CIO 100 '09: Focus on Customers, Collaboration, Cost Control

While the weak economy has derailed many an IT project, successful businesses never lose sight of the investments they must make to stay competitive. Technology-enabled innovation during hard times has to pay off fast, of course, but the most prescient projects produce dividends far beyond the next quarter.

Our 2009 CIO 100 honorees understand how to balance quick gains with long-term strategic advantage. Whether their winning projects address customer needs, internal collaboration or cost-containment--three dominant themes among this year's applicants--each was conceived to create new value, not simply allow the company to hold its ground.

"We understand where our intellectual property is," says Mark Carbrey, senior vice president and CIO with Cross Country Automotive. That is, technology that directly impacts the customer experience. The provider of roadside assistance, accident management and connected vehicle solutions deployed a business intelligence system that enables real-time work assignments, performance reporting and claims submission for its network of service providers delivering greater satisfaction for their customers.

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While the weak economy has derailed many an IT project, successful businesses never lose sight of the investments they must make to stay competitive. Technology-enabled innovation during hard times has to pay off fast, of course, but the most prescient projects produce dividends far beyond the next quarter.

Our 2009 CIO 100 honorees understand how to balance quick gains with long-term strategic advantage. Whether their winning projects address customer needs, internal collaboration or cost-containment--three dominant themes among this year's applicants--each was conceived to create new value, not simply allow the company to hold its ground.

"We understand where our intellectual property is," says Mark Carbrey, senior vice president and CIO with Cross Country Automotive. That is, technology that directly impacts the customer experience. The provider of roadside assistance, accident management and connected vehicle solutions deployed a business intelligence system that enables real-time work assignments, performance reporting and claims submission for its network of service providers delivering greater satisfaction for their customers.

Since deploying the system, customer satisfaction with Cross Country Automotive has experienced an 80-point increase. That's no accident. Carbrey cemented support for the project among clients by showing them prototypes during the development phase. They gave him more specific, targeted feedback than he ever expected about how they wanted to use the new tools, which Carbrey's team was able to incorporate into the finished system.

Read more about the 2009 CIO 100 honorees here.

Creating Core Value

Like Cross Country Automotive, other CIO 100 honorees focused squarely on core business needs, whether generating new sources of revenue (as did retailer Best Buy with its bar-code enabled software subscription service) or creating greater efficiencies (as did Array BioPharma with software repurposed from the military to integrate data from clinical drug trials).

At Bethany Christian Services (see "Big Ideas on a Shoestring"), for example, the IT team rolled out a Web-based Adoption Management System (AMS) to 77 locations in 32 states. "This is such a core application and foundational project that the support remained consistent from start to finish," says CIO Gary Kuyper. The nonprofit business helps place children with adoptive families, counsels pregnant women, provides foster care, family counseling and family preservation. Staff and clients needed a better way to collaborate during the adoption process by sharing forms and correspondence. "The process of doing social work is to track everything, like e-mail, case notes, phone calls, letters and any communications between workers, family and country or the birth family," says Kuyper.

AMS defines the workflow required to process adoptions and includes a document management system that collects information pertaining to each client's case. "Our national adoption director really rallied around the system and has used it to create even more common practices, down to the form and specific letter content," Kuyper adds. Because the system is accessible online, staff can access it anywhere, and the new ability to track case details helps Bethany Christian Services pass muster with regulators in the United States and internationally.