About
Andrew Mole
I help CIOs and CFOs get control of what their technology estate costs, how it is governed, and what happens to it when the business changes shape. I have spent my career on the inside of that problem: as a CIO, as a programme delivery executive at IBM, and since 2022 as an independent advisor.
As UK IT Director and then EMEA CIO at GroupM, I ran technology for one of the world's largest media groups. As Global Technology Programme Delivery Director I built its ITIL-based global operations organisation across 400 offices in 81 countries, led post-acquisition integration of platforms and services, and ran the outsourcing programme that transferred much of it to IBM.
I then spent six years at IBM on the other side of that table. As Programme Delivery Executive for WPP and GroupM I was accountable for technology services to 120,000 users, led a 1,000-strong onshore, offshore, and third-party operation, carried joint P&L, and led the data-driven recovery programme for IBM's largest media-sector account. I have structured outsourcing as the buyer and delivered against it as the supplier.
Since 2022 I have worked independently. At a global information services group I led the software asset management programme that identified more than $15m of licence cost optimisation. At a global packaging manufacturer I have led service platform strategy through a two-entity corporate separation: platform governance, Microsoft enterprise agreement restructuring, licence disaggregation, and separation of the ServiceNow estate.
How I work
Start with the data, not the architecture.
Most large organisations pay for more technology than they use and govern less of it than they think. I treat the estate like any other asset on the balance sheet: what does it cost, what is it for, who decides.
The method is the same every time. Define the problem in one sentence. Get the numbers: what is contracted, what is deployed, what is used, what it costs. Find the gap. Fix it. Then put the governance in place so it stays fixed after I leave.
I am independent. No partner channel, no reseller margin, no platform allegiance. I have built negotiation positions for Microsoft and ServiceNow agreements on behalf of clients, never for a vendor. If the right answer is to walk away, I say so.
How an engagement runs
Fixed scope.
A problem statement, a timeline, and a measurable outcome, all agreed before work starts. No discovery phase that leads to another discovery phase.
I do the work.
I sit inside the executive team and use the governance that already exists. No methodology deck, no team of juniors. The work is done by me.
CIO and CFO in the same room.
Licensing, vendor renewals, separations and cost structures are never purely technical and never purely financial. I speak both languages, so the CIO and the CFO get one answer instead of two.
Start with a short call
Available for interim roles, executive advisory, and board-level decision support. Twenty minutes to establish whether the problem fits and whether I am the right person for it. No obligation.
Talk to Andrew