After interviewing a CIO about his recent work Ithought that his challenges and solutions would be of interest to readers ofour blog.  Dave is an exceptional CIO with at knack for getting thejob done by taking a strategic approach that focuses on how IT can help thebusiness deliver superior service to its' customers.  

TRANSFORMING IT in the REALWORLD 
By: Dave Brattain

Continuity of customer service is important in any industry, but for afinancial services company such as Elavon, continuity is fundamental forbusiness growth. 

Our customers will not tolerate having to wait for a financial transaction tobe processed: they want fast, faultless service.  Such high expectationsplace considerable pressure on our IT systems. To ensure a seamless customerexperience, our IT infrastructure has to be reliable, scalable and alwaysavailable. 

To deliver on all these fronts, we needed to develop a robust and integratedapproach to IT Management that could also facilitate business change,regulatory compliance and cost control.  As the third largest merchantacquirer in North America, Elavon serves restaurants, retailers, hotels,mail-order businesses and government agencies in 30 countries.  Every day,we process millions of transactions on behalf of our merchant customers-fromcheck and credit card payments to prepaid gift cards.  We also providepayment terminals, PIN pads, printers and proprietary software to be used atindividual merchant locations.   

Any interruption in customer service impacts not only our business, but alsothat of our 1 million merchant locations around the world.  Like mostorganizations involved in transaction processing, IT is at the heart of ourday-to-day operations and is critical to our ongoing success.  Our ITservices and systems are tightly coupled with our business goals and theexpectations of our customers.   

Although service-level expectations vary from merchant to merchant, they allshare one requirement: no unplanned downtime.  If we suffer aninterruption in service and can't process a transaction, it will have a directnegative effect on a merchant and its customers.  Given the role of our ITsystems in such a critical revenue generating and customer-facing process,resilience, compliance and availability are essential.  We must be able torespond immediately to prevent an IT issue from becoming a criticalproblem.  To provide this proactive response, our Systems & Technology(S&T) organization needs 24/7 visibility into the company's infrastructure,as well as solid processes for change, release, problem and asset management. 

We need as much integration as possible in order to achieve a solid ROI. CA Service Desk is the focal point for a large portion of this integration andhas become the linchpin for our S&T organization.  Instead of relyingon one of our 300 staff members to report a fault, many issues are now loggedautomatically to our help desk.  As a dynamic and virtual systemsmanagement solution, CA NSM monitors our core infrastructure around theclock.  Many of the servers are operating as multiple virtual machines,but they can be monitored as if they were physical devices.  We can managethe performance of the physical servers and monitor the resource utilization ofeach of the virtual machines, so we can make changes in a fairly effortlessway, ensuring that the virtual environment is aligned to our business needs.  

By adopting a virtualized approach, we've been able to consolidate hundreds ofphysical servers into a handful of devices.  But consolidation is just thefirst phase of virtualization.  We intend to proactively use our virtualmachines to respond to peaks in demand by enabling automatedprovisioning.  As our virtualization strategy matures, we hope to use CAData Center Automation Manager to automate the provisioning of new virtualmachines based on predetermined criteria.  Tracking an IT problem back toone of these virtual devices-or any other IT component-has beensimplified.  NSM enables event correlation, a key requirement inestablishing the root cause of an IT problem. 

Prior to deploying this solution, we had to send legions of people into thefield to determine if an issue was network-, server-, desktop- orapplication-related.  Now, we can quickly establish the cause of a problemand often fix it before it affects a user.  Faults with IT devices are notthe only problems being logged automatically.  The integration of ServiceDesk with CA autosys means that if a scheduled job fails to run, a ticket willbe raised with our help desk.  We use autosys to automate hundreds of ITjobs every day, and we know immediately if a job fails: the system sends ageneral automated alert and notifies the appropriate team. 

CA Software Change Manager plays a role in the release of new source code forour production systems and for the solutions we provide to our clients. We must be able to effectively process changes to these applications to keep upwith customer demand, regulatory requirements and new technologies. Beyond ensuring that source code changes are implemented correctly, we need toprovide an audit trail for all changes to our production systems, whether it involveshardware or software.  This audit trail is critical for demonstrating aseparation of duties, which is a requirement of the PCI standards.  Withour new solutions, we can demonstrate that separate individuals are carryingout key tasks in the change management process. 

All of this has allowed us to meet another industry standard: the eliminationof cron jobs-a specific requirement of Visa and PCI compliance.  By usingautosys, we have been able to replace those jobs with automated scripts. Our compliance efforts have been further enhanced by our new ITIL-basedapproach to incident management.  Every year, we have to provide ourauditors with a document that outlines our tactical support model and proves weare following our own processes.  By implementing ITIL and EITM solutions,we've been able to provide this information in significantly less time.   

Our S&T organization has also been able to reduce the time involved inmanaging the company's 5,000-plus IT assets.  Using the CA Asset Intelligenceand CA Client Management Solution, we can now track assets throughout theirlife cycle. 

