CIO Interview Analysis: National Geography and Vodafone

This essay analyzes the interviews of Marcus East, CIO of National Geography, and Jorge Fernandes, CIO of Vodafone, discussing their roles, strategies, and approaches in the field of information systems. It also explores the challenges faced by the companies and suggests future strategies for CIOs.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEM
Information System
Name of the student:
Name of the university:

1INFORMATION SYSTEM
Introduction
Chief Information officer is the senior most technical executives working for any
organization. This particular designation is available in government, non-profit organizations,
business and even in government offices as well. The responsibility of CIO is to set as well as
lead advanced technical strategies to give their organizations a competitive edge and higher
commercial revenue structure as well.
The CIO interview nominated for this essay is Marcus East- CIO of National Geography
channel and Jorge Fernandes, Vodafone, CIO interview. Both of these interviews are analyzed
considering technical spectrums and its operational and functional activities. The roles of the
CIO in the businesses are elaborated in this paper. Apart from this, the way through which
management information system can identify the issues and ongoing problems of an organization
are also elaborated in this paper. In addition to that, the future strategies that a CIO needs to
pursue for mitigating the identified risks and challenge are also discussed in this essay.
Investigation and briefly Overview Company’s recent IT history prior to the
interview
Explanation of the theme, clarify and define terms
Marcus East, the chief Technology officer of national geography has discussed about the
three pillars they are using in their technology changing program. It has been identified that with
the help of the technology radical and innovative changes can be incorporated to National
Geography. In order to enhance the digital commercial servicers the National Geography
company authority is working on modernized technology to implement server less and open

2INFORMATION SYSTEM
source approaches. In the year of 2017 the national geography channel has reached to its 130th
anniversary and hired the new chief technology officer (or chief information technology officer).
In order to keep the channel much engaged to the audiences the importance of technical
exploitation is identified as a major aspect.
Expansion with references to stories and tasks
Besides visual representation the existing consumers of the channel is currently interested
to gain opportunities from their community as well. The CIO determined that computer weekly
is a very good interview session. In order to improve the current applications they are giving
focus on three different pillars such as new underlying platform, digital experience redesigning
and community product development. These will allow the consumers to explore their interest
area.
Recent IT history of company
The company was not focused on being more technical and innovative in previous days
as a result they were failing to communicate effectively with their consumers. Even the company
was lagging from enough of social technology exploration innovative opportunities.
Critically appraise the CIOS’s view, strategy and approaches to the stated theme
After critically appraising the CIO’s view it has been explored that the company is
focused on becoming server less these days. In order to store large set of data and keep them
secured from external and unauthorized access the company is taking cloud service access. The
company is collaborating with 21st Century Fox and together they are designing the server less

3INFORMATION SYSTEM
architecture platform. Most of the core systems used by the company were hosted in traditional
data centre.
I think that in order to provide more fast and secured services the CIO has planned for
platform migration and being server less. The entire approach is positive from the customer and
business perspectives. It is analyzed that, the new server less architecture design will allow the
users to use the resources those are required to power the application cost effectively.
Second interview: Jorge Fernandes, Vodafone, CIO
The Vodafone UK chief technology officer, Jorge Fernandes has discussed about the
legacy network, digitisation and in order to provide mobile enabled featured the different
technology they are willing to incorporate in their services. In order to manage the
transformation protocol Jorge has joined Vodafone. The rate of information transfer over the
network is being accelerated to breakneck speed. The responsibility of managing the network
service and the IT are all up to the company CIO. The CIO of the company is focusing to the
current services and in order large commercial success and competitive edge the CIO is
considering the consumer’s expectation from the service.
Expansion with references to stories and tasks
The customer service relationship of the company is very weak. Apart from the network
performance another pressure which is facing by the Vodafone team is their CRM system and
Billing system. Massive traffic in the network of Vodafone was also increasing as a result the
numbers of consumers are decreasing for Vodafone. Since 2017 the AI supported chatbot
approach is implemented by Vodafone as a result the consumers are getting opportunities to
contact easily with the system requirements,

