Bruce Schinelli, CIO & VP of Information Technology, TTX

CHALLENGES IN TECHNOLOGY TO MEET ENTERPRISE NEEDS OF LOGISTICS COMPANIES

The technology challenge has been, and will continue to be, the ability to provide solutions to workers of all types that "just work." This is really what consumerization of technology means. The old delivery model of building big applications and delivering them with training is nearly over; and is replaced by fast, small units of functionality that your company workforce can leverage. My wishlist reflects this: enterprise solutions that can be used immediately to create value and which doesn't require massive investments for implementation, management or maintenance. Ultimately, those vendors that embrace those concepts will win in the enterprise, just as we’ve seen it happen in the consumer space.

THE AREAS IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT WHERE SOLUTIONS DO NOT YET EXIST OR NOT UP TO THE MARK, AND WHICH IF EXISTED, WOULD'VE MADE JOB EASIER

Two things would make most any CIO's job easier; true automation for IT business processes–think datacenter in a box and ERP for IT, but on steroids–and IT service monitoring. In both cases, a multitude of solutions exist, but in all cases the marketing runs way ahead of the true capabilities given the investment needed to make it actually work even close to what you'd like or what's advertised.

“The technology challenge has been, and will continue to be, the ability to provide solutions to workers of all types that "just work"”

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IMPACTING THE LOGISTICS SECTOR

I've mentioned consumerization already, but it's a trend that's worth repeating. The job of an employee with technology skills at a business is to figure out how to leverage technology to forward the goals of that business. 

Technology is just a means to an end, much like accounting, that is essential to conduct business in the 21st century. The second trend to watch carefully is the impact of deep analytics on all parts of your business.

MY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS A CIO

Honestly, I don’t think my role has changed significantly. I've been lucky in that my organization was looking for technology to enhance our competitive position, and wanted to transform IT from an order taker to a value contributor, and has invested in it. I will say that how organizations are using technology is changing fast, and these disruptive forces can virtually guarantee a role for an organizational CIO—if you seize them.

LESSONS LEARNED AS A CIO

The most important lesson is that leading a technology organization is not about the technology. It’s about people, process, planning, and execution based on the goals of your business, and expressing what you're doing in terms of the value you’re creating for your business. Secondly, you can’t get anywhere without credibility, organizational and personal–it's the currency any executive, and especially a CIO trades in; and it’s hard to earn but easy to spend.