1. For UTC, the CIO reports up to the CEO. This relationship is ideal as it is appealing to IT to leverage IT technology effectively through the organization. In our opinions, if the CIO reported to the CFO there is the possibility of greater concentration on financial systems and cost containment.
The CIO presents the IT plan to the CEO and his direct reports. There is strong concentration on IT security and audit. This allows for greater accountability of the IT organization to integrate new technologies to support the business units’ vast IT requirements through the company. The CEO than presents these IT strategies to the Board of Directors for discussion.
Within one business unit of the corporation, the business unit CIO works with the business unit president and vice presidents on determining the IT projects to be worked on for the year with a specific budget. Approximately half of the budget is used for infrastructure and partial is used for immediate projects needed. The additional monies are then disputed for the best possible IT advancements.
2. For UTC Internal Audit, the IT Global Director is responsible for managing the IT budget. The budget for the audit department is mostly made up of people and travel. We do involve some of the IT auditors in assisting the business units with specific IT projects such as quality applications that are used for manufacturing time tracking and ERP implementation assistance. All of these projects are then charged back to the business units based on estimated time and cost based on salary level for those employees.
3. UTC outsources most of their IT functions. The pros to this are less cost, greater technology and flexibility. The cons are this lacks a sense of ownership, service from the contractor can decrease in quality yet cost the same, and less control over the quality of the talent of contractors.
4. Recently, UTC has been successful in integrating their IT with the implementation of ERP systems throughout all of the business units. Most entities are using SAP, with one business unit using JD Edwards and one other using BAAN. A couple of other successful IT projects include increased IT security measures to evade viruses and e-commerce to assist with supplier management. One of the business units did have some challenges with the “Big Bang” implementation of SAP. Some of the areas that were lacking for the implementation was organizational change readiness, end user training, testing and security.
5. UTC will implement a few projects within the next two years to provide strategic advantage for the company. They will extend their integration of their IT systems and horizontally integrate to tie in with suppliers and customers.
6. Currently, the most important IT issues are protecting the IT networks, leveraging new technologies and increasing functionality with less cost. They are addressing the cost containment with implementing cloud computing, SaaS and additional outsourcing.
The CIO presents the IT plan to the CEO and his direct reports. There is strong concentration on IT security and audit. This allows for greater accountability of the IT organization to integrate new technologies to support the business units’ vast IT requirements through the company. The CEO than presents these IT strategies to the Board of Directors for discussion.
Within one business unit of the corporation, the business unit CIO works with the business unit president and vice presidents on determining the IT projects to be worked on for the year with a specific budget. Approximately half of the budget is used for infrastructure and partial is used for immediate projects needed. The additional monies are then disputed for the best possible IT advancements.
2. For UTC Internal Audit, the IT Global Director is responsible for managing the IT budget. The budget for the audit department is mostly made up of people and travel. We do involve some of the IT auditors in assisting the business units with specific IT projects such as quality applications that are used for manufacturing time tracking and ERP implementation assistance. All of these projects are then charged back to the business units based on estimated time and cost based on salary level for those employees.
3. UTC outsources most of their IT functions. The pros to this are less cost, greater technology and flexibility. The cons are this lacks a sense of ownership, service from the contractor can decrease in quality yet cost the same, and less control over the quality of the talent of contractors.
4. Recently, UTC has been successful in integrating their IT with the implementation of ERP systems throughout all of the business units. Most entities are using SAP, with one business unit using JD Edwards and one other using BAAN. A couple of other successful IT projects include increased IT security measures to evade viruses and e-commerce to assist with supplier management. One of the business units did have some challenges with the “Big Bang” implementation of SAP. Some of the areas that were lacking for the implementation was organizational change readiness, end user training, testing and security.
5. UTC will implement a few projects within the next two years to provide strategic advantage for the company. They will extend their integration of their IT systems and horizontally integrate to tie in with suppliers and customers.
6. Currently, the most important IT issues are protecting the IT networks, leveraging new technologies and increasing functionality with less cost. They are addressing the cost containment with implementing cloud computing, SaaS and additional outsourcing.