Mitch Kenfield, Managing Director at KPMG, discussed the business of IT, the role of the CIOs in today’s world, and current technology trends with theCube co-hosts Jeff Frick and Dave Vellante, live at the ServiceNow Knowledge conference today.

KPMG is “all about the business of IT,” Kenfield said. “We think of CIOs as a CEO of a technology business.” While there is a renewed energy from the services perspective in the IT market, with cloud, virtualization and other technologies changing he industry, cost control, doing things smarter are parts of the decision making process that are not going away.

“The businesses are moving too fast, IT has to keep up,” Kenfield explained  KPMG clients are expecting new ideas and innovation from IT, they are not expecting them to be order-takers anymore. “The job of the CIO hasn’t changed, but the pace and the complexity are increasing.”

Traditionally, “technology organizations have not been good at ongoing innovation,” they have been good at periodic innovation and then go back to keeping the lights on. R&D investments, innovation have to be part of the DNA of the business.

“We communicate with clients around the concept of [the] business of technology,” Kenfield added. What businesses are focusing on is talent and the ecosystem- the capabilities and the tools they have to deliver a business services. Collectively, these varied tools and capabilities make up an environments that CIOs are responsible for.

ServiceNow’s benefit is that it  gives companies an automated environment that allows KPMG to offer ideas to businesses, also helping turn people into consultants to their company.

KPMG has a CIO Advisory division that is focused on enabling the business of IT, make it more effective, provide the right services,  and ServiceNow is a key part of its tool kit, Kenfield said. An important goal in working with clients is to make sure businesses have repetitive practices. ServiceNow allows KPMG to look at ways to automate and simplify processes. Clients – IT organizations – are extremely hard working organizations, and KPMG helps them determine the best things to do and then offer them the technology they need to achieve their goals.

“We firmly believe that the industry specifics are what makes us go from good to great,” Kenfield explained. While the industry specific details are what the company goes to market with, the 80 percent that’s common is very important too.