Shattered: how Belrons Nick Burton drove mobility

Communication skills are becoming vital to success

You dont need to code to be effective, says Ian Cox

Blockchain: what it means to your business strategy

BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP

Metropolis
Darryl Salmons, Amey CIO, plans
for smarter cities in the future
Page 14

OCTOBER 2015 | CIO.CO.UK

001_Cover Oct 2015_4.indd 1 13/10/2015 10:03

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 4 | EDITORS NOTE
EDITORIAL
EDITOR IN CHIEF Mark Chillingworth
TEL: +44 (0) 20 7756 2893
EMAIL: mark_chillingworth@idg.co.uk
ONLINE EDITOR Edward Qualtrough
TEL: +44 (0) 20 7756 2898
EMAIL: edward_qualtrough@idg.co.uk
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Tony Westbrook
CONTRIBUTORS Pat Brans, Ian Cox, Jerry
Fishenden, Matt Gore, Ade McCormack, Alistair
Maughan, Richard Sykes, Simon Wardley
POST: IDG Communications, 7th Floor,
101 Euston Road, London, NW1 2RA
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All material copyright IDG 2015
This publication may not be reproduced or
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CIO UK SEPTEMBER 2014 www.cio.co.uk
004 Mark Chillingworth.indd 4
Location, location,
location
The CIO as a broker will
become increasingly important
MARK CHILLINGWORTH
C
o-location featured in a number of the transformational
stories presented at this titles recent CIO Summit. Whether
an international property management firm or the UK arm of
every teenagers favourite fast food retailer, placing technologists at the
side of those they co-operate with was delivering success and pizzas.
Eight years ago when I joined this title alignment was considered to be
the greatest challenge CIOs faced. The CIO 100 and CIO Summit prove
that debate, thankfully, has been cast into history. But the issue could
arise again. Business lines can and do purchase technology services, and
as organisations look to provide new touch points to customers or use
the plethora of technologies available to improve processes, the line of
business technology purchasing trend will undoubtedly increase.
Co-location will become increasingly important. Whether technologist,
marketer, product creator or customer support, all have the same reason
for their roles to serve the customer. One of the great problems CIOs
have overcome in dispelling the alignment issue is that hackneyed old
term IT and the business. We are all the business and we are all involved
in technology at various levels in todays economy. Therefore your
technologists should be interspersed around the organisation, serving
customers, sharing advice and connecting it to its technology touch
points. CIOs as a result will walk the floor a great deal, spending time
with their direct reports in a multitude of parts of the organisation.
CIO UK believes the CIO as a broker will become increasingly
important. If teams can make technology choices, with a strong broker
relationship, the CIO is free to focus on the most valuable resource
available information. Your entire team will need to become brokers,
too. Having the team dispersed across the organisation co-located with
those who would really benefit from close, easy collaborative access
to technologists will create a broker relationship. Literally side-by-
side these teams will be able to develop outcomes. Sat together the
organisation can become a single location.
Mark Chillingworth is Editor in Chief of CIO UK
mark_chillingworth@idg.co.uk
twitter@mchillingworth
.co.uk /blogs/
13/10/2015 10:31
005 VODAFONE AD.indd 5 12/10/2015 14:30
 6 | CONTENTS

THIS MONTHS CONTRIBUTORS

Ade McCormack Masterclasses are
believes the the best antidote to
customer is looking the risk of a great
for distinctive surge of expensive

Contents
experiences rather cloud consultancy
than flashy look at offers, says
me adornments Richard Sykes

14 Columns
COURT OR ARBITRATION? 8
Many prefer the known quality of a court

OF LIPSTICK AND PIGS 8

Web-focused vision is showing its age

CIOS NEED MANY SKILLS 9

Understanding available technology

CIO, YOU ARE SPOILING US 10

Are you seen as something of a Liberace?

A CLOUD MASTERCLASS 11
Get more from in-house resources

The Big Story

UNDERSTANDING BLOCKCHAIN 7
Forget Bitcoin. Blockchain is coming

The Back End

30 Profiles
2015 CIO SUMMIT 34
SMART CITYSCAPE 14 A look at CIOs customer-centric summit
Darryl Salmons is planning to keep cities
running more smartly in the near future 34
SCREEN TEST 30
Autoglass moves to a completely mobile
operation, reveals CIO Nick Burton

Features
24
GET YOUR COMPANY IN SHAPE 18
The second part of Simon Wardleys
100-day corporate get fit plan

MASTER COMMUNICATOR 24
How business technology leaders can
master the arts of communicating

ADVERTORIAL: EASYNET 28
Taking an integrated approach to IT
and communications

CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

006 Contents.indd 6 13/10/2015 15:30

 BLOCKCHAIN THE BIG STORY | 7

Understanding blockchain
Forget Bitcoin. Blockchain is coming

B y Tony Westbrook

C
rypto currencies have had plenty
of press coverage, and have been
characterised both as a South Sea
bubble going nowhere or as key financial
technology and fiscal disruptor.
They offer digital disruption
opportunities. So just as digital music
services challenged the traditional
business model of music distributors,
crypto currencies are likely to challenge
the models of a financial services sector
that is rather too used to earning healthy
commissions in exchange for moving
invisible assets around.
Bitcoin has exhibited fluctuations in

Photo credit: iStock

value, and has also had to deal with other
difficulties. It is, after all, a peer-to-peer
managed currency, with no ownership
or financial support and running on a
powerful distributed platform.
However, the real disruptor here is
not the currency but the platform it
runs on. Bitcoins contribution may be
more in promoting a new kind of secure
peer-to-peer network and the safety
measures built into its open, shared
ledger of transactions, collectively known
as the blockchain. The blockchain is a
secure, openly replicated and distributed,
ledger of every Bitcoin transaction ever
executed. In addition to this data being
openly shared among all participating
services, there is a mechanism to
constantly identify discrepancies and
test them across the entire network,
automatically identifying and overriding
illegitimate transactions as it goes.
There are, of course, potential
disadvantages. Most obviously, the
blockchain is a file of constantly
increasing size as new transactions are
added to an existing complete record
every 10 seconds. And without an owner
or monitoring body, what happens if
things go wrong? Set against that, the
blockchain has already demonstrated
huge value in providing a complete
record of transactions registered against
fixed, unchangeable, digital identities.
It is because of this strong digital
identity feature and the technologys
robust unforgeable nature that the
technology has been earmarked as
a potentially powerful platform for
many kinds of value-based transaction.
Examples cited include property
transactions, stock exchange trades,
voting systems and perhaps even defining
and storing digital identities in an
increasingly mobile and dispersed world.
As a result of the technologys appeal,
more and more mainstream banking and
financial tech companies are exploring
such technologies to see how they might
ally to them and use the technology. And
if mainstream financial transactions do
eventually take using such peer-to-peer
systems, organisations whose wealth is
predicated on providing intermediary
services for the safe transfer of value may
need to look elsewhere for their margins.
Which brings us back to our loose
analogy of how music distributors, who
were used to a comfy retail network
where they could control the sale
of CDs to earn money from artists
work, had to re-evaluate in the face of
disruptive new distribution technologies.
At the same time, artists, used to the
restrictions and security of a sponsoring
label were set free to find new ways to
reach and monetise their audiences.
All of which is why Wall Street and
major finance houses like Barclays are
talking about Bitcoin and Blockchain. Its
why there are blockchain hackathons to
find new ways to employ the technology;
and why there are suggestions that
nations on the edge of financial collapse
might consider these technologies as a
way of continuing to operate outside
any established banking system.
The process of separating blockchain
technology from the Bitcoin entity
which spawned it may not be easy, but
its a process many vested interests are
clearly trying to encourage.
.co.uk /insight/

