Imagine if the Covid-19 crisis had occurred in 2000 instead of 2020. Back then, clouds were clusters of water droplets and real-time collaboration platforms were called meeting rooms. In fact, few – if any – of the tools that allowed firms to quickly pivot to home-working during the pandemic were available. Despite the battering many businesses have taken over the past two years, it’s fair to say things would have been much worse without today’s technologies.

Indeed, the vital role that technology plays in business continuity has never been more obvious. The CIO’s involvement in keeping the business functioning has also been highlighted during the pandemic; in many cases, the position’s standing within the organisation has grown considerably. But as businesses begin to recover from the pandemic, CIOs will need to start thinking about the next challenge.

To stay ahead of competitors, businesses need to develop a culture of innovation that focuses on delivering uninterrupted service and great customer experiences. And the CIO has a key role to play in achieving this goal.

“Having gained boardroom status, they are far more than senior technologists,” says Leigh Gammons, EMEA CEO at Wunderman Thompson Technology. “Today’s CIO is a business strategist, driving change and reimagining operating models and ways of working to optimise efficiencies and drive down cost.”

Delivering transformation

Many CIOs will also need to steer their organisations through digital transformation (if they haven’t already done so), though Helena Nimmo, CIO at Endava, makes the point that companies’ digital journeys never really end. She therefore favours a “more nuanced and bespoke approach” that she calls digital acceleration.  “There is always another step forward in the digital journey, and being able to re-examine, update, and improve the use of digital technologies as an ongoing, continuous process is a much more helpful way to think about what CIOs and other C-suite leaders are bringing to the table, each day,” she says.

Chris Underwood, managing director at Adastrum Consulting, says that as well as managing data governance and cybersecurity, CIOs can add value to the organisation by anticipating the opportunities and risks presented by disruption. “However, the most effective CIOs are not just the most senior technologists in the company…they are also business strategists, change agents out to improve ways of working, educators and protectors,” he says, adding that they are also “uniquely positioned to assess customer experience and operating process data from across the whole organisation.”

Taking the lead

Although analysts often suggest that all c-level roles should drive innovation, this requires a certain mindset. “Curiosity is a bridge between the traditional CIO role and the innovator,” says Paul Jones, head of technology at SAS UK & Ireland. “For instance, IT practitioners talk about failing fast. When CIOs use analytics to test concepts and quickly learn what works or doesn’t work, they both prevent causing harm to systems and increase their desire to innovate further.”

“However, the most effective CIOs are not just the most senior technologists in the company…they are also business strategists, change agents out to improve ways of working, educators and protectors”

‘Keeping the lights on’ and protecting the business from security threats will likely always be part of the CIO’s remit, but it’s now essential that they take a lead on innovation that will lead to better customer experiences. “Customer experience is today’s differentiator,” says Gammons. “Recent research conducted by Wunderman Thompson shows that there is a clear mandate for CIOs to work more closely with their marketing counterparts to lay the foundations for the data and content required to fuel dynamic, personalised experiences.”

Nevertheless, there’s still room for improvement, with 81% of IT decision-makers stating that they wished marketers understood their teams’ needs better and 84% of marketers saying the same of their IT counterparts. Gammons says: “It’s important that businesses work to effectively align different stakeholders around key business goals and objectives, ensuring they have frequent opportunities to engage.”

As well as creating the time and space for these opportunities, customer-centric CIOs also need to keep pace with digital innovation. This means the role requires “forward-looking visionaries, who are technologically curious,” says Underwood. “They look to solve problems or identify areas of improvement that will deliver the greatest impact to the business, such as building better client interactions and creating revenue-generating products or services.” 

That my be a challenge for some CIOs. But if they can keep an organisation functioning during a pandemic, it’s one they are more than capable of rising to.

How does observability differ from traditional monitoring? And what role does AI and automation play?

Monitoring is just one piece of the overall observability puzzle – but it’s an important one. At LogicMonitor, we define full-stack observability as including three key components – robust infrastructure monitoring, application performance monitoring, and log data. 