Our improved resolution times are now being tracked as part of ourservice-level management initiative, which is supported by the built-inmeasurement and reporting capabilities of the new solutions. This allowsS&T to demonstrate its ability to continuously improve business servicelevels and communicate achievements in terms easily understood by thebusiness.  This closer alignment of IT to the business will be extended byour plans to adopt a shared services model, which will be facilitated by CAClarity PPM. This will enable the S&T organization to make better use ofits' IT resources around the globe.  Our aim for global visibility appliesto every part of our IT operation.  We already have 24/7 visibilitybetween our operations in the United States and Western Europe, and we will beadopting this model across the globe.   

Measuring ROI: 
Since embarking on our IT transformation in 2006, we've been able to makeconsiderable efficiency gains. The automation and integration enabled by theEITM solutions allows us to operate more effectively and provide a quickresponse to IT problems.  This has a direct impact on the productivity ofour staff, as they now benefit from: 

- Increased uptime: Applications and systems are more available, and users nolonger have to spend time 
reporting faults to the help desk. 

- Self-service support: By providing employees with access to Service Desk viaa Web interface, users can 
resolve minor IT issues without having to go through the full incidentmanagement life cycle.   

In addition, virtualization will help us free up rack and floor space in ourdata centers; reduce energy consumption, especially in terms of cooling requirements;and take advantage of unused processing power.   

Our virtualization strategy is also key to supporting future growth.  Asthe capacity demands of our merchants grow, we have to be able to respondquickly with additional processing resources.  With a virtualinfrastructure, we can deploy a "new" server much more quickly. 

Acquisitions are another key component of our growth strategy.  Since wecan use the Asset Management tools to get immediate visibility of the newdevices we have inherited, the integration of new companies into ourinfrastructure has been simplified. 

These solutions also help us capture the configuration and software portfolioof each device, which ensures that the right licensing agreements are in placepost-acquisition.  The new solutions also have helped us improve costcontrol, simplify regulatory compliance and audits, safeguard the speed andsecurity of 1 billion customer payments, and ensure consistent service levels. 

Our ability to maintain the availability of our systems and to processtransactions seamlessly gives us a competitive advantage and will help us growour business and customer base.

If you have any questions or comments aboutDave's article we'd love to hear them, and if you have written any articles,blogs or whitepapers that you think would interest and educate other IT execsand managers like yourself please forward them token@berkshirerecruiting.com ... you could become famous.

A December 2009 study by Execunet showed huge pent-up demand for job change among corporate executives.  If the best paid employees feel this way then the risk of turnover among your rank-and-file IT employees is likely even greater as we enter the next "up" phase of the business cycle.  Think about doing a risk-assessment on each of your key people with the goal of "no-surprises" and having a back-up plan. 

Phil Stevens of Scintel has some thoughts on how to keep turnover rates low as the recession subsides. Phil is CIO for Scintel Technologies and has experience in the retail, financial, software, and defense industries.  Prior to Scintel he was CIO for a financial services firm and ran technology operations for a Fortune 100 retailer.  As a former member of the National Retail Federation CIO Council and speaker at an international retail technology conference, Phil is a recognized leader in creating systems of people, process, and technology to enable business.
 

Building Teams with Happy and Productive Employees 
By: Phil Stevens, EVP and CIO, Scintel Technologies
 

The cultural wisdom that happy people will work harder and produce better results is subtly embedded everywhere.

On the other hand, in a typical business with multiple "number one" priorities and a pressing need to do more with less, leaders may question their return on investment in employee happiness.  How important is "employee happiness" and what can a leader do to influence it? 

I would like to share my insights and recommendations for a more productive IT organization based on a successful transformation that I led at a Fortune 100 company.

The Myth of the Happy Worker
Happy workers work harder and produce more. Right?

Could this conventional wisdom possibly be wrong?  Well, yes, it could be.

Every MBA student has learned that a substantial body of research, dating before Brayfield and Crockett's 1955 study "Employee Attitudes and Employee Performance," indicates that there is no appreciable link between employee satisfaction and individual performance. Follow-up research has supported Brayfield and Crockett's study.
 
What has been your experience?  Have the following employees been on your team:

• A dissatisfied employee who produces equal, if not better, results than satisfied employees;
• A Programmer who can write code twice as fast as other team members but shows disdain for team meetings and occasionally can be overheard speaking poorly of the company;
• The IT Director who seems out of touch with the company mission yet "runs a solid operation".

Individuals can be unhappy or dissatisfied yet produce good results, a surprising development because it counters what we, as leaders, have been taught.  A more important question remains: If employee satisfaction is not linked to individual performance, should leaders spend time on making sure team members are satisfied?

Organizational Citizens
Yes, leaders should care about employee satisfaction. In his book "The Subtle Significance of Job Satisfaction", Dennis Organ addresses an important distinction between individual in-role performance and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). OCB refers to those little-recognized, voluntary actions that are necessary in any effective organization. For example, a co-worker helping a new hire learn about the company's unique processes or checking with other team members before committing to a course of action. Some people use the term "discretionary effort" or "engagement." Although employee satisfaction is not a predictor of in-role performance, it is a predictor of engagement, discretionary effort, and OCB.
 
