| | March 20168CIOReviewTime spent "feedingthe monster" in thedata center is time notspent on helping ourbusiness winThe Evolving Role of IT for Value Added SolutionsBy Aaron Weis, VP & CIO, Axalta Coating SystemsOpting for a Business Enabling MindsetWe have to move beyond delivering technology and instead move to delivering competitive differ-entiation for our business. Our coatings business is not only about providing the best paint possi-ble for our customers. It's about providing a host of value added services and capabilities designed to make Axalta the choice in the marketplace. IT needs to enable that by moving beyond the IT ser-vice delivery mindset and move to a business ena-bling mindset. It's an easy thing to say, but quite difficult to do successfully. We need to move to a model where the services are provided by suppliers who are best in class because they can support cus-tomers seamlessly and consistently. Success will depend on a number of capabilities coming togeth-er. We will need a world without a physical data center, where solutions are delivered as services and infrastructure exists in the cloud, with robust uptime and disaster recovery. We will need man-aged networks that can self-heal before we even know they are broken. We will need collaboration tools that are available on any device, anywhere and data delivery that's fast, flexible, and device agnostic. When all these factors run together seamlessly our IT teams can focus on providing the value added solutions that will help differentiate Axalta in the marketplace.Need for a Stronger Data FrameworkData starts with a strong master data strategy and is underpinned with a consolidated ERP strategy. We're working to create both by bringing mul-tiple instances of SAP into a unified ERP land-scape. At the same time, we're moving from a distributed data management approach to create a real master data strategy that will allow our busi-ness managers to see data holistically, no matter what region or business may be looked at. In or-der to provide the new and multiple dimensions of data analysis, we're going to need a stronger data framework, aligned within our enterprise systems.IT Backed by Data Analytics for Cus-tomer SatisfactionLeadership will be driven by providing differenti-ated customer interaction. In our coatings indus-try, we serve multiple business models, whether it's painting new cars in the factories of our OEM customers or providing small quantities of custom matched colors through a vast distribution network to thousands of small body shops or the many in-dustrial customers we serve. Along the way, IT will be critical in helping those processes to move as smoothly as possible and enabling rapid cus-tomer fulfillment, backed by strong data analytics. opinionin my
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