Today’s IT environments are incredibly complex. Observability isn’t just about being able to display data from multiple sources and different parts of a business’s technology stack; it's also about using intelligence to proactively discover issues that might impact the business and determine why they occurred. LogicMonitor’s platform layers intelligence on top of all of metrics, logs and traces to make an org’s data actionable. Our strategy hinges on incorporating AI and machine learning into observability, which we feel is an important differentiator. 

Does the complexity of modern IT environments mean that AIOps and observability are all but essential for managing them effectively?

In my role as LogicMonitor’s President, I talk to CIOs all day long. They all have the same issue. There's just so much noise. They're overwhelmed by it and struggle to make sense of the constantly changing IT environments that are creating mountains of data. Luckily, observability can help them gain much-needed visibility across and deeper control over their business processes, applications, infrastructure and overall performance.

With AIOps, IT leaders are able to automate transforming the exponential growth of their data into actionable insights. This is crucial, as the volumes of data we’re talking about are truly vast; far beyond the scope of human processing. AIOps enables IT teams to identify signal from noise and ultimately do more in less time. By using a unified observability platform undergirded with AI and ML, IT teams can predict problems faster and resolve them before they negatively impact the business. This also frees up skilled (and expensive) engineers to focus on what's core to their business, as well as what will help make it a market leader in years to come. In this way, observability is truly enabling what we call ‘digital agility’.

For example, we work with a large manufacturing company that was trying to get masks out quickly at the beginning of the pandemic, as well as simultaneously manufacture all of their normal products. Because they were using LogicMonitor as their observability platform, the company had confidence in their ability to meet their overall business objectives despite the increased demand and strain on the company’s infrastructure.

Can AI-enabled observability help IT teams to consolidate multiple monitoring tools and dashboards to gain greater visibility across the organisation's IT infrastructure?

Many companies have separate developer and traditional IT teams. While convergence is becoming increasingly common within modern organisations, siloed teams still abound. However, observability platforms present a great opportunity to bring disparate teams together. This type of collaboration is beneficial not just in terms of sharing data, but also in creating a single unified view of an organization’s overall technology environment across all relevant parties. 

At LogicMonitor, offering a unified platform that facilitates this type of convergence is really, really exciting for us. Collaboration across the critical teams responsible for maintaining and evolving today’s complex IT environments is just as important as having a unified view of those IT environments.

Think about an airline, for example. On-time departures are a crucial metric of any airline’s success, so baggage, check-in, tarmac and plane systems alike all need to stay up and running in order to help planes depart as scheduled. If a single system goes down during this delicate process, the airline has to quickly identify where the problem is or risk a flight delay or cancellation. Observability presents a huge opportunity for the IT teams behind airlines, for example, to minimize flight disruptions and gain back that troubleshooting time to use on other innovative tasks that could help evolve the flight industry overall or improve their airline’s bottom line.

Does observability make it easier for organisations to maintain visibility into their IT infrastructure when adding new applications and other environments?

Companies that have cloud-based, AI-enabled observability software in place will indeed find it much easier to obtain full visibility into their entire tech stack, even when adding new applications or infrastructure components. Automated device discovery, topology mapping, and a wide range of other features will help teams save time and get a full picture quickly when adding to environments.  Because let’s face it: IT infrastructures are already ridiculously complex. They’ll only become even more complex as digital transformation initiatives continue and as companies assess what type of split between on-premises, public cloud, private cloud and everything in between makes sense for their unique needs. 

What other benefits does observability bring to businesses? Can it improve the employee experience as well as the customer one, for example?

There are two things that are crucial right now: the employee experience and the customer experience. Having end-to-end observability across the technology that undergirds your business reduces risk and maximises your organisation’s competitive potential. 

Some of the best ideas within an organisation emerge when employees feel good about their work and aren’t bogged down in manual, repetitive tasks or focused exclusively on putting out fires -- this is what observability does. When employees feel engaged and excited about the work they're doing, that translates to their customers. When they have the breathing room they need to think about what’s next, that’s when true innovation occurs. With observability, IT teams are able to move beyond fixing things to focus on how technology can enable today’s company to compete more effectively tomorrow.

