Greening IT

Not an IT gathering goes by without mention of sustainability and IT's impact on the environment and the bank CIOs have it very much on their agenda.

CBA's Harte said corporate and social responsibility and sustainability is "obvious" and there is a lot IT can do to educate consumers.

"We just invested in a state-of-the-art green data centre and [do] simple things like making sure computers are powered down," he said. "Rather than grandstanding it and making massive headlines it's really just good daily responsible practice."

NAB's Tredenick said the bank has made an "incredible commitment" and it has come about because the people are craving the need to act responsibly in the world and have created a groundswell of opinion.

"It started in the technology area as well as the business," she said. "We made a commitment to be carbon neutral and there would not be a day at work that doesn't go past without me in some sort of conversation about it."

At BOQ energy efficiency is not an IT issue, it's a business issue, according to Blacklaw.

"Clearly IT as a consumer of power is a focus [and] there are very few organizations that have an enterprise-view of how to handle greenhouse gas or climate change," he said.

SOA: Buzzword or Bonanza?

BOQ's Blacklaw made the joke that SOA is "a buzz-word for consultants to sell stuff to us", but CBA's Harte was more philosophical about granular services.

"If you look at the underlying value of high-speed interactions it's about being able to do that very flexibly because no two customers are alike," Harte said. "So if business logic is hard-coded into systems you cannot get a lot of flexibility."

Harte believes service orientation is trying to "rapidly impose" new standards on how to make logic really granular and how you make data assets more accessible.

"The hard thing is getting people who have never done it before to figure it out and to do it faster than the next organization. The people that make their services flexible and modular are going to win."

CIO: Career Is Orchestration

When asked how relevant the CIO is the organization, Tredenick summed it up nicely by saying the job is the most complex, but also the most rewarding.

"I can't remember the last time I was analytical or action-oriented, or in IT operations or strategically focused, I think a CIO is every single one of those," she said, adding she can't recall a time when that hasn't been the case.

"The CIO as a technician or analyst is an old question because in reality my role is blending what technology can do and explaining what technology can do which is such an important part of the role. Making sure you have the talent and the partners is not the role of a technician, it's the role of a master strategist."

Tredenick said the CIO is a master orchestrator of communication, of learning, of operations, and of strategy.

"I don't think there is a more complex job. It's the hardest job but also the most rewarding job."