Home > Management and Careers

Computerworld - Lots of CIOs talk about "partnering" with technology vendors. But Xcel Energy Inc. CIO Ray Gogel has given the term new meaning.
Late in 2001, Minneapolis-based Xcel began evaluating how it could apply IT to help rearchitect business operations. But an off-site meeting with the power company's six biggest technology vendors in Denver three days before Christmas 2003 set the stage for its dramatic transformation.
The previous August, Gogel and his top lieutenants had held preliminary discussions with senior executives and product-design managers from six companies, including IBM, Mercury Interactive Corp. and Itron Inc. They discussed how to help Xcel apply technology to support a set of business improvement initiatives as part of an effort known internally as the "utility of the future."
The vendors came back to Gogel and his team two months later with 49 discrete project proposals, nearly all of which were focused on landing each of the vendors a particular project.
It was precisely what Gogel didn't want to hear. "I told them they weren't getting the message," says Gogel, a Computerworld 2005 Premier 100 IT Leader honoree. "We wanted them to put aside any concerns about intellectual property and nondisclosure agreements and brainstorm with us on ideas to help change the business at a higher, more strategic level."
When the six representatives met in December, there were no discussions about intellectual property (IP) and nondisclosure agreements. Instead, the vendors talked about projects they could work on together to help Xcel improve its field service and internal business operations.
"It was the coolest thing I've been involved in ever since I've been in business," says Gogel, who runs the business systems division from Denver. "It's the anti-Nicholas Carr thing: Let's see what we can do with IT to help change the business." (See related story.)
"It's almost like we had opened up these new channels at a development and IP level," adds Michael Carlson, vice president of business transformation and customer value at Xcel.

Xcel Energy CIO Ray Gogel Image Credit: Patricia Barry Levy

Getting to Work
Once the direction was set, 45 people from Xcel and the six vendors worked together on design development for nine business improvement projects from February to May 2004. The seven Xcel representatives in that group included one IT executive, a few business analysts and a couple of field operations managers, says Carlson. The projects cut across three areas: field operations automation, customer support and asset optimization.
Getting vendors to work closely together on projects is always tough, but Xcel's IT