TrackWork to understand departmentalneeds. Blend IT and business personnel.Be proactive and forward-looking.

V. Essential Take-AwaysThe CIO should work to knit the

organization together and create ashared vision of the future. Every projectundertaken should position the companyfor the future.

Contents

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.2

David W. Dodd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.3

Mikki Clancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.6

Brian Cain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.8

Jonathan Kass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.10

Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points . . . p.14

Copyright 2008 Books24x7. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without the prior written permission of the publisher. This ExecBlueprints document was published as part of a subscription based service. ExecBlueprints

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Books24x7, 2008 About the Authors ExecBlueprints 2

About the Authors

David Dodd is vice president for infor-mation resources and CIO at XavierUniversity. In this position, he has

comprehensive leadership responsibilityfor information technology, the university

library, Web development, instructionaltechnology, the registrar, and strategicinformation resources.

Mr. Dodd has over 25 years IT experi-ence in business, research and development,and higher education. His technical expert-ise includes high availability systems andnetworks, collaborative technologies,and convergence architectures. In recent

years, Mr. Dodds areas of professionalconcentration have included IT strategicplanning, organizational transformation,leadership issues in higher education, andthe strategic use of information technology.

At Xavier, his primary focus is on thedevelopment of a fully integrated informa-tion resources organization capable of sup-porting 21st century learners. He has beenan active writer, presenter, and speaker atindustry conferences including EDUCAUSE.

Prior to joining Xavier, Mr. Dodd heldIT leadership positions in the University ofNorth Carolina and University of South

Carolina systems and in various corporateassignments. He holds a masters degreefrom the State University of New York aBinghamton and is completing a Ph.D. inhigher education administration at Ohio

University.

David W. DoddVice President, Information Resources, and CIO, Xavier University

Read Davids insights on Page 3

M

ikki Clancy is currently the vicepresident and chief information

officer for Premier HealthPartners (a joint operating company com-prised of Miami Valley Hospital,Middletown Regional Hospital, and GoodSamaritan Hospital) in Dayton, Ohio. Ms.Clancy has 20 years of information systemsand security experience in a variety of indus-tries. She was also the senior systems spe-cialist for the internal audit department,Y2K program director, and consultingdirector of computer applications forPremier Health Partners.

Previously, Ms. Clancy worked as a busi-ness systems analyst for the Center for theDisabled a clinic, school, and manufac-

turing employer for the disabled populationin Albany, NY. She also worked for five

years in the United States Marine Corps asa programming officer for network and

mainframe systems at Camp LeJeune, NC.Ms. Clancy is the current chairman ofthe board for Technology First, presidentof the South Dayton Dance TheatreBoard of Directors, and is the former pres-ident of the Southeast Ohio chapter ofISACA. She is currently a member of ISACA,HIMSS, CHIME, and ACHE. She is serv-ing on the Technology First (GreaterDayton IT Alliance) Board of Trustees,South Dayton Dance Theater Board ofDirectors, and St. Henry Parish Council. Shehas been a national and local speaker onhealth care information security, audit, andinformation technology topics since 1997.

Ms. Clancy has previously served as amember of the Associate Board of the

Dayton Ballet, ISSA, CHIME Patient SafetySIG, the Greater Dayton Technology Task

Force, and MIS Training InstitutesHealthSec Seminars Advisory Board. Shewas listed in 2000 Whos Who in IT andthe 2004 Whos Who Executives &Professionals. She was selected as one ofModern Healthcares 2003 Up & Comers

Ms. Clancy has a B.S. in engineering sci-ence, technology management degree, fromVanderbilt University and an M.B.A., technology management, from the University oPhoenix.


Read Mikkis insights on Page 6

Brian Cain has a masters degree inmusic composition, but has beenworking full-time in the information

technology field for over 10 years. He hasworked for several companies in that time,ranging from startups to Fortune 500companies. He is well versed in many

programming languages and developmentmethodologies.

His background in developing Web-based applications has provided him theopportunity to learn about many differentfacets of IT, including database design andmaintenance, server administration, router

maintenance, DNS configuration, and muchmore. He has learned over the years theanswer is never No, but rather, Any-thing is possible, but is what you want reallywhat you need?


