Synchrony
Modern IT organizations are nimble, capable of adapting foundational tools and processes under duress. Synchrony, which processes payments on behalf of businesses, deployed virtualization technology and cloud software, as well as multifactor authentication and other security technologies, to get more than 16,000 employees working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The initiative, Synchrony Works, empowered 13,500 call center representatives across the US, India and the Philippines to execute customer service and collections tasks from their home residences by early April, says Synchrony CIO Carol Juel. Works, which garnered a 2021 CIO 100 award, also made it possible for around 3,000 US corporate employees to work from home within days of office closures in mid-March.
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February 26, 2020, looms large for Carol Juel for a number of reasons. It was her twins’ seventh birthday, and the executive vice president and CIO of Synchrony was scrambling to get home to join the festivities. The day also took on new contours as a routine meeting exploring AWS Workspace technology subsequently laid the groundwork for the firm’s near-real-time transition to remote work as COVID-19 took hold as a global pandemic.
Synchrony sent its 4,000 knowledge workers home on March 13 and followed up with a plan that set up 12,000 call center employees with remote operations a scant two weeks later. Shortly thereafter, Juel and the executive leadership team formally launched an enterprise transformation effort to embrace the very agile business practices that got the remote work effort up and running so quickly. Their goal: to favorably position Synchrony to quickly adapt as it stared down a future of continuously changing scenarios
Dec. 22, 2020 7:30 am ET
Chief information officers in 2020 helped introduce or bolster initiatives to increase the ranks of minorities and women on their technology teams, as well as programs designed to retain and advance those underrepresented groups.
Also, in a year in which the police killing of George Floyd prompted many companies to address racial disparities internally and across American society, CIOs took steps to educate themselves about race and bias.
“While we’ve always talked about [diversity, equity and inclusion],” the killing of Mr. Floyd was “a real wake-up call,” said Maya Leibman, chief information officer at American Airlines Inc., one of 45 information technology executives who responded via email to CIO Journal’s annual end-of-year questionnaire, which surveyed them on diversity and other topics.