Tim Andrews is the Head of Development and Technology at Ipes. He decided to build all of Ipes' internal systems instead of using standard off-the-shelf systems because the standard systems would be too inflexible and not support Ipes' business processes. Over the next year, Ipes plans to open up their internal platform to clients via a web application to improve communication and reduce email traffic. Andrews recognizes changing employee behaviors around technology will help transition people from spreadsheets to their new online platform.

1. 28 CIOCONNECTspring2012
“We realised that if we used
all the standard systems, they
would be too inflexible and
would not actually support
the processes we use, so we
decided to build all our own
systems.”
- Tim Andrews, Head of development
and technology, Ipes

2. 29spring2012CIOCONNECT
Leadership
Name: Tim Andrews
Position: Head of development and technology
Organisation: Ipes
Twelve years ago, Barings spun-off its private equity fund admin-
istration business and Ipes was born. The company has grown
rapidly since inception from having only four staff members to 130
employees.
The company’s IT head, however, is a relative new-comer – Tim
Andrews only joined the company four years ago. “When I joined,
the IT infrastructure was what you would expect of a start-up busi-
ness that had expanded rapidly,” he says. “My mandate has been to
move the systems to an enterprise level.”
Andrews is perfect for the role: he is a qualified accountant, who
then moved into IT. “I fell into a technology role because I was inter-
ested in how a company’s accounts are put together. So I moved from
preparing accounts to projects that involved putting in accounting
systems, to running an IT department.”
His financial background enables him to focus on how IT can
improve a business. The ability to concentrate on lateral thought
meant that, when it came to upgrading business systems, Andrews
decided to take an alternative approach to that used by his peers in
other areas of the finance industry.
“We had a clean slate and could determine exactly which way we
should go,” he says. “We realised that if we used all the standard
systems, they would be too inflexible and would not actually support
the processes we use, so we decided to build all our own systems.”
Ipes provides business processes to the private equity business,
such as services like preparing accounts and regulatory reports. But
Ratherthanbeingscaredofconstantdemandsforincreasedflexibility,CIOs
canusetechnologytochangethebusinessforthebetter
IT is a business fundamental but technology
in the digital age is also in a constant state of
flux, with executives across the organisation
demanding a more flexible approach to
systems, devices and applications. IT leaders
looking to keep on top of such change face a
toughchallenge.
Tothisend,whataretheCIOprioritiesfor2012
andhowwillthewiderorganisationbenefitfrom
the changes IT leaders create? CIO Connect
speakstothreeITleaderswhoaretransforming
thebusinessthroughtechnology:
� Tim Andrews, head of development and
technology at Ipes, says a recent IT overhaul is
allowinghimtotaketheorganisation’splatform
tothenextstage
� EAT CIO Rene Batsford says there is no
point putting the consumer-facing technology
in place if the supporting infrastructure is not
ready
� Everything related to IT in the public sector
has to be either cost-neutral or it has to deliver
savings, says Ian Miles, head of ICT at Xentrall
SharedServices
c h a n g e
 a 
w i l l d o y o u
g o o d


3. 30 CIOCONNECTspring2012
Leadership
Ipes also handles all cash movements, including the money coming
in from investors and the transfer of returns back to the individuals.
The firm has dealt with over $5.5bn worth of cash transactions
during the past 12 months. “We are handling around 1,000 transac-
tions a month, many of which have multi-million dollar values and
we cannot afford to make mistakes,” says Andrews.
Help comes in the form of Bottomline Technologies, which enabled
the firm to join the Swift network, which allows the company to send
an instruction to any bank on the secure messaging service. The
system also automates authorisation and book-keeping, enabling
the company to keep tabs on business transactions.
Despite the recent radical overhaul of the business, Andrews is not
one to rest on his laurels: “Over the next year, we are going to take
our platform to the next stage. At the moment, the systems are only
visible to our internal staff but we want to open up the platform to
clients via a web application.”
Once Ipes, its clients and its investors use the web-based inter-
face, all employees and partners will use a single dataset, applica-
tion and software system. “This will reduce the email traffic and help
keep everyone up to date with the latest version of a document,” says
Andrews. “It will also cut down the hassle factor.”
Andrews recognises that persuading all parties to use the same
system will not be an easy task. He expects the biggest issue will be
getting people to cut their hold on existing datasets.
“Our staff love their spreadsheets and our clients love their spread-
sheets,” says Andrews. “But everyone also knows that there must be
a better way than each individual corralling their own data. We will
have to gently persuade people that our system provides the better
way.”
He hopes that trends in consumer technology will help persuade
Ipes’s clients to adopt the new system. “There is a big gulf between
the way that we behave at work and at home. We happily download
apps to our smart phones at home and figure out, fairly intuitively,
how to use them,” says Andrews.
“At work, we still use inflexible systems that are not really fit for
purpose and use spreadsheets to compensate for their failings. Over
the next five years, people will start to demand the same level of
flexibility from their corporate systems as they see in personal tech-
nology. This flexibility will enable the transfer from the personal
spreadsheet to the online application.”
Name: Rene Batsford
Position: Head of IT
Organisation: EAT
Rene Batsford is CIO of food
specialist EAT and a veteran
of the retail manufacturing
industry; having worked in
the sector for 15 years. His CV
includes stints at Moulton Brown
and he also set up IT systems for
entertainment venue The O2.
“The IT role at EAT appealed
because it allows me to focus
more closely on customer-fac-
ing technology, which is where I
think that IT should be centred,”
says Batsford. “I take my inspira-
tion from Steve Jobs, who said:
‘Think about the customer first and work your way back.’”
Batsford also recognises there is no point in putting the right con-
sumer-facing technology in place if the infrastructure to support
such applications is not ready. So, his first projects at EAT involved
installing new finance, manufacturing and retail systems.
But with the necessary infrastructure in place, Batsford turned his
attention to the customer. EAT was the first retailer to roll out an
integrated contactless payment system in all shops and the company
will be using the same technology to implement a loyalty pro-
gramme. “We will be re-launching our web site and will be rolling
out an online office delivery service,” he says.
Batsford recognises consumers’ expectations are chang-
ing rapidly and they now expect to be able to engage with com-
panies via a mobile device. He is also working to develop smart
phone applications that will help EAT engage with clients: “Digital
content is a far more important marketing tool today than tradi-
tional forms of marketing.”
Like most of his peers, Batsford believes the way that consumers
use their mobile phones will continue to evolve at a rapid rate. Soon
people will be using their phones, not only to surf the internet while
on the move, but also to pay for goods.
It is not just Batsford who is enthusiastic about the introduction
of new payment technologies; they are also being embraced by the
company’s customers: “Over the last two and a half years, contact-
less transactions have grown by 100% year-on-year. They now rep-
resent 5% of all transactions,” he says.
Such growth will really accelerate, adds Batsford, once EAT imple-
ments a mobile contactless payments system. Yet he is also realistic
about the extent to which technological change can drive the busi-
ness forwards; the basic product has always to be right. “There is no
point in having the best technology if the food quality isn’t high and
the customer service isn’t good,” says Batsford.
And technology can actually help to increase the number of cus-
tomers that can pass through a shop. Self-service points, says
Batsford, can help people to spend less time in-store.
EAT uses QlikView to provide real-time data on every part of the
business. The information can be mined to see how specific sales
staff affect the revenues taken in individual stores, as well as seeing
which promotions work well. Such knowledge is used to improve
customer service.
“We know that people receive staggering amounts of information,
so we will give them plenty of options on how much they want to
receive,” says Batsford. “We hope that we will communicate better
with customers through their mobile phones, so we can get better
and more instantaneous feedback.”
He concludes by suggesting that he can even envisage a world
where consumers will use their phone to manage their financial, and
even their calorific, budgets: “I think we will see a strong growth in
lifestyle applications.”


