Faith Burn Talks Of Digital Business Transitioning

Faith Burn, the CIO at Eskom – a government-owned company and South Africa’s main energy supplier –  is responsible for IT across the entire business. This spans two major divisions, (Generation, and Distribution) several subsidiaries including National Transmission Company South Africa, and is made up of around 40,000 users. Having previously worked in a CIO role at TSEBO Solutions Group and Novartis, she’s no stranger to spearheading IT projects and managing a broad technology landscape.

As the business looks to improve its tech systems, Burn is careful to call it a digital business transitioning journey and not a digital transformation journey. “So often people get too wrapped up in the technology. I recently engaged with a service provider, and it was all about technology. But you can have the best technology and the best strategy around how you plan to use that technology but if it doesn’t talk to a broader business outcome, what are you actually doing? Technologies that aren’t aligned to business objectives are just nice, shiny toys,” she says.

Get to read more about Eskom’s journey as well as Faith Burn’s on the September Issue of the CIO Africa Magazine.