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Virtual Think IT Panel Event

Our Virtual Think IT Panel Event last Friday was on the topic; A Deeper Look at “Information” in the Mysterious World of Information Technology. A huge thank you to our panelists, Joe Topinka, Founder & CEO at CIO Mentor, Julie Durham, SVP /CTO of Software Engineering at UHG, and Andy Bingenheimer, Business Information Officer at U.S Bank for sharing their thoughts and knowledge with us. Thank you to everyone who joined us as well! 

Below you will find an overview of the most popular questions from our members and a summary of what was discussed. 

IT organizations have spent lots of money on data wares housing solutions, what trends do you see on that traditional investment? 

One trend that all the panelists have seen is Snowflake. For data to be useful, you need to have people that are curious about it.  Investments are putting the money where your mouth is, and the money moves instantly. Organizations need to understand the way and the movement around the DevOps team. Some other trends organization are seeing is the evolution of the cloud platform and CSuite executives.  

Curious to hear your thoughts on the differences between a CIO and CTO and why we’ve seen an increase in the separation of those roles recently? 

No one has the perfect definition of the difference between CIO and CTO. The panelists agreed that the CTO role is more on the product side. Some companies have one, neither, or both of those roles depending on their organization’s needs. It is essential to make sure that both CTO and CIO have a solid understanding of the end to end technology.  

How have IT skills and roles evolved as information has taken on such an important part of a business? 

The importance of technology comes from true business owners. These business owners have gone from how to bring IT to the table to how do we get IT to the table. If technology doesn’t deliver, it’s not their fault. Businesses need to make sure that everyone understands the data. Also, it needs to be explained why and how your team is doing what they are doing. Facts tell stories sell.  

For years we’ve been drowning in data and starving for information. What have been your most successful techniques for changing that dialogue at your firms? 

To change this dialogue at your firms, the panelists agreed that you should use real-time data. Real-time data will improve your experience and give good opportunities to teams. It’s important not just to know your hypothesis but to prove it as well.  

Who owns the data? Business or IT? How do you think this has changed over time? 

Businesses should have stronger engagements, and data should be commercialized. Enterprise is for IT, and IT is going to have stronger data ownership. Technology manages data, the business owns the data, and technology can measure the quality.  

The panelists agreed that technology manages the business’s data. IT skills are evolving and are becoming an important part of companies. If you were unable to join, you can view the full session here.