CSC CIO David McCue has been named one of Computerworld’s 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders. The 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders honors notable IT executives who are driving strategy and innovation at their organizations. Among his many initiatives, McCue is currently focusing on supporting CSC’s Project Accelerate, equipping his increasingly virtual workforce, and deploying IT solutions that can be tailored to fit CSC’s diverse employees and business units. McCue recently talked to us about his goals for CSC.

“To be CIO of large multinational company, you have to have a good sense of the businesses of all your divisions – and their drivers. I deal with 91,000 people, a wide variety of industries, and dozens of countries. What may make perfect sense to one group might not make any sense to another group.

My priority is to make sure our employees and business units have tools they need individually and collectively to be successful, to be empowered to achieve results for our clients. CSC is organized in terms of an extremely aggressive virtual workforce. Many face-to-face meetings have been replaced with faceless virtual interactions. The challenge in this virtual world is to move toward classes of IT services that are conceived, designed, managed and delivered globally, but with appropriate business unit tailoring and implementation. IT must enable, rather than restrain.

Project Accelerate requires us to look for ways to deliver faster, and that has changed the way I approach my job. I always say, ‘Let’s not let perfect get in the way of better.’ By that I mean it’s better to deliver a series of incremental improvements early on, so the client can start seeing immediate benefits, than to wait and deliver everything in a ‘big bang.’ CSC has been used to large, seven-year outsourcing projects, where you could spend 15 months making a transition. We simply don’t have that luxury anymore. We’ve got to bring things to fruition faster.

What I like most about my job is the challenge of juggling the multitude of projects we’ve got going at once. It’s definitely not boring. I also enjoy being able to make a difference, for individual employees, and for our business. I want to make the whole CSC greater than the sum of its parts.”

CSC helped raise awareness about global warming when offices across Australia switched off all non-essential electrical devices on 29 March as part of the global environmental campaign, Earth Hour.

Earth Hour, an energy saving awareness initiative, encourages people to turn off lights and electrical appliances for an hour to help combat global warming. CSC got involved in the event by switching off all non-essential lighting, air conditioning and signage in its buildings from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. We joined 3,955 businesses in Australia, including our customers.

CSC Australia’s participation in the event ties into its new environmental program: Green Way. The program, which was formalized in December 2007, is part of the organization’s commitment to minimizing climate change and aims to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by 2010 from our 2007 levels.

How CSCers Marked Earth Hour:

“I attended a candle-lit picnic at Bronte Beach with friends,” said Environmental Sustainability Lead Anthony Ogilvie. “We even saw a group having a three legged race down a candle-lit runway.”

”We ended up lighting candles in the living room and playing a family game of monopoly,” said CSC Australia’s Vice President of Financial Services in CSC’s Health & Public Sector Matthew Day. “Monopoly was drawn to a close at 9.30 with no clear winner, but I was confident that I had a pipeline and strategy to triumph on a future occasion.”

“Last year’s Earth Hour triggered me to think about my energy usage and, since then, I have replaced all of my halogen down lights with LED lights,” said Network Systems Programmer Peter Hart. “This has reduced my energy usage from about 300 watts to 28 watts!”

“We ran around the house unplugging all electronic devices and sat down to dinner by candle light,” said Vice President of Human Resources Christiane Moloney. “The hour turned into an evening of relaxing and chatting about social issues. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!”

“I went to Sydney’s Star City Casino to watch the city skyline ‘shut down,’ said Business Analyst Vivek Srinivasan. “There was a band and lots of people on the balcony watching the lights turn off across Sydney. It looked amazing.”

Learn more about CSC’s Green IT initiatives.

Late last year, Bobbie White was named a Technology All-Star at the National Women of Color Technology Awards Conference. A task manager for CSC at the Naval Technical Trainer Center in Meridian, Mississippi, White was the first woman in the state to ever earn the recognition. White traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for the annual conference, where she was recognized with other business and technology leaders.

“It was really an honor to receive this award. At the award ceremony, I met people you usually only read about, people looking for a cure for cancer, astronauts, fighter pilots. It was unreal to meet them. I felt so fortunate to be the first in the state of Mississippi to receive the award.

But at the end of the day, I do my job because I like the job. I love supporting the Navy. It’s a challenge, and you never get bored. I meet all kinds of people from all over the world. We get sailors straight from boot camp who are here for specialized training, all the way up to people working under admirals. I’ve worked here since 1998, and I’ve seen major changes in Navy training. The Navy has gone from group-based classrooms to self-paced courses, which were first done under my leadership. I remember when we started we were on Windows 3.1. We’ve come a long way.“

Welcome to our new blog that highlights the exceptional work of our people, both inside and outside of CSC. There is much more to CSC’s 90,000 employees than their job titles, and we look forward to sharing their personal and professional stories with you.