4. 31spring2012CIOCONNECT
Name: Ian Miles
Position: Head of ICT, and design and print
Organisation: Xentrall Shared Services
The tough economic climate has not been easy for individuals
working in either the private or the public sector, but local coun-
cils are facing a particularly hard time.
Some organisations, however, have risen to the challenge and
used the current climate for a wholesale review of how they carry
out their business. Stockton and Darlington did just that, deciding
three years ago to merge their IT departments, as well as some other
departments, to improve services and deliver savings.
Ian Miles is the head of ICT at Xentrall Shared Services, which is
the public partnership between Stockton and Darlington Councils.
“The aim was to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts,”
he says. “We’ve already achieved that aim, having delivered more
savings than initially planned.”
When the department first formed, there were 240 staff cover-
ing services such as transactional human resources, debtor man-
agement, design and IT. The department has now been reduced to
170 staff, through an efficiency programme and the introduction
of streamlined procedures that take advantage of an improved IT
architecture.
Forming the new entity involved changing everything about the
separate organisation’s approach to IT, including the location of
employees, the roles and the combination of two different cultures.
“Our aim was to design and build a new IT architecture that not only
supported the two councils but also with the aim of offering our ser-
vices to additional partnership work.”
The complex programme has involved plenty of staff issues, the
building of a new data centre, the virtualisation of server resources
and the rationalisation of licensing agreements. Despite everything
that has been achieved so far, there are still ongoing projects to
streamline resources.
“We’re now looking at virtualising desktops, and analysing
whether this would make sense across the two councils and would

be more efficient than the current system,” says Miles. He is also
consolidating more than 1,000 printers to a much smaller number of
multi-functional devices that are managed centrally and will help to
deliver further savings.
Implementing all of these different changes takes strong negotia-
tion skills. “We have to look at budgets that aren’t under my control
and use an aggregated model to show both management teams that
we can achieve a better result by taking control and spending from a
single source,” he says.
The process is not without its battles. Miles says: “There have been
some interesting discussions, persuading others to relinquish their
budget when they are reluctant to do so.”
Sitting on two councils makes life more complicated because they
are two management teams, two different cultures and two sets of
employees. Despite the complexities of the role, Miles is still looking
at offering Xentrall’s services to other council-related organisations:
“For example, we were looking at offering payroll services to local
academies.”
Local government organisations tend to cover a very wide range
of services, from waste management and library management to
assistance for the elderly and parking controls. Councils continue to
change dramatically and it is far from certain that in the future they
will be offering the same services that they do today. That level of
change necessitates an elastic IT department.
“Our IT strategy is geared to flexibility. Councils face budget pres-
sures and we’re not immune, even though we’ve delivered cost
savings of around £11m. Everything we do has to be either cost
neutral or it has to deliver savings,” says Miles.
“The council is changing from a service provider to a commis-
sioning function which would result in a shrinking user base, fewer
buildings to support and there might be applications that are no
longer needed.” 
“Our IT strategy is geared
to flexibility. Councils
face budget pressures and
we’re not immune, even
though we’ve delivered cost
savings of around £11m.
Everything we do has to be
either cost neutral or it has
to deliver savings.”