Board Director and former Georgia CIO of the Year Shares Advice for CIOs
Jean Holley Partners with ivision
Jean Holley is the former Global CIO for Brambles, a leader in supply chain and logistics solutions. In 2016 she was named Georgia CIO of the Year for her technology leadership. Holley currently serves on two publicly traded corporate boards as Board Director for OneSpan and on the Board of Directors for Herc Holdings.
Holley’s relationship with ivision began several years ago when she was the CIO for Brambles. At the time, the publicly traded company was spitting off a section of their business to create a new entity. They looked to ivision to separate the new infrastructure from the old and ensure that it would go live on its own.
Brambles faced additional challenges from being a public company. They were creating another entity on the stock exchange by dissecting part of their business. Once they built their plans, they committed to them and had to deliver because of stock implications. In the end, Holley and her team — with ivision’s assistance — delivered a successful project that created more value for their stockholders.
[bctt tweet=”“Technology in business is in a great place right now… It’s the best it’s ever been in my 30-year career.” – Jean Holley, Board Director and former CIO” username=””]
Challenges Facing CIOs Today
“Technology in business is in a great place right now,” says Holley. “The stakes are high, but the payoff is very high as well. It’s the best it’s ever been in my 30-year career right now.”
Holley also knows that in addition to ample opportunities, businesses are facing a multitude of challenges. The biggest two, she says, are speed and agility. There is a huge pressure to speed to market because the first mover has a competitive advantage. Once on the market, businesses need to have agility so that they are ready to adapt when things change – because they will.
One way to solve these challenges is by building out your network in advance of having a problem in front of you. Holley says, “If you think you’re going to be able to do everything internally, you won’t.” She advises having a network around at all times to support you. You’ll gain speed from having immediate access to experts when presented with a problem, and you can gain flexibility and agility from having a team to bounce ideas off of.
Holley has only one thing to say on whether or not she would recommend working with ivision: “They’re flexible, they’re fast and they get the job done.”