Read Brians insights on Page 8

Jonathan Kass was appointed to theposition of chief information officer atVPI Pet Insurance in November of2005. He became CIO and vice presi-

dent of operations in December, 2006. Inhis current role, Mr. Kass is responsible fordeveloping and implementing the strategicinformation technology programs designedto enable and support VPIs growth andprofitability objectives, as well as for pro-viding oversight over VPIs customer care,

operations, and fulfillment departments. Heis also the head of VPIs strategic initiativeoffice, which provides enterprise programmanagement.

Mr. Kass possesses over 20 years ofinformation technology and computer engi-neering experience. Prior to VPI, he mostrecently served as senior director of IT forPacificare Behavioral Health (PBH) througha period of significant business and ITgrowth. He began his career in aerospace

software engineering and project management at Rockwell International, where heworked on a variety of large-scale engineering projects.

Mr. Kass holds a bachelors degree incomputer engineering from BostonUniversity.

Jonathan Kass

Vice President, Operations, and CIO, VPI Pet Insurance

Read Jonathans insights on Page 10


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Academy has just completed its firstyear, and it is an excellent programfor developing the next generation

of leaders at Xavier.Training and professional devel-

opment are exceptionally importantto our division in two ways. First,we partner with other functionalareas in supporting and trainingindividuals on the use of new sys-tems and technologies. In the pastyear, we have implemented a tech-nology training program and hiredexcellent staff members to meet thegrowing opportunities in this area.But the second way that trainingand professional development isimportant is in continuing toincrease the capabilities of ourown staff. We invest heavily inopportunities for these individuals,including leadership training pro-grams through EDUCAUSE andother professional organizations.Because human resources are ourgreatest asset, we make the contin-

uing development of these profes-sionals a high priority.

Infrastructure: Hardware,

Software, and Systems

In terms of computing hardware,Dell is our primary strategic part-ner. Dell has been an excellent com-pany to work with in many ways.

Their hardware is excellent and theycan provide a wide range of soft-ware at very competitive prices. But

Dell Professional Services is alsoamong the premiere organizationsin a number of consulting areasincluding Microsoft Active Direc-tory and Exchange. They havebeen true partners with us in mov-ing the technology at the universityforward.

For networking, we use Ciscoalmost exclusively. Cisco has beenanother excellent strategic partner,and our commitment to their prod-uct line has recently been renewedwith a major initiative to replacenearly all existing network elec-tronics and a legacy PBX with Cisconetworking, VoIP, and unified mes-saging. With regard to software, weare quickly moving to Microsoftand Linux as our two strategic oper-ating systems, consolidating fromsix server operating systems just twoyears ago. We use SCT Banner as

our university ERP/administrativesystem.

We selected all of these as best-in-class solutions. They are wellestablished, high performing, andcost effective. Xavier has done agreat job of going after the best not necessarily the most expensive,but the greatest value-based solu-tions that we can find. These

decisions will save money andcreate a more sustainable, reliableand manageable environment for

our customer base. It will alsoincrease our productivity and ulti-mately our foundation for greatercompetitiveness.

Facing Challenges

The principal challenge we face isalignment in supporting the missionand goals of the institution. This istrue of nearly all technology organ-izations. We have to understand

what the university is doing andwhere the university is goingand make sure that our resources andour initiatives are closely, carefullyand properly aligned so as todirectly support the universitysstrategic plan.

There are also key areas that arecritically important to the univer-sity that we try to support. Numberone among those is student recruit-ment. It is crucial that we arebroadly supporting the universitysmission and goals, but we also haveto recognize the key strategic areasand support those as well as wepossibly can on an individual basisLike most private institutionsXavier is enrollment-driven, sothat student recruitment is aprimary responsibility.

