CIO Classified

Join Brian Shield, SVP & CTO at Boston Red Sox, with over 20 years in IT, and David Vidoni, VP of IT at Pegasystems, a B2B software expert, as they dive into the intricacies of digital transformation. They discuss how simplifying IT can enhance agility and user experience. Hear their insights on the importance of data governance, flexible tech investments, and the collaboration needed to innovate in the sports tech space. Plus, discover how to foster a productive IT team culture and retain top talent.

Data is everywhere, in everything, but how do you know if your company is optimized for a data-driven future? A new term is emerging that might be the best way to tell: data intensity. You’ll hear from Jay Upchurch, EVP and CIO at SAS, and Oliver Schabenberger, Chief Innovation Officer at SingleStore, as they define data intensity, share advice to improve data literacy, and discuss why curiosity is key for innovation, employee retention, and more.---------Quotes“I think to the traditionalist…the idea of citizen ‘anything’ scares them, you know? It's just different. I think that's where companies, especially modern companies, lean into that uncomfortableness. They lean into it for scale and how to grow. They lean into it for curiosity. When you shy away from the idea of enabling the citizens, then that means you're not feeding fuel to the curiosity that propels us forward.” - Jay Upchurch, EVP and CIO, SAS“Data intensity is a manifestation of tech intensity. We ask ourselves, ‘What data resources do we have? What data resources do we need to become more data-driven, and what can we build with it?’ It's recognizing that data intensity is increasing everywhere, and that is a good thing. There's more data and we have more uses for data. You want to go from a more descriptive, backward-looking, historical-looking approach to data to a more forward-looking, predictive approach.” - Oliver Schabenberger, Chief Innovation Officer, SingleStore---------Time Stamps:* (1:47) Meet Oliver & Jay, and learn about SAS and SingleStore* (6:45) What is data intensity? * (12:12) Why data intensity can become the new KPI * (15:03) Are CIOs responsible for employees’ data literacy?* (22:36) How promoting curiosity can help employee retention * (26:42) What managers can do to improve the employee experience * (29:27) Secrets more CIOs should know * (32:50) Oliver and Jay ask each other questions--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Jay on LinkedInConnect with Oliver on LinkedInLearn more about SASLearn more about the SingleStore Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, we talk to two executives at the opposite ends of the spectrum: Matthieu Houle, VP of IT and Digital Tech at ALDO Group, a half-century old retailer, and Pierre-Luc Bisaillon, CIO at AppDirect, a cloud-born tech company. Despite coming from different IT landscapes, Matthieu and Pierre-Luc share a similar approach to future-proofing their companies’ IT. You’ll hear insights into staying ahead of the curve, like how to leverage data, prioritize projects, and more.---------Quotes“If you look at the corporate employee, look at [IT] as a product… Where is the value? How much are we willing to invest? What are the usage metrics? The growth metrics? Where do we need to remove friction? A lot of IT is about removing friction.” - Matthieu Houle, VP of IT and Digital Tech at ALDO Group“The good news is that over the years we've been able to abstract more and more of the work that IT does and rely on cloud providers, whether they’re infrastructure or software as a service. Meanwhile, the core of our efforts do not have to be managing the low-level anymore, and that allows us to be technology experts, but framed as ‘how does technology actually help business?’ - Pierre-Luc Bisaillon, CIO at AppDirect---------Time Stamps:* (1:47) Matthieu’s role at Aldo and Pierre-Luc’s role at AppDirect* (5:09) The changing scope of the CIO’s role across industries* (14:27) Matthieu’s product approach to IT leadership* (18:15) What data-driven business alignment looks like at AppDirect* (20:12) Building agility and resilience into a tech stack * (23:32) Aldo and AppDirect’s next big projects * (26:30) Matthieu and Pierre-Luc share their CIO secrets * (28:51) The future of digital IT and shadow IT--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Matthieu on LinkedInConnect with Pierre-Luc on LinkedInLearn more about TELUS InternationalLearn more about the ALDO Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Michael Ringman, CIO at TELUS International, and Sesh Tirumala, Chief Information & Data Officer at Anaplan, discuss how they’re ensuring that their organizations are benefiting from strong data management strategies. Plus, they provide their perspectives on dealing with the “SaaS overload”, what they see as the future of the CIO role in cloud-based enterprises, and much more. ---------Quotes“We've got to be able to pull in a large amount of data in ways that our customers can see the value and better understand the trends of what's happening in their environments. But, there's also an element of being able to provide small data… Like, how long have they been a customer of this organization? Acknowledging those little pieces of very helpful information go a long way.” - Michael Ringman “Data management, data privacy - those are the fundamentals, but the more important thing is how do you manage the connectedness of this data? So, that way you can then answer a lot of the key business decisions and questions.”  - Sesh Tirumala---------Time Stamps:* (2:07) Michael and Sesh’s backgrounds & current roles * (2:44) Avoiding SaaS bloat & how to recover* (6:31) Finding value in big data & converting into results * (17:36) Misconceptions about SaaS and data * (22:19) Using data to build a better employee experience* (28:37) Michael and Sesh ask each other questions* (31:52) Micahel and Sesh share their top CIO secrets --------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Michael on LinkedInConnect with Sesh on LinkedInLearn more about TELUS InternationalLearn more about the Anaplan Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Alex Hood, CPO at Asana, talks with Wendy Pfeiffer, CIO at Nutanix, about new challenges in the hybrid workplace model, and how they can be overcome with effective asynchronous collaboration. They also share advice on adapting to a generation of employees that has grown up with technology, from providing faster problem resolution to equipping digital-native employees with the right tools, and much more.---------Quotes“Most work actually gets done cross-functionally, so you need to have a defined workflow that is the map of how work gets done across the organizations, and then have some monitoring on them to make sure that you're continually reflecting and speeding yourselves up. Most of the folks who try Asama start because they say handoffs are very difficult, and they don't want things to fall through the cracks. That's some of the problems that we try to solve by just linking data, tools, and teams together for these handoffs and workflows, and then allowing for some monitoring reporting so that they can get better every time that they run it.” - Alex Hood, CPO at Asana“The very notion of hybrid work is supportive of people who prefer to work in many different modes. I think it's by shining a light and looking at places where we have an opportunity to improve where we ensure people don't get left behind… I do think that technology plays a big role in this as does our own openness in leadership to accept new viewpoints and to think differently.” - Wendy Pfeiffer, CIO at Nutanix---------Time Stamps:* (2:07) Alex and Wendy’s background & current role * (3:00) Challenges in the hybrid workplace* (8:45) Optimizing asynchronous collaboration* (23:55) Organizing workflow structures * (26:08) Adapting to a digital native workforce* (43:14) Ensuring tenured employees are not left behind* (45:30) Alex and Wendy ask each other questions--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Alex on LinkedInConnect with Wendy on LinkedInLearn more about AsanaLearn more about the Nutanix Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Changing workforces and new technologies are altering the talent pipeline, but how can companies adapt? In this episode, Dr. Hank Foley, President and CEO of New York Institute of Information Technology, and Santhosh Keshavan, EVP and CIO at Voya Financial, discuss how companies and academic institutions alike can ensure they’re adapting to the workforce of tomorrow, address the pain points of today, and much more. ---------“A cornerstone of today, and for particular the kinds of students in technology, is that they want to be able to do everything through their smartphones…. It was incumbent upon us to get everything right from billing, to financial aid, to signing up for courses, to looking at your degree, to doing your degree audit, to registering, and eventually to graduation. If you want [students] to feel and have respect for the institutions, then you gotta be doing these things.” - Hank Foley, PhD“The appetite [for talent] is endless, and that's where the challenge forms. It’s not just, ‘Boy, I'm sure every company is looking for such-and-such talent.’ No, because tools and technology change so fast. We do not necessarily over-index on one tool or one technology itself. We want the basics, right? It's more about having the right attitude as well, wanting to be a team player and a willingness to learn newer technologies.” - Santhosh Keshavan---------Time Stamps:* (1:00) Dr. Foley and Santhosh’s roles at NYIT and Voya Financial * (3:00) IT and Tech talent pipeline shortage * (8:45) Partnering with academic institutions * (13:15) Prioritizing talent acquisition and retention * (21:55) Keeping up with a rapid rate of change * (22:41) Designing an optimal student experience  * (27:00) Keeping skills sharp after graduation * (31:25) How to partner with NYIT and other institutions* (36:50) Dr. Foley and Santhosh ask each other questions--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Dr. Hank Foley on LinkedInLearn more about Voya FinancialLearn more about New York Institute of Technology Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Developers are now responsible for implementing digital security policies in software, but few understand the fundamentals of cybersecurity. In this episode, Samir Sherif, CISO of Imperva, and Yonatan Eldar, CTO of Apiiro discuss ways to bridge the gap between security and development, as well as share best practices for cloud security and much more.