IT Organizations in the Digital Era

My previous job was that of a marketer,
so when I took over as CIO I brought core
marketing concepts to IT. In particular, I
channeled IT’s efforts towards perception
management because I am a firm believer
in the notion that perception is reality.
Another important focus area for us was
improving communication with the business.
In the first year, we reduced the number of
technical training sessions for our IT teams to
focus more on soft skills development. Both
these initiatives have paid off well and helped
IT build rapport with our business.
The third important aspect of transformation is
change management. I believe that people are
not against change; rather they put up resistance
if they are not involved in the change process
itself. Therefore, I focused on changing the
environment by making every position a vacancy
and inviting our employees to re-apply for the
positions. This enabled them to choose positions
that aligned with their skills and aspirations. We
succeeded in creating an environment where
people could organize and regulate themselves.
Changing the environment and promoting the
right behavior creates healthy competition
within teams, which ultimately drives
organizational change.
SHIFT FROM TRADITIONAL OUTSOURCING
As the IT organization assumes a new role,
we also have to evaluate our existing sourcing
models and adopt new approaches that enable
us to be agile and respond to volatility.
At KBC Bank, during a period of high growth,
my predecessor started up a captive service
provider in India, with the idea of eventually
making it a separate company and offering
services akin to IT service providers. Given the
context, at that time, it was probably a good
strategy. Subsequently during the financial crisis,
we had to reduce our workforce in the captive
company from 500 to 150. Running your own
captive of 150 people in a country like India
does not make sense.
I did not want to shut down the captive as we
had great talent there. Therefore, we asked our
strategic partner to acquire our captive. Over
the years, this partner has continued to provide
us with strategic support enabling us to move
towards our new operating models.
CONCLUSION
Technology can be a disruptor or a facilitator.
The power of technology can be harnessed not
only by implementing new technologies, but also
by innovating, changing the way you do things
and adapting to the new business environment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RUDI PEETERS is Group CIO for KBC. He was
responsible for the sale and divestment of
CENTEA and FIDEA after the company received
state support and for redefining the strategy
and finance planning for KBC Belgium within
the KBC Group. He played a key role in the
company’s transition to the Euro and led the
implementation of an internet banking
solution. He has transformed his organization
into an agile, successful player in the volatile
and sometimes even disruptive market of
Financial Services. Rudi is a popular keynote
speaker and CIONET Belgium awarded him
‘Speaker of the Year’ in January 2014. He was
nominated ‘IT Manager of the Year’ in 1997 for
his first internet banking solution in Europe.
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