Books24x7, 2008 David W. Dodd ExecBlueprints 4

David W. DoddVice President, Information Resources, and CIO, Xavier University (continued)

Aligning with Users

Identify usersfunctional needs

Understandusers business

processesand goals

Identify functionalneeds and stayin lockstep with

end users

View user requestsin a systemsmethodologyframework

Approachopportunitiesin a strategic

manner


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We are relying more and more ontechnology, and therefore creatinga reliable and sustainable environ-ment is a critical issue, particularlywith regard to desktop computing.

We have to work closely with ourusers to make sure that we are notsubjecting them to ineffective orunsuccessful changes and that thethings that we are doing are verynon-intrusive with regard to theirability to get work done.

After that, it is important thatwe remain a high-value proposi-tion; we must minimize ourresource needs and maximize the

return on investment as much as wecan. This should be a fundamentalresponsibility of all technologyorganizations.

Particularly over the past seven oreight years, Xavier has become farmore reliant on technology and hasrealized the value of technology. Thishas increased the responsibilityof our division significantly, becauseour products and services have

become more central to the missionof the institution. The campus hasspecifically called upon our divisionto provide greater leadership in

this area, and every attempt has beenmade to do so. In the past, someorganizations abdicated theirresponsibilities to functional areasbecause they knew their systemsbetter than did the IT organizationOur organization realizes the criti-

cal role they are being asked to playand they have responded superbly tothe challenge.

Books24x7, 2008 David W. Dodd ExecBlueprints 5

David W. DoddVice President, Information Resources, and CIO, Xavier University (continued)

Expert Advice

A number of critical changes and upgrades are necessary to achieve greateroperational efficiency and effectiveness. We also realize the importance of

upgrades to achieve strategic positioning. We want to be continually position-ing ourselves to take advantage of new technologies that will allow us to achieveour mission even more effectively, particularly in a highly competitive highereducation environment.


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The Scope of Our Work

We do the traditional business sys-tems like general ledger, fixed assets,payroll, HR, accounting, and things

of that nature. We also do costaccounting and decision support.We have systems that are moreenterprise-based for video telecon-ferencing, paging, telecommunica-tions, VoIP, etc. Then we have ourwhole clinical environment, regis-tration, scheduling, and accountspayable and accounts receivable.We have systems that handle theradiology department, pharmacydepartment, laboratory department

systems, cardiology imaging, andmedical imaging.

We also have an enterprise-wideelectronic health record that doesreal-time clinical alerting. Thisencompasses a wide variety of sys-tems. We support about 220 appli-cations, another dozen or sodesktop applications, and many reg-istries that track organ donationsand tumor registry for cancer.

Keeping Tech On Track

We meet regularly with the depart-ments that we support to look atwhat their needs are and what theircustomer needs are. We must lookat more than how the departmentitself functions. We analyze theneeds of the reporting organizations,

the patient populations, and re-searchers of the clinical depart-ments. These customer requirementsdefine what kinds of data elementsare collected.

My IT staff members are busi-ness savvy as well as clinically savvy.

I have a number of pharmacists,laboratory technicians, radiologists,accountants, and nurses on ourstaff. We taught them the technol-ogy in a way that we would be ableto keep up with what was happen-ing in those clinical and businessareas. I do employ some straight ITtechnical people, but I must have ablend to make the systems workappropriately for the business.

Making Changes

Before we implemented theconsumer-driven electronic healthrecord, we could handle about 10to 12 changes a month. We put in60 to 80 application changes a weekright now, so the pace has changeddramatically. Technologically, we

process around 15 to 20 changes aweek and we need very specificchange control procedures to ensurethat we do not inadvertently createany problems with one of ourupdates.

One key to our success is honingand defining those change contro

procedures so that changes aretested and communicated appropri-ately. We study the integration com-ponents closely; just because you arechanging something in pharmacydoes not mean that it will not affectsomething in clinical documentationWe have had to improve our changecontrol procedures to make sure thatthe integration component is tested

Books24x7, 2008 Mikki Clancy ExecBlueprints 6

Mikki Clancy

Vice President and CIO

Premier Health Partners

I am basically a liaison with the

senior leadership and the business

components.

