Credit where it's due

The Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), part of the MIT Sloan School of Management, recently unveiled its landmark study The Future of the CIO, on the present and future roles of CIOs worldwide.

The report traced the evolution of the CIO's role as it changed from one that is primarily focused on maintaining IT services, to one that carries out a broad range of activities. The CISR pointed out that the CIO now has to work with external partners and customers, take part in the strategic management of the business and even handle non-IT tasks like sourcing and human resources.

Credit Suisse's Divyesh Vithlani, regional IT chief operating officer, and head of IT in Singapore, is an example of the CISR's resultant study.

When he first joined the bank in 1998, he managed the introduction of the Euro currency within Credit Suisse's operations in the Asia Pacific region. He then moved to preparing the bank for Y2K. He was also involved in completing the bank's shared services IT functions.

Today Vithlani is also the regional IT head for the bank's outsourcing strategy called centers of excellence (COE) in the Asia Pacific. He set up the bank's first COE in Singapore. "On the business management side, I am responsible for the regional IT financial performance manage process, quality, methodology policies as well as operational excellence, strategy and governance," says Vithlani.

He is also the head of IT in Credit Suisse Singapore where he oversees client and regulatory relationships, audit, control and operations.

The Excellence of Execution

In the early 2000s, Credit Suisse, like other banks, experimented with the traditional outsourcing model. "We have aspects of development work that you'd specify and a third party would be asked to essentially develop the code base and provide that with a view that we would then deploy the work," explains Vithlani.

While the model was more suitable for low risk functions, the bank felt that it needed to have a strategy that facilitates all areas of the bank to participate in off shoring and outsourcing. "The bank was moving forward pretty fast with new products and requirements coming online as well as changing priorities and market needs," he says.

The plan formulated entailed leveraging the benefits that outsourcing provides, with respect to the bank's ability to tap into the global talent pool, at the right price while staying competitive.

The COE was set up to "supplement cost-effective talent that not only supports the businesses in Singapore but to start supporting functions across the bank globally," says Vithlani.

Typically, COEs are created as many outsourcing companies locate in one area, taking advantage of available infrastructure, location advantages (cost of living or available real estate) or of ready talent pools, comments Michael Araneta, a senior manager in IDC.

"The underlying characteristic of the centers of excellence concept is that of efficiencies--where there is significant outsourcing expertise in one area, the better these outsourcing companies become and hopefully, the more cost-effective their services will be," says Araneta.