World news – IBM appoints research veteran as CIO

International Business Machines Corp. appointed a new chief information officer as the 109-year-old company works to drive growth by focusing on artificial intelligence and hybrid cloud computing.

Kathryn Guarini, a 20-year old IBM veteran, replaces the outgoing CIO Fletcher Previn, who sees other opportunities.

IBM declined to provide an interview with Ms. Guarini, who most recently served as chief operations officer and vice president of impact science at IBM Research. Mr. Previn, who the company said will be working with Ms. Guarini on the change « in the coming weeks », could not be reached for comment.

« The role of the IBM CIO is one of the most challenging in the industry, » he said

Gartner Inc.

Vice President Chirag Dekate. As CIO, Ms. Guarini will oversee an information technology team of over 12,000 people who are responsible for managing the IT infrastructure used by more than 350,000 IBM employees around the world.

Ms. Guarini’s other priorities are likely leveraging the technologies IBM is focused on for growth, he said.

Her appointment comes because IBM seeks to drive revenue by focusing in part on AI and hybrid cloud computing, where companies use a combination of their own data centers and computing resources that have been leased and on by others that is accessed online.

IBM is confident that it can help companies cope with the complexities of such transitions and leverage artificial intelligence.

Depending on the industry, helping companies with this can be a daunting task To get value from the AI. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that IBM is reviewing the sale of its Watson Health unit, highlighting the challenges of creating records that will unlock the full value of AI in the health sector.

Tim Crawford of technology consultancy Avoa said when CIO could help Ms. Guarini IBM to deal with the needs of other CIOs or to better understand them. « In general, the CIO role can be a strong advocate and facilitator for engaging other CIOs, » he said. “She could use these relationships to help IBM address the changing needs of customers.” Starting in Spring 2017, when he was named CIO, Mr. Previn prioritized the user experience when developing internal applications and systems to attract and retain employees. Among other things, Mr. Previn hired an executive to report to him to oversee a team responsible for designing IT services, taking into account user research, workflow and metrics.

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« Fletcher Previn has built a solid foundation for improved internal tools, applications and IT infrastructure to improve the productivity of IBM employees, » said Gartner’s Dekate. « He also helped IBM navigate Covid and its impact on workforce dynamics. »

Mr. Previn succeeded Jeff Smith, who helped create a culture of agile software development during his 2014-2017 tenure .

According to the company, Ms. Guarini has held various technical, management and leadership positions since joining IBM in 1999. According to the company, she was responsible for projects related to the future of health, work and the climate within IBM Research.

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