20 years of IS and security experi-

ence across many industries

Current Chairman of the Board,

Technology First

Listed in 2000 Whos Who in IT and

2004 Whos Who Executives &

Professionals; among ModernHealthcares 2003 Up & Comers

Ms. Clancy can be e-mailed at

[email protected]


My IT staff membersare business savvy aswell as clinically savvy.

Mikki ClancyVice President and CIO

Premier Health Partners

Expert Advice

Training is a critical success factor. All end users go through E-learning depend-ing on their job role, and that can range from two to 20 hours. They also go throughworkshop classes and hospital orientation, but they have to demonstrate competencyin their own areas on an annual basis as well. That has been a real learning curve;we did not do that initially during the electronic health record system roll-out.Traditional training was not enough; they need to practice the technology anddemonstrate that they know how to perform core workflow tasks in the environ-ment. It is a little foreign, especially to some of our older population, as they arenot as automated as you or I might be.


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Communicating with

End Users

By communicating closely with theend-users, whether that be sales staff

or subscribers, a highly detailedreport of their needs can be created.The more information you knowabout that, and the more needs youcan incorporate into your preplan-ning process, the less time it willactually take you to develop andthen debug the system once it goesinto place. Without a very detailedprocess, you are just flying by theseat of your pants. That is a verypoor way to develop any type of IT

system, and will ultimately fail inthe end.

I have been in organizationswhere we constructed our technol-ogy as we went along, and thisbackfired in the long run. Now, Isketch ideas on white boards andwrite test applications as a proof ofconcept myself before I implementanything. I may spend anywherefrom a day or two to a couple of

weeks preparing, and when I finallyprogram it I know exactly what Ineed to do; there is no question leftin my mind. I know what the useris expecting, the user knows whatI can provide, and I basically put ittogether.

I often find that even if I spenda couple of days developing areport and figuring out exactly whatneeds to be done, the sales teamoften has additional comments and

requests after the solution is offered.Thus, there is a tremendous amount

of back-and-forth development thattakes place in creating the perfectupdates.

A Solid Base for GrowthOnce the product is deliverable youcan see things in a different lightbecause it becomes tangible. If Ihave taken the proper time in plan-ning, I can incorporate additionalrequests in 10 or 15 minutes insteadof having to go back to the draw-ing board. I have taken a great dealof care developing not only what-ever current project I am workingon, but every project before that.Thus, I work in a cumulativeprocess. I develop each new com-ponent within the system with aflexibility and a modularity so thatI can plug different things in dif-ferent places.

It is a lot easier now for me todevelop new features, reports, andrequests than it was four or eventhree years ago. Back then we didnot have a great deal of data to

study, so I developed systems fortracking data so that later, when thedata got populated, I would then beable to develop reports. Developingindividual projects is very impor-tant, but you need to have the fore-sight to make it interchangeableenough so it can conform to therequirements for that particularproject andbe used in a differentmanner from different points ofview for the project two years down

the road.

When creating any new productI develop a well-rounded systemthat does not conform to require-ments just for one project. This cutsdown on development time for anynew issue that might come up in thefuture because I can reuse data orcode modules. I spent weeks plan-ning one project that was justgoing to track some data, but thenI only spent four or five days devel-oping another project to do reports

Down the road there maybe another facet that needs to beadded, and my project time line isprobably going to be smaller thanit was before.

Anticipating the Future

When I first started out with thecompany I was looking at projecttime lines of six to 18 monthsbecause I had to redesign the entire

site from scratch. Now I look atproject timelines that are muchsmaller, depending on the size of theproject. Even a big project could bea live feature on the Web site withintwo weeks, and I can completesmall projects in a day. That is justa cumulative process of preplanningand anticipating needs that aregoing to be coming in the future

Books24x7, 2008 Brian Cain ExecBlueprints 8

Brian Cain

IT Director

CareerSpecific.com

The preplanning process is incredibly

important.

Over 10 years of IT experience

Experience across many organiza-

tions, from startups to Fortune 500

companies

Well versed in many programming

languages and development

methodologies

Mr. Cain can be e-mailed at

[email protected]


Without a very detailed process, you are justflying by the seat of your pants.

