With regulatory pressure pushing water bills down by 5%, Northumbrian Water has turned to James Robbins to deliver efficiencies. As a result of automating scheduling and despatch of work and removing cumbersome legacy applications and PDAs, he has enabled better delivery and better service, and the IT budget is now seen as the best way to deliver sustainable change. When did you start your current role as group information services director at Northumbrian Water Group?2011. What is your reporting line?CEO. Do you meet with and discuss business strategy with the CEO every week?Fortnightly. Are you a member of the board of directors?Yes. What other executive boards do you sit on?NWG consists of Northumbrian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water, NWG Business. Does your organisation have a CDO?No. What non-technology responsibilities do you have in the organisation?I am remunerated based on our operating performance, which includes customer service, leakage, interruptions to supply, water quality, flooding, bathing water quality and sewage treatment, among several others. I take a lead on company reporting and performance management in general, not just the numbers. I also sponsor company-wide innovation not just IT-led/enabled. How many employees does your organisation have?3,000. Does your organisation carry out significant trade in the EU?Yes. How many users does your department supply services to?4,000. How do you ensure that you have a good understanding of your business and how your customers use your business's products?I spend 40 days a year at operational sites on visibility and health and safety tours. I listen to every customer feedback we receive where we are scored less than 3 out of 5. I attend customer focus groups as part of our regulatory planning cycle. Every autumn I and fellow directors meet with every single employee at 60 roadshow-style events, listening to their views! Northumbrian Water technology strategy and agenda Is your organisation being disrupted by the internet, mobility or technology-oriented start-ups?No. Are you empowered by your organisation to disrupt from the inside?Yes. Describe a disruptive measure you’ve led or played a major part inWe handed out 1,000 iPhone 5s in January this year and opened up the app store to field staff. The feedback was amazing! Translation apps, extra navigation and photo edit tools, in-house apps, all improving efficiency and customer service. What major transformation project has been recently completed or is under way at your organisation?Just finished a major field services programme, a £10m project to transform the way our field staff deliver operations. 500 staff service water and sewerage mains for five million people in the UK. We have delivered £3m a year efficiency savings by automating scheduling and despatch of work and by removing cumbersome legacy applications and PDA technology that hindered the workers. We have delivered Windows 8.1 Panasonic Toughpads with GIS, email, intranet, internet and asset apps. We introduced standard business processes in the North and South, and made sure our field staff knew that the rest of the business was behind them. Next, the 500 people in customer contact will experience the same transformation as we replace legacy customer care and billing apps with new services integrated to the field, which enable simpler end-to-end customer service. What impact will the above transformation have on your organisation?It is standing the business on its head. Water bills are reducing by 5% due to regulatory pressure, so technology must enable more efficient delivery and better service. The IT budget is now seen as the best way for our ops directors to deliver sustainable change. How has your leadership style contributed to the outcomes of the transformation project?My role was to get us started and guide the senior ops managers through the process. Many had not worked on an IS-enabled transformation and we had ops people leading every workstream apart from the tech one. So I brought project design, coaching and mentoring to the table. Using all my experience of transformation in other companies and getting the best value from the supply chain were my main contributions. What key technologies do you consider enable transformation?Microsoft Windows 8.1. Oracle MWM and ORS (automated resource scheduling), Oracle application development framework (ADF/MDF), OneSpatial GIS. Are you increasing the number of cloud applications or infrastructure in use at your organisation?Yes. What is your information and data analytics vision for the organisation?Our IS strategy is subtitled 'winning with intelligence'. Our intelligence team and centre of excellence are aligned to our architects and strategy teams. We see real-time intelligence as the centrepiece of our IS strategy and the best way to secure a return on IT investment. How is mobile and social networking impacting operations and customer experience?Last year we came second in the digital utility of the year competition run by Utility Week magazine. We moved over 250,000 customer transactions online through our new responsive-design website. Our 'Dwain Pipe' social media campaign has helped change customer behaviour and reduced the number of blocked drains by getting people not to pour fatty deposits and other rubbish down the loo. Describe your strategic vision towards shadow IT and BYOD. How do you influence and engage executives and employees around choice?In my view the CIO is accountable for all information flows, so the line doesn't matter. Whatever works effectively and efficiently to enable industry-winning performance is my view of what does matter. We have BYOD and over 200 users but if someone is adding value, then, from an ethical point of view, why should the company not provide the kit? We have a great catalogue of services and can secure better deals than our employees. We use BYOD so that people can have a better work/life balance or prove us wrong on tech decisions! Shadow IT is encouraged under our innovation strategy. We manage it through great relationships across business teams, facilitated by the excellent business relationships team in IS. What strategic technology deals have been struck and with whom?We have global development agreement with Oracle for all enterprise applications, meaning our non-execs challenge all investment in non-strategic partners. It's a game changer when non-execs are reinforcing IS strategy. The same is true for Microsoft on content, collaboration and records management. Our service integration framework with TCS, WiPro, Infosys, IBM, CGI, L&T and Tech Mahindra has reduced procurement timeframes from six months to six weeks. Who are your main suppliers?Oracle, Microsoft, Steria, Infosys, EE, OneSpatial, WiPro, TCS, CGI. Northumbrian Water IT security and budget Has your organisation detected a cyber intrusion in the last 12 months?No. Has cyber-security risen up your management agenda?Yes. Does your organisation understand the potential cyber-security threats it faces?Yes. Has this led to an increase in your security budget?Yes. What is the IT budget?£25m. How much is the IT operational spend compared to the revenue as a percentage?5%. What is the strategic aim of the CIO and IT operations for the next financial year?To launch major transformation in the customer contact centre. To consolidate major operational benefits delivered in 2014. To replace Citrix. Are you finding it difficult to recruit the talent you need to drive transformation?No. Has recruitment and retention risen up your agenda as a CIO?Yes. Are you looking for recruits in the EU to fill the skills shortage you have?No. Does your IT organisation operate an apprenticeship scheme?Yes. Northumbrian Water technology department How would you describe your leadership style?I would describe myself as very intelligent, driven and enthusiastic. I am performance-focused and working hard to be easier to please. Most would describe me as affable and engaging with a great sense of humour. Explain how you’ve supported and developed your senior leadership team to support your overall objectives and visionMy leadership team have really stepped up in the last 12 months. We made a number of changes last year and I've really tried to step back this year and let the team find their space. I've provided facilitation and high-level business communication or prioritisation when needed. I try to spend two hours' quality time with each of my direct reports a month, mainly listening and providing advice. We meet formally for half a day a month as a team on decision-making, and informally for coffee on a weekly basis. The most productive sessions are the whole department scrums and my annual one-to-one with every IS employee, as I can facilitate valuable feedback to the leadership team in IS. But the best thing we do as a leadership team are the biannual offsite events to challenge each other but also to celebrate our successes with each other – that and thanking their families at Christmas! How many employees are in your IT team?156. What is the split between in-house/outsourced staff?75/25%. Does your team include key skilled workers from the EU?Yes.