Evolution never stops, at least
for the CIO who has been pushed around with ever changing technology and
business paradigms. In the early days the push was to automate internal
processes and then the focus shifted to the external world – suppliers,
distributors, customers, basically the entire ecosystem. IT did a good job
embracing mainframes, client server, browser, mobile, and everything in
between. As technology invaded our lives, democratization led to expectations
moving to business roles and innovation.
CIOs obliged by taking on
additional roles based on their expertise, passion and organizational need to
infuse loads of technology into parts of the company for operational efficiency
or leadership position in the industry. They helped finance, sales and
marketing, supply chain, human resources, legal and compliance, customer
engagement, facilities and administration, everyone who asked for technology
input, they received a helping hand from IT and the CIO even when the industry
kept throwing new disruptions.
If you are not on the internet,
you will be dead; if you don’t implement datawarehousing there is no way
information will be meaningful; cloud computing is changing the world; social
media is necessary for us to invest in – our customers are there; the
smartphone revolution is changing the way our end customers engage, we should
be on their phone; mobile wallets, digital payments, what about artificial
intelligence and chatbots or machine learning; heard that deep learning is the
new snake oil which we should invest in…
Connect into the innovation
network, drive change, manage expectations, service level agreements moving up
with time, outsource what is not critical, manage multi-vendor deliverables,
cross-functional projects, and run an efficient department. Every fad raised a
bogie which needed to be addressed; every publication and conference also
discussed various aspects of how technology will impact the business or change
the industry or kill existing businesses with disintermediation. The plate of
the CIO overflows and how !
But wait, manufacturing automation
took a quiet journey towards implementing PLCs and SCADA; they did not involve
the IT folks, they bought their own equipment with automation capabilities,
bundled with computing infrastructure, uninterrupted power supply, interface
using basic protocols with the machines which evolved slower than the rest of
IT. Lagging behind, they survived Y2K and other scares with minimal impact;
cheap compute power and algorithms to analyze machine data suddenly catapulted
Operational Technology into the forefront.
There are benefits with analysis
of machine data, it helps reduce downtime, improve productivity and lower cost
of maintenance and operation. Longer life for the machines impacts capital
required for renewal of plant and machinery; it made sense to get the IT folks
into the room and leverage the humungous data. IT accommodated the new use
cases by providing the requisite support to their new customer. Resultant
benefits are large enough to raise attention and elevate the need to a
strategic level requiring investments.
Many CIOs have taken this in their
stride adding to their portfolio of capabilities and services, opening up a new
avenue of technological benefit especially since past investments were quite
rudimentary and value of data was unknown. Advent of Internet of Things and the
ability to create correlations has changed the nature of the beast. Operational
Technology is now mainstream and requires skills that IT has had for some time
now. CIOs are happily taking on the new thereby adding one more feather to
their cap.
It is a matter of time that across
other functions like supply chain too, the data gathered through warehouses,
vehicular movement, transit points, and traceability with serialization, all
will add to the desire and ability. For the CIO this is a great opportunity to
spread his/her circle of influence and provide enterprise value. For those who
do not or are unable to, they shall probably be marginalized and find
themselves struggling to stay relevant. OT combined with IT will drive the
business of the future, it is up to the CIO to take advantage.
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