4INFORMATION SYSTEM
The volumes of information are increasing day by day and operating these data has
becoming a major challenge for the Vodafone. In order o resolve theses challenge the company
is keep on doing investments on underlying fixed fiber infrastructure and innovative mobile
delivery technology like multiple input and multiple outputs.
Recent IT history of company
Now the 4G service offered by the company is evolving to 5G service in a similar way
through which 3G was converted into 4G. The technology that will be used for the change is
high speed packet or datagram access technology. Before delivery of the 5G network in order to
offer same 5G service experience the company is reframing their spectrum to allow all the 4G
users. These are called evolution in 4G. In order to design and develop the network service for
the consumers agile development operation practice has been adopted by the company.
Critically appraise the CIOS’s view, strategy and approaches to the stated theme
Vodafone has identified the mission critical IT system related challenges such as their
standard OSS/BSS systems required for the digital interface. From the year of 2017 the regular
customers of the company are getting advantages of chatbot and automatic Artificial Intelligence
(AI). The AI driven desktop helps the consumers to get immediate response from the server
regardless of their location and time as well. It has been assumed that with the help if the IT
support 30% of the potential risks can be easily identified and mitigated sooner. It is determined
that around 30% of the interaction session of the Vodafone users is operating with the help of the
chatbots.
I think that in order to gain commercial revenue and commercial competitive edges the
Vodafone service providers are making changing in the IT applications and current network

5INFORMATION SYSTEM
systems. In order to strengthen the weak customer relationship management system the CIO has
evolved the concept of chatbot (AI based) application in the year of 2017. The application
offering are all positive from the business perspectives but these applications are very cost
effective and time consuming.
After investigating the management information system of National Geography Company
is has been determined that most of their operational and functional activities are not customer
focused.
Suggestions for future strategies and direction that CIO should pursue
The role of the future CIO are changing rapidly and as a result based on the company
requirements the roles and responsibilities of the CIOs are also needed to be changed
accordingly. The new strategies that are to be pursued by the company CIOs are as follows:
 The CIOs should play the role of an exploiter of new opportunities
 The CIOs should become an orchestrator for the creative solution
 The CIO must integrate all the higher order services together
 Must operate a professional great customer relationship management services
Conclusion
From the overall discussion it can be concluded that CIO are the senior technology
executives who designs the entire business operation and application successfully. The CIPO
interview that has been nominated for this essay is National Geography. The CIO has identified
that current challenges and issues that the company is facing and in order to resolve the identified
issues the different technical approaches those are needed to be implemented are also elaborated

6INFORMATION SYSTEM
in this essay. Apart from that, the current IT status of the company and the possible actions those
can be taken for resolving these issues are elaborated in this paper. In addition to that, the issues
on which initially the CIO needs to put their focus on are also identified ion this essay. The
positive and negative themes of the scenario are elaborated additionally future strategies for the
CIOs are also elaborated in this essay.

7INFORMATION SYSTEM
Bibliography
Ahern, T., Leavy, B., and Byrne, P. J. 2014. Complex project management as complex problem
solving: A distributed knowledge management perspective. International Journal of Project
Management, 32(8), 1371-1381.
Cohen-Vogel, L., Tichnor-Wagner, A., Allen, D., Harrison, C., Kainz, K., Socol, A. R., and
Wang, Q. 2015. Implementing educational innovations at scale: Transforming researchers into
continuous improvement scientists. Educational Policy, 29(1), 257-277.
Conforto, E. C., Salum, F., Amaral, D. C., da Silva, S. L., and de Almeida, L. F. M. 2014. Can
agile project management be adopted by industries other than software development?. Project
Management Journal, 45(3), 21-34.
Conger, S. 2015. Six sigma and business process management. In Handbook on Business
Process Management 1 (pp. 127-146). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
First, M. B. 2016. Adopting a continuous improvement model for future DSM revisions. World
Psychiatry, 15(3), 223-224.
Heldman, K. 2015. PMP project management professional exam deluxe study guide: updated for
the 2015 Exam. John Wiley and Sons.
Hornstein, H. A. 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 291-298.

8INFORMATION SYSTEM
Joslin, R., and Müller, R. 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and
project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(6), 1377-1392.
Marcelino-Sádaba, S., Pérez-Ezcurdia, A., Lazcano, A. M. E., and Villanueva, P. 2014. Project
risk management methodology for small firms. International Journal of Project
Management, 32(2), 327-340.
Mir, F. A., and Pinnington, A. H. 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking
project management performance and project success. International journal of project
management, 32(2), 202-217.
Sanchez, M. A. 2015. Integrating sustainability issues into project management. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 96, 319-330.