Episode 7
A CIO’s Perspective on Scaling the Business
Guest: Jim McCullen/CIO of Century
Jim McCullen, CIO of Century discusses the steps he has taken to scale their global logistics and supply chain services business. He covers the role automation, security, and integration have played in his strategy, and even shares his security framework for fellow listeners.
Jim McCullen, CIO of Century discusses the steps he has taken to scale their global logistics and supply chain services business. He covers the role automation, security, and integration have played in his strategy, and even shares his security framework for fellow listeners.
Episode 7: A CIO’s Perspective on Scaling the Business
TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES
[00:01:25]
Introducing Jim McCullen - CIO of Century
[00:02:10]
Century Overview: Jim details the Century story and his role within the company. Century is a global logistics provider with over 1,000 employees across 70 countries that have been in business for over 50 years. Century focuses on managing the international supply chains for some of the largest retailers in the world. If you're buying a product today, there is a great chance Century was involved. Jim is the CIO and has been with the company for over 30 years, with teams working in North America and Asia.
[00:04:29]
Visibility Management System (VMS): Jim explains what VMS is. VMS is a supply chain ecosystem system and VMS provides a hub for vendors, customers, buyers, etc. to come together and understand what is happening in the supply chain.
[00:09:05]
How are you managing to scale your business as you head into 2022? Jim covers off on digitization, automation, and efficiency. There's tons of opportunity for robotic process automation. Understanding where to apply these new technologies is the critical piece to supporting a scaling business. How can we get rid of redundant and manual-type work?
[00:12:50]
What are some of the areas most important to you for scaling the business? Simplicity is the word.
[00:19:20]
How has adopting cloud technology helped get rid of redundancies? Jim talks about how older processes required manual intervention. Also, less technology means more security.
[00:26:00]
How do you think about security? Each organization needs to understand what makes up these security frameworks.
[00:30:50]
As a CIO, what role does integration technology play in your overall strategy? The first is onboarding or getting new customers. Century can integrate faster than competitors. Secondly, Century can scale within a partnership to grow the integration.
[00:34:20]
What are some elements of integration strategy that folks can't overlook? You can't overlook the complexity of the integration. It's rarely as simple as it seems. There is a lot of hype about how simple it is to integrate, but on the ground, it is much more challenging.
[00:37:25]
What specific advice do you have for other technologists or leaders that have stuck with you? Your network is critical. It's important to build a network to offer help to others and it's often that it serves you to ask for help from others.
[00:43:00]
Jim's book, "Control Your Day," is an expose on how to control every element of Microsoft Outlook.
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ABOUT THE SHOW
The Integration Chronicles
Cleo’s Tushar Patel and Frank Kenney bring you The Integration Chronicles: the only podcast focused on ecosystem integration. Ecosystem integration is the modern, innovative way to extend and augment B2B integration. Each episode will feature industry leaders and integration experts who discuss relevant integration topics, with a specific focus on the supply chain. You'll learn how to grow your business faster, pick up best practices for scaling your organization, and discover new ways to drive operational efficiencies.
