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What's the outsourcing experience been like?
Our intention was to run the system internally. We selected the Metavante package and planned to run it on our mainframe. During the middle of the implementation, Metavante got out of the licensed business line. Our choice was: Do we run unsupported software or go with another product or outsource? Metavante had all the features we wanted.
Our outsource decision was not the typical decision. ROI was not a major factor. It was: Do we abandon our plans?
Honestly, I was adamantly against outsourcing. I was telling the bank it was wrong. Now I'm on the other side of the coin. The outsourcing decision was probably the right decision. Running the operations, we spent so much time focusing on regulatory issues. We didn't have time to focus strategically on running the bank. Firefighting is now the role of the outsourcer. Outsourcing was a very good move for us. It got us to the apps and functionality that we needed quickly.
What's the IT talent pool like in Hawaii?
Hawaii is a great place to live. There's a great sense of family here, but there's something we call the paradise tax. We're remote. Our salary schedules aren't as aggressive as some places on the mainland. It's hard to recruit young talent. Families send their kids off to college on the mainland and not all of them return. It's hard to recruit talent. You really have to want to live in Hawaii.
There's a lot of consultant work here. That's another benefit of the outsourcing. The talent pool is a lot bigger on the mainland.
I told management, even if they gave me a blank check to run the systems internally, I don't think I could attract enough skilled and talented people to do that in Hawaii.
What's your most pressing concern?
We need to earn the respect of the business. There's room for improvement. We need to execute better with the products we have. Metavante has a lot of capability we're not taking advantage of. We just rolled out a new teller platform system. Instead of full customization, we rolled out a phase one in vanilla. The implementation was very successful. But we didn't take advantage of all the bells and whistles. We want to take baby steps instead of quantum leaps. Sometimes we're just not ready to exploit every feature from an operations perspective.
How to get to that trusted adviser role with the business is the biggest thing for me. How do we earn that credibility? There's no magic bullet. We're just trying to bring solutions to the table.
Now that IT isn't in a firefighting role, what sort of opportunity do you see for the department?
We've always wanted to take our IT people and put them in the line and learn the business so they know what their customers' jobs are. Then they could bring back solutions to make their jobs easier. We haven't been able to carve the time out yet. But it's important to do. If we don't understand the customer personally, we can't bring the right tools.
The value that we bring is not necessarily technology for technology's sake. Think of two circles: business knowledge and technology knowledge. Bring them together, and that intersection is our sweet spot. I can have the best technologist who doesn't know the business and the best business person who doesn't know technology. How do we get our technologist to understand that business and educate business about what technology can do? Unless we get to that sweet spot, technology is of no value.
Michael Ybarra is a contributing writer for SearchCIO-Midmarket.com. Write to him at editor@ciodecisions.com.
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