Brian Cain

IT Director

CareerSpecific.com


9/15

Not everything that I develop for aproject may be used at that time,but I anticipate a need for it in thefuture and address it immediately,instead of backtracking and tin-

kering with something in a live envi-ronment and run the risk of causingperformance problems on a liveWeb site.

I build each project with theanticipation of expansion and I dothe same with non-programmingprojects as well, such as hardware.We have a database cluster with twopowerful servers with a storage area

network that fits the capabilities ofwhat we need right now, but shouldour business quadruple overnightwe have the infrastructure to han-dle it. Previously, when things werevery tight and we were not in

profitability mode, we were actingreactively to that type of thing. NowI have gotten to a point where wecan accommodate a certain level ofgrowth before our IT infrastructurehas any impact at all.

Books24x7, 2008 Brian Cain ExecBlueprints 9

Brian CainIT Director, CareerSpecific.com (continued)

Expert Advice

I monitor the effectiveness of my developments with internal auditing and track-ing, and this helps improve performance and response times. Progress doesn't

always necessitate a brand new feature for somebody to use, sometimes it is sim-ply improving on an existing process or feature. To update existing services, I usecustom monitoring built into the program or through monitoring controls within theservers themselves.


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Building and Maintaining

Company Systems

In building and maintaining com-pany systems, I try to identify

which systems and capabilities areunique and specific to our core busi-ness. We then ensure that we focusour investments and internalresources in these areas that willgive us the greatest competitiveadvantage. My internal departmentfocuses on projects that are core to

pet health insurance and can helpto continue to differentiate us in themarketplace. We emphasize busi-ness analysis and systems analysis,and keeping our programmers, QAstaff, and developers all tightlyfocused on the business side of pethealth insurance. This involvesunderstanding for example ourunderwriting, claims payments, andcustomer service processes beyondthe elements needed just to do theIT work.

This focus permeates both theapplication development and oper-ations functions within IT. From an

operations perspective, it is equallycritical that help desk and admin-istrative staff stay engaged at abusiness level. This allows them toput operational requests into thebusiness context well enough to beable to react and respond in abusiness-appropriate fashion to anyinfrastructure needs, such as com-mercial software requests, service

requests for network or hardwarechanges, etc.

On the infrastructure side, theemphasis for the last few years has

been on building confidence in theorganization. We want the organi-zation to feel that it does not needto be afraid of success. We can beout in the market, growing thebusiness with the confidence ofknowing that the back office willrun smoothly.

On the project side, it is impor-tant to have an internal develop-ment application team that is closeenough to the business to hit theground running on strategic and

tactical initiatives. The key distinc-tion of an internal developmentteam should be that they do notneed to pause to learn the basicbusiness terms or understand whythese initiatives are important.Maintaining and strengthening therelationship between the IT teamand the rest of the company hasbeen critical in allowing the businessto move as quickly as possible inpursuit of product and partnershipopportunities.

Supporting the Needs of

the Company

When developing and implementingnew systems, we ensure that theysupport the needs and goals of thecompany by placing a rigorous

emphasis on establishing thoseneeds and goals at the outset ofplanning. From the moment a proj-ect is chartered, the success criteriaare among the first things we estab-lish. We work closely with the busi-

ness in identifying why are webuilding a new capability or en-hancing an existing one. We askwhat will determine success whenthat project is done, establishing thateven ahead of the projects businessrequirements.

As the project is implementedand goes live, we hold ourselvesaccountable for the success criteria

Books24x7, 2008 Jonathan Kass ExecBlueprints 10

Jonathan Kass

Vice President, Operations, and CIO

VPI Pet Insurance

By keeping IT and the business lead-

ership on the same page, we can

ensure that IT focuses on the needs of

the business, and can envision the

functionality that will be required to

enable the strategy.

Over 20 years of information

technology and computer engineering

experience

Leads companys Strategic Initiative

Office, providing enterprise program

management

Experience at Pacificare BehavioralHealth and Rockwell International

Mr. Kass can be e-mailed at

[email protected]

Jonathan KassVice President, Operations, and CIO, VPI Pet Insurance

We focus our investments and internal resourcesin those areas that will give us the greatestcompetitive advantage.

