CIOs representing organisations from Norway, Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland and the UK spoke to the CIO UK podcast at the inaugural CIO of the Year Europe awards held in Barcelona in November 2019.

The first edition of the European CIO celebration recognised 10 technology leaders from eight different countries, with category winners Åshild Hanne Larsen, CIO at Norwegian energy company Equinor, Bankdata CIO Morten Gade Christensen, Sacyr Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer Victor de Ávila Rueda, and Mars Petcare CIO Miao Song speaking to the CIO UK podcast about what their teams had achieved, the value of CIOs from across Europe celebrating as a group, and their priorities for 2020.

We also heard from CIO of the Year Europe jury member Michael Loechle, the CIO at ABB Powergrid in Switzerland, as well as the UK's Dominic Howson and Chris Jekiel, technology leaders at Hovis and law firm Horwich Farrelly respectively.

Åshild Hanne Larsen, Equinor CIO [2min 54sec]
Victor de Ávila Rueda, Sacyr Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer [8min 02sec]
Emiliano Sorrenti, Aeroporti di Roma CIO [9min 37sec]
Morten Gade Christensen, Bankdata CIO [12min 59sec]
Miao Song, Mars Petcare CIO [16min 58sec]
Stefan Würtemberger, Marabu CIO [20min 01sec]
Dominic Howson, Hovis IS, Planning and Supply Chain Director [22min 37sec]
Michael Loechle, ABB Powergrid CIO [25min 29sec]
Chris Jekiel, Horwich Farrelly IT Director [31min 44sec]

23. CIO of the Year Europe awards - Reflections and interviews with European CIO leaders

TalkTalk CTO Gary Steen spoke to CIO UK Editor Edward Qualtrough during episode 24 of the CIO UK podcast to discuss his role leading technology, change and security across Manchester-based telco and broadband provider.

A member of the 2019 CIO 100, Steen - the Managing Director of Technology, Change and Security - spoke about the company's move from London to Salford and its new 'Tech City' HQ next to the BBC's Media City site, recruiting new skills in Manchester and the north west, how TalkTalk has made great strides in its customer experience proposition with data as the backbone, his interpretation of the CIO role, how TalkTalk has responded to its 2015 cyber breach, the organisation's sustainability agenda, and why CIOs should want to be part of the 2020 CIO 100.

24. TalkTalk CTO Gary Steen on technology, change, security, sustainability, and the 2020 CIO 100

New Natural History Museum CIO Alison Davis joined her two predecessors Ian Golding and David Thomas during episode 25 of the CIO UK podcast to discuss digitisation, the sustainability agenda at the Natural History Museum, and the social, scientific and global role the institution has beyond its duties of archiving and displaying its vast collection.

Speaking with CIO UK Editor Edward Qualtrough, the trio also discussed some of their favourite memories and displays at the museum, while former CIO 100 high-flyer Davis shared the value of CIOs having their team and organisation recognised in the annual CIO 100 celebration showcase of technology leadership and initiatives.

25. Natural History Museum CIO Alison Davis with predecessors Ian Golding and David Thomas

The COVID19 pandemic has forced most of the world into lockdown. Organisations that had never considered remote work have suddenly had to provision entire workforces with the technology and tools they need to operate from home on short notice. Organisations have deployed remote working and virtual desktop environments at speed. A consequence of this crisis response is security levels have been relaxed to enable getting people up and running quickly.

A survey by CSO Online found that just months ago, 17% of employees worked from home at least 60% of the time. As of March 23rd, that number had climbed to 78%. Nearly a quarter of companies have purchased new security solutions or services to adapt to the new way of working.
While most respondents in the survey expressed confidence that their existing security infrastructure could handle their employees working from home, they were also more concerned about security risks targeting WFH employees today than they were three months ago, and a quarter of organizations said they have seen an increase in the volume, severity, and/or scope of cyberattacks since the start of the pandemic.

While most organisations might have at least partially adapted to this ‘new normal’ by now. And as they move beyond crisis management they are now beginning to take stock. Are all the tools they bought to enable remote work secure? What new and unfamiliar devices are now connecting to the corporate network, and are they secure? And how do they know that staff are continuing to follow policy while at home?

And even if the lockdowns across the world end sooner rather than later, there will be long term affects on how businesses operate and secure their staff and systems.

The purpose of this podcast:

Thought leadership podcast on how organisations have reacted to the COVID19 pandemic, what the new normal of working remotely at scale (and securely) looks like, the longer-term effects organisations might see, and how they can continue to adapt securely.

Sponsored: Securing The New Normal Of Remote Working

With the peak of the pandemic now over, organisations are returning to doing business in the new normal, post the Covid lockdown. They still face an environment of constant change, with some industries fighting for survival. But many companies are now better placed to keep going and are looking again for growth opportunities. 

So, how do you deal with the gradual return to normal? Successfully navigating the React and Resolve phases will have helped, because it involved problem-solving, getting people working from home, and scaling IT infrastructures to support high levels of demand, with improved levels of security.

But what happens when we return to normal, and what does the new normal look like in terms of people, processes and technology? Working patterns, ways of working and collaborating, and customer behaviours are all different now, and we are seeing significant, and possibly lasting impact and change in our industries as a result of the pandemic.

Technology is a large part of the answer, particularly data-centric, cloud-enabled datacentre infrastructure, as well as AI, analytics and edge competing. And, as part of their reaction to COVID, businesses invested massively in process and technology transformation. Understandably then, as they enter a stage of reflection, they will be keen to determine which elements of the transformation are worth building on and avoid reverting back to where they were before. 

With this in mind, is it possible to predict which technologies and strategies will help the IT organisation to enable the business to thrive in the new normal? And how can they use this next period as a time to create further modernisation, efficiency, and competitive advantage?

The purpose of this podcast:

Thought leadership podcast on how organisations can make a successful return to ‘the new normal’ of working remotely at scale and improving online customer services; build on Covid-related IT investments and processes, and benefit from emerging technologies.

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