NOVEMBER 2020CIOAPPLICATIONSEUROPE.COM8IN MYOPINIONJ ohn Sudduth has more than 20 years of information technology experience and is skilled in defining organizational structure, resource requirements and mission/vision alignment. His information technology experience includes professional services, legal, retail, healthcare and Government. Prior to joining the MWRD, John served as Chief Information Officer for the Illinois Department of Public Health.John graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Science in Organization Behavior; he also has a Master's of Science in Information Systems Security from Northwestern University. John holds several technical and professional certifications including Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP) and Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP).The mission of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago is to treat wastewater from homes and businesses in Cook County, one of the largest counties in the United States, along with over 100 suburban communities. Our mission is to support the health of the more than 10 million citizens that we serve by protecting the waterways and drinking water that they depend on. My role as Director of Information Technology at MWRD is to efficiently leverage technology to help the budget-conscious public utility achieve that mission. I'm responsible for everything technology related from end-user computing, to email, to storage, and everything in between. Public utilities face a unique set of IT challenges. In addition to the pain points experienced in any IT organization ­ not enough time to innovate, skills gaps, and budget constraints ­public utilities also face the added challenges of scaling services and systems for population growth, meeting rapidly changing constituent expectations, and regulatory obligations. With the added strain of the COVID-19 crisis further stretching municipal budgets, creating remote workforces overnight, and introducing a new level of uncertainty, it's imperative that IT leaders of public utilities take a hard look at systems and processes to begin the process of digital transformation now. It's no longer a question of if you'll undergo digital transformation; it's now a question of when. And the "when" is usually because of outside pressure. According to an article in one of the premium publications, only one in ten pursue digital transformation outside of pressure from regulators, customers, or competition. The article also states that only a quarter of major U.S. public utilities have" made meaningful progress in developing future-oriented business models." The goal shouldn't be a forced transformation to adhere to outside forces, but a thoughtful and measured business-driven approach. When I took on this role five years ago, my first goal was to modernize MWRD's aging IT environment and revamp our entire IT model. While inventorying assets and auditing costs, I uncovered a juggernaut of wasteful spending on our core SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. When MWRD originally licensed its SAP products, the vendor oversold us. Portions of what we bought had never even been The Road to Digital Transformation for Public UtilitiesJOHN SUDDUTH, CIO, METROPOLITAN WATER RECLAMATION DISTRICT OF GREATER CHICAGO
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