Ron Lejcar, CIO, Ingredion Incorporated

Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2014

Ensuring safe communication and collaboration in today’s world  where there are a multitude of communication tools to pick from is a challenge. So mobility and connectivity remain a key concern. Continuous development and up-gradation of mobility and communication tools make it challenging to implement a set of solutions that meets the needs of the entire enterprise. Security should be the underpinning for the development of IT tools and they should be easy to use and deploy.

Expectations from technology providers

My expectation of our technology vendors is to continue their focus on simplifying the deployment (including upgrades) and the day-to-day operations of our mission-critical systems. 

In-memory computing, cloud-based systems and infrastructure, and mobile applications are helping to provide the agility and flexibility required by the business. However, the core systems running the business are similar to a large manufacturing facility that requires a significant investment to build and maintain and is not easy to quickly change or replace.  So, we need to continue looking at new technologies and services that help to improve the agility of IT and its ability to keep pace with business change.

Solutions that would make my job easier 

Technologies that address the increasing demand for Big Data collection and analysis.  With the growing need for Big Data analysis, we are exploring options in this technology.

Changing role of CIOs 

I would say that every company is critically dependent on IT to support their business operations and to help achieve their business objectives for growth. Over the past couple of years, we experienced a major recession, global economic and political challenges and environmental disasters to name a few significant events impacting business.

 IT’s role, and that of the CIO, continues to evolve into one that must offer tools and solutions to help the business manage through these events. These tools should provide information to make better and faster decisions plus tools to communicate and collaborate seamlessly with anyone at anytime and anywhere in the world. 

My role as CIO is to be a partner with the business so at IT remains aligned and is prepared to provide solutions at enable the business to grow and achieve their goals. As Ingredion continues to grow, so does the demand for IT and the requirement for the CIO and IT leadership to remain in ck step with the business leaders.

My word for a CIO

IT has a unique responsibility in the organization. As a result of supporting all enterprise systems, we are one of the few functions that see the entire business process. We should offer ideas and recommendations on how to improve processes and fully leverage the technology that exists today and ensure that new technology adds value. IT professionals need to be more assertive–step forward and take responsibility to lead change and improvement initiatives. Otherwise, we under utilize a capability that can improve the bottom line.