Jonathan Kass

Vice President, Operations, and CIO

VPI Pet Insurance


11/15

One of the biggest changes we havemade in the last six months is toensure that every new project, evenif it is small, has a 90-day, post-liveevaluation of its success criteria.

While many organizations talk aboutthis evaluation step, when the proj-ect goes live people naturally moveon to the next thing. It is very diffi-cult to get everybody excited 90 or120 days later, asking whether theproject was a success. However, westrive to hold ourselves accountableboth in the business and in IT to lookback and assess whether the projectgenerated the intended benefit.

Evaluating the Success

Criteria

We evaluate the success criteria ona case-by-case basis, working closelywith the business at the outset toidentify what determines success.For a CRM initiative, success mightinvolve a shorter average customerservice call time with a higher qual-ity score for the customer care

agent. In a customer service center,reductions in average call durationmeasured in seconds can have dra-matic impacts on the overall pro-ductivity and cost structure of theorganization. A CRM initiativemight also focus on increasing theability of our sales leadership torespond rapidly to a change in a salestrategy or the marketplace at large.The time required to make changesin the sales agents tools and tech-

nology can become either a limitingor enabling factor for the sales lead-ership team. These are just exam-ples of how we assess each project,individually, and ask ourselveswhat the standard will be for con-sidering the results a success.

As we improve our disciplinesaround establishing this success

criteria, we can be more deliberateabout designing systems and toolsthat capture, by design, the metricsneeded to evaluate the project.

Determining Core

Technology Needs

In determining core technologyneeds, the role I play as CIO is towork with other C-level executives

and senior leaders of the organiza-tion to look strategically beyond thecompanys immediate needs.

Although I set up an internal phi-losophy of incremental wins, Ibelieve that the C-level roles uniqueresponsibility is to look beyond theincremental and ahead to the needsin the one-to-five year range. I workwith business leaders throughout

the organization to consider wherewe could be within that one- to five-year timeframe. Then we work backfrom that longer-term vision toidentify the critical enabling tech-nology priorities up through thenext 24 months.

It is critical to bring together andwork with the thought leadersand department heads who areresponsible for the success factors

of the organization in order todevelop truly cross-functional, com-pelling initiatives. We recentlybrought together a set of depart-ment heads from across the organization sales, compliance, financeoperations, claims, care, and IT and engaged them in basic brain-storming and thinking through thebusiness environment. We looked


Jonathan KassVice President, Operations, and CIO, VPI Pet Insurance (continued)

Making IT a Business Resource

Collaborative

Governance

Accountability

to Business

IT as a

Business

Resource

Business-Centric

ROI


12/15

out beyond the day-to-day priori-ties, asking what success will looklike three years from now, and thenworked collaboratively with them tohone a vision of how they want

to achieve that success and whatwould constitute big wins in theirareas toward meeting those goals.

It is also important to extendaccountability, encouraging staffownership in the strategies wedetermine, the criteria for success,and how those strategies will makethem more successful in their func-tions. This approach is preferable toa top-down strategy in which the

CIO or CTO simply announceswhere the business is heading overthe next three years.

Upcoming Development

Priorities

Our customer-related infrastruc-ture is in need of renovation, whichis why we have prioritized the CRMinitiatives. Ultimately, we are inbusiness to support a customer, and

front-office enhancements will cre-ate a better experience for our cus-tomers, policy holders, and the petowners who trust us with theirfunds. We will have a better knowl-edge of these individuals whenthey call us with a problem andwhen we are processing their claims,and we will know our market bet-ter when we are developing newproducts because we will have

better intelligence about thosecustomers.