The world has completely changed in the last two years. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation in companies across the globe. Because of this, business leaders are relying on IT teams now more than ever. Companies who stick to the status quo won’t survive. In my perspective, observability is the missing link between delivering an extraordinary employee and customer experience day in and day out, and continuous innovation.

Feeling that your efforts are recognised and rewarded is a fundamental part of job satisfaction. But while CIOs are a vital member of the C-suite – responsible for both managing and maintaining enterprise IT services and, increasingly, driving the innovation that supports growth – they haven’t always enjoyed a commensurate level of recognition internally. But this may be changing.

“The pandemic has certainly helped to shine a spotlight on the CIO role,” says Nigel Leigh, CIO at XLMedia, a performance marketing publisher. “Not just to make sure the workforce have the tools to work remotely but to help transform the business.”

Rajasekar Sukumar, vice president Europe at global solutions provider Persistent Systems, agrees: “The pandemic has given even the most traditional industries a new appreciation of technology as a true enabler of business,” he says. “We’ve also seen the influence of CIOs increase across organisations in the last year, as they are now more visible in the boardroom and have a chance to put digital transformation at the heart of their company’s decision-making processes.”

He believes CIOs must seize this opportunity to drive real behavioural changes within the business, highlighting the need for business strategy and digital strategy to become one. “They should also be aiming to put data at the centre of everything the company does and set up the right infrastructure to enable that,” he adds. “And finally, the agility of leadership is irrelevant if the most junior developers are not provided with the tools and environment to respond quickly to business changes.”

Seeking recognition

Although taking these steps will undoubtedly help to raise the profile of the CIO further, is here a danger that they could take on too much in the pursuit of greater recognition?

“As technology permeates across all areas of businesses today, CIOs have become responsible for a wider landscape, and as a result are constantly worried about everything – from operations, to innovation, to delivery, and most importantly, customer experience – all at the same time,” says Helena Nimmo, CIO at Endava. “The weight of these often competing pressures and responsibilities can sometimes be too much to take; a major contributing factor to the fact the CIOs have the shortest average tenure of the whole C-suite.”

She says it’s crucial that there is a strong network of systems and people in place to not only help CIOs grow as leaders, but also delegate outward when necessary – something she says will help them to “retain gravitas and control internally.”

Paul Jones, head of technology at SAS UK & Ireland, also points out that CIOs can boost the performance of their teams through the creation of a safe environment that encourages people to share their unique perspectives without worrying about judgement. “They should foster the understanding that there may be more than one right answer at times, and be willing to support this at board level to show how flexible data and technology can really be,” he says.

Taking the lead

However, to make new systems and processes work and truly deliver against business objectives, CIOs may need to level up their leadership qualities.

“Developing leadership behaviours including emotional intelligence will help them to build empathy. Understanding the human impact of transition and ensuring teams feel heard and valued reduces resistance to change and enables CIOs to build trust,” says Chris Underwood, managing director at Adastrum Consulting. “Equally, strong communication skills will enable CIOs to speak in both the languages of data and business and use storytelling to share their vision and secure buy-in from teams and stakeholders.”

They’ll undoubtedly need these skills during board-level conversations, along with the ability to tie their work to tangible business outcomes. Although these will differ between different organisations and functions, as Underwood says: “The CIO’s role is to work together with different departments to show them what is possible [and] educate them on how digital solutions can support them to deliver these outcomes – whether it is improved customer or employee experience, better data capture and decision making, HR or finance transformation or improved yield, profit or revenue, depending on business priorities.”

Finally, data can play a huge role when it comes to driving better business decisions and outcomes for IT. As Helena Nimmo, CIO at Endava, says: “Data can support teams in understanding and reducing pain points and driving digital innovation in the right place at the right time.” And if they achieve that, CIOs will find their post-pandemic status within the organisation rises even further.

