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Austin Energy, the 10th largest public utility in the United States, has a lofty corporate mission: to make Austin, Texas, the most livable city in the U.S. Why not? As chief information officer at Austin Energy, Andres Carvallo takes that goal seriously. In fact, he spearheaded a revolutionary program to transform a jumble of outdated legacy systems into a streamlined IT operation. He is now helping the company transform its business model to a offer a range of commodity power services and to build the systems to deliver them to customers. Listen as Carvallo doesn't mince words about running IT as a business and as a service provider.

Owned by the City of Austin, Texas, Austin Energy has the lofty corporate mission of striving to deliver clean, affordable, reliable energy, and excellent customer care. The end goal of the 10th largest public utility in the United States is to make Austin the most livable city in the U.S.

So what does it take to be a chief information officer at a company that provides power to about one million residential customers and 41,000 business? An acute technology vision, the ability to run IT as both a business and as a service provider, and the commitment to effective best practices. These characteristics accurately describe Andres Carvallo.

When Carvallo signed on with Austin Energy in 2003, he put a revolutionary program in place to transform a jumble of outdated legacy systems into a streamlined IT operation, and to create a new governance process. The $50 million overhaul of Austin's IT organization includes a new systems architecture, an updated Web site, a new customer portal for online electric payments, a wireless system for an automated meter reading system, and a series of best practices, such as the IT Infrastructure Library. Carvallo says he has achieved the goal of shaving millions of dollars from IT operating costs and reinvesting them back into the company.

Join us for an informative podcast with a dynamic CIO who doesn't mince words about what it takes to balance the goal of running IT as a business and the goal of running IT as a service provider.

Resources

CIO in Action: Leaving a Legacy

Bio

Andres Carvallo is responsible for the technology vision, planning, development and operations for Austin Energy, the 10th largest public utility in the United States. He has driven a wireless and service-oriented architecture transformation that has resulted in a fully integrated and self-healing enterprise. Besides his CIO responsibilities, Andres belongs to an eight-member executive team, and also an Innovation and Opportunity Development executive board. He co-authored Information Technology Leadership and CTO Best Practices Collection and contributed to Player Manager: The Rise of Professionals Who Manage While They Work. Carvallo has received several awards, including IT Executive of the Year by the Association of Information Technology Professionals, Premier 100 IT Leader by Computerworld, and Best in Class Premier 100 by Computerworld.

Production Credits

Elizabeth Ferrarini, Producer
Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer