Gigabit January 2019

NORTH AMERICA
content and creating live video footage
at the likes of the VMAs and Kids’
Choice Awards. Since then, Kline’s
team has felt enabled and empowered
by the cloud, and after abating
cybersecurity concerns by rolling out
the new tech slowly and sensitively,
Viacom now has its full Office productivity
in the Cloud with Office365. “It’s
about overcoming fears, being smart
enough and strong enough to say, ‘we
need to focus because change is
coming’. That’s something you have to
grapple with in any leadership role –
especially technology.”
As such, Kline is no stranger to the
culture shift involved in a technology
transformation – and he says both
listening and educating are key to
change management. “It’s important to
listen to what’s going on in the world
and within the company, and understand
different needs. Rather than just
putting in technology for technology’s
sake, have a rationale and a really
responsible understanding of why
you’re doing it. As technology shifts,
with Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G for
example, it’s important to make sure
everyone has an understanding of
what it is and not to be fearful, but
“AS TECHNOLOGY SHIFTS,
IT’S IMPORTANT TO
MAKE SURE EVERYONE
HAS AN UNDERSTANDING
OF WHAT IT IS AND
NOT TO BE FEARFUL,
BUT INQUISITIVE”
—
David Kline,
EVP and Chief Information and
Technology Officer, Viacom
inquisitive. What does this mean to me?
To the people I serve? To our industry?
And how do we approach it?”
SMOOTH TRANSMISSION
As well as improving the way content is
enjoyed, technology has been vital in
improving process within Viacom’s
operations. “The product teams work
very centrally with my technical teams,
and we’re all focused on making sure
anything across our platforms, from
video to data, is functional, scalable
and is being delivered,” says Kline.
Over the past few years, a key
achievement has been centralizing
code to develop single code base –
with WebPlex used for websites and
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