Catching Up With The CIO

“Managing [debit and credit] card transactions tends to be on the front burner for most retailers, along with point-of-sale systems, supply chain applications, and continuing to dig through all of the data that we generate to find the nuggets of information,” says Cal Sihilling, executive vice president and CIO for Edina-based grocery wholesaler Nash Finch.

Several CIOs speak of the conflict involved in keeping as current as possible to maximize their department’s agility while managing all of the change that agility inevitably requires. But whether the obstacles are universal or unique, modern CIOs need not only technological acumen, but also managerial savvy to get around those obstacles.

A Full In Box

Ongoing projects are a daily fact of life for CIOs, perhaps more than for other executives. The fluid, project-based nature of IT means zeroing in on the essential needs of the com-pany and its technology infrastructure, and making sure that pet projects and short-term fixes aren’t bogging down the works. Whether it’s an upgrade of an enterprise resource planning system, dealing with product lifecycle management, or rolling out a new thin-client solution—hardware on which most of the processing takes place at the server level—CIOs have plenty of balls in the air every day.

“We have projects underway to reduce our IT costs and improve our agility,” Degeneffe says. “Consolidation and virtualization are key strategies to reduce the number of devices in our environment.”

Degeneffe says his department is always working to reduce the number of technology products it uses. “This strategy will drive productivity and reduce IT costs by eliminating redundancy, reducing support costs as well as software license costs,” he says. As an example, he mentions “re-hosting” the company’s mainframe system—moving it from a legacy environment with no change in functionality.

Sunquist says a significant recent project at the hospital has been a two-year effort to implement electronic health records. “We also implemented the full suite of PeopleSoft products for our finance-supply chain and HR-payroll departments,” she says. “Along with these major projects, we have had significant infrastructure upgrades in areas such as networks and desktops.” The types of products Sunquist mentions can potentially ease access to employment records and make them more versatile and interactive, cutting down on time spent sifting through pa-per records.

Sometimes, major technological initiatives come along when there’s a shift in an organization’s corporate culture. When MinuteClinic was acquired last September by CVS/Caremark, Ross says it meant expansion at all levels.

“Growing MinuteClinic is our major project right now,” he says. “When I started in April 2006, we had 65 clinics in nine states and today we have 224 in 20 states, and we expect that growth to accelerate.”