IT chiefs look to the internet - and their kids - for inspiration

Leading financial sector IT bosses have admitted to looking not at each other or even at rival organisations for inspiration when it comes to innovation - rather they are more likely to turn to internet luminaries such as Amazon.com, Betfair and Google or even their children, they told a conference this week.

Speaking at the Innovation & Growth Forum in London yesterday, John Hughes, technology development manager at Standard Life Investments, said: "I don't think anyone in financial services is doing anything extraordinary but the people in the Amazons and Betfairs are all doing something special.

"It takes a stretch of the imagination and some of our technology people can't see that. They struggle to see how something like online betting can actually influence what they're doing."

He said that a company such as his must take inspiration from everywhere and that those in their 20s entering the organisation, typically through the company's post-graduate scheme, have different expectations of customer service - in other words, they expect it to be good whoever they are dealing with.

JP Rangaswami, CIO at investment bank DrKW, agreed. "As a financial firm I have to look at a Betfair and Zopa to see what they are doing and how they are going to impact what I do," he said. "The learning curve is coming from a new generation - we use the term Web 2.0."

As such, he added: "I'm not looking at my competitors in traditional terms."

Rangaswami is a keen advocate of blogging, wikis and other 'Web 2.0' approaches across his organisation, believing inspiration isn't about merely looking sideways at what other banks are doing.

Robin Paine, CTO at the London Stock Exchange, said he has a six-year-old daughter who uses Google to search for cartoon characters online and takes a two-hour technology class every week - suggesting she might be more au fait with tech than some world leaders.

He said: "The right amount of information at the right time aids productivity," and the expectation is that younger people can help in raising productivity levels over coming years.

DrKW's Rangaswami added: "This is a golden age for watching what takes place."

For more views on how consumer-driven technologies are increasingly driving enterprise IT, see a recent silicon.com CIO Jury on the subject here.

The I&G event is organised by the European Technology Forum which is owned by silicon.com's publisher, CNET Networks UK.