---------“I think the talent that we're going to see evolving sooner than later is more technologists becoming better risk professionals, because cyber risk and information security challenges are not solved purely by security professionals. If we're going to continue to evolve and deal with this threat landscape, I think a change in industry from a talent perspective needs to be the adoption of risk capabilities.” - Samir Sherif“From the security perspective, the smart thing for companies to do now is to push some of the responsibilities, knowledge, and awareness to the developers… We need to do that from day one. We need to think about security this way.” - Yonatan Eldar---------Time Stamps:* (1:00) Samir and Yonatan’s roles at Imperva and Apiiro* (3:00) Changing landscape of cybersecurity* (8:45) Securing funding for cybersecurity * (13:15) Key security roles needed in the future* (21:55) Maximizing security with the sacrifice  * (22:41) Benefits of using a multi-cloud infrastructure * (27:00) Lessons learned from past cyber attacks * (31:25) Security secrets not enough execs know * (36:50) Samir and Yonatan ask each other questions--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Samir on LinkedInConnect with Yonatan on LinkedInLearn more about ImpervaLearn more about Apiiro Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ravi Naik, EVP and CIO at Seagate, and Milind Wagle, CIO at Equinix, discuss the CIO’s role in enabling business strategy, the future of multi-cloud infrastructure, and share valuable insights and best practices for a successful cloud migration, and much more.---------“IT is like oxygen - it's expected to always be there. If you take oxygen out, you know what happens. That's really how I view information technology of today. The future is where technology is ubiquitous. It is easy to use and it works, and no one knows that it even exists. That's really a good IT organization.” - Ravi Naik“You have to start with what makes sense for your workload... You have to fundamentally design your stack, evolve your stack, and adopt your hybrid multi-cloud strategy, because chances are that all the capabilities you're going to either build for your employees, customers, or your partners who are globally distributed - will require you to compose that experience across multiple applications or multiple data stores." - Milind Wagle---------Time Stamps:* (3:04) Milind & Ravi’s roles at Equinix and Seagate* (7:07) The future of IT Leadership * (8:15) Gauging employee experience on a mass scale* (10:17) Future of data analytics and cloud infrastructure* (16:55) Best practices for cloud migration* (22:41) Benefits of using a multi-cloud infrastrastructure * (38:24) Secrets not enough execs know * (37:50) Miliand and Ravi ask each other questions--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Ravi on LinkedInConnect with Milind on LinkedInLearn more about SeagateLearn more about Equinix Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Prasad Ramakrishnan, CIO and SVP of IT at Freshworks, and Carter Busse, CIO at Workato, discuss how IT Leaders can play a vital role in the employee experience, getting ahead of pain points, their secrets to security and automation, and much more.---------“We get employees involved in the decision making process. We want them to have a say in terms of which tool they like, which vendor and features they like …We believe that the technology out there is now like a utility. Everybody has an opinion and everybody needs to participate in the process.” - Prasad Ramakrishnan“I look up to [CIOs] that are really passionate about understanding how the business works… They're not necessarily concerned about the technology, but how they can enable the business to go faster and with the right cost measures in it, and really understand the business.” - Carter Busse---------Time Stamps:* (2:22) Prasad & Carter’s roles at Freshworks and Workato* (4:10) How they view the scope of the CIO’s role* (6:10) Carter and Prasad’s secrets to gauging results* (11:45) Getting ahead of pain points to create a great employee experience* (16:48) Building resiliency during uncertain times * (26:15) Maintaining while scaling * (29:55) The future of automation in the employee’s security experience * (35:23) Secrets not enough executives know* (38:20) Prasad and Carter ask each other questions--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Prasad on LinkedInConnect with Carter on LinkedInLearn more about FreshworksLearn more about Workato Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jim Chilton, CIO at Cengage Group, and Rob Lee, CTO at Pure Storage discuss overcoming obstacles during a digital transformation, building infrastructure with ransomware in mind, and staying secure while scaling up quickly, and much more.---------“Over the last couple of decades, you've heard the CIO, or even the CTO, considered to be the CEO's mechanic or plumber… The reality is that technology is the enabler for nearly every company on the planet today – that means that the mechanic and plumber are now the architect. I would encourage executives to think differently about technology executives and the contribution they can make to the strategy of the company.”- Jim Chilton“When you're in a game of ‘build a better mouse trap’, ‘build a better mouse’, you can't just focus on the next mouse trap in front of you. [Security] has got to be an upfront consideration, in all of the product and process, in all the decisions that you make… for a performance system.”- Rob Lee---------Time Stamps:* (1:14) Impacts of the ‘overnight’ shift to remote work * (6:21) Remember the basics when undergoing digital transformation  * (9:33) Predictions for the future of work in 2022* (14:26) Prioritize security when building infrastructure * (31:03) How to scale up quickly and securely * (26:08) What keeps Rob engaged and Jim’s technology predictions--------SponsorThis podcast is brought to you by Asana. Asana is a leading work management platform that empowers teams to orchestrate their work — from daily tasks to big strategic initiatives — all in one place. By enabling the world’s teams to work together effortlessly, Asana helps organizations of all sizes and industries achieve their goals, faster. Learn more at Asana.com.--------LinksConnect with Jim Chilton on LinkedInConnect with Rob Lee on LinkedInLearn more about Cengage GroupLearn more about Pure Storage Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.