Executive Insight: Patty Morrison, Motorola

Patty Morrison, EVP & CIO, Motorola, discusses the need for business mobility as a means to satisfy customer demand today.

Morrison's role is to oversee all strategic, operational and financial aspects of the company's information technology architecture, systems, tools, processes and infrastructure. Much of her work surrounds the development of enterprise mobility solutions. In her first year with Motorola, the company jumped from a #46 to a #12 ranking among InformationWeek Top 500 IT innovators for 2006, and #1 in the manufacturing industry segment.

Morrison brings Motorola more than 20 years of systems and IT expertise in a wide variety of roles. Morrison served as executive vice president and chief information officer of Office Depot Inc., where she was responsible for managing Office Depot's global information systems.

In offering a brief overview concerning the role enterprise mobility plays in day-to-day business, Morrison states, 'Mobility as a concept with enterprises, whether they are business or government enterprises, has always been a big part in enabling you to be more focused on your customers and more focused on problem solving.' Morrison also offered many additional insights concerning corporate mobility, mobile business security and other enterprise mobility solutions.

When asked where Motorola sees the major trends in the technology industry moving in the future, Morrison answers, 'Public safety, the enterprise mobility, transportation distribution, retail, utility, mining, all of the public safety capabilities, and worldwide homeland security. The growth in these businesses is just tremendous.'

Another executive insight, 'You have to think innovatively about security in the future. It's not the 'lock everything down' environment that you had in the 90's.'