Show them you mean business

“You need to be up to date with what’s going on, have a vision and a big mouth, because if you sit back, you risk outsourcing yourself,” says Alastair Behenna, about his role as chief information officer (CIO) of recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash.

His bold, no-nonsense approach to IT leadership is particularly necessary in a harsh economic climate, he believes.

“It is apparent to me that this is a time of opportunity for IT. Technology is a given; you can’t run a company without it and IT leaders with any nous should step forward and take more of a driving role rather than a back-office one, to partner with the business through tough times. Your company and your IT department are dependent on you,” says Behenna.

With increased standardisation and IT becoming a utility that is expected to work when switched on, Behenna says an IT leader must look at how technology can be used to best advantage.

“IT is just a cost like light, water and air conditioning. Currently, there is little money around for big software systems. You have to make sure that what you have works, but you can’t just sit back in maintenance mode. You have to make IT do what it does better, for example making better use of data. That way, you are onto a winner,” says Behenna.

He advocates “guerrilla” IT tactics ­ – undertaking small projects that provide fast returns. “I encourage people to go out and do something special. Beyond outsourcing, there are always opportunities for cost cutting. Innovation is not about a huge, enterprise-wide rollout,” says Behenna, adding that any achievement should be broadcast to the business, where finance is king.

“If you do something memorable and you have helped the company towards profitability or cut costs, you have to find the ways and means, perhaps by newsletters, internal marketing or Twitter, to get the message out to the business,” he says.

More retiring personalities may baulk at the idea of advertising their achievements, but Behenna says it is pointless being invisible.

“You must actively try to understand what the business wants and the jargon it uses and tie your own efforts to that. That way, you cross the line and are in the other camp, so a meeting of minds can take place and IT talks and acts like part of the business,” he says.

Behenna points to the creation of an online appointments magazine as an example of his IT team’s creative endeavours and how it harnesses the web to drive business.

“Many clients come to us through web activity. A lot of digital marketing is done by the IT department, for example by social networking. The online appointments magazine was conceived, built and delivered by us. It benefits the business and is a good example of how IT should get out of the back room,” says Behenna.

Understanding what the client wants is key to Harvey Nash’s success and Behenna says IT must always strive to provide the business with the right tools.

In the recruitment sector, this often means providing up-to-date information and harnessing business intelligence.

“Knowing how a client wants to run a major campaign is key. Real-time campaign management means we are continually monitoring to ensure a campaign is going as it should,” says Behenna.

The IT department’s culture of working with and for the business is appreciated company-wide. “We have ramped up business intelligence activity to help flag up any business problems. Our chief executive awards best performers quarterly and our department’s activities have been nominated from outside the department and our achievements recognised,” says Behenna.

This success has taken place within the context of recession-led cuts in the business intelligence team, which has shrunk from six to four staff.

“We are doing more with less. We use very good tools and the mentality of the IT group is to tighten the reins and not spend money on technology for the sake of it. Everything we do has to add value,” says Behenna.

This results-focused attitude extends to IT vendors, who need firm control in recession. “Everybody and their dog is trying to flog me something. I don’t take casual calls, but demand a paper proposal,” he says.

IBM White Paper download
Web 2.0 at work: how CIOs can help drive business returns by improving organisational effectiveness

The IT infrastructure at Harvey Nash is standardised, which helps simplify any rollout of new technologies.

“We are a Microsoft house in the main, Cisco is our network supplier and HP supplies our servers. We have other tools to simplify processes and reduce costs,” he says. To lower expenses further, Behenna plans server consolidation and virtualisation, but he believes that for any major new project “there has to be a massive appetite for a change”.

If there is a lack of appetite for change among line-of-business managers, IT leaders will have to factor in resistance to the plan, he warns.

Knowing what the business objectives are is the main duty of any IT leader. “You need to have a lot of conversations and get down to a level where you are communicating with the people who use what you are putting out and not speaking exclusively to management,” says Behenna.