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• CIO Insights

By Andy McCue, 5 August 2004 12:06

INTERVIEW The headquarters of FTSE 100 industrial gases firm BOC suddenly appear through the winding tree-lined lanes of leafy Windlesham in Surrey, a short journey from Woking. Compared to the bustle of the City, the setting is beautiful, but BOC's CIO Peter Dew, who also lives close by, isn't entirely happy with the location.

That's no reflection on BOC, just that Dew is a self-confessed city dweller at heart and admits to liking a good party. And he doesn't like just any old city. A quick look at his CV shows long spells in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Sydney, Australia. A stunning photo of Sydney, which Dew describes as "the best place in the world", hangs on the wall of his spacious office, which sits on the 'executive' floor of the building next door to the CEO.

Dew started out as a systems development manager in South Africa for a BOC subsidiary after completing a management training programme at Plessy. He then moved to Australia for six years, eventually making it as IT director at BOC before the call came to return to England.

"I never thought I'd be here. I didn't think I was a candidate for this role. I was asked for my thoughts on what I would do. I wrote a paper. I didn't want to leave Sydney," he says.

Now that he is back in his native UK, however, Dew is enjoying himself. "This is a phenomenal company to work for and I have a lot of fun here."

As CIO of an FTSE 100 company, Dew is ultimately in charge of an annual IT budget of around £100m and 480 staff globally, all managed from his office in Surrey.

Infrastructure-wise, BOC has a major global SAP system and IBM hardware, uses MCI for its global network, runs major data processing centres in Guildford and uses Microsoft for the desktop. Many people will be surprised that a company like BOC still uses MS Mail and Windows 95. Dew defends the use of such an old platform, saying it's about buying and using technology that's "fit for purpose".

Dew is coy about BOC's Microsoft upgrade plans and will only admit that an agreement with the Redmond giant will ensure BOC has access to "all the functionality we need for the next three years".

Linux, however, is very much on the IT agenda for Dew with a lab running everything on free shareware and a 65-user trial of StarOffice in India. "We need to look at alternatives," he says.

But it's not just about blanket switching of platforms. Dew's vision for BOC is of a segmented user base, each kitted out only with the relevant IT that it needs.

"We are looking at four broad user groups including transaction workers, executives and mobile users, with a service offering for each of those," he explains. "We have 50 to 60 per cent of employees who are transaction workers in call centres and gas installations. They don't need sophisticated calendaring as they spend most of their time in SAP and they don't create PowerPoint presentations and spreadsheets. So why build solutions that require those?"

As an example he suggests that mobile knowledge workers could be provided with money to go and buy the appropriate technology they need with the proviso only that it's compatible with the BOC network and infrastructure.

Dew reports directly into his CEO Tony Isaac and although he doesn't sit on the Plc board, he is a member of the executive management board. He believes the fundamental role of a CIO is to enable everyone in the business to exploit technology in order to maximise shareholder value.

"The ability to exploit technology is the key differentiator between the organisations that win. If we're going to go into the era of information enlightenment, we've got to have it spread across the organisation. If IT is the lifeblood of the organisation then people who understand it have to be everywhere in the organisation," he says.

In that sense Dew differs from many execs who call for the IT function to align more closely with the business. Dew believes that many IT executives are already "business-enabled" and that the onus is now on getting business executives to become more "IT-enabled".

"That's the challenge of CIOs going forward. Business people have to have a grounding in the fundamentals of IT and they need to know how to exploit it."

Unlike many CIOs, Dew does have a personal as well as professional passion for technology, confessing that he likes to fiddle with the latest tech and gadgets. He travels about one week every month to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the US and the sounds of Dire Straits 'Love Over Gold' on his Apple iPod help relieve the boredom of long-haul flights.

In his professional role this manifests itself as future-gazing.

"As you become more senior in organisations you become more of a creator. I try not to get into this meeting frenzy but free up time to think about the future," he says. "One thing that interests me is how operating models of organisations are going to evolve given ubiquitous network connectivity. I wonder with 3G technology and high-speed wireless connectivity if the whole concept of an organisation will change. What will that mean for me and the organisation - and I don't yet know the answer."

Aside from his professed love of a good party, it's obvious that Dew is extremely driven and lives and breathes his work. "I have a strong work ethic. I live to work," he says. "The fundamental role of any CIO is cost-effective quality delivery of IT-related services, and the ability to exploit technology is the key differentiator between the organisations that win."