Kristin Moyer

Last week Marty Lippert of Citi was promoted from CIO to Chief Operations and Technology Officer and Ken Harvey of HSBC was promoted to Chief Technology and Services officer.  Both are reporting to the CEOs of their respective organizations.  In both cases, operations and IT are coming together.

Gartner analyst Kristian Steenstrup argues that informational technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) in utilities will merge.  He writes:

“As market forces and deregulation force utilities to seek greater profits and performance, management will look for greater internal efficiencies and coordination to maximize the return on overall assets. This will require collaboration and communication tools, providing access to knowledge and support for innovation, wherever it is needed. That means connecting administrative systems that measure performance with operational systems that deliver performance.” 

 OT is not as prevalent in banking as it is in utilities.  However, banks are experiencing intense market forces that are pointing to a dire need to improve internal efficiencies and return on assets.

These two promotions may be a message that in banking, operations (the services provided) are so intrinsically tied to technology (IT systems) that it is not desirable to separate the two.

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Category: Uncategorized     Tags: banking and investment services, IT, operations

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