Because we are in a highly regu-lated environment, we are incredi-

bly mindful of our fiduciaryresponsibilities with our customersdata. We are also mindful of the reg-ulatory environment in which weoperate. As pet insurance becomesmore recognized as a valid form ofrisk management for someone whoconsiders their pet a part of the fam-ily, and as our business grows, weknow that we will continue to be onthe radar of the regulatory bodies.We are committed to operating in a

transparent and secure manner. Weare always trying to improve oursecurity and our accountability andprocedures around controlling infor-mation. This kind of focus on com-pliance as a core part of our strategy,rather than an ancillary cost ofdoing business, needs to permeateevery one of our projects if we areto be successful in continuing to earnthe trust of our customers.

One thing that is not unique to

pet health insurance is the sense thatwe cannot move quickly enough,given the reasonable limited amountof resources we have. There is highdemand for IT support across theinsurance space. Insurance is aboutmanaging information, and that isall we really do on many levels. Youcan probably never have the budget,resources, or personnel to take onevery possible project, so the biggest

challenge is to set priorities, alignyour staff, and keep them on thehighest value initiatives.

Collaborative GovernanceIt seems like it can be easy to per-petuate a misconception that aninternal IT department can affordto promote its own agenda and pri-ority scheme. This misconception isthen magnified when other businessunit leaders feel they are justifyingtheir IT resource requests againstsome kind of IT agenda.

In order to try to radically

change that perception, one of thekey governance changes we haveimplemented in recent years centerson how we engage our C-leveexecutives with respect to charter-ing and tracking initiatives. We haveestablished a formal project execu-tive steering committee, made up ofthe leaders of all of the businessunits and the CEO, before whom aldiscretionary spending requestsmust pass.

Within this framework, IT canbecome a resource to the organiza-tion, a budget that the business lead-ership can take joint accountabilityfor to ensure it is in alignment withtheir needs and expectations. Aninternal IT organization cannothave success unless the companyitself is successful all projectsmust be business wins as well astechnology wins. With a collabo-rative steering committee modelbusiness leaders must presentresource requests to their peers, ask-ing them to chime in on whether agiven project proposal is worth theinvestment of the limited shared dis-cretionary budget of the organiza-tion. This collaborative govern-ance is the most significant cross-functional change we have made.



Expert Advice

Along with measuring the ROI of IT as a function of the success of the business,the most critical philosophy for me is that an internal IT department must be bet-ter prepared and be able to support the company better than any external con-sultant or off-shore model. Ultimately, the CIO's role is to implement the best possibleIT solutions for the organization. You must develop an internal IT organization thatis perfectly aligned to the business. That is where they add value: otherwise, youcan buy most disciplines externally by the yard.


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Return on Investment for IT

The return on investment for the ITfunction at our company goes backto growing the business and

improving customer satisfaction. Inmy opinion there are no independ-ent ROIs for an IT department. Thereal win is when the business isgrowing, the customers are happy,and the employees are happy. If theemployees come to work and havea pleasant experience interactingwith the systems they need to do

their jobs, that is a big win as it cantranslate directly to the experienceof our customers who interact withthose employees.

We dont look at IT as a singu-lar investment. Tactically speaking,we look at ROI for every project,including business sponsored ini-tiatives as well as maintenance andinfrastructure work. We will, on aproject by project basis, look at theindividual business goals and assesshow the IT investments contribute

to the return on those goals. Wewill also look at the incrementacost of infrastructure improve-ments that have direct impacts onavailability, reliability, scalability

and security within our critical systems. However, the true ROI of anyinternal IT function is tied tomacro business goals: is the busi-ness growing, is technology helpingto reduce the cost of doing businessand is the customer experiencegetting better.




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I. Aligning with Business

The principal challenge IT faces isalignment in supporting the missionand goals of the institution.

IT leaders must understand what

the company is doing and whereit is going, and make sure thatresources and initiatives areclosely, carefully, and properlyaligned to directly support thecompanys strategic plan.

Technology now mediatesalmost every business effort;technology staff must be fullyaligned with the business unitsprocesses and goals to create aneffective organization.

Technology organizations mustwork to extend accountability for ITsuccess.

Encourage non-IT staffownership in the technologystrategy, the criteria for success,and how those strategies willmake them more successful intheir functions.

This approach is preferable to atop-down strategy, and allowsIT to tap the experience and

expertise of the end-user at alllevels.

