The IT Factor: Volume #1 — Petar Zivovic, AVP IT, Inland Bank
Welcome to the first installment in our IT Factor series. We will be interviewing IT leaders to learn more about the different ways they help their respective organizations dominate technology.
This month we’re featuring Petar Zivovic from Inland Bank, an experienced IT leader with a knack for problem solving.
Organizational Role
I oversee & provide particular IT Services, including security. I report to the Director of IT. If something important/urgent comes up that no one else can solve, it gets escalated to me. Depending on the issue, I either work it myself, or bring advanced engineering resources to bear on the problem and see it through.
Procuring Services
- Determine the need
- Research for possible solutions
- Set project goals
- Conduct market research on companies that can service those goals through products or services
- Select several that are promising (RFP if the project is big enough)
- Evaluate key factors (price, experience, number of critical goals met, plus any other important solutions offered that we might not have initially considered)
- Make a tentative determination
- Check vendor credibility (references and financials)
- Negotiate terms of the contract
- Sign contract
- If terms are unacceptable, select alternative determination and repeat from there
Project Management & Implementation
I typically have the vendor write up the project implementation plan, then review, recommend modifications, approve and oversee the follow-through. My timelines are flexible except when other department’s production is affected (e.g., upgrading the teller app affects all tellers, so if we pull the trigger it happens across the board at the same time or not at all).
Service & Vendor Support
Typically, a company providing a product or service is also hired for support of same. Occasionally we rely on third parties for cost savings, but usually we prefer the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) support as that tends to be more reliable & responsive — but not always. For example, we have a ShoreTel phone system. Key support for things we cannot maintain ourselves are managed through a ticketing system with ShoreTel engineers.
Consistency in the Bank Processes
Between stakeholders and regulations, banks have to follow fairly standard processes to push anything through, since we’re held accountable six ways to Sunday on what happens, especially if anything goes wrong. Between comparing notes with colleagues and having consulted for several banks in the past, they appear to be consistent.
Thank you for the really great insights Petar, we appreciate you taking the time to fill us in on how you and your team make things work at Inland Bank. We wish you all the best!
