From his time as CIO at TF1 and Bouygues Télécom, Michel Cordival has a clear and pragmatic view of digital transformation. For him, the key to change is to reassure senior management and educate them about the new possibilities offered by the cloud.
"Transformation means 10 % of technical work and 90 % of psychological work," says Michel Cordival. After several years working for a group where the specific characteristics of the business mean that the transformation has to be carried out at a measured pace. For a media company like TF1, the move to digital has to take into account the constraints associated with the company's core business and its history, where outsourcing is a delicate matter to negotiate.
"For example, when it comes to video storage, it's difficult for a channel not to be able to access everything immediately. So the reflex is to internalise everything because of the critical nature of broadcasting", explains Michel Cordival.
Infrastructure in the cloud is a given
However, his many experiences have convinced Michel Cordival of the benefits of the cloud. To convey his conviction, internal evangelism is a credo, with a focus on educating Comex: "Today, there's no reason not to move all or part of the infrastructure to the cloud. But to do that, we need to reassure and demystify, just as we did with the software package 10 years ago. "According to the CIO, the obstacles to outsourcing are gradually diminishing. For him, the situation is similar to that experienced during the transition from private hoarding to banking: "A century ago, our grandparents thought it was safer to have their money under the mattress; today, everyone trusts banks. We're going through a similar transition with cloud computing", explains Michel Cordival, for whom the cloud also suffers from a negative perception among managers, because cloud operators mainly emphasise the 'low-cost' image and very little the other advantages. The opposite was true for telecoms, with long-distance links, for example, historically "very expensive" but "magical". Michel Cordival believes that this positioning will be long and difficult to catch up with in the minds of non-technical people.
Getting out of your comfort zone
As a result of all these factors, one condition that is very rarely put forward as a reason for moving to the cloud is the relationship with the cloud provider. An intuitu personae relationship, as Michel Cordival reminds us, "digital transformation forces us to leave our comfort zone, which is much easier with people we trust. This trust allows us to take risks, such as collaborating on a project in a hurry, and to make contractual adjustments afterwards. "And of course, as the CIO points out, "On the other hand, if we want to achieve the level of excellence demanded by digital transformation, while remaining dependent on an external operator and IT, we need everyone to have a thorough understanding of their business. "
The IT Department at the heart of data for digital transformation
Another possible source of discomfort for IT Departments is that some companies believe they are accelerating their digital transformation by "building alongside infrastructures managed by IT Departments". On this point, Michel Cordival has a rather clear-cut opinion: "from a business point of view, the essence of digital transformation lies in exploiting the data produced and managed in the existing IS. Data is at the heart of a company's business, and it is the IT Department that is currently responsible for processing it and ensuring its integrity. As long as the IT Department 'processes the data properly', there's no point in bypassing it," reassures Michel Cordival.
In addition to this role as guardian of the temple of data, the IT Department also has a strong role in foresight and innovation. For Michel Cordival, its role, in addition to exploiting what already exists and delivering what is required, is "to give people a sense of what's going to happen, to shed light on the possibilities offered by new technologies". The IT Department is at the forefront of innovation, and the way it contributes is by saying "you know that...". This is one of the CIO's key missions," asserts Michel Cordival, who concludes, "To support the transformation, we need to constantly educate in order to move forward and reassure so as not to come to a standstill.
These are salutary reminders from an experienced CIO whose arguments are as solid as they are pragmatic. In short, common sense born of experience...