The keynote speech discusses the need to simplify outdated IT systems in order to take advantage of new digital technologies. It describes the "old digital world" as overly complex, with too many fragmented applications and outdated systems. This complexity leads to inaccurate data, inefficient processes, high costs, and other issues. However, the new digital technologies cannot be fully realized without first simplifying outdated systems. The speech argues that simplifying IT systems in a measured way, through goals, analysis, and change management, can help embrace new technologies while reducing complexity. It also stresses that CIOs need long-term strategic vision to balance investments in old and new systems for maximum benefit.

1. Keynote speech – CIO CITY – Brussels, 3 June 2013
Daniel Lebeau – Group CIO at GlaxoSmithKline
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Ode to simplification and IT strategic leaders
When I participate in CIO and IT
conferences, I inhabit a different planet. All
of the discussions concern the new digital
world: big data, mobile, social network,
cloud, the new role of CIOs. However,
when I am back in the office, the majority
of my time is dedicated to the “old digital
world”: ERP roll-out, risks and compliance,
analytics, budgets, upgrades...
Harmoniously connecting the best of the
old digital world with the un-inflated
promises of the new digital world is the
subject of my keynote, articulated around
six parts. I will first portrait the old digital
world. I will then describe some challenges
of the new digital revolution. In the third
part, I will question the co-existence of
both worlds: trade-off or a paradox? Next,
I will explain why “less is more” and then I
will suggest how to simplify IT. In the last
part, I will speak about the IT strategic
leader and why a long-term vision is so
difficult.
1. Portrait of the old digital world
Let me first draw an ugly portrait of the old
digital world.
I’m currently in front of the most
prestigious European CIO’s and my simple
question is « How many applications do
you currently run? 100? 500? 1000?
5000?” Few of us know the exact answer
but many of us think “Too many”.
In addition to the cost, the management of
too many applications is a challenge. Let
me illustrate some of the impacts.
First, the master data are not accurate. For
example, if I run one hundred HR systems,
I still will not know the number of
employees. If I run one hundred sales
systems, I still will not know my customers.
Indeed, complexity and accuracy are not
friends.
Second. Imagine that the previous ERP
roll-out was not successful and a new ERP
is under gestation. Depending on the
country or the method of purchase, there
are a hundred ways to initiate a shopping
card, a hundred ways to plan and a
hundred ways to sell. In a complex
environment, the business processes are
highly fragmented and difficult to
optimize.
Third, let me speak of the IT debt. Half of
the applications have probably not been
upgraded for 5 years or more because of
budget challenges or laziness. By
deferring these costly upgrades to the next

2. Keynote speech – CIO CITY – Brussels, 3 June 2013
Daniel Lebeau – Group CIO at GlaxoSmithKline
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CIO, we create an IT debt which can reach
up to two years of operating budget and
which increases over time like a snowball.
Obviously, the lessons of Year 2000 have
been forgotten.
Fourth, obsolete technology. Because of a
lack of upgrades, applications become
obsolete and frozen. We cannot quickly
leverage new functionality and therefore
we develop new applications: this is the
fundamental vicious circle. And of course,
the IT workforce is demotivated. As you
know, no IT employee currently plans for
his career to be in obsolete technologies.
Fifth impact is a difficult merger and
acquisition process. During an acquisition,
none of the GSK systems are good enough
to address the needs of the acquired
company and so we keep their
applications interface with their application
portfolio. As a result, the numbers of
applications increase.
A sixth impact is the inefficiency of all
interfaces. Because the number of
interfaces is proportional to the square of
the number of applications, we have an
abundance of interfaces. The number of
interfaces continuously increases while
their quality decreases: interfaces are the
‘cancer’ of IT.
To summarize; the impact of a complex
application portfolio is painful:
fragmentation of the business processes,
inaccuracy of data, inefficient interfaces,
costly budget, unsupported technologies,
deferred upgrades, difficult mergers and
acquisitions.
The root cause of the abundance of
applications is always the same: 20 years
of legacy systems, different countries, a
history of mergers and acquisitions, the
silo mentality of the organisation, business
urgency for tactical solutions, supplier
overselling.
But the root causes are not necessarily all
external to IT: some of them depend on
the presence or absence of the strategic
vision of IT leaders or of IT’s tenacity in
keeping the compass focused on the long
term direction. Later, I will come back to
this core competency of IT leaders.
Remember, the ‘complexification’ of the IT
landscape is unfortunately a vicious circle.
More systems induce more interfaces and
less upgrades and therefore more rigidity.
Old rigid applications lead to new
applications which are initially standalone,
then later on, interfaced. And the vicious
circle continues.
2. Challenges of the new digital revolution
The new digital revolution has also
challenges.
A first challenge is the inflated
expectations which, as the Gartner hype
suggests, are followed by troughs of
disillusion: remember the disruptive
promise of RFID! In addition, inflated
wording driven by ‘cupid’ suppliers and
naïve customers does not help; some
basic outsourced services are called cloud
and simple databases are called “big data”.

