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Ralph Szygenda -- By rebuilding General Motors' IT engine, this savvy CIO gained pole position in high-tech outsourcing.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Craig Zarley

Call it the revenge of the customer.

General Motors CIO Ralph Szygenda buys more IT products and services than anyone in the world, and now he aims to teach technologists a thing or two about how those products are used in a real-world business environment. And in the process, he's whipping the high-tech world into the realization that technology is useless unless it solves a business problem.

So profound is his mission that what Henry Ford brought to American industry may one day pale when compared with the work of Szygenda. A century ago, Ford championed industrial mass production and consumption. He built assembly lines, invented the dealer franchise system to sell and service cars, and paid his workers enough money to buy the product they built. He pushed for better roads and a gas station on every corner. Ford's vision helped shape industry in the 20th century.

Now it's Szygenda's turn. In his seven years as GM's first CIO, he reinvented the industrial giant's IT infrastructure by adopting a multivendor outsourcing model that has implications far beyond the automotive industry.

Before Szygenda arrived at GM, it took the company 48 months to develop a new car. By using more collaborative infrastructure and 3-D virtual reality modeling software, GM has trimmed that time to 24 months. The streamlined...