The Challenge
After the sudden departure of their IT leader, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) contracted DelCor to aid them in finding a suitable replacement and assign a consultant to provide Chief Information Officer (CIO) support during the interim. At the time, AGU was undertaking several major projects and needed an interim IT leader to ensure that those projects would not stall while they recruited and trained a new IT leader.
The organization was in the middle of rebuilding and consolidating the AGU website and undergoing major office renovations. It was important for AGU that the Interim CIO not only maintained progress on those projects but also assessed the effectiveness of the organization’s IT function and assisted AGU in identifying what kind of IT leader best suited their needs.
The Process
We started by conducting an assessment based on The 501(c) IT Maturity Model (ITMM). Our goal was to evaluate the organization’s IT maturity in the four functions of IT—management, data, digital, and infrastructure—with the intention to align their use of technology with their business goals.
As part of that assessment, we met with all IT staff and key stakeholders to better understand their strengths and opportunities for improvement, as well as the challenges they were facing.
A DelCor consultant served as the Interim CIO and maintained a regular schedule of check-in meetings with AGU’s executive team to keep them informed and follow up on any concerns related to progress on major projects or their IT department. The Interim CIO also aided in the search and qualification of a new IT leader by preparing CIO assessment reports with recommendations, developing the position description for the new IT leader, and participating in interviews to evaluate candidates.
The Result
Despite the short notice, we were able to staff the project with an experienced CIO consultant and immediately provide valuable oversight and strategic guidance to ensure that AGU did not miss deadlines on the organization’s existing projects. Additionally, we helped to manage another project to implement an employee performance management system during this engagement. Based on our recommendations, AGU decided to hire a Chief Digital Officer as their new IT leader. We referred AGU to an executive search firm who presented three highly qualified candidates for the new position and completed a knowledge transfer to the new Chief Digital Officer. Overall, as a result of our involvement, AGU was able to remain on track and complete the projects they had undertaken before their former IT leader departed, and the organization remains in good standing under the leadership of the new Chief Digital Officer.
Questions about this project? Contact DelCor here.
