John C. Carrow
Senior Vice President, Strategic Client Development
Unisys Corporation
It sounds like a good idea. Public sector entities, including state governments, are faced with many of the same challenges as private sector companies in today’s business environment. So, as Mister Rogers used to say, “Why can’t we share?” The challenge is that both groups must take a long hard look at what keeps IT from succeeding with the tough issues that otherwise keep our IT projects stuck in the sand box.
To succeed, state and private IT organizations need agility, speed and a solid understanding of the inherent citizen and business drivers supporting their overall IT strategies. Face it. Customers everywhere want a lean effective interface to access the information they need and avoid bureaucracy. Information is the new gold standard. In fact, they demand it. Centralization, security, constant change, time pressure, limited resources and doing more with less are the current realities of government and business. These factors slow down responsiveness to customer demands and make IT the whipping boy.
Successfully responding to the customer challenge requires information technology plans and initiatives that are driven by and aligned with business strategies and citizen needs. Where do we begin? Leadership, commitment and deep domain knowledge.
IT organizations must put a stake in the ground to become valuable partners to their agencies and the citizenry. You must ‘feel their pain,’ understand their business objectives, prioritize initiatives relative to business value and respond to changes in objectives with agility and speed. You’ve got to deliver.
John Carrow will explore how both sides can learn from each other. He shares his lessons of business and government from 16 years at General Electric, CIO for the City of Philadelphia, and his successful CIO leadership with IT services firm Unisys for a decade. John will share it all and boil it all down to specific key actions you can take right now.
Q & A discussion follows