www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015

007 Big Story.indd 7 13/10/2015 10:19

 8 | OPINION ALISTAIR MAUGHAN/JERRY FISHENDEN
LEGAL BRIEFING
Court or arbitration?
Many people prefer the
known quality that comes
with a judge-led court, but
arbitration has its benefits
ALISTAIR MAUGHAN
D T
isputes between customers and ICT providers are not
a new phenomenon, although it does seem to me that,
with increasing frequency, more disputes are now getting
beyond negotiation and escalation, and into a formal dispute
resolution process. The jury is still out, so to speak on which
particular form of dispute resolution proceeding best suits a
technology or ICT-related claim.
Traditionally, parties have favoured court-based litigation.
It offers more readily the ability to obtain interim measures
and summary determination via injunction if necessary, greater
procedural certainty and enhanced coercive powers, which can
be useful against a recalcitrant opponent. And, of course, its
helpful to be able to rely on, and create, legal precedent.
But arbitration also has its benefits. These include the ability
to keep proceedings and documents confidential. Arbitral
awards are also relatively easy to enforce against foreign parties
(there are international treaties on this); and arbitration offers
greater procedural flexibility and enhanced finality of decisions,
which gives rise to greater certainty. In the UK, for example,
the Arbitration Act 1996 allows an appeal only for lack of
substantive jurisdiction, serious irregularity, or on a point of law.
Its also possible to select a neutral and/or expert tribunal.
Other possible decision factors are more neutral, such as cost
(the perceived lower costs of arbitration can be a false economy,
particularly as arbitration gives rise to additional costs such as
the tribunals fees); speed (arbitration can be slower due to the
need to agree procedural matters or quicker due to reduced
possibility of appeal); and document disclosure.
Theres probably no one-size-fits-all approach that works
across the entire ICT sector. What remains true is that decisive
early action is almost always the best policy, to protect ones
position and to separate the dispute from business-as-usual.
In recent years, I have also experienced parties considering
other ways to resolve disputes. Expert Determination has worked
well especially in longer-term relationships where disputes are
more often a sideshow to the main relationship. The concept is
that the parties can define their own process and agree to accept
the binding determination of a mutually acceptable independent
expert such as a QC. But, in those situations, one of the crucial
aspects to ensure is that the expert is senior enough and has
enough gravitas to ensure that the key stakeholders on either
side accept his or her decision come-what-may.
Alistair Maughan is a partner at law firm Morrison & Foerster
CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk
008_Fish/Mofo.indd 8
POLITICAL DEBATE
Of lipstick and pigs
in government
Governments web-focused
vision is showing its age
JERRY FISHENDEN
he UK government is in the vanguard of developing
common IT architectures, and ahead of most in
developing the IT core to enable secure transactions with
citizens. Is this part of the ongoing debate about the future of
the Government Digital Service (GDS), GOV.UK and the role
of Government as a platform? No. Its from an international
survey carried out in 2002, reflecting an earlier UK Government
strategy of developing a cross-government infrastructure
covering common services such as payments, authentication,
transactions and secure messaging.
The idea was two-pronged: deliver innovative changes to
service design at the front-end of government to make existing
services appear more joined-up (involving the application of
generous amounts of lipstick) in order to buy time to enable
the heavy lifting changes required at the back end (the pig). Yet
these back-end changes failed to happen. As a result, instead of
meaningful service transformation, government has largely used
technology simply to automate previously manual processes.
These web-centric visions of the past two decades, with
their repeated emphasis on how simple and elegant digitally-
enabled public services could be, often gloss over the heavy
lifting required in the middle and back tiers of government to
make it happen. Worse, this 20-year-old, web-focused vision is
showing its age, overlooking how data-driven services can work
particularly in the age of the Internet of Things.
Whatever the outcome of recent changes to GDS, the
restructuring work initiated by Liam Maxwell, the Government
CTO, must continue. With its focus on mapping, open
standards, data rationalisation, the use of SMEs, citizen control,
disaggregation, cloud, and the revival of technical expertise
within Whitehall, it is quiet proof that the strategy is delivery.
As the past 20 or so years have shown however, such changes
do not come quickly or easily, but at least they will come over
the coming decade if this methodical, difficult but essential work
can gather momentum. Given time and backing, this programme
of optimisation and re-engineering (improving service design by
rationalising data and processes) will lead to the long-awaited
transformation of government.
As a new, beta GDS emerges, it is this rebalance of focus on
the pig rather than just the lipstick that will help meaningfully
transform public services enabling government to become a
truly citizen-focused digital organisation from front to back.
Jerry Fishenden is an independent technologist and business leader
09/10/2015 12:06

CIOs need many skills, but
coding is not one of them
Todays CIO needs to understand what technology
is available and how it can be used to create value
IAN COX
H
arvard Business Review (HBR)
recently published an article
with the title Leading a digital
transformation? Learn to code, in which it
was argued that leaders needed to have
first-hand knowledge of the tasks, skills
and activities within their functions in
order to have risen to the top position.
It also made the point that when
something new or disruptive (and hence
something of which they had little or no
experience) arrived, then those leaders
were by definition at a disadvantage and
were likely to be slow to react and could
make serious mistakes.
According to HBR, the answer to
this alleged problem can be found in
the example of a CIO that had learnt to
code in order to better understand the
potential of smartphones, apps and digital
business. It is worth pointing out that
this is not a CIO of a small business with
limited resources, and who therefore may
be required to be more hands-on than
technology leaders at larger organisations.
This is a vice president of technology
at a leading Asian bank that has more
than $300 billion of assets and a market
capitalisation of $35bn.
Explaining his decision to learn to
code, the CIO in question said: I was
struggling to understand at a deep level
what was happening inside the phone,
which made it hard to function as a
leader of technology. And by learning to
code this CIO says that he is now better
able to provide guidance for the digital
bank at a very technical level because I
really understand what is going on.
The view that executives cannot be
effective unless they have first-hand
experience of every area they lead and
the rationale given by the CIO to support
this theory is simply wrong. The days of
009 Cox.indd 9
the CIO being the most knowledgeable
technologist in their organisation with
time served working their way up through
the IT department building up detailed
technical knowledge are long gone. It is
not the CIOs role to provide guidance
at a very technical level. And CIOs
or any member of the C-suite for that
matter do not need to know how to
code in order to understand the potential
of technology in the digital age.
The inference that technology
leaders cannot perform their job properly
in a digital business without a deep
understanding of how, for example, a
smartphone works is flawed. Todays
CIO needs to be a business leader that
understands what technology is available
and how it can be used to create value
for the organisation; they need to know
what it can do, not how.
Should the CFO have detailed
knowledge of every accounting standard
and policy, tax allowances, and so on, and
be able to use this knowledge to produce
a set of accounts by hand from a pile of
invoices and receipts? Does a CMO need
to have to be able to perform every aspect
of a marketing campaign before they can
add value to the process? The answer
of course is no. So why set a different
benchmark for the CIO?
This double standard is damaging
to the CIO role; it perpetuates the
view that the IT leader is a techie
and therefore not someone that can
contribute to the wider business issues.
Digital is a real opportunity for CIOs
to reposition themselves as business
leaders within their organisation. In many
businesses this will involve changing
the perception that the CIO is a highly
technical person, who cannot add value
beyond the day-to-day running of the
IAN COX OPINION | 9
organisations systems. Changing these
perceptions will be challenging enough
without other CIOs and organisations
such as HBR actively promoting the
out-of-date view that deep technical
knowledge is a prerequisite for the job.
CIOs are busy people with many
demands on their time. For those that
are fortunate enough to be able to free
up time (whether at work or at home)
to learn a new skill, then I can think
of plenty of other areas that would
be far more useful than learning how
to code. Managing a P&L, winning
and retaining customers, sales and
marketing, communication, networking,
influencing, collaboration, innovation
and many more, would all come above
coding on the list of new skills CIOs
should learn if they want to be an
affective leader in a digital business.
And a word of advice for any CIO that
is interested in the technical detail of how
smartphones, apps, and so on work: this
knowledge is not required for your role
in the digital age. It is a personal interest
only and should not cloud or influence
how you perform your job or how
you communicate with the rest of the
business. It is possible to be a CIO in the
digital age and be a techie at heart, but
only if that technical detail is left at home
as would any other pastime or hobby.
You are a business leader that needs be
focused on knowing what technology
is available, what it can do and, more
importantly, how it can be used to
create value for the organisation.
Ian Cox is an experienced CIO now
working as a consultant, retained adviser
and coach to boards and CxOs
@iJ_cox .co.uk /blogs/
www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015
13/10/2015 15:25
 10 | OPINION ADE McCORMACK
CIO, you are spoiling us
Does your boardroom see you as something of a Liberace;
a flamboyant spender, focused on acquiring stuff?
ADE McCORMACK
A
ccording to the September 2015
edition of the Harvard Business
Review, the luxury goods market is
undergoing significant disruption. Many
of the players have seen this coming and so
have extended their brands to appeal, not
just to millionaires, but to thousandaires
as well. It feels like the luxury brands,
in some cases, are trading margin for
volume. Possibly this is an attempt to
squeeze as much return as possible
from their brand before the minimalists,
social capitalists and the inconspicuous
consumers reach critical mass.
Smart luxury brands are looking
beyond labels and logos as a social status
signals, and are moving toward what
might be called understated experiences.
If your organisation operates at the
top end of the market, then it looks like
it will have to work harder to maintain
profitability. For the rest of us, this offers
an opportunity to enter the inconspicuous
consumption luxury market.
This could be the perfect theme to
reposition yourself as your organisations
digital transformation leader. If they
dont buy it, find somewhere that will.
All organisations need to make the
transition and many are oblivious as to
what awaits them economically.
What are the implications of this
new post-labels market? As mentioned,
the customer is looking for distinctive
experiences rather than flashy look at me
adornments. Increasingly this is going
to be digital, in whole or in part. One
extreme being total immersion virtual
reality. The need for personalisation
will require next generation customer
management/demand change
management type technologies.
While the Apple Watch is not a
discrete adornment, it is allowing Apple
CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk
010 Ade McCormack.indd 10
to enter the luxury watch space, using
its app store to highlight its practicality
over the other perhaps more functionally
frivolous luxury options. Utility is a
hallmark of the new luxury.
Personalisation requires a degree
of artistry. As robots replace process
workers, your users will increasingly be
artisans. The provenance of the services
your organisation provides will be a key
part of the experience. The role of the
IT function will be to provide the tools
to allow the companys artists to do
The customer is
looking for distinctive
experiences rather
than flashy look at me
adornments. Increasingly
this is going to be digital,
in whole or in part. One
extreme being total
immersion virtual reality
great work. This is a little different to
ensuring that they stick to the operations
manual and dont steal anything.
The tools needed by artists can only
be provided by those that are similarly
creative. Your IT function will likely
have a much reduced headcount thanks
to automation and the cloud. It will
likely comprise technologists, who can
engage and support creatives. Not easy,
unless your people have high EQs to
match their high IQs.
Your suppliers, who have worked hard
to build reputations around the reliability
of their kit and software, will similarly
have to trade margin for volume, as the
tide of utility sweeps the technology
market. This opens the door to upstart
providers, who position themselves
as creative, utility-minded and value
focused. Complex system integration
doesnt just evaporate, but over time that
will be an issue for the providers rather
than the end-user IT function.
And what about you? Does your
boardroom see you as something of
a Liberace; a flamboyant spender,
focused on acquiring stuff (technology
and headcount) despite there being
no obvious rationale for it? Is there a
sense that you want your Big Data to be
bigger than your competitors, much like
billionaires compare yacht sizes?
Of course, I am not implying that
you are a reckless spender. But in the
absence of articulating your value
proposition, then all boardroom eyes
will be on your spending habits. In
keeping with the new luxury, you
need to brand yourself accordingly. This
means that you make the experiences of
your customers, users and boardroom
very positive. In an understated manner,
you make all parties aware that the
underlying technologies and services were
from sustainable sources, and lovingly
carved by passionate artists. Whats
more, the business value, through the
practicality and relevance of the services
you provide, is very clear.
The generation of CIOs who do not
get this will come to be known over time
as the last of the big tech spenders.
Perhaps frugal opulence is the new
IT function mantra?
Ade McCormack is a market commentator,
author and adviser on digital leadership
@AdeMcCormack .co.uk /blogs/
12/10/2015 13:34