Most IT experts agree that automation can save businesses time and money, while freeing staff to focus on more interesting, innovative and strategic tasks. But it’s not always easy to reach this corporate nirvana. It can take time and considerable expertise to properly implement automated solutions, and the changes they bring to job roles and long-standing routines won’t be welcomed by everyone. Do the benefits truly outweigh the risks? Or is IT automation an unnecessarily costly and complex process? 

The risks

According to McKinsey, by 2030 more than a fifth of jobs across Europe could be automated. In preparation for this, 67% of companies have accelerated automation and AI development, while Forrester predicts 35% of companies will double down on workplace AI. 

However, Chris Underwood, managing director at Adastrum Consulting, says: “It is counterproductive to invest in new technology without investing in leaders to manage it; boosting digital skills training and education is necessary to accelerate economic recovery and enable businesses to advance sustainably.”

He also makes the point that any form of digital transformation is not just about deploying a new technology but changing how the whole organisation works, interacts, communicates, wins and manages customers. “It has a new lexicon of language the workforce must learn that focuses on customer centricity and the mapping of customer or employee journeys or user experiences,” he says.

“Simply automating processes without first reviewing them to confirm they are fit for purpose or fit into new ways of working is a fast track to failure. We've all experienced badly automated services or poorly targeted sales emails, and it is these moments that turn organisations and individuals against automation.”

Businesses also need to be aware that bias issues can lead to reputational damage and even regulatory fines. “When you are deep into data processing, it’s vital that you factor in and address ethics and any potential bias from the offset,” says Rajasekar Sukumar, vice president Europe at global solutions provider, Persistent Systems. “Responsibility must be put ahead of any business goals.”

He also makes the point that any solutions must be scalable. “On an operational level, businesses simply can’t afford to have their models slow down with growth. The point of automation using AI is to elevate efficiency, but without scalability, this is not possible in the long term.

He adds: “Whatever the organisation, consumers demand to see results in real-time. If this isn’t the case, businesses will begin to experience ‘drop off’ and customers will find an alternative, which, in today’s competitive market, could be disastrous for the business and its employees.”

The rewards

Despite the risks involved in deploying AI and automation, businesses that do so successfully can unlock huge benefits. Nevertheless, Douggie Melville-Clarke, head of data science at Duco, says that it’s understandable why teams often rely on manual processes. “…Everybody understands Excel and the volume, velocity and variety of data makes it complex to manage, leaving teams to believe the only way to reconcile data is manually. But, the negatives of manual processes cannot be denied: they are costly, inefficient and prone to error.” He adds: “The benefits of automated data reconciliation far outweigh concerns such as implementation and cost.”

Many manual processes aren’t exactly interesting or engaging to carry out either, and when boredom sets in so does the room for error. However, “…a computer can’t get bored or show up to work tired. It’s consistent, which is crucial when dealing with large datasets,” says Melville-Clarke.

Despite fears that automation will lead to job losses, Underwood says history shows us that new technology does not remove jobs from the market but creates new ones, not least as people are required to maintain, support and evolve the automation technology. “All affected jobs won’t simply move up the value chain and while certain roles do inevitably go, there will be an urgent need to upskill in order to successfully exploit the opportunities the technology brings.”

The chance to rapidly scale up is one such opportunity. “For example, automating sales processes enables human sales teams to concentrate on building important customer relationships or dealing with problems and atypical requests, ultimately increasing capacity for the number of sales that can be made,” Underwood says.

According to Pete Hanlon, CTO at Moneypenny, which answers outsourced calls, live chat and digital comms for thousands of companies globally, the ability of AI automation to improve the efficiency of workflows and processes while also empowering employees can help organisations to strike the right balance between work and life, as well as become more customer-focused.

“Technological advances are changing consumer habits, allowing them access to what they want, pretty much as soon as they want it,” he says. “In a constantly connected world, customer service is about being proactive and offering a choice of channels. It is about using the latest tech innovations to supercharge your processes, your people, and your customer service.

As Barnes says, this means that when it comes to automation: “It is not a case of [whether] to automate or not, it is a case of now and how quickly.”