The IT guy who isn’t

"I am not an information technology guy. I didn’t grow up in the IT arena," said Roberto Almazora, senior assistant vice-president and chief information officer of the Manila Electric Co.

A proponent of IT as an enabler, Almazora is only the second person to be named CIO for Meralco. Virgilio Flordeliza, Meralco’s first CIO, retired last June 30.

"Being a CIO is not about technology per se, but about leveraging the right technology to support business strategy and actively participating in formulating that strategy.

This is particularly challenging in the IT field, where technology advancements are so fast and decisions, in many cases, have to be made without concrete indications where the developments and convergence in various technologies will bring us," he said.

Man for the job

But then, this electric engineer thrives in uncharted waters, having been assigned to set up various offices and projects within the company over the last 15 years.

"My role is to ensure that a fully integrated system supports Meralco’s greater dependency today on a seamless, online real time IS/IT and telecommunications infrastructure," he said. "Business plans and strategies must be supported by the business processes which, in turn, must be enabled by IS and IT."

Almazora currently has a full load. He is continuing projects lined up under the watch of his predecessor as well as studying new projects for the 98-year-old electric utility.

Among these projects is the ongoing upgrade of the company’s wide area network, which enables the electric distributor to centralize various applications such as customer and distribution management.

"Right now, we manage all our operations online in real time. But this has necessarily put an additional burden on network facilities," he said.

Another related project is implementing an enterprise management system, designed to manage and monitor the performance of Meralco’s IT infrastructure and information systems applications.

He is also mulling various options for a disaster recovery project. "We have a very robust IT infrastructure in one site. And while the site is fully secure, we are now weighing the advantage offered by having an alternative or back-up site."

Information security programs are also foremost to assure data integrity and security.

"We realize the value of our information assets," he said.

Moving around

Prior to his new assignment, Almazora, who holds a Master in Business Management from the Asian Institute of Management, has held several challenging jobs. He headed the World Bank project that constructed electric substation and distribution facilities. He was also involved in developing the corporate IS plan, the blueprint that led to the six-year Meralco transformation project completed in mid-2001. This was an enterprise-wide re-engineering of systems, structures and processes to provide leapfrog improvements in operational efficiencies and customer service.

"It takes a lot of reading to keep abreast with IT developments. Add to that the need to find a fit or match between these developments and the business. We have to review the technology well. We do not implement technology just because it’s sexy or it’s the fad. We only implement based on a business case that shows how technology will benefit the organization. It is not necessarily cutting edge that we look for. We just want sound technology. It may not be the latest system but, if it’s robust enough, it can be the right tool and would make sense for us," he said.

On his toes

Almazora said information is not only used for the daily operation of the business but is also kept for its survival. "Tools must be available for users to appropriately collect, organize and analyze information as a sensible input to the business process and strategy."

"The CIO should assist the company in mapping out a strategic business plan, given the technologies available to it. That is how he differentiates himself from the technical trouble shooter," he said.

In a bid to improve customer service, Meralco piloted last January its electronic bill presentment project (EBPP) on its corporate web site, www meralco.com.ph. Some 3.7 million customers can now enroll to view their bills online at the customer section of the web site. The monthly electricity bill is available for online viewing seven days before the due date.

With Meralco struggling to maintain customer service quality despite limited resources, Almazora cited productivity gains over the last few years. "We haven’t had a rate increase in seven years. But we want to be world class utility. This keeps us on our toes. We have just to continuously do better." For Meralco, this non-IT guy is it.