A cloud masterclass
The best approach a business can take in scoping the
opportunity of the cloud is to work its in-house resources
RICHARD SYKES
G
roup CIO at MetaPack David Jack
delivered a Cloud Masterclass at
the CIO Summit this September.
He has a broad, deep background as
CIO. Before joining MetaPack, Jack was
Group CIO at Hyperion Insurance (2013
to 2015) and CIO of train ticket retailer
thetrainline.com from 2009 to 2013.
He held a number of director roles at
online gambling company Betfair, who
he was with between 2004 and 2008,
served as CTO of Zygon/Itim from 2001
to 2004, and worked in senior roles at
thin client computing specialists Citrix
between 1998 and 2001. Jack arrived at
Citrix after it acquired Digitivity, which
he had joined after starting and running
his own software venture. Hes also
a NonExecutive Advisor to Ormary,
which is an early stage online fashion
business; and to Astley Clarke, the
online jewellery business.
What made Jack particularly relevant
to the CIO Summit Cloud Masterclass
is this extensive experience in how the
capabilities of cloud computing began
to emerge into the world. He is someone
who can reach behind the marketing
blurb with a sceptical eye informed by
grappling with these new developments
as a heavyweight CIO over the past
decade. And remember, the cloud
has created the development of highly
virtualised, automated datacentres, which
are critical to todays CIO. Betfair was
an early leader in the adoption of highly
virtualised, highly automated datacentres
in its inhouse operations.
My previous column sought to place
the current state of play in the cloud
in the context of the continuing, rapid
development of its capabilities and its
increasingly transformational impact on
how we do business. My conclusion?
011 Sykes.indd 11
That the enterprise that moves with
the times now has to go back to the
fundamentals of what its business is
and challenge accepted wisdoms. It will
no longer be sufficient to transform one
or two specific aspects of its operations,
such as moving its websites into the
cloud. An organisation is going to
need to revisit the essentials of what
its business is, what the basis of its
competitive survival now is. Not just
tinker with parts of IT operations.
It is this agenda, drawing on Jacks
extensive experience, that he and I sought
to articulate at our Cloud Masterclass.
I believe that such
Cloud Masterclasses
will prove in time to be
the best antidote to the
risk of a great surge
of expensive cloud
consultancy offers
from the Big Four
At the Cloud Industry Forum (which I
chair), we have developed a road map that
purviews the diversity of practical factors
that the contemporary enterprise needs
to address in considering its potential
transformational journey into the cloud.
We are using the framework to inform
and to help the CIO and senior business
colleagues comprehend, and act on, the
challenges and opportunities faced.
I believe that such Masterclasses will
prove in time to be the best antidote
to the risk of a great surge of expensive
cloud consultancy offers from the Big
Four (KPMG, EY, Deloitte and PWC).
In my experience, the best approach a
RICHARD SYKES OPINION | 11
business can take in scoping the challenge
and the opportunity of the cloud is to
work its inhouse resources, leavened
by the focused external contribution of
one or two experientially rich experts.
This builds on the business knowledge
of itself, allows it to consider the
transformational journey it faces, and
ensures ownership of, and commitment
to, organisational and cultural change.
The FT article titled Accounting
for Change focused on the Big Four.
A detailed review that I recommend
reading. The core issue set out is that our
lead audit resource is finding it a lot more
profitable to offer a growing diversity of
advisory services and the risk is that
they are taking their eye off the audit ball.
One issue I seek to throw light on
is what I call assurance in the virtual.
Imagine a company whose business
relies increasingly on cloudsourced
services. How does its board assure itself
of its security and cybersecurity? Of its
data privacy protection and regulatory
compliance? Of its business continuity
and disaster recovery?
Can it turn to its auditors? Nothing
in the FT suggests that our Big Four
auditors are developing and maturing
their audit offer in this vital direction.
Rather than taking their eye off the audit
ball, perhaps they should be reviving
their audit practices, ready to tackle the
inevitable strong growth in demand for
independent audit assurance in the
virtual that will come with the rapid
development in the exploitation of the
cloud across the economy.
Richard Sykes was vice president of IT at
ICI in the 1990s and is now a consultant
.co.uk /blogs/
www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015
13/10/2015 15:26
 12 | OPINION RICHARD SYKES

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and JBoss are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.

