Interim CIO

What is a Transition CIO?

The Interim CIO is a highly experienced manager who arrives, transforms and leaves, to solve an operational, technical or human problem emerging in an IT department. This situation generally brings the company to a standstill, jeopardizing its activity and/or slowing down its transformation.

The Transition CIO has the particularity of having already dealt with a similar situation in one or more other assignments.

The Interim CIO is often assigned by an interim management firm according to an action plan and timeframe defined at the start of the assignment.

What are the missions of a Transition CIO?

The Transition CIO intervenes in a context of temporary crisis management or transformation, to initiate a rapid and lasting turnaround of the situation, or to steer the transformation.

The Transition CIO's scope of action includes :

• Identify the needs and expectations of business lines and senior management
• Analyze internal political games to bring out the real stakes in the conflict
• Design a transformation plan that often introduces a new IT organization
• Deploy the new organization and recommendations
• Work on employee transformation and support
• Calming teams to start afresh with new perspectives
• Improve team cohesion and involvement, coordinate teams
• Communicating to restore trust in the IT department
• Recruit and install a successor.

3 typical Transition CIO profiles

Transformation profile

Transformation means taking the IT department or information system from A to B. The Transition CIO has a builder's profile, having already carried out similar missions. He or she will then make way for a manager.

Profile Turnaround

Turnaround refers to crisis management, with all its social aspects and complexities. Even among Transition CIOs, few are trained to do this job. This Transition CIO is highly resilient and has obviously been through similar situations before.

Profil Interim

It's a job-holding or "bridging management" role while you wait for a new recruit. This interim CIO will secure the situation and manage day-to-day business. So there's no transformation to look forward to. The selection process is more open.

What skills does a Transition CIO need?

To guarantee the success of an IT Transition Management assignment, a CIO must possess a combination of technical and managerial skills.

He is able to propose a strategic orientation

A Transition CIO must be able to establish a clear vision for the IT department and align it with the company's overall objectives. He or she must develop a thorough understanding of the organization's needs, and build a solid IT strategy to meet those needs. This requires accurate analysis of the external environment, technology trends, and close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. A CIO must be able to communicate this strategic vision effectively, and obtain the support needed to implement it.

He must be able to deal with 360° technical aspects

A Transition CIO must have in-depth knowledge of information technologies, information systems and business processes. This will enable him/her to quickly understand the existing IT environment and propose appropriate technical improvements.

These skills include

• Project Management: The ability to develop and execute strategic IT transformation plans, on time and on budget.
• Systems Architecture: Understand complex IT architectures, including cloud infrastructures, to make informed modernization decisions.
• Cybersecurity: Ensure the protection of data and IT systems against potential threats, by developing and implementing robust security policies.
• Data management: manage, store, analyze and protect corporate data, while ensuring regulatory compliance.
• Cloud Computing: In-depth knowledge of cloud solutions (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.) and how to use them to optimize operational efficiency.
• IT infrastructure: Understand networks, servers, storage systems and related technologies to modernize corporate infrastructure.
• Software development: Have the development skills to oversee the creation of in-house applications or the integration of third-party solutions.
• Data Analysis: Be able to extract actionable information from data, using analysis and business intelligence tools.
• Virtualization and containerization: Understand virtualization technologies (such as VMware) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) to optimize IT resources.
• IT Service Management (ITSM): Master ITSM best practices to improve IT service delivery and user satisfaction.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation: Have an understanding of the applications of AI and automation to improve the efficiency of IT operations.
• Operating systems: In-depth knowledge of different operating systems (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.) to manage various environments.
• Supplier Selection: Evaluate, select and manage suppliers of services and technology solutions.
• Audit and Compliance: Ensure that the company complies with IT and security standards and regulations.
• Problem solving: Analytical skills to solve technical problems quickly.

He is first and foremost a manager!

Leadership is an essential skill for a Transition CIO. He or she must be able to motivate, inspire, coach and guide teams. It fosters effective communication and informed decision-making. A Transition CIO must also be equipped with change management skills, as IT transformations almost always involve significant changes to company or team processes, structures and culture. A Transition CIO successfully navigates these changes, managing resistance to change and federating teams.

Why is the demand for interim CIOs growing?

The demand for Interim Managers, and in particular Interim CIOs, is increasing under the impact of several factors:

• Constantly evolving technologies (AI, data science, cloud computing) that are creating disruptions
• General Management's awareness of the gap between their expectations and those of the Business Units with regard to the Information System, and the desire to carry out far-reaching transformations to create greater value.
• Changing lifestyles and consumption patterns (online sales, drive, click and collect, teleworking, etc.) are forcing companies to modernize their information systems.
• The health crisis has accelerated these changes and imposed an unprecedented pace of transformation.

