The CIO's role has grown in importance in organizations due to the digital transformation and the strategic role that information and communication technologies play in business. This was the conclusion of the webinar ABES NEW TIMES: THE VISION OF CIOs, held on July 29th.
In addition to welcoming panelists and participants, Rodolfo Fücher, president of ABES, said that the CIO has become a centerpiece of any organization. The executive also spoke about the free diagnostic tool regarding the General Data Protection Law, developed by ABES in partnership with the consultancy EY, available for entrepreneurs to assess the suitability of their companies to the LGPD standards.
The debate was moderated by Silvia Bassi, journalist and publisher of The Shift, who highlighted the importance of sharing the experience of the four invited professionals. The event was supported by the Movimento Brasil, País Digital, Bertha Capital, BR Angels, Bossa Nova Invest, Kyvo Innovation and Startup Farm, partners of the ABES Startup Internshinp Program.
Strategic role
Tatiana Medina, CIO of Klabin, explained that due to the fact that the company operates in packaging, the pandemic did not affect the pace of production so much and that they had to intensify the means to guarantee the safety of employees in the factories, the communication with the medical team and put office staff in remote work.
Sérgio A. Costantini, CIO at Aqua Capital, commented that the behavioral changes promoted by the pandemic led companies to see digital transformation as a necessity for business survival, aiming to automate, improve the efficiency of processes and increase productivity. Therefore, IT has an increasingly strategic role in companies and in decision-making. He also commented on the efforts of companies to strengthen the security of corporate networks for remote work and that the trend of maintaining the home office scheme will lead to the reduction of corporate spaces.
Encouraging innovation
Rafael Tobara, CIO Sapore, explained that the company, because it works with collective meals, cannot put all employees in remote work. Even with the reduction in the number of open corporate events and cafeterias, Sapore maintains service in hospitals, for example. “There are a lot of people trying to reinvent themselves. The point is that it is not as simple as everyone thinks ”, he warned. He spoke of the creation of Sapore Lab, which is focused on creating new digital products, looking for solutions to improve operational efficiency and investing in startups in the traction phase.
Cláudio Soutto, KPMG's CIO Advisory for digital transformation, mentioned that, due to the pandemic, more than 80 thousand new virtual stores have appeared and online orders have increased by more than 50%. “Does a company, when bringing orders inside, have the capacity to deliver, does it have logistics? The backoffice area has to stop being an area that produces information about the past to be a provider of insights that allow decisions to be made ”, he pondered. He also pointed out that technology, nowadays, is spread throughout the company and should support growth.
EN 
PT 