CIO UK SEPTEMBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

012 RED HAT AD.indd 12 12/10/2015 14:42

 ADVERTORIAL

MEETING DEMANDS FOR

ACCELERATED DELIVERY
Container orchestration and platform-as-a-service
advancement at heart of OpenShift Enterprise 3

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on the IDG Research survey, please go to www.cio.com/redhatmp.

013 RED HAT AD.indd 13 12/10/2015 14:45

RedHcio_ADv0915b.indd 1 9/10/15 2:49 PM
 14 | DARRYL SALMONS AMEY
PROFILE
Smart cityscape
Amey keeps cities, roads and rail running. Group CIO Darryl
Salmons is planning to do so more smartly in the near future
By Mark Chillingworth
E
dmund Halley Road in Oxfords
Science Park is a trading estate
of gleaming modern office blocks
in a leafy commercial suburb. As
youd expect of Oxford, the majority of
the tenants are high-tech and scientific
organisations. Perhaps you wouldnt
expect it to be the home of utilities and
maintenance specialists Amey. But as
Group CIO Darryl Salmons explains,
leading-edge technology usage is exactly
where it expects to build its future.
Amey is a significant business in
the UK economy, and like many in
the utility and maintenance sector,
goes slightly unnoticed. Its turnover
last year was 2.3 billion following the
acquisition of Enterprise, giving Amey
a very significant market share. It now
has 21,000 employees, which grows
at times due to TUPE when the firm
takes over significant services.
Part of the Spanish Ferrovial empire,
which also owns Heathrow Airport,
Amey provides a wide range of services,
including waste management, metering,
facilities management, rail and road
maintenance, as well as health and
justice services. Its clients include the
Department for Transport, Ministry of
Defence, Kent County Council, nPower,
Severn Trent Water, Avon and Somerset
Courts and the National Grid.
The Enterprise acquisition, reported
to be worth 385 million in February
2013, meant a need to standardise the
technology across the two organisations.
Amey was already a large SAP enterprise
resource planning (ERP) user, while
Enterprise had an in-house ERP system.
Salmons decided the SAP off-the-shelf
CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk
014_017 Profile Darryl Salmons.indd 14
ERP would be incorporated across
the organisation. It was a large SAP
enterprise project, but the CIO was keen
to ensure that the acquisition was not
a case of buy a firm and leave it alone.
He wanted to use the SAP platform to
ensure that there was good visibility for
the CEO and the entire organisation.
Mobility
Wait for a train and at some point youll
see an Amey van arrive at the station,
and an engineer come on to the platform
and take a look at the equipment, and
then log some information into a tablet
device. Salmons sees the SAP platform as
a foundation for enabling the organisation
to change the way it works, and his team
structure has enabled the organisation to
standardise and mobilise its strategy.
Maintaining highways is a business
that hasnt changed in the past 50 years.
But the way we do things is profoundly
changing because of the Internet of
Things (IoT), data and sensors. So
theres a whole range of analytics
opportunities that are coming together
at the same time, he reveals.
Pot hole repairs used to be a case of
a team got a list of holes and they worked
out their own schedule, and perhaps
they did them in an order that enabled
them to stop somewhere nice for lunch.
Salmons adds that the lists were likely to
be inaccurate and teams may not be able
to find the pot hole, or theyd fill one that
was a lower priority. Once again using
data and mobile technology is helping
Amey, he says, improve the service to
customers, and in the case of highways,
the local authorities customers.
13/10/2015 16:05
 AMEY DARRYL SALMONS | 15

www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015

014_017 Profile Darryl Salmons.indd 15 13/10/2015 16:05

 16 | DARRYL SALMONS AMEY
We have a data-led strategy. Our road
repair teams, using rugged devices, are
getting information on each job they are
required to carry out, and nothing else
until it is completed. They take a picture
before and after the job, and GPS means
they know they are working on the right
pothole. Once done they get the next job
and an optimised route to it. Productivity
has gone up by a factor of four, he says.
These technologies not only fill holes.
Salmons has been working with Amey on
using technology to improve the health
and safety of its employees, many of
whom have high-risk roles on motorways
or remote rail lines. When you see what
our guys do it is frightening, and its the
same on the rail network. There should
be no accidents, and health and safety is
always the first thing to be discussed at
any executive meeting, he says.
Amey is using drones to inspect rail
bridges, and is working on the adoption
of wearable technology to confirm
employees locations and enable them to
report an incident if anything happens.
Metropolis
When I joined there was a joke that you
dont get a customer calling and asking
for a smart city. Now they are as they
are interested in what the concept can
do, he explains. In January, Salmons
hired Dr Rick Robinson from IBM as IT
Director for Smart Data and Technology.
Robinson led a number of smart city
initiatives at Big Blue and joined Salmons
and CIO UK in the interview.
Smart cities are another variant of
digital disruption. Digital has manifested
itself in retail and financial services,
and these sectors have learnt from each
other. Smart cities is through urban
innovation such as smart metering,
smart social infrastructure, and how
that can benefit us as a provider of
outsourced services to the government
body and the end customer citizens,
says Salmons.
The IT vendor community has talked
a great deal about smart cities, but the
evidence is not on the ground for CIOs
or government officials to see. This is
where Amey believes it can sweep in.
What we do as a business is take on
the outcomes risk, Robertson says of
being an outsourcing service.
Vendors are not taking on outcomes
risk. We do a lot of waste management
CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk
014_017 Profile Darryl Salmons.indd 16
CV: Darryl Salmons
2012 Present
Group CIO, Amey
2010 2012
Partner: CIO Advisory, Kurt Salmon
2005 2010
CIO, Financial Services Authority
2000 2004
Group CIO, De La Rue
1996 2000
Group IS Strategy Director, Exel Logistics
and a lot of our bins have their own
sensors in them, so we know there is
no need to empty them every week,
Salmons says of the cost benefits.
You can also link that to social
outcomes and create an impact, Robertson
adds. The smart city leader is helping
Ameys clients tap into funding resources
for smart city initiatives that are available,
and can speed up implementations.
Salmons comes to Amey from a
data-oriented career in financial services
and logistics to name two, while the
maintenance and utility sector has by and
large not realised its data opportunity.
Our CEO has recognised this very,
very early on. I want to be a data-led
organisation, and realise there is a wealth
of data out there. We manage thousands
of assets and are collecting data all the
time, and often not measuring what that
data tells us. So we are linking everything
together. Where we manage several areas
of service for a local authority, we are
now linking this together, Salmons says.
Data from a pot hole fix could also be
related to school parking, and if we work
with a water company, we can ensure
that any diversions are less disruptive,
Robertson says of the overriding concern
for motorised traffic among local
authority planners.
Since joining Amey in 2013, weve
been building our smart data capability,
and in 2015 we have deployed some of
these solutions. In 2017 we will have
built an account for a smart city. It will
transform our role and hasnt been done
before, and it was what attracted me to
this organisation, enthuses the CIO.
On joining, he restructured the IT
team; there are now four IT directors
reporting into Salmons and divisional
managing directors. The business units
like it as they have someone to face off
to, the CIO explains.
As well as changes to the management
structure, Salmons and the leadership
team are changing the skill set in their
department. Weve been hiring a lot of
people and I spend a lot of my time on
recruitment, as I see it as fundamental
to my success. Skills now in Salmons
team include data scientists, natural
language programmers and analysts.
These are coming in from academia,
science and mathematical areas.
The Group CIO is a believer in the
Gartner Bimodal IT model. Theres an
awful lot of what you do is traditional
waterfall and that will be the case for
Amey for a while, especially with the
big contracts as there is a fixed date or
budget, and the traditional approach
suits that. Bimodal really helps where
we need to deliver fast-paced approaches
and an iterative approach.
Salmons has framework agreements
in place with large providers, including
Capgemini, CGI, CSC, HP, IBM and
O2. I like to go for a small number of
key players, he says. There is also a
discussion with the small providers.
One thing the CIO is very aware of
is protecting the intellectual property
of Amey, while also getting the best
outcomes from the vendors.
Civic duties
Almost all of Ameys clients are central
or local government, agencies of
government, or regulated organisations,
such as utilities. Salmons admits these
are demanding customers because they
are being challenged economically, and
the headlines of local news outlets across
the nation have not been easy reading for
Amey. Its a tough austerity regime. That
doesnt mean people are not receptive to
ideas. Outsourcing is a big benefit to a
public body if it has a desire to take out
cost and inefficiency. When people have
less money to spend, so then the onus
is on us to deliver innovation as they
are more receptive to that, he believes.
Each place Ive worked, Ive picked up
interesting experiences, Salmons says
of a career that has included financial
services, regulators and logistics.
13/10/2015 16:07

