"Providing transparency into your projects, financials, processes and key metrics shows that you are open to partnering and that you are willing to let others analyze, critique, and help improve your organization."

Paul Brady
VP- Information Technology
Arbella Insurance Group

Paul’s responsibilities span all technology functions, including infrastructure, application development, architecture, and project management. Paul has more than 15 years of leadership experience in technology, including roles in consulting, legal, and the insurance industries.

Steering transformational initiatives within business environment that typically required IT

The IT Organization is embedded in the overall company business. We have very strong partnerships that have been enhanced significantly over the last few years. As such, we’ve used these partnerships to participate with business strategy that is then used to develop and build IT strategy. The synchronization of the two is evident with our three year plan that is a company-wide business initiative with a deep technical dependency. Annually, this plan is refined and updated.

Some of the things you have done to elevate IT’s relationship with the business

Over the last few years the IT organization has focused on improving management of our financials, delivery on our project and operational commitments and providing quality products and services. We’ve made significant positive progress and those results have been recognized by our business partners. As a result we are being asked to partner more frequently and earlier with our business partners.

Manner in which data is used to head off problems and complications before they happen

My personal opinion is that data is the primary competitive differentiator in the financial services industry and likely in most industries. Through the use of data you are able to better identify risk, costs, target customers, future risks, and many other benefits.

Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment

I see these tools as another communication and market channel to reach consumers. In some cases, having a strong or leading-edge presence in these arenas will provide a competitive advantage but I believe in most cases that the need to participate is simply to remain competitive neutral. I also see the monitoring and leveraging of the data that social media provides to be something that can be used to monitor company image and also to quickly adapt to changing consumer trends or buying behaviors.

My roles and responsibilities as a CIO

I see the CIO as part of the business. They need to have a solid business understanding and also be capable of partnering with the business. The old where IT could sit in their ivory tower and dictate technology decisions are long gone. The consumers of technology are far more savvy and they will not accept being told what to do without any clear explanation. Therefore, technology professionals and CIO’s need to be adept at building relationships and communicating effectively. CIO’s also need to be experienced with managing the relationships with external partners.

Wish list for 2013, solutions you look forward to and expectations from technology providers to improve business environment/ processes

The solutions include:
- Simpler methods to modernize legacy systems or easier ways to build “wrappers” around the legacy technology to minimize the expense of massive upgrades.
- Mobile device management that is user friendly yet provides the necessary security and centralized controls.
- Simplified data architecture and data management technologies and tools.

Lessons learned as a CIO

I’d like to focus on leading IT organizations. I’ve found that the foundational success factor needs to be building a strong team and strong relationships. Also important is to build transparency into your projects, financials, processes and key metrics. Providing full visibility shows that you are open to partnering and that you are willing to let others analyze, critique, and help improve your organization.