149 149148

FRIESLANDCAMPINA

IN MANY COMPANIES, THE ROLE OF IT IS CHANGING FROM A SERVING TECHNOLOGY SUPPLIER MEASURED ON COSTS, TO A STRATEGIC BUSINESS PARTNER WITH A FOCUS ON THE CREATION OF ADDED VALUE. WHY DO COMPANIES NEED THIS AND WHAT PROBLEMS ARE ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH A CHANGE? E

rwin Logt has been Chief Information Officer (CIO) at FrieslandCampina for the past 12 months. The company is one of the world’s five biggest dairy

multinationals, with annual revenues of more than 11 billion euros and outlets in 30 countries. Logt, who previously worked for Procter & Gamble, most recently in the United States, is now busy transforming FrieslandCampina’s IT department, with the aim of getting more value from IT. He wants to play a bigger role in helping the orga-nisation to reach its operational goals and strategic plans.

INCREASINGG THE VALUE OF ITLogt explains: ‘In order to remain in control of your destiny as an IT organisation, you’ve got to deliver unique value to your company. If you don’t, it won’t be long before you’re regarded as a commodity and measured on your costs. That’s a dangerous game to play, and it’s not one that many IT organisations will win anymore, because these days the commodity side of IT is both easy to con-tract out and highly price-competitive. What is more beneficial to a company? An IT organization that does what is asked from it (‘IT serves the business’), is reactive, has an

IT IN A STRATEGIC ROLE

internal focus and is rewarded for lowering a company’s IT costs. Or an IT organisation that thinks with the business and has an in-novative and external focus. An organisation that identifies opportunities, assumes respon-sibility for business problems and is judged by the value it creates (‘IT enables’ or even ‘IT drives business transformation’). An IT orga-nisation whose goal in everything it does is to help the business generate a higher and more profitable turnover. The focus here lies not on technology but on the business transforma-tion you achieve using that technology.’

THE IT DEPARTMENT: A BIRD’S EYE VIEWErwin Logt continues: ‘The question often arises as to whether IT as an organisation can be successful in a more strategic partner like role. Can IT really lead (business) change? And what gives IT the authority to say what can and can’t be done, what is best in class and what has to change? What does IT know of sales or supply chain management? IT organisations have a unique advantage. They are often centrally and/or globally organised. IT often operates across all business groups, countries and departments. I’m sometimes asked by business leaders in a specific country how another country carries out a process in the same discipline. An IT department knows this. What’s more, there are now very few pro-cesses in which information and technology aren’t vital. IT staff is executing one transfor-mation process after another. Finally, external suppliers are taking IT with them in a world of best practices. The knowledge IT builds up this way of the company, its products, customers and processes, and of comparable businesses, combined with the latest techno-logical knowledge, is a unique and valuable combination. To maximize this, companies must demand more value and a broader leadership of their CIOs. On top CIOs must be given more support and opportunities to bring their IT organisation out of the com-modity corner.’

IT STAFF AT MANAGEMENT LEVELLogt: ‘A challenge in this transformation often lies in recruiting or developing new, more business-centric IT managers. They are nee-ded to earn that seat at the table and be allo-wed to play. Next to the increased competition

with peer companies to hire this new type of IT manager, we will also see more and more people join IT with a business degree at entry level. Universities and higher education are helping this process by offering more hybrid courses (a mixture of IT and business admi-nistration). But closer cooperation between CIOs and the educational sector is needed in order to change the traditional technical image which many students still have of an IT department. Obviously the availability of commercial investments in innovation and new solutions is also important. However, IT professionals can’t entirely hide behind this. I have seen several IT departments in the industry deliver considerable business value by starting small with a group of proactive innovators, experimenting fast and looking what really catches on before requesting ma-jor investments.

Logt says conclusively: ‘Also at FrieslandCam-pina we are repositioning our IT department. This is a large scale operation which will ultimately result in IT being more strategic and more steering. The IT recruits we are now hiring and training are commercial, business minded, have business process transforma-tion skills, and above all are ‘obsessed’ with wanting to continuously improve Friesland-Campina (by using technology and informa-tion). Sometimes even without a technical IT background but with a business degree like an MBA. FrieslandCampina is in the midst of a change process to become a modern, inter-nationally operating, commercial company. In short, room for proactive people who like to generate (international) added value and want to lead in their field. With these people and the new role we are giving IT, we are helping FrieslandCampina to reach its goal to become the most professional company in the dairy sector.’ <

AN IT MANAGER IS FIRST AND FOREMOST A BUSINESS MANAGER, AND ONLY THEN AN IT PROFESSIONAL

Erwin Logt

THEMESCHANGING THE ROLE OF IT

INCREASING THE VALUE OF ITIT BIRD’S EYE VIEW

IT STAFFREPOSITIONING IT

PROGRAMMATORIAL