Excel was the most similar in that
the IT was part of the solution to the
customer. Our CEO was at TNT, so
we have a huge amount of similarity.
Both industries are about resource
optimisation, he explains of his time as
Group IS Strategy Director for Excel. He
was with the Financial Services Regulator
(FSA) for two years before joining Amey.
014_017 Profile Darryl Salmons.indd 17
The FSA was about transitioning an
IT department and that needed doing
here as well, but here we are raising the
bar and deploying a Target Operating
Model, which is something I took a lot
of from the banks. While at De La Rue,
we did a lot of merger and acquisitions,
which again has played well here with
the Enterprise acquisition.
AMEY DARRYL SALMONS | 17
Experience is what counts as a CIO.
You have to earn your spurs and scars
as you are always learning, he says.
Not only is Salmons enjoying being
part of an organisation that is embracing
and working towards the opportunities
the Internet of Things and smart cities
offers, hes enjoying Leicester City being
at the top end of the Premiership table.
www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015
13/10/2015 16:05
 18 | INSIGHT SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

Photo credit: iStock

CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

018_023 Feature Simon Wardley.indd 18 13/10/2015 09:56

 SITUATIONAL AWARENESS INSIGHT | 19

Mapping your 100-day

corporate get fit plan
Part 2 of Simon Wardleys exercise regime that will enable
CIOs to map an organisations journey to successful outcomes
By Simon Wardley

Day 41 to 60: Doctrine

As we looked at in the previous issue,
the first 40 days focus on improving
situational awareness using maps and
stopping obvious selfharm, such as
duplication and bias. You should be
collecting more of those maps, building
up a lexicon for the business and helping
people communicate (maps are great for
this), along with challenging what is done
and helping overcome inertia. You should
start to feel a bit fitter and in control, but
dont get ahead of yourself. Youre not
ready for strategy and gameplay yet.
What you now need to change is
behaviour in the organisation and you
do that through understanding. Youre
going to start by explaining why one size
fits all management rarely works. You
can do this by taking a map and showing
how you need multiple management
methods to effectively manage it. As an
example, Ive taken the TV company Figure 1
I used as an example last month and
marked on how to use agile, lean and methods need to change. Figure 2 (page focused on reducing the cost of change.
six sigma (see Figure 1). 20) provides an idea of where different This is because components in this
Certain parts of the map are suitable methods are most appropriate. area will change, as they are uncharted
for outsourcing and other parts should Its important to realise that on and unexplored. Experimentation is the
be built inhouse. Even the purchasing the left of your map, you want to be name of the game.

018_023 Feature Simon Wardley.indd 19 12/10/2015 09:43

 20 | INSIGHT SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

As the components evolve, which

will happen if supply and demand
competition exists, then your focus
becomes more on reducing the cost of
waste; for example, you have an idea
of what is needed and you now need
to effectively produce it. Techniques
such as Lean, MVP (minimal viable
product), A/B testing and outcome-
based approaches are all appropriate.
You might still use techniques such as
scrum for development but the focus
(and the artefacts) will be different.
As the components evolve further,
then were into volume operations
of good enough, and our focus must
become reducing deviation. Techniques
such as utility pricing and six sigma
will dominate. This is all about
empires of scale, industrialisation and
operational efficiency.
What you want to get away from is
custom building a commodity in-house,
or outsourcing something novel and Figure 2
new (which will change because youre
exploring an unknown space) to a In many cases, companies cause a lot of friction. What you want to
fixed price development contract with avoid is creating a them and us situation.
expensive penalties for change. So start lack the skill they need Be upfront and clear. Use the maps to
challenging those maps, not only for in order to challenge show you need additional capabilities to
duplication and bias but also the methods bolster what you have. Explain that all
being used, and expect some fierce vendors because theyve parts of the map are equally important.
resistance here. People tend to prefer one outsourced it all It is critically important to understand
size fits all methods and hence theres a that you need at least three basic skill
regular outbreak of semi-religious wars areas: those capable of exploring the
over methods. Keep to the line that uncharted space, those capable of
multiple methods are needed.
In the first days of your new regime,
youve probably developed an idea
of how much skill your company has
and how dependent it is upon others.
In many cases, companies lack the
skill they need in order to challenge
vendors because theyve outsourced it
all or become dependent upon analysts.
The maps will also give you an idea
what sort of capabilities you require.
However, be careful here.
In all probability, you are going to
find youre lacking in one or possibly two
skills areas and so youll have to bring
people in. Dont try to retrofit people
you have unwillingly into these areas. If
youve mainly got people who are good
at ITIL, six sigma and strong contracts,
then youre going to need these people
for those industrialised components. They
are really important to you in the long
term, and so declaring we need agile
Figure 3
people and bringing in outsiders can

CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

018_023 Feature Simon Wardley.indd 20 12/10/2015 09:41


Figure 4
turning a poorly worked concept into
a viable product and those capable of
turning a product into an industrialised
component. These are not the same,
and after the 100 days we will look
to turn these three skill areas into a
cell-based structure and start strategic
gameplay. Make sure you have all these
capabilities to some degree.
Its also a good idea to start looking
into your contracts and have your team
mark this up on your map. Ideally,
you want small, relevant and focused
contracts. Its worth reading up on FIST
by USAF, Lt Col Dan Ward, but as
an example, Figure 3 (left) provides a
map with how the contract should have
been broken up and Figure 4 (above)
provides how it was.
018_023 Feature Simon Wardley.indd 21
Figure 3 comes from a government
system and the problem with Figure 4
is that the contract in the middle is too
broad. Youll end up incurring expensive
penalties in change control because
youll be applying a fixed contract to
both industrialised components that
you can specify in detail along with
components that are novel, new and
changing and hence cant be specified.
Unfortunately, if you only have
specification documents and normal
box and wire diagrams (business process
maps, IT diagrams), then you dont
have a hope of spotting this problem.
Poor contract structure appears to be
rife in most organisations.
All this time, you still want to keep
building that portfolio of maps, getting
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS INSIGHT | 21
people to focus on user needs, improving
your lexicon, removing duplication and
bias, but hopefully by now you should
also start applying appropriate methods,
balancing the capabilities you need,
avoiding the outsource everything pitfall
along with using appropriate contract
structures. You should notice that your
organisation is starting to become more
efficient and effective, and fitter.
Day 61 to 80: Flow
This is an important topic, but first
we need to explain some basic terms
related to mapping.
Position: The position of components
simply relates to how things are
connected and how visible they are to
the user need. The value chain itself is a
chain of needs, such as this needs that,
and so on. At the top of the value chain
these needs are exposed as meeting
user needs (customers), and can often
be expressed in terms of the customer
journey. This doesnt mean the lower
components arent essential, but a user
who wants a cup of tea doesnt care
about the power provider you use to
boil the water. They only care about a
piping hot cup of tea.
Flow: Whenever you look at a value
chain, then there are often multiple
paths within it. These we call flows and
along these paths travel such things as
information, risk, finance and materials.
Sometimes one flow is more viable
than another, and financial models
based upon flow can be developed.
Sometimes a flow may be inefficient
because itll have bottlenecks, and
improvements can be made. There
are all sorts of important things to
12/10/2015 09:41
 22 | INSIGHT SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

be considered here from inventory to

capacity to variability and time.

