Computerworld - February 27, 2012

Chief technology o;cer and
chief sustainability o;cer,
North County Transit
District, Oceanside, Calif.
Joseph D.
Natoli
Vice president, product
engineering, Apollo Group,
Tempe, Ariz.
Your coolest
current proj-
ect:
Sanjay
Mirchandani
The characteristic that’s
most important to you in
an IT hire:
A new title
added to
your IT or-
ganization:
We created
a new title
called “principal engineer”
that enables the senior
technical contributors in
the company to grow into a
senior-level position.

TESTING HIS COMPANY’S PRODUC TS HELPS SALES
WHEN TOUTING their company’s products, EMC sales reps often get this question from prospec- tive customers: “Do you guys use your own stu;?” Those types of queries led Sanjay Mirchandani, CIO and chief operating o;cer for EMC’s Global Centers of Excellence, to decide that IT should show customers how the vendor uses its own technology. He had his
sta;ers work with product engineers so IT could be an early adopter of
EMC products in an active IT production environment — when products
were either in the early stages of development or close to release.
“We kind of turned I T on its head,” says Mirchandani, 47. Not only
is IT providing the infrastructure for the organization, but “we have
legitimate-use cases and experience with the product, so engineers
have feedback, and customers have early-use cases from us,” he adds.
Committing to new software always carries risk, but Mirchandani says
he feels it’s a risk that can be managed.
Chuck Hollis, C TO of EMC’s global marketing unit, says the change in
IT under Mirchandani’s leadership “has been amazing.”
“He’s singularly passionate and enthusiastic about what could be —
and putting all his e;ort into making it happen,” Hollis says. “He has
that special ability to create a vision that senior executives, business
stakeholders and his IT organizations all can enthusiastically endorse.
I don’t think of him as the CIO, per se. I see him as a business leader
who is capable of accomplishing great things.” ;

— STACY COLLETT

Chris Miller
Corporate vice president
and CIO, Avanade, Seattle
Corporate vice president
and CIO, Motorola
Mobility, Libertyville, Ill.

How do you
make sure
your most
talented
workers
stay put?
Our most talented team mem-
bers have a thirst to learn and
grow, and we are constantly
presenting them with new
challenges. We also allow for
flexibility in our employees’
schedules, and have even al-
lowed several employees to
relocate internationally and
continue in their roles.
An innovative sta; idea:
An employee developed an
application to push alerts to
mobile devices for our Micro-
soft Dynamics CRM imple-
mentation.