Being the CIO of a technology company does have its advantages, especially when top management acknowledges the importance of IT. But the expectations are higher. In an exclusive interview with InformationWeek India, Oliver Bussmann, EVP & CIO, SAP reveals how he is steering one of the world’s most admired companies through a mammoth transformation on a global scale. He talks about innovation, the three dimensions of his CIO role, how SAP has adapted its infrastructure for BYOD, the kind of interactions he has with SAP consultants, and emerging models in the consumption and delivery of IT services

You are the CIO of an IT savvy company and everyone in top management will also be IT savvy. Globally, CIOs face a challenge in convincing top management about new projects, and in asking for budget expansion. Do you think you have an advantage?

It is an advantage working in the IT industry, where there are tech-savvy executives. But the expectations are much higher in terms of identifying trends, introducing this into the company, and driving adoption. You need to look for people who drive innovation and build small teams; invest in people skills. You also have to play an active role to communicate within the company, and also externally about what IT is achieving, what are the accomplishments, the learning, and the key observations.

In a tough economic climate, CIOs are being asked to justify their existence in the company. So, how is the CIO role being defined today and what will it be like in future? What is your role at SAP today?

If I look back 22 years on my business role with IBM, Deutsche Bank, and Allianz, I see the CIO role from three dimensions. The last one I discovered with SAP. The first one is that you are expected to be the best-in-class as a functional CIO. We have to achieve operational excellence, driving the IT transformation through benchmarks, while ensuring the vendor portfolio, budget etc., is in good shape. Our performance is continuously measured and we have to prove that we are the best-in-class for providing infrastructure application services.

The second dimension is to be a business transformational leader. A CIO has to be part of the business transformation, and actively drive the agenda. Without IT you cannot do automation, geographic expansion, introduce new channels, etc. The IT person is challenged with translating an aggressive business target into action. I discovered the third dimension at SAP — as a CIO I have to be a strategically innovative CIO. There are two sub-dimensions here. One has direct impact on the products and services side. I can be the first “customer” in providing feedback on the product functionality, quality — and point out what’s missing, recommend what kind of applications we should add to our portfolio. So it’s about driving the learning curve up for our organization. So, a CIO has to find a role to drive product and service impact directly.

The second sub-dimension is sharing experiences that you have with your own products and services with the outside world. Therefore, my team and I invest time in writing blogs and we share our observations, learning, and recommendations.