Movement: Unfortunately, value chains

arent static. They evolve. Fortunately,
the process of evolution is well defined
across activities, practices, data and
knowledge, and there are many common
economic patterns, weak signals and
gameplay that can be used to anticipate
and manage this. There is, however, little
point in understanding the value chain
and managing the flow efficiently if you
are treating most of the components
as custom built when the market treats
them as commodity. You have to accept
that everything in your value chain
will evolve, and therefore you might be
efficiently managing the flow in your
value chain, but at the same time being
ineffective because youre treating
components in the wrong way.
Managing position, movement and
flow are essential operational activities, Figure 5
but unfortunately many people fail to
understand them. Up until now, weve Managing position, duplication to using the right methods)
looked at position and movement in but also that your value chains are
the guise of a map. To improve, we now movement and flow are efficiently running.
need to examine flow in those maps. essential operational
In Figure 5 (above), Ive taken the Day 81 to 100: Keep it steady
TV company map and marked on activities, but By now you should be motoring in terms
two different financial flows (one in unfortunately many people of understanding transactions, what users
dark blue, the other in green). One is need, improving flow and doctrine. As a
for the content provided by internet fail to understand them consequence, youll find that mapping
broadcasting and the other for content helps communication through a common
provided by DVDs.
Now for both of these flows, you can
create a separate financial model and
then examine the flows to determine
whether one path is more profitable than
another, or whether there are bottlenecks
in one or another or both. The same
process can be used for fault tree
analysis to determine risks and for the
flow of information and materials.
An alternative way of viewing the
flow above is the use of a message
sequence diagram. In Figure 6 (right),
Ive provided such a diagram for the
blue flow, with some examples of what
you might wish to consider in terms of
financial metrics.
There are other ways of viewing these
flows, such as value stream mapping.
Whats important to remember is that
you have three elements to your map
position, movement and flow. You should
not only be making sure youre effectively
Figure 6
treating things (from removing bias and

CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

018_023 Feature Simon Wardley.indd 22 12/10/2015 09:42


language (lexicon) and format (map)
across all groups. Youve been removing
bias and duplication. You should have
started to balance out the capabilities
the organisation needs and even resolved
some horror contracts (theres always a
couple). Provide some time to let these
changes settle in, as they are dramatic.
Keep using those maps, providing
challenges through spend control and
allow the cycle to improve.
By around Day 100, you should also
be able to clearly describe your purpose.
Youre now ready to start examining
018_023 Feature Simon Wardley.indd 23
structure, mechanisms of learning and
the principles of strategic play. Youre well
on your way to playing the competitive
game with some finesse.
There are at least 61 different forms
of gameplay and youll use a number of
these when attacking a market. The maps
will also help you identify where to attack
along with where to gamble. However,
for most of you today thats still a long
way off, and you will need these 100 days
before youre ready to play.
I understand how people are tempted
to dive into strategy, learning and
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS INSIGHT | 23
Photo credit: iStock
structure, but there is no point until
you understand your context and have
removed the flab. Everyone is looking for
the get fit fast pill for corporations, but
it doesnt exist. These are just memes and
its potluck or more aptly potbelly luck if
they work. Youve got to put some effort
in before you can be ready to play the
games with confidence.
About the author:
Simon Wardley is a Researcher for the
Leading Edge Forum and his focus is on the
intersection of strategy and new technologies.
13/10/2015 09:57
 24 | INSIGHT LEADERSHIP

Photo credit: iStock

CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

024_026 Feature Communication.indd 24 13/10/2015 10:20


Lets talk
this through
How business technology leaders can master the arts of
communicating with purely technical and purely business types
By Pat Brans
T
he CIO role is a job best
performed by somebody who
can communicate as easily
with purely technical types as
with purely business types. Since CIOs
tend to be more relationship building
than technical people, and more data
driven than business people, mastering
both communication styles is a feat
more easily said than done.
One might call most CIOs ambiverts,
which means they sit right about
at the middle of the scale between
extroverts and introverts. While it might
be challenging to sit in the middle,
and communicate with the two vastly
different populations, the IT director
benefits from being able to draw from
the strong points of each group.
To communicate with the purely
technical types its important to
remember how they may differ from the
louder business types, and how likely it is
for the technical person to feel squeezed
out in a business-oriented environment.
Valuing introverts
According to Susan Cain, author of
Quiet: The power of introverts in a World
024_026 Feature Communication.indd 25
That Cant Stop Talking, while nobody is
purely introverted or extroverted, about
one third to one half of the population
are mostly introverted. Its fair to say
that most of the purely technical types
fit into this category.
CIOs should bring out the creativity
of technical types by allowing them time
to work alone. Cain says that even if
its a good idea to organise people into
teams, that doesnt mean the work has their teams, they tend to let the proactive
to be done collectively. Most people
think better when theyre on their own
and not subject to constant interruption
and scrutiny.
Cain says that as a result of the
industrial revolution and now the
computer revolution which have
taken away from farms and small towns
and toward large urban areas, western
countries have shifted from valuing
things such as character and modesty
to valuing things such as charisma and
salesmanship. This change came about
as we moved from working with people
weve known for a very long time, to
working with people we never really get
to know. This cultural shift has caused
us to overlook the value of introversion.
LEADERSHIP INSIGHT | 25
Cain says weve lost something in
the transition, because despite a cultural
bias that tells us creativity comes from
group work, solitude is often a crucial
ingredient of creativity.
People who favour solitude may also
be better leaders. According to Cain,
introverted leaders are more effective
than extraverted ones, because when
they encounter somebody proactive on
person work on their own. Extraverts
get excited, and in the process, they
sometimes impede the proactive person.
According to Cain, we need to stop the
madness for constant group work. She
says that even though people tend to align
themselves to the ideas of the best talkers,
theres zero correlation between being
the best talker and having the best ideas.
Having said that, CIOs need to also be
comfortable with the more sweat-talking
business types who favour teamwork and
relationship building. This means boning
up on both speaking and listening skills.
Listening so people will speak
According to UK-based communication
expert Julian Treasure, Many people
13/10/2015 10:20
 26 | INSIGHT LEADERSHIP

have the impression that when they speak,

people dont seem to listen to them.
Thats often because they are guilty of
one or more of what he calls the seven
deadly sins of communication:

Gossiping: The first thing you think

about when somebody gossips is how
long its going to take them to start
gossiping about you.

Judging: Its very hard to listen to

somebody you feel is judging you.

Negativity: When somebody is always

negative, we tend to stop listening.

Complaining: Nobody likes to listen to

somebody whos always complaining.

Lying or exaggeration: When you

doubt you can take somebody on their
word, you tend to filter out what they say.

Dogmatism: We tend not to listen to

people who confuse facts with opinions.

To improve communication with

the more business oriented people,
CIOs should keep a close idea on
their speaking style and make sure they
are avoiding the seven deadly sins.
Treasure advises people to move away
from these seven sins and move toward
communicating more honestly. Be clear
and straight with people and above all,
be yourself. Do what you say, so people
can trust you and try to wish people
well, because they will sense what your
true intentions are.
While being understood when you talk
is important, listening may be an even
more important communication skill
especially when your job is to deliver
services. Only good listeners understand
their users requirements.
Treasure says: We spend roughly
60% of our communication time versus passive, reductive versus expansive, oriented business types, is an important
listening. But were not very good at it. and critical versus empathetic. Treasure part of the CIO role.
We retain just 25% of what we hear. uses the acronym RASA to remind According to Telefnicas Group
Furthermore, he fears our listening listeners to receive (pay attention), CIO Phil Jordan (pictured), diversity
skills are getting even worse. The appreciate (with intermittent uh-huhs), of all kinds has a positive effect on
world is a noisier place, so we want summarise (rephrase what you hear), and organisations. You need different
everything spoken to us in sound bites. ask (ask questions afterwards). styles, different skills, different levels of
To become a better listener, Treasure emotional intelligence, different degrees
recommends moving changing what Embracing communication styles of multicultural awareness, and so on.
he calls your listening position as Giving technical types the space to work There are, of course, other ingredients;
appropriate during a conversion. Some of alone, while at the same time, developing and for me, the most important is the
the opposing listening positions are active a comfort level with the more group- ability to laugh and have some fun.

CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

024_026 Feature Communication.indd 26 13/10/2015 10:20

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027 GARTNER AD.indd 27 12/10/2015 14:35

 28 | SPONSORED FEATURE EASYNET
Beyond
the network
An integrated approach to IT and communications
T
odays businesses operate in a
much more complex IT and
communications environment
than ever before. The growth
in adoption of cloud-based services,
mobile, and multi-platform unified
communications (UC) has meant that
interoperability and service continuity
is critical. What is now required is a
more interconnected approach that
takes network and security into account,
alongside the multiplicity of apps,
platforms and devices now being used.
When evaluating your IT and
communications partner, selection should
be made around the capability and
expertise that addresses these challenges.
Three trends are emerging in global
networking that are useful in considering
when evaluating your vendor.
These are:
The growth and adoption of UC
The multiplicity of cloud-based services
The need for greater security across
the entire IT infrastructure.
By taking these into account when
talking to managed services firms, you
will be able to develop an approach that
moves beyond focusing on a single service
to a more holistic one that encompasses
IT and UC connectivity and paves the
way for future growth.
UC growth and adoption
Unified Communications is moving
towards maturity as more employees
expect their company to support
their preferred device and mode of
communication: whether its email,
text, voice, video or IM. Evidence
CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk
028_029 Advertorial Easynet.indd 28
In association with
CIOs need to make
sure they are providing
secure access in more
complex and challenging
environments, and that
their security policy
and processes cover
coffee shops, as well as
servers in the cloud
MICHAEL DAVIES, HEAD OF PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT AT EASYNET
of this is the significant growth in
cloud-based UC platforms and services
that are helping people to work more
flexibly, lower their travel and office
costs, and so forth. According to
Microsoft, 67 percent of workers
already use their personal devices in
the workplace; and Gartner predicts
businesses themselves continuing to
drive mobility going forward with
50 percent of companies requiring
employees to provide their own devices
for their jobs by 2017.
Meanwhile, businesses are ready to
move from traditional PBX-centric telco
systems that are nearing their end of
life to integrated IT infrastructure that
supports, primarily enterprise voice,
but also multi-layered communications.
According to managed services provider
Easynet, which provides integration
services to global businesses, many
organisations are excited at the prospect
of uniting their siloed communications
assets without having to make massive
infrastructure investments.
However, more complex UC
solutions require a different deployment
approach. In the past, organisations
have taken a single-vendor stance along
with an on-premise or hosted solution.
But this model is being replaced by one
that takes into account multiple cloud
services, and better integration and
interoperability between the network
and the UC applications.
Organisations that have an integration
approach gain the ability to operate their
IT and UC in a more complex global
networking environment. By selecting
a managed services firm with the right
expertise and experience, they can gain
13/10/2015 14:35

from having a single partner overseeing
the networking environment.
Taking Easynet as an example, the
services firm provides networking and
systems integration at the back end to
create a holistic, all-in-one solution. Its
robust application-aware networking
infrastructure enables enterprise-class
service levels and guarantees application
performance for communications
channels, such as enterprise voice
and video conferencing.
Another advantage of selecting an
independent integration partner is that
you can benefit from an IT agnostic
approach that takes into account
different vendors technologies and road
maps. Michael Davies, Head of Product
Management at Easynet, says: This
approach offers freedom of choice. Not
being aligned to an individual carrier,
provider or supplier means you can
integrate technologies regardless of
chosen vendor or device, to streamline
the way a business communicates and
collaborates. Each and every solution
can be designed based on the optimum
service combination needed to meet the
demands of that individual business.
The growth in cloud services
Another trend that can help you to
evaluate your service provider is the
increase in the number of clouds you
need to integrate. Although businesses
may run their own private datacentre
and network, today, they are also likely to
use multiple public, private and hybrid
clouds that link into their network.
More businesses are also moving
to cloud apps such as Office 365
and Google apps for work, as well as
Infrastructure as a Service platforms
such as Amazon Web Services and
Microsoft Azure, which require
greater integration, performance and
network support.
They may also be using the network
to deploy hybrid MPLS and internet
services to complement their existing
network technologies, or application
performance technology, which is critical
in maintaining employee productivity.
All this makes for a hybrid
networking environment that calls for a
different network management approach
one that uses a single management
system with a holistic overview of all
the diverse IT and comms elements.
028_029 Advertorial Easynet.indd 29
Again, the advantage of an integration
approach is that an integrator can choose
best-of-breed cloud, UC and mobile
products, and make them interoperate,
whilst supporting and managing them
on a global level. These are the questions
and criteria to apply when selecting your
managed services provider.
Getting your security right
Thirdly, as businesses rely more heavily
on cloud-based IT services, they need
to ensure their security policies and
procedures are robust enough to mitigate
and thwart external and internal attacks.
Organisations should think in terms of
moving from a traditional, static security
model to a proactive and flexible one,
enabling them to react quickly to ever
changing threats. This is where having
the right services partner can enable you
to manage your overall environment,
including your cloud services and mobile
BYOD and CYOD estates.
Todays organisations are much more
distributed than before, explains Davies.
Its no longer just about people sitting
in offices. CIOs need to make sure they
are providing secure access in more
complex and challenging environments,
and that their security policy and
processes cover coffee shops, as well as
servers in the cloud, he says.
Integrators can also help combat the
security issues posed by Shadow IT
where different parts of the organisation
EASYNET SPONSORED FEATURE | 29
Photo credit: iStock
select their own cloud services
independently of the IT department.
A forward-thinking integrator-partner
can help to implement tailored, best-
of-breed IT and communications
solutions that can evolve over time.
Choosing the right supplier is critical
when it comes to security; because they
can help you integrate well and ensure
the global networking infrastructure
remains secure. Global integrators
deal with issues such as IT complexity,
security and integration daily, and can
make certain that your broad spectrum
of services, platforms and endpoints are
interoperable, secure, and future-proofed
against ever-changing security threats.
Conclusion
By adopting an integration approach
and focus, rather than a single service
one, your business can have enterprise-
class UC and cloud services that are
interoperable, future-proof and secure.
An integration service provider can
design and deliver innovative and optimal
solutions based on your needs, using the
best hardware, software and services for
your individual requirements.
Finally, by taking a holistic overview
of the IT and UC infrastructure, they can
optimise the network, provide application
performance guarantees and maintain
business continuity, ensuring you stay
secure and competitive and deliver on
your business and technical objectives.
www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015
13/10/2015 14:35
 30 | NICK BURTON BELRON
PROFILE
Screen test
Autoglass parent Belron has moved its UK business to a
completely mobile operation, reveals CIO Nick Burton
By Mark Chillingworth
T
he slightest scratch or bump
to a car can accelerate into a
major headache quicker than
most cars can travel in todays
overcongested roads. One of the
reasons for the rise of digital and sharing
economy organisations is that they often
take the stress out of situations, whether
it is house cleaning, code creation or
parking that now dented car. So CIOs
and organisations need to be actively
engaging in creating services that mimic
the services offered by apps such as
Just Park if they see the appetite in
their economy. One such company that
has achieved this is, as you may have
guessed, in the automotive sector. Belron
is a UKbased global organisation that
provides windscreen repairs, best known
in the UK for the Autoglass brand. Its
Head of Group IT is Nick Burton.
We have to make sure our processes
are painless as it is a distress purchase,
and for some people it is urgent, Burton
says of perhaps an Uber driver, who finds
a cracked screen on a frosty autumn
morning. So we have to understand
how people feel about the problem, and
we often handle the entire claim for the
customer with the insurance company.
As well see, in the UK, and increasingly
worldwide, mobile technology has
empowered customers and the employees
of Belron, to move from a traditional
bricksandmortar business to a mobile
first and deployed business.
Belron is the worlds largest specialist
vehicle glass repair organisation with
operations in 34 countries. We just
focus on vehicle glass as it has become
very specialist, Burton explains from
CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk
030_033 Profile Nick Burton.indd 30
the organisations Surrey headquarters
in Egham. We have a Belron way of
fitting that is a standard practice and
it means we can invest in the tools.
The atrium of the firms headquarters
displays the specialist tools and vans
the organisations own research and
development team has pioneered to
become the leaders in their market.
The R&D team focus on the best
way of repairing screens and it means
that we have really focused on the
customer experience, Burton says
of the customers desire to see where
they are going, and get going again as
quickly as possible.
He adds that the R&D team is
essential too, as car screens are getting
larger, increasingly complex and carry
more electronic parts.
Mobile screen
In the UK, Belron is a 100% mobile
business thats totally dependent on
its fleet of road warriors in their red,
white and yellow liveried vans. Closing
branches can sound like a simple
rationalisation to improve the bottom
line, but the organisation has rethought
its entire business model, focusing
on the customer, and importantly on
the face of Belron that the customer have to have a strong relationship with
interacts with the technician that their leadership peers. Burton says one
arrives to fix your windscreen. of the key milestones for his relationship
Moving to a mobile business has was organising a Silicon Valley trip for the
enabled the company to move to offering global and US executive teams.
flexible working to all technical staff, We went to Google, Facebook,
managed by intelligent technology and Twitter and Yahoo among others. It was
the utilisation of cloud tools to ensure a real eyeopener for people to see the
the strategy is effective. For a CIO to play focus and approach of these companies
a key part in such a brave journey they on issues such as mobile first. Desktop
09/10/2015 12:18

