John Polito:  

SPARK Journal, December 2009 John P. Polito President and CEO Enterprise Iron John Polito¿s passion for technology started in a high school computer programming class. The school¿Essex Catholic in Newark, NJ¿is no longer there, but John¿s love of technology has never wavered. He¿s built his career and his company around the ever-evolving world of technology-based business solutions. John believes that the key to a successful technology strategy is having a deep understanding of the business being supported. As a result, he¿s made sure he and the people who work for him know the financial services business inside out. ¿Companies don¿t always realize that technology is just part of the equation,¿ John says. ¿You really need to start by defining your business strategy, developing your end-to-end plan and truly understanding your products and services. That¿s the important other half of the equation in gaining a competitive edge.¿ Career Moves John¿s first full-time job came after he graduated from Essex Catholic in 1975. He worked with the check processing control systems department at Midlantic Bank. Within six months, he was promoted to computer operator, handling the bank¿s nightly processing work. He worked nights because he also was attending Rutgers University full-time during the day. Even though he admits to finding college a little tedious, he stayed with it and graduated with a Bachelor¿s in computer science. John also had married at 21, so when a job came along as a computer operator at Fidelity Union Bancorp that was closer to home, he took it. He was becoming well-versed in the Dos to MVS conversion process, as both Midlantic National Bank and Fidelity Union had gone through them. Newark. He was with Fidelity Union for two years, working on their Certificate of Deposit and DDA systems. In 1983, John moved to First Jersey National Bank¿s Securities Division as a senior programmer analyst. Again, he led the company¿s conversion from DOS to the newer MVS operating system. Once the conversion was completed he was responsible for new business conversions including Nations Bank, Merrill Lynch CMA, Prudential Bache and Evergreen to name a few. John was also responsible for the firm¿s Active Asset and Money Market Transfer Agency systems. ¿Later , I headed up a SWAT team responsible for selecting new financial products and implementing the technologies to support these new businesses such as ESOP, Stock Transfer, Personal and Employee Benefits Trust, Retirement Services or making required regulatory changes.¿ So, when First Jersey entered the retirement business, John did as well, implementing SunGard¿s Dyatron which became OmniPlan and eventually OmniPlus. A few years later, First Jersey was acquired by NatWest, which soon sold its transfer agency business to Sears, Dean Witter¿s parent company. Sears assimilated all of First Jersey¿s, Securities Divisions employees and technology, which kept John busy converting the business from the IT standpoint, including later when Sears spun off Dean Witter. All told, John worked for Dean Witter and Morgan Stanley after their mergers for 17 years. When he left in 2000, he was a First Vice President with responsibility for personal and employee benefits trust, and retirement technology. Staying competitive over the years had meant ongoing software and technology upgrades, which weren¿t hard to justify in the prevailing business climate. Just as important to John¿s way of thinking was that besides hardware and software expertise, senior IT staff had to have a solid understanding of the business and were required to obtain a number of industry licenses. ¿It wasn¿t enough just to be as good as, or better than, the competition in terms of the technology,¿ he says. ¿The senior staff also had to know the related businesses they supported so they could better communicate with business users.¿ A good example of how this philosophy paid off occurred during a bull market high in 1999. Brokers were focusing on selling securities rather than the less lucrative trust business. ¿While we were custodians of billions in trust assets, we often weren¿t the trustee or the standby trustee. What the broker didn¿t realize was if the owner passed away, he could possibly to lose the assets in the account to a competitor,¿ John explains. ¿But, by understanding both the technology and the business, our IT staff was able to identify the exposed accounts and built an on-line application that showed branch managers and brokers their exposure to this vulnerability. This got everyone¿s attention, and brokers quickly learned about standby trustees and the problem was resolved. People came to realize if IT was properly educated in their respective business and managed effectively, it could have a significant impact on the bottom line.¿ John left Morgan Stanley in 2000, with the idea ...Expand for more