Technology Magazine January 2019 | Page 23

NORTH AMERICA content and creating live video footage at the likes of the VMAs and Kids ’ Choice Awards . Since then , Kline ’ s team has felt enabled and empowered by the cloud , and after abating cybersecurity concerns by rolling out the new tech slowly and sensitively , Viacom now has its full Office productivity in the Cloud with Office365 . “ It ’ s about overcoming fears , being smart enough and strong enough to say , ‘ we need to focus because change is coming ’. That ’ s something you have to grapple with in any leadership role – especially technology .”

As such , Kline is no stranger to the culture shift involved in a technology transformation – and he says both listening and educating are key to change management . “ It ’ s important to listen to what ’ s going on in the world and within the company , and understand different needs . Rather than just putting in technology for technology ’ s sake , have a rationale and a really responsible understanding of why you ’ re doing it . As technology shifts , with Internet of Things ( IoT ) and 5G for example , it ’ s important to make sure everyone has an understanding of what it is and not to be fearful , but

— David Kline , EVP and Chief Information and Technology Officer , Viacom

inquisitive . What does this mean to me ? To the people I serve ? To our industry ? And how do we approach it ?”

As well as improving the way content is enjoyed , technology has been vital in improving process within Viacom ’ s operations . “ The product teams work very centrally with my technical teams , and we ’ re all focused on making sure anything across our platforms , from video to data , is functional , scalable and is being delivered ,” says Kline . Over the past few years , a key achievement has been centralizing code to develop single code base – with WebPlex used for websites and

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