access to our service was at a plateau
and the Silicon Valley trip really helped
gain traction with the digital focus and
brought it to life. This helped cement the
fact that we cant not focus on this, and
digital is a top four strategic focus.
Burton doesnt shy away from the
potential disruption digital trends could
have on his sector. There are potential
angles, we operate in a flat market where
030_033 Profile Nick Burton.indd 31
miles being driven is being impacted
by urbanisation and youth. There is
still a lot of potential to grow, but there
is potential disruption from shared
ownership, as it is not the number of cars
that are owned, but the number of miles
driven, so Uber is a disrupter, he says of
decreasing car usage across the west.
The other key disruptors and this
is why digital is so important, is that
BELRON NICK BURTON | 31
we have traditionally been a physical
business, while our customers now live in
a digital space. So it is important to make
the digital option easy for customers.
His reporting line is perhaps telling
of Belron, and why it is an organisation
that understands the importance of
technology and the CIO when it comes to
the customer experience. Burton reports
to the Belron Group Customer Director,
www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015
09/10/2015 12:18
 32 | NICK BURTON BELRON
showing the importance of technology to
the customer journey.
It was the Head of Finance that said:
IT had to be part of the customer role
as IT is not a support function. I was
already working with these teams, so it was
a natural fit, he reveals. It was before all
the talk of the CDO, but I suppose it was
that type of role. The CDO role is about
how you drive change in the business
model or the way you do business, so the
remit I have is about mindset. My CIO
role is to make sure that the technology is
running really well and the two must work
very closely together, he adds.
As a key part of the customer focusing
team, Burton and his team have targeted
customer journey mapping. We need
to try and be a customer, so we created
personas, first in Canada. We called
our call centres, booked jobs, changed
appointments then booked online, but
changed things online. It was enlightening
to experience that as a flow.
Burton moved into the Group Head
of IT role in April 2012, having been
head of eBusiness at Belron where he
was responsible for the delivery of the
CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk
030_033 Profile Nick Burton.indd 32
organisations apps. When I was running
eBusiness, it was perhaps like shadow IT.
The great thing about an eBusiness role
is that you can be creative and try things.
We do a lot of multi-variant testing. So
we are talking a lot about pace layering
with agility, and making sure that our
core business is well run and protected.
Shift to mobile
Although Belron has achieved a 100%
mobile business in the UK, that has not
been the case across the globe. If you
look across the Belron countries they
are all very different. With the UK, we
were seeing that 85% of our business
was booked via mobile, so we moved to
100% mobile. We will now look at what
has worked and how you approach that in
other countries.
The mobile shift is only possible with
the right technology to support it, though.
Scheduling used to be based on capacity,
which is not practical with mobile. So the
algorithms in our tools works out the best
way to complete the job, and software
reoptimises all the time to ensure we
meet our promise to the customer.
Burton explains that the combination
of ClickSoftware and Chronos scheduling
tools looks at skill levels and the staff
available on the day. He adds a further
upside of being so mobile is that Belron
has improved its stock management,
as the tools work out the best way for
the screen to be collected and delivered
using containers around the country. If
a technician doesnt collect a screen, we
can move it to a collection point nearer to
a new technician for the job, he reveals .
Workforce management tools make
sure that our people are working at the
times that our customers need us. We
used to have rosters of early and late
shifts. Now we look at the demands,
including advertising and the weather,
and when the customers are telling us
they want the work to be done.
We give the teams a three- to four-
week certainty, and we can put in rules
around childcare needs, he says of the
benefits to the technicians on the road.
It was not a straightforward thing to get
working and the shift to mobile is a huge
change, but it was a natural progression,
he says of the strategy shift.
09/10/2015 12:18

Road teams access the applications
on Samsung Galaxy Note devices.
Belrons research showed it to offer the
best balance of usability, while the open
platform of the Google Android operating
system made sense to Burton.
They are a consumer device and it
empowers people to feel it is theres and
they look after it. At our headquarters,
we have bring your own device (BYOD)
as I want people to be empowered by
technology, whereas we used to be a
BlackBerry house. Now people have
freedom, he enthuses.
But the technicians are not just
given a shiny Samsung device and sent
off. Belron has invested in using social
networks and physical meetups, so that
the teams can ask for help.
Burtons approach to freedom of
choice extends beyond mobile devices.
We tried a standard ERP and contact
centre system, but it didnt work, not
for a lack of trying. We are a federated
business. Each country has its own P&L,
executive and plan. So three years ago,
we gave autonomy to the countries.
Giving that accountability, we have
030_033 Profile Nick Burton.indd 33
ended up with more standardisation,
he says. Now Belron has four major
markets on Oracle, and two smaller
ones on Microsoft Dynamics AX.
With cloud technology growing
rapidly, the CIO expects further
standardisation from a cloud platform.
Hes moving to cloud infrastructure
where possible, Belgiums Dynamics AX
is on Azure and we are starting to have
discussions elsewhere. AWS has also
been introduced by Burtons UK team.
Hes using Tibco Tibbr in the cloud for
enterprise social media.
Im trying to make it easy for our
countries, so it is simple for them to
pick up the agreements. Each country
is different, so we dont impose a new
model when it comes to replacement as
we dont want to right off investment, and
the IT teams need to develop new skills.
Burton has been with Belron for
16 years and worked through what he
describes as a number of traditional
IT roles. Away from Belron, as the
father of two boys, he says they keep
me pretty busy and rightly, hes a
selfconfessed technology geek.
BELRON NICK BURTON | 33
CV: Nick Burton
April 2012 Present
Head of Group IT, Belron
February 2010 April 2012
Group Head of eBusiness, Belron
January 2008 January 2010
IT Strategy and Programme Manager,
Belron
January 2006 January 2008
IT Operations Manager, Belron
May 2004 December 2005
Global Software Architect, Belron
January 2001 April 2004
Chief Technology Officer, Glasplus
March 2000 November 2000
Client Services Manager, US Interactive
August 1997 March 2000
Systems Manager, Procter and Gamble
www.cio.co.uk CIO UK OCTOBER 2015
09/10/2015 12:18
 34 | THE BACK END

2015 CIO Summit

A look at Septembers customer-centric focused CIO Summit

National Trust CIO Sarah

Flannigan on modernising
an historic organisation

Mike Altendorf (right) leads

the Business panel debate

Honest and to the point, Home

Office CIO Sarah Wilkinson

In from the
Catherine Stagg-Macey leads leadership debate cold, DX CIO
Mike Sturrock

Rachel
Murphy-
Cooper on
an Agile
Midwifery
Council

Opening presentation,
Kelly Olsen, CIO
Cushman & Wakefield

Sweet taste of marketing by Tony Phillips

CIO UK OCTOBER 2015 www.cio.co.uk

034_Back End.indd 34 13/10/2015 15:38

 8 12 November 2015
Barcelona, Spain
gartner.com/eu/symposium

The Worlds Most

Important Gathering
of CIOs and Senior
IT Executives

Rise to the challenge Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015

at a Glance:
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discover the precise speed, agility and leadership skills Exclusive CIO Program
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is here to help you Rise to the Challenge. 2,000 organizations
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Register now using code MPSYM3 for a analysts on-site
500 discount on standard delegate rate 140 solution providers
2015 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates.
ITxpo is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. For more information, email info@gartner.com or visit gartner.com.

CIO_SINGLE_AD_TEMPLATE.indd 1 15/07/2015 16:09

021 HP AD.indd 21 14/09/2015 12:05