| | November 20168CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONThe CIO Journey: From Behind the Scenes to Trusted AdvisorCloud computing is transforming the construction sector, how have you embraced it?It's easy for our customers and the public to see our work because there is visible activity: heavy equipment moving, workers onsite, concrete being poured, or a road taking shape. It's a totally different experience for our IT customers. Most of our work is done behind the scenes: in server rooms, on servers, databases. I equate the work of an IT department to how we, as consumers, receive electricity. We walk in a room, flip a switch, and expect the light to turn on. We don't really consider how the power reached the switch or what it takes to make the light work; we just expect it to work. Our customers have the same expectation. They just want their system to work. They want their computer to turn on, their email to deliver, the phone system to connect their call, and the software to perform as designed. But things are changing. For many years, IT has been viewed as a cost of doing business rather than a trusted partner capable of delivering greater flexibility, increased collaboration, efficiency, cost savings and perhaps most importantly, secure systems. But as technology has evolved and solutions have become more innovative, we, in turn, need to increase awareness and transparency across the business. We need to step out of the server room and into the board room to better define and demonstrate the critical role we play in helping the business achieve its goals. This is particularly necessary in the construction industry -- where IT has a tendency to be in the backseat, when in fact it is often providing and supporting the software that is driving the business across multiple locations.As an industry that relies heavily on data and programs to conduct our daily work of designing, engineering, building, and managing complex projects, it is equally important that we maintain the integrity of our systems. And, that we continue to identify new and innovative solutions for our projects and partners. For example, our legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were on hardware that needed to be refreshed. We were spending a lot of money and time on "behind the scenes" tasks, particularly monitoring and patching, activities where our customers didn't see the value. This prompted us to investigate the possibility of integrating cloud computing -- purely for cost savings. We conducted an ROI study of cloud-based solutions versus keeping the environment in-house, we presented the results to leadership and collectively agreed that it was time to migrate to a cloud-based solution. Not only did we reduce hard costs by 35 percent we also decreased the amount of soft costs spent on those "behind the scenes" tasks. We increased efficiency by freeing up our limited IT staff to work directly with users on a myriad tasks and issues. We demystified and simplified the accounting associated IT and running our ERP environment, which now allows the business to better account for costs. The transparency we achieved through these efforts enabled the team to build better relationships with our colleagues. It allowed us able to pull back the curtain and By Craig Oppermann, CIO, Flatiron ConstructionCraig Oppermann
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