II. The Bottom Line

Focus on benchmarking where youare internally, and where you need tobe as an organization.

IT ROI should be determined interms of how spending impactsbusiness goals.

Rigorously assess the benefits of

IT systems, and how IT effortsare increasing internal efficiencyand business productivity.

The business bottom line is thesole measure of ITs success.

Technology leaders must workto align ITs work with thebusiness results they garner.

Every technology investmentand effort must be measured interms of its business impact.

All analysis and assessment shouldultimately be based on how well ITis helping the institution succeed inits efforts.

III. Must-Haves for Filling

Business Needs

Early communication

By communicating closely withthe end-users, whether that beemployees or customers, ahighly detailed report of theirneeds can be created.

The more early information youknow about end users needs,the more those needs can beincorporated into thedevelopment process and metwith IT solutions.

Interactive development

Invite representatives fromthroughout the organization totake part in an iterativedevelopment process.

Solicit comments and requests atevery step; this back-and-forth isthe key to creating successfulupdates.

Flexible architectures

Developing individual projects isvery important, but immediaterequirements must beimplemented in a flexible,interchangeable manner.

Solutions should conform to the

requirements for the particularproject andbe able to be used ina different manner years downthe road.

IV. The Golden Rules for

Keeping Tech On Track

Work to understand departmentalneeds.

Meet regularly with the other

departments to determinetheir needs, and theircustomers needs.

Analyze the needs of businessdepartments and of the customerpopulation, and look at howthese needs will evolve in thefuture.

Blend IT and business personnel.

Ensure that your IT staffmembers are business savvy as

well as technically savvy. Cross-pollination with other

departments will ensure theessential blend of business andtechnology expertise.

Be proactive and forward-looking.

Work with executives and seniorleaders of the organization tolook strategically beyond thecompanys immediate needs.

The C-level roles unique

responsibility is to look ahead tothe businesss needs in the one-to five-year range.

V. Essential Take-Aways

The CIO should work to knit theorganization together and create ashared vision of the future. Its theresponsibility of the IT leader toensure that the technology organiza-tion is fully integrated into and

aligned with the business.Every project undertaken should

position the company for the future

Build each project with theanticipation of expansion, andcontinually position yourself totake advantage of futuretechnologies.

Look for technologies that fulfillmultiple needs.

Books24x7, 2008 Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points ExecBlueprints 14

Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points


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Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points (continued)

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10 KEY QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION POINTS

What types of company systems does your department build and maintain? In what ways dothey vary by department and product or service line? What role do these systems play in thecore functioning of your company? How often are major changes in system configurationsnecessary?

When developing and implementing new systems, how do you ensure that they supportcurrent business needs and goals? How do you measure success (e.g., feedback fromleaders, employees)?

What hardware and software do you currently use? Why were these selected? How have

these systems changed in the past five years? What could be improved?

What role does the CTO/CIO play in helping to determine core technology needs at yourcompany? Has this role changed in the past five years? What role do other departments playin this process?

What are your best practices for ensuring your IT systems meet core company needs? Whyand how were they developed? How do you involve your employees and other C-levelexecutives in this process?

What orientation and education does your IT staff receive on your companys core needs andgoals? How has the content of this orientation changed over time? How does this orientation

enable your employees to be more effective at serving the companys needs? How receptivehave your employees been to this orientation?

Which IT systems at your company currently need to be upgraded to more effectively supportcurrent core business needs and goals? Why are these important? How will you effect theseupgrades? How do you expect these upgraded functions will benefit the company as a whole?

In the next 12 months, do you plan to introduce new operating and security procedures? If so,what type? How will they support current business needs and goals? How do you plan tonotify and train employees on employing the new procedures?

What are the top five challenges IT presently faces in its endeavors to support overall business

needs and goals? How have they changed over time? In what ways do they differ by locationand department? In what ways are they the same throughout your organization?

How is the overall effectiveness of IT systems and procedures benchmarked at your company?Against their effectiveness at meeting core business needs and goals? Against the trackrecord of previous systems and procedures?

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