Peter High

02-06-2015

Excerpt from the Article:

Jay Ferro has been the CIO of the American Cancer Society (ACS) for three years, but the fight against cancer has been a passion of his for longer. His life was touched by the disease when he lost his wife to cervical cancer in January of 2007. He established a non-profit organization, Priscilla’s Promise, in her honor to stimulate awareness and education of cervical cancer, and to provide funding research for a cure for cervical cancer.

While adjusting to his new reality as a single father, Ferro climbed the ranks of a number of organizations, becoming the CIO first of AIG Aerospace and then AdCare Health Systems. When he learned about the CIO opening at ACS, his life’s work and his professional interests intersected in an unexpected way. The opportunity to do well by doing good was too much to pass up.

CIO Insight: Jay, with the New Year upon us, what are your IT priorities for 2015?

Jay Ferro: Improving our security posture is always an IT priority, given the ever-evolving threat landscape that we live in. I’m proud of the progress we’ve made, but there is no finish line when it comes to protecting our data. We’re always pushing to get better.

We will build on the successes of 2014 to deliver more sophisticated analytic capabilities, including mobile dashboarding and access to near real-time data, which will be beneficial for nearly every area of the American Cancer Society.

2015 will bring a completely new platform for cancer.org and other Society digital properties to improve user experience. This is a large undertaking for many reasons, not the least of which is the importance of this resource for tens of millions of visitors each year who depend on the American Cancer Society to be there for them with the latest research and information on preventing, treating and surviving cancer.

We’re also building the next generation of mobile fundraising and resource apps to create an omnichannel experience for supporters. Fundraising isn’t all we do, but delivering on our lifesaving mission depends on it.

And we are expanding our bring-your-own-device program beyond tablets and phones to include laptops–and expanding our Microsoft Lync deployment to provide staff with cost-effective and reliable video meetings. It’s all geared toward being better stewards of donor dollars, securing our systems and information, and helping our staff to be more efficient and effective in delivering our mission.

To read the remainder of the article, please visit CIO Insight.