Why call in a Transition CIO?

• To meet complex challenges with limited resources, in particular for process automation by the IT department.
• To obtain immediately operational tools for teams, without having to resort to consulting, services or training.
• To explore and learn about new software solutions.
• To have IT tools in the office that are at least as good as your personal ones.
• To ensure that the team has access to IT tools as intuitive as a website or mobile app, and that they can access the company's information systems anytime, anywhere.
• To set up more efficient and autonomous processes and thus avoid situations where CIOs' time is spent resolving day-to-day problems with existing solutions .
• To automate certain business processes and be able to measure their ROI rather than spending time choosing software solutions.
• To interconnect SaaS solutions with each other and with local infrastructures.

In each of these cases, a Transition Manager can provide valuable expertise, not only in guiding the company through the choice and implementation of appropriate technology solutions, but also in offering a strategic vision for an effective transformation aligned with business objectives.
This temporary professional has the experience and perspective needed to navigate through periods of change, maximizing the operational efficiency and return on investment of critical projects.

What are the typical use cases and missions of a Transition CIO?

IS strategy and CIO

• Building the roadmap, digital strategy
• IS architecture and choice of key software
• Audit, due diligence and integration of acquisitions
• Definition and implementation of IS strategy, aligned with corporate strategy
• IT audit, diagnosis and action plan

IT Management

• Creation or centralization of the IS function
• Portfolio management of structuring projects
• Cross-functional and/or line management of multicultural teams
• IT department reorganization and management
• Recruiting and setting up the CIO
• Restoring dialogue between teams / internal and external stakeholders
• Deployment of agile and Devops methods
• Negotiating and securing service and outsourcing contracts
• Implementation of IS operating standards and best practices (ITIL framework)

Transformation

• Carve-out, Merger, IS Spin Off
• Outsourcing or insourcing process
• Multi-site and international ERP deployment
• Outsourcing or insourcing of the IT department or IS
• IS Move2Cloud
• Turning around projects / programs

Crisis

• Crisis management, turnaround
• Cyber crisis management

How do I find a CIO Transition Manager?

You can call on a firm such as Infortive, which specializes in the recruitment of interim managers specializing in IT.

Infortive has been a specialist in IT transition assignments since 2004:

• Infortive's managers are themselves Transitional CIOs
• Their operational experience enriches the initial expression of need
• They are based on a proven methodology
• The Transition CIO of your choice is accompanied on assignment by our teams
• The Infortive Community of CIOs and CTOs is a source of collective intelligence and support for our customers.

Testimonials from companies that have called on Transition CIOs

I was particularly impressed by Infortive's responsiveness in providing solutions adapted to our situation.
In my opinion, Infortive Transition's greatest strength lies in its ability to advise.
On receipt of the CVs, I was struck by the solidity of the profiles proposed.
The ADR (average daily rate) is consistent with the level of the profile proposed, and above all I retain the efficiency of the intervention. The return on investment is good.

Laurent Aucouturier, Head of Data Solutions & AI at MACIF

I needed a captive, expert profile for a given period of time. I was looking for a flexible, efficient and personalized solution. Infortive promised an expert profile for a defined period of time, meeting our needs perfectly and in a very short timeframe.
The recruitment of the Transition Manager as Transition Project Director made it possible to successfully initialize an important project for the company, so that all the conditions were in place to make the project a success.
This was made possible by a rigorous selection process and a personalized approach to the recruitment of Interim Management profiles.

Thierry Roulette, Aqualung CIO

We started working with Infortive as part of a search for two very specific IT management positions.
We needed to merge four management positions into two, and had no internal candidates. The profiles we were looking for were highly specialized.
Infortive's offer turned out to be an ideal solution, as it consisted in providing two interim managers who would be immediately operational to manage two of our teams, while we continued our joint search for permanent candidates.
This solution enabled us to maintain continuity of operations while taking the time to find the perfect candidate, particularly as our internal recruitment processes are fairly lengthy.
Infortive also helped us find profiles that we wouldn't have been able to identify on our own.
What's more, having a single firm to support us in the recruitment of both interim managers and permanent staff enables us to be more agile in our transformation.

Stéphanie Quirino, HR Manager, Veolia Water Information Systems

The Transition Manager demonstrated incredible pedagogy and great communication skills.
He was able to simplify the technical aspects while maintaining constant transparency.
He met all the deadlines and was able to integrate the team quickly.
It was exemplary support, which I can sum up in one word: efficiency.

Frédéric Chamla, President of Digital Med