Technology Magazine July 2019 | Page 133

— Mike Schembri , Head of IM , Fuji Xerox Australia

partner to trusted advisor , that ’ s the stage we ’ re at now ,” Schembri explains . “ We dominate a lot of our markets and have a long history , which is incredibly valuable . You maintain relationships by understanding the customer : if you create solutions that represent value to them at a price and business model that represents value to us , everybody wins .”

Perhaps the most visible development Schembri has seen – and driven – throughout his career has been in transitioning IT from a single tech department to a leading element of any business . “ It used to be a very technical-centric group of bearded guys ( though of course beards are trendy now ) who nobody wanted to talk to , and frankly they didn ’ t want to talk to anybody either – they certainly didn ’ t want to talk about customers .” For a successful digital transformation , bringing the IT department up from the basement to the centre of the organisation is the place to start .

With three adopted children himself , Schembri has often threatened to write a book entitled Adopting IT . “ IT was often this group that was trying to find its place in the organisation – the ‘ other ’ guys – and it really needs to be adopted by the business . They often refer to themselves as ‘ IT and the business ’, with the business as an ‘ other ’, while someone in sales might talk about themselves as ‘ sales and the rest of the business ’.” It ’ s a change that ’ s been managed successfully within Fuji Xerox , but this was not without its challenges . “ Like all cultural transformations , it was difficult , but we were clear that we wanted not a technology department so much as a service department with a technology speciality .”

As part of the transformation , Schembri brought in people from

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