Computerworld

Telstra enforces wall of silence around Balfour's resignation as CIO

Telco without CIO and deputy CIO

Telstra is remaining tightlipped about Fiona Balfour's resignation as chief information officer (CIO).

After only 10 months in the job, Balfour made her resignation public this week.

Balfour's surprise departure led to an e-mail being issued to Telstra staff stating that she left the company to "pursue other opportunities."

The e-mail, from the telco's chief operations officer (COO) Greg Winn, implies that Balfour is planning to take up a new position although Telstra was unwilling to elaborate on Balfour's employment contract and why it came to such a premature end.

Telstra spends more than $1.5 billion each year on IT and Balfour was charged with overseeing a massive consolidation project at the telco which included the implementation of a new billing system and customer service platform.

Balfour's departure follows the resigation of deputy CIO Vish Padmanabham less than six months ago. No replacement was sought as Telstra abolished the position, leaving Balfour to oversee a five year IT overhaul at the telco.

Telstra will spend $11 billion on capital over the next four years rationalising its networks and IT systems under CEO Sol Trujillo.

Balfour will be temporarily replaced by former Accenture partner, Tom Lamming, who has been Winn's IT adviser for the past 18 months.

"I regret Fiona's decision and wish her well for the future. I particularly want to thank Fiona for her contribution leading the IT Services (ITS) team in the past year and for putting in place the best people and infrastructure to support the IT transformation program," Winn said. "The ITS leadership team will report to our business transformation adviser, Tom Lamming, in the interim."

Gartner telco analyst Geoff Johnson said Balfour has been under a lot of pressure to rationalize the telco's IT systems.

Also, Johnson said Winn and Trujillo are obviously comfortable with Lamming.

He said Lamming has a history of rationalizing systems and Winn has pushed hard to consolidate IT systems from 1200 down to 300.

"Telstra has invested billions in these systems and they need to be rationalised; these IT systems are big animals to run," Johnson added.

Prior to joining Telstra, Balfour spent 14 years at Australian airline Qantas where she inked major outsourcing deals.

- with Darren Pauli

More about: Accenture, Billion, Gartner, Qantas, Telstra

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the Computerworld comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Recent Discussions
Whitepapers
All whitepapers
tracking pixel
 
Computerworld Community Comments
Zones
SAS Resource Centre

This Resource Centre hosts a wealth of thought leadership articles, whitepapers, and success videos, to help you make the most out of your corporate information in order to swiftly make sound business decisions to survive and thrive in the current economic climate.

Oracle Resource Centre

News, Features and the latest whitepapers on SOA, Application Grid, Enterprise Management and Database

Sponsored Links
 
Back to top Sitemap
Copyright 2009 IDG Communications. ABN 14 001 592 650. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of IDG Communications is prohibited.