How to Win as a CIO and Financial Leader – with Bob Fecteau, CIO of SAIC

My guest for this episode is Bob Fecteau who is the CIO of SAIC. SAIC is a 15000 employee, $4.0 billion publicly-traded company.

He is one of the four top people who travel to Wall Street to report on the company performance along with the CEO, CFO and COO. He signs off on the SOX control documents for his publicly-traded company.

From my perspective of working with and interviewing hundreds of CIOs, he is a visionary, and is one of the best in the profession. He is a giver who wants to elevate the whole profession and share his wisdom.

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I think every early, mid and late career CIO with gas in the tank will benefit from listening to Bob’s perspective as it rang true for me. Here are the quick wins for you. I warn you that you will want to take notes on this one because as I read through the show notes, I had a difficult time choosing which points to put in this list as there were so many. I encourage you to go to the show notes page at www.redzonetech.net to see the show transcript and the links to vendors and programs we discussed.

Here are the highlights from the conversation:

Painting the visionary picture of what is the “art of the possible”.
His perspective of the role of the CIO and Finance.
His perspective of how he uses labor and time savings that has made a big difference for ROI and TCO calculations for technology investments.
What it means to be a “state of art” versus ‘State of Market” with technology investments.
We discuss his role with Compliance.
We discuss his belief of the role of the CIO and innovation.
The top 3 skills a CIO must have: Analytical, Financial, and Communication.
What it means to own the problem.
Important CIO Tools he uses that I thought were right on.
His approach to Total Cost Accounting or an ERPC for CIOs and the tools he is using and testing; Apptio.com.
Portfolio Management Software called Troux.com.
What it means to have consistent artifacts as a CIO.

About Bob Fecteau

Bob Fecteau is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for SAIC. In this role, Bob is responsible for guiding technology investments and delivering operational services in direct support of the business. As the CIO, Bob focuses on the efficiency and effectiveness of enterprise IT operations in support of both internal business needs and customer support processes.

Prior to joining SAIC, Bob served as the CIO of BAE Systems’ Intelligence and Security sector and as Chief Information Officer, United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). In 2001, he was selected for the Department of Defense’s Chief Information Officer Award for Outstanding Achievement in Information Management.

As an Army officer he served a variety of roles with the intelligence branch including, Army System Integration Management Officer (SIMO) for Army Intelligence; Intelligence Systems Architect for automated systems; Tactical Intelligence Officer; Human Intelligence Officer; and Company Commander. While assigned to Army headquarters as the Army SIMO, he received the National Intelligence Meritorious Citation for support to the Army’s and National Intelligence Community’s Y2K mission as well as serving as the Army’s Intelligence Year 2000 Program Manager.

Bob also serves the technical community as an executive board member of CIO Magazine’s CIO Executive Council and a judge for their annual One’s To Watch program. He also works as a mentor within the Pathways Program and teaches Enterprise Architecture and IT Leadership at Carnegie Mellon University’s Executive Education Program.

Bob’s technical and leadership acumen has also been recognized by industry peers. In 2009 he was selected as one of the top 100 IT Leaders by Computerworld Magazine and in 2004, he received Government Executive Magazine’s Grace Hopper Government Technology Leadership Award for his efforts in breaking down barriers between government and industry through the use of the Army Contractor Automated Verification System (ACAVS). The ACAVS system has continued to deliver outstanding savings for the U.S. Army and contract companies in support of intelligence missions.

Bob received a Bachelor of Science degree from Corpus Christi State University and completed Syracuse University’s masters of information studies in Washington, D.C. He also received a Chief Information Officer certificate from the National Defense University.

How to get in touch with Bob Fecteau:

Key Resources:

Portfolio Management software – http://www.troux.com/
ERP – Business Management Systems for CIOs – www.apptio.com
Bill’s first interview with Bob Fecteau – The Next Gen CIO. What Does This Person Look Like?
SAIC Website

Where to Develop Additional Learning:

Syracuse University – Information Management at the iSchool
Duke University – Office of Information Technology
Stanford University – Information Science and Technology
Carnegie Mellon – Institute for Software Research, Executive & Professional Education Programs
Penn State – Information Sciences and Technology Programs which have an integrated Enterprise Architecture component that was built by CIOs and business leaders in response to a need to teach students how to align IT to the business. Undergraduate, Graduate and Executive Certification Programs
National Defense University – Information Resource College’s, Chief Information Officer Program
Harvard Sponsored Program in their Center For Management Research: Programs on Leadership for Senior Executives as well as the Kennedy School of Government
CIO Executive Council – CIO Pathways – provides a broad range of CIO Level leadership programs

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About Bill Murphy

Bill Murphy is a world-renowned IT Security Expert dedicated to your success as an IT business leader.

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