Insights and Help for IT Leaders
When Trip Advisor shows you hotels on a street map, or when you order food from Uber Eats or when an airline displays car rental offers at your destination, it is almost certain that APIs (application programming interfaces) are at work behind the scenes. Continue reading “Making the most from APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)”
When I was CIO at Cuscal, Agile methodologies were introduced as a response to a development crisis. One of the major and time critical programs was in trouble of missing its deadlines. Our recently hired Development Executive suggested that we should introduce Agile methods to break the logjam. So we hired an Agile Coach, created a scrum master role, reorganised the teams and began our Agile journey. Continue reading “Automation Powers the Benefits of Agile”
Most companies want to improve customer experience, lower costs and increase revenues. But only a few are actually successful at achieving these goals. It is not that they are not forward-looking. They have many improvements initiatives in different areas of the business. But the cumulative effect of these initiatives is still not sufficient to move the dial on overall performance.
Continue reading “Reimagine customer experience to unlock value”
The volume of digital payments worldwide is soaring and will reach $5 trillion by 2020. This growth is fuelled by new payment systems that are designed to work seamlessly with mobiles, in-app methods or via browsers. There has been huge innovation in this area by the banks, software giants like Apple, and fintechs. This growth creates new opportunities and risks for the retail banks. Continue reading “Digital Payments – Opportunity or Threat”
Most of the IT projects impact the way work is being done in the organisation. In order to get value or benefits from these changes, it is necessary that these system or process improvements are actually utilised and become part of the new way of doing work. This requires change management.
Transformation projects such as core systems replacement or even major outsourcing have a significant impact on the way business operates in an organisation. Here, change management becomes integral to the project success. While most IT and other senior executives understand the need for effective change management, in reality many projects fail to deliver the full potential due to the mistakes in change management. Continue reading “Why Change Programs fail?”
Many CIOs are scared of organisational politics and think it is a dirty business. Often CIOs come from a technology background and technical expertise is their forte. Politics, and wheeling and dealing are not their comfort zone. They focus their energy on finding the best technology solutions for the business’s problems. The CIO’s daily battles are about up-time service delivery, and project delivery. 
They shy away from business level politics wherever they can. Many CIOs see politics as a ‘necessary evil’ or some sort of ‘game’ to play. Those who tend to look at politics in this way tend not to be very good at dealing with company politics. Continue reading “Can CIOs avoid politics?”
There are leaders who believe they are the smartest and most capable in the organisation. They don’t need any input from others. They know it all. As a result, they often find faults in good suggestions from others and stifle the flow of ideas. We know these people because often we have worked for or around such people. Continue reading “How leaders bring out the best in their teams”
There is a myth that if an organisation begins takes steps to use digital technologies, the problem of IT complexity will resolve itself. In the digital age, organisations expect to connect with customers and partners in new ways; give greater access to information and services via new channels; and quickly launch new products and services.