Dohsung Yum | interview
Collaborative Approach to Smart IT As the CIO of a large merged entity, Dohsung Yum, CIO, The Attachmate Group, had the tough task of ensuring a smooth IT integration of four businesses. As a veteran of the IT industry, Yum advises senior IT executives on how to plan IT strategy and work out an effective collaborative approach and a smart project plan in a merger scenario As the CIO of such a large entity, which has gone through several mergers and acquisitions, what are the inherent challenges such situations throw up? How can the IT team address these? Every new acquisition throws up a huge challenge to the IT team in its initial days. Th e At t ach m at e G r o up s mergers have been very different and unique. Each company has its own scope of operations and complexity with regard to the IT framework. The four entities are a) Novell - offers solutions in the collaboration, data management and end-point management space with its unique set-up b) SUSE – the Linux Platform for both enterprise server and desktop c) NetIQ – includes the entire group’s offering in terms of Secu-
rity & Compliance, Identity & Access, Disaster Recovery etc, and has its critical IT infrastructure in place and d) Attachmate – includes offerings in terminal emulation, legacy modernisation, managed file transfer and enterprise fraud management. In driving the integration, the role of IT is not just complex, but also an expensive proposition. In my opinion, it is not about technology alone, it is about the team’s adaptation to the business and culture of the enterprise. It is critical to understand what the business needs are and get the required coherence in the enterprise to drive smoother integration of IT processes and systems. In any large merger and acquisition, IT is put to a litmus test as the situation is chaotic, with several unknown factors and out-
comes. The primary reason is that most IT teams are caught up with short term gains and support and focused on core activities. What’s missing is a broad vision. What most IT managers forget is to reach out to the business partners and manage relationships, to make their task easier. I found that the only way to address challenges was to encourage my team to work closely with the business groups individually, wherever IT could be of use, whether finance, sales and marketing, HR or operations and understand the nuances. After the assessment, I brought in the required changes in the support system, technological deployment and processes. The biggest initiative that helped was a two way communication process between employees and IT, which helped us win half the battle.
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