Organ explains that OCB is more important to the functioning of some organizations than others. For example, OCB may not be a differentiator in an assembly line where employees' interactions follow well-defined standards; but, it is critical in project management where unpredictable elements require cooperation and teamwork.  OCB typically does not impact individual, in-role performance, but, in some types of organizations, it can have substantial impacts on organizational effectiveness. Individual satisfaction can impact the team without impacting the individual.

Yes, it sounds a little counterintuitive.  
 
Is OCB important to IT?  Yes, especially when it comes to IT as a differentiator. It is safe to draw a box around some IT functions, like being ambivalent about the development process Microsoft uses to create Word but using Microsoft Word every day. Likewise, it may be possible to outsource the development of some software modules or the operation of email infrastructure without requiring a high degree of OCB with the outsourcer.

On the other hand, the creation of a new business service, the integration of an ERP system with corporate processes, and the development of an ecommerce Web site - the very functions that exemplify how IT can enable the business - are all cases where OCB is critical. IT must be engaged to add value to the business.
 
As a second argument for the importance of OCB, Jim Collins said, "good is the enemy of great".

Consider the following: Good infrastructure in the organization, good development team, and a good project management organization; yet, somehow, as you assess the performance of your overall IT organization, you are underwhelmed.   How is this possible?
 
Individuals or small groups are working well, but the larger team is not working well together.  It may take a long time to recognize the problem and even longer to do something about it, because good is the enemy of great.  OCB and large-scale process integration are necessary for a great, high-performance IT organization.

Individual satisfaction is not a strong indicator of individual performance, but it is a key indicator of organizational performance, especially in the most impactful technology projects. What are some of
the challenges and solutions for improving employee satisfaction, OCB, and organizational effectiveness? 

Here's what I learned from my initiative to create a high-performance IT organization in a Fortune 100 company.
 

Creating a High-Performance Organization
In my experience, an IT organization works best when its leaders strategize effectively, coordinate processes, engage team members, and maintain momentum with communication.

Develop a Good Strategy
An effective strategy is crucial to success. Unfortunately, strategy often suffers from poor development, communication, and/or execution. Several years ago, while leading a client server computing team from ad hoc operations to consistently process-based operations, I discovered that the transition required an inordinate amount of time and energy. However, the time and energy paid off, as I was able to create strategic change that produced more reliable and scalable systems as the business we supported more than doubled in volume.

I learned that a strategy should be relatively simple and clear with a few key components. The strategy must be reinforced frequently over time, or the organization risks losing focus and prematurely shifting to a new strategic priority at the expense of the last one implemented. And, finally, the strategy needs to be embedded into the culture and operation processes of an organization.

Maximize Impact by Integrating Processes
Strategy may make each individual team within the organization good, but to make an organization great, those teams have to be coordinated with each other and with the business. An important step in moving from good to great is to integrate processes and systems from end to end by disregarding team boundaries. Insisting on the inter-departmental view of efficiency and effectiveness provides untapped potential in most organizations, as I found when I launched an initiative called "One Team".

"One Team" took an organization of 500 members that senior leadership thought was performing well and helped it perform even better by integrating the IT communication and processes within its departments as well as within the business as a whole. IT employee satisfaction went up, our customer satisfaction scores improved, and projects were more effective because of this effort. At the same time, our organization was more efficient because we didn't waste effort throwing things over the walls between departments or arguing about whose team was to blame.

Engage the Team Members by Giving Them a Meaningful Role
A clear strategy has been communicated and coordinated among teams, and all involved have a clear objective and focus. However, this is not a guarantee that each team member will feel personally engaged.  

Employee satisfaction, as discussed above, will significantly impact team performance. Employee satisfaction and what influences it can be difficult to quantify; a good approach towards cultivating it can be found, interestingly, by focusing on its desired outcome - engagement.

People will work hard with creativity and enthusiasm if they believe that they are playing a meaningful part in an important effort. If an organization has both the passion for strategic goals and the strategy to achieve them, it has the foundation for the important effort people are searching for. Integrating teams and departments into larger processes gives you the chance to demonstrate to every employee how he or she impacts the corporate objectives, and you give the team the reason and the motivation to engage. In a wonderful example of win-win, by taking care of the two previous factors of high-performance, you secure the third factor of individual engagement.

Maintain Momentum with Communication
Now that the organization strategizes effectively, operates its departments in a coordinated manner, and engages its team members enthusiastically, how do we, as leaders, maintain the momentum? The most important element is communication up, across, and within. As the IT leader, communicating up and across the organization ensures that the IT strategy is aligned with the business strategy and lets the rest of the organization know what to expect from IT. Communicating within the IT organization ensures the strategy is consistently understood and consistently prioritized.

A clear strategy that is consistently reinforced across departments and within an organization will provide a foundation for success. Communicating the strategy across teams and departments helps integrate teams into larger processes and ensures that team members are engaged. Maintaining communication will build and maintain a level of credibility and trust that will become embedded in the organization's culture. This same communication will help eliminate and reduce problems and pave the way for a long-term reputation of maximizing performance in your organization.

If you have any questions or comments about Phil's article post your feedback.  We'd love to hear your stories about employee satisfaction impacting organizational effectiveness.