Saunderson House Head of IT Nick Rosser: 'It's about making sure we have a voice across all areas'

The IT leader's remit has evolved beyond the traditional estate. Those who weren't already working across the business before the pandemic, with a hand in all digital initiatives, almost certainly do now. We spoke to Nick Rosser, Head of IT at financial services company Saunderson House, about how his influence has shifted and the importance of making sure your own house is in order too.

The past 10 years have seen the company focus on growth and improving customer service, meaning Rosser has had to immerse himself in financial modelling tools and portfolio management solutions along the way. However, he is keen to emphasise the importance of taking a step back and tending to IT's more traditional responsibilities.

"I think one of the things I'm continually minded of is that we don't lose sight of actually keeping the lights on. It's so easy to when the business is going through a period of evolution, particularly when it's aggressive in terms of timescales and objectives. Keeping on top of those core server, infrastructure, and patching jobs - all those types of really important things - would be very easy for us to deprioritise because of the business calling out for X, Y and Z, which puts demands on a relatively small team."

Community minded

Nonetheless, collaboration with other teams within the business remains key to success in the digital era.

"Saunderson House has a number of committees right the way through from boards to risk, change programme, and individual project committees. For me, from a technology point of view, it's about making sure we have a voice across all of those areas, so we get the business insight, but we also get the opportunity to influence at an earlier stage.

"So, when we're talking about things from a roadmap point of view, it's not necessarily coming as a surprise because they've been spoken about already and people are aware of what's coming down the road. One would hope when you're setting budgets and roadmaps, people already go, ‘right, yes, I was talking about that with Nick'. That makes the journey much easier."

Rosser admits to having been helped by his background in sales and operations when communicating across the business.

"I think it's incredibly important quite honestly. I think the initial contextual understanding that I have, although it's a few years since I performed the role directly, means that I can talk in the same language as the business.

"When they're discussing investment processes and different client engagement opportunities, I can automatically relate to it. I can go, from a technology perspective, these are the things we could do, the things we could consider, and ultimately act as that bridge to others within the team."

A common language

This ability to feel at ease across different disciplines has played an important role in Rosser's success at Saunderson House. He's an advocate for IT leaders broadening their horizons and sees a general shift amongst CIOs away from being specialists, towards a more generalist mindset - though not without exception.

"From my experience, yes, but I think it depends. Certainly, in my role at Saunderson House, that's very much what I was brought in to do - to help them grow. However, I think it depends on the organisation and what it wants to achieve. If you had a position within an organisation where it needed a leader to focus on the infrastructure, because of a transition to the cloud, let's say - somebody to really drive and own that area, then it may be appropriate, for a time, for the organisation to have somebody who really focuses on the delivery of that.

"But, generally, I feel that it is now a broader role. That's certainly the approach I've taken. It's about getting people who are really strong managers, arguably leaders in those areas, reporting into somebody who has got that wider skill set to translate the business requirements. That's where a business, from an IT leader perspective, gets its most value."