Karen Austin, 2014 Honoree
- Title
- Senior vice president and CIO
- Employer
- Pacific Gas & Electric
- Location
- San Francisco
- Quick ROI project:
- Our Immediate Response Process Improvement Initiative cut response time from three minutes to 30 seconds when responding to emergencies.
- How are you building an IT department for the future?
- We're focusing on fine-tuning our operating model to efficiently deliver solutions, as well as manage costs and growth in a sustainable way. Building a continuous improvement mentality into our culture is a key to taking IT to the next level year over year.
- To what extent do you embed IT workers in business units?
- Our operating model was designed to be internal and client-focused. We have a business technology team embedded in IT, and its mission is to serve each line of business as if they reported into that line of business.