3. Keynote speech – CIO CITY – Brussels, 3 June 2013
Daniel Lebeau – Group CIO at GlaxoSmithKline
Page 3 of 5
The second challenge is the IT risk, both
for society and for the company.
Obviously, the emergence of the new
digital revolution stimulates the creativity
of more hackers, more terrorists and
incredibly advanced persistent threats.
With new technologies like cloud and
mobile, addressing privacy, security and
continuity starts to become an impossible
mission.
But the main challenge is that the new
digital world relies on the solid foundation
of the old digital world: accurate master
data, simplified global processes, explicit
risk and compliance approaches, up-to-
date technologies, ability to stay evergreen
at low cost, small set of standards (not
only in place but in use), available expertise
and funding.
3. Investing in the new or the old digital world?
Because such current foundations are not
ready, the million dollar question is:
“should I clean my foundation” or “should I
embrace ASAP the new digital world”?
We know that the question is not whether
to invest in the old or in the new digital
world; we need to invest in both. It is not
an “OR” but an “AND”. We are not in front
of a “win-lose” relationship but in front of a
“win-win “one. In a word, it is not a trade-
off but a paradox.
Let me explore the win-win relationship of
that paradox with some examples.
• To provide advanced analytics, I
need fewer ERP?
• To deliver mobile employee
services, I need fewer HR systems?
• To outsource the mail to a cloud
provider, I need fewer active
directories (AD)?
• To leverage a global digital
platform, I need less fragmented
web sites?
• To deploy new technologies, I need
to upgrade my current
applications?
Paradoxically, the simplification of the
current landscape is a pre-requisite to
harvest the juicy fruits of the new digital
economy. Indeed, we need: an old digital
world, a back office with single global
processes and master data, evergreen
infrastructure, reduced standards.
4. Why simplify
Experiencing “less is more” is not a
discretionary objective. It is a fundamental
priority to embrace the new digital world.
Addressing the snowball effect of the IT
‘complexification’ requires courage,
maturity and resilience.
Because the fragmentation of business
processes partially reflects the silo
mentality of an organization; IT
departments have a historical mission to
drive the simplification of the business
operating model by removing systems and
therefore barriers.

4. Keynote speech – CIO CITY – Brussels, 3 June 2013
Daniel Lebeau – Group CIO at GlaxoSmithKline
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Experiencing “less is more” frees an IT
organisation. It improves quality and
efficiency. It builds a strong foundation.
5. How to simplify?
Portfolio simplification is a bit of a holy
grail: a lot of promise but ever-so-hard to
achieve. Because the complexity of the IT
landscape is a vicious circle we see, month
after month, the number of applications
increasing.
The number of applications is the entropy
of the IT landscape; literally the measure of
disorder. And we know that in Physics,
entropy never decreases without energy.
So the question is: “How to decrease the
number of applications? How to move
from a vicious to a virtual circle?”
The managerial energy needed to simplify
the complexity landscape is articulated
around 5 tools: measurement, objectives,
methods, funding and change
management. Guess what: no surprise!
a) A precise monthly measurement of the
number of applications
b) A clear objective of -1% applications
per quarter impacting the bonus of key
IT leaders
c) A portfolio analysis of all applications
per process and sub-process to
identify opportunities
d) Funding mechanism to decommission
applications which are old and poorly
used and to upgrade applications
which are old and massively used
e) A continuous change management not
only within IT but within the business
to clearly articulate why we decrease
the number of applications
With the right focus and energy, it is
possible to simplify the IT landscape.
6. Strategic IT leaders
Success, however, at the end, is related to
the strategic vision of the IT leaders.
During their career, IT leaders should stack
five distinctive competencies:
a) the mindset to serve
b) the discipline to deliver
c) the ‘savviness’ to reengineer
d) the empathy to engage and, last
but not least
e) the focus to strategize
This ability of the IT leader to strategize is a
key differentiator which is fed from various
ingredients: the frequent reference to
historical learning, the appetite to learn
massively outside the box, the
consciousness to filter noise and stay
focused on the big tickets, the mental
mind to project over time and pleasure in
practicing what Socrates called the “Art of
Thinking”, a mix of induction and
deduction.

5. Keynote speech – CIO CITY – Brussels, 3 June 2013
Daniel Lebeau – Group CIO at GlaxoSmithKline
Page 5 of 5
It’s because you are strategic that you will
have started to simplify your old digital
world, understanding that “less is more”.
It’s because you are strategic that you will
understand the paradox of investing both
in the old and the new digital world, that
you devote your daily time to old problems
and your free time to new promises.
It’s because you are strategic and have the
historical background of IT that you can
navigate between wrong promises, inflated
illusions and the right disruptions
Ladies and gentleman, this was my “ode to simplification”. A rocky and difficult journey. But
one that is so rewarding and so important given all the disruptive technologies waiting in
front of us.