Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
December 11, 2008 meeting
Present: Joel Manfredo, John Mooney, Subbu Murthy, Randy Farner, Andy King, Jeff Hecht, Jennifer Curlee, Jason Dedrick, Sean Brown, Paul Gray, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Jason Dedrick, UCI, to his first meeting.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the presentation material, when available.
Topic: Green IT
Joel Manfredo, County of Orange, started by showing technology trends as identified by Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, Gartner and Forrester, highlighting amongst others Cloud Computing, Consumers as Innovators, Mashups, Web Platform (SaaS) and Green IT. Another slide showed the hype cycle for technology trends with Green IT at the peak of inflated expectations (see Gartner slides in Joel’s presentation). He then showed the Wikipedia definition of Green computing – the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently, especially in power management and materials recycling. A Deloitte slide showed the influence of regulation over time, combined with economic and social pressures. An EPA Green Power Partnership slide showed the ranking of 53 Fortune 500 companies green power usage, led by Intel Corp at 1,300,000 kilowatt-hours per year. He touched upon renewable energy, green buildings and energy conservation. He defined the LEED building rating system – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, where you can be rated platinum, gold, silver and certified. He also defined the Energy Star program – a joint EPA and DoE program, which addresses both business and home efficiency guidelines, and showed an interesting projection of energy usage. He showed a complex Green IT taxonomy chart, and a chart showing technology enablers to Green IT. He listed Gartner’s10 key elements of a Green IT strategy, including switch it off when not in use, and move from “always on” to “always available“ in the data center. The Energy Stack slide was interesting. Joel ended with the Cisco connected workplace slide, showing the cost savings from the shared workplace design. A great presentation by a subject matter expert - I recommend that you take another look at his presentation slides. They are at : http://www.slideshare.net/occio .
We asked members to tell us what they are doing about Green IT.
John Mooney, Pepperdine University, said that he has been focusing more on IT sustainability rather than on Green IT. He belongs to a consortium called the European Center for Sustainability Leadership, and they had a meeting last week at the UN to define principles of responsibility. Green IT is one of IT management’s areas of responsibility as it influences technology, social and environmental strategies. He sees IT management becoming business practice leaders. He recommends that we switch paradigms from “reduce usage” to “do not use” in the first place.
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said that he is involved with open innovation and invited Joel to meet with the group. In general, he found that CIOs tend towards empire building - bigger budgets, staffs and data centers, and were anti outsourcing and SaaS. CIOs are not graded on energy consumption, although he did note that the Dupont CIO is chief sustainability officer for the company.
Randy Farner, Vitreous Solutions, said that according to the Wikipedia definition he has always been green – most service for least cost. Business demands service. When business demands green, the CIO will change. It is a simple value proposition.
Andy King, Exemplis Corporation, agreed that from a corporate perspective, he has to align with the business, and he hasn’t heard anything about green from the business. Common sense tells you that green is good and you have to become conscious about what it takes to become more green, but it hasn’t trickled down yet. He complimented Joel on his presentation.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that it is all about ROI. He doesn’t have a mandate to be green – he has a mandate to provide service, and he brought in blade servers to be efficient, not green. He has been looking at software to shut down systems and PCs but building management is not interested in doing their bit.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that they are a small company, and as such are always interested in saving $. She buys towers not stacks. They have a conflict between outsourcing and IP vulnerability. They keep the lights on because of security, and business continuity demands that they always have excess power for backup. Even so, they try to be green but are having problems with HVAC reliability.
Jason Dedrick, UCI, thanked Joel for a very interesting presentation. He is working in a new research area of carbon productivity, as it affects IT, the business as a whole, and the economy. They are studying any level of carbon usage, and on how IT affects energy usage, and not just at the cost side.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, was sorry that he was in and out during most of the presentation due to a conference call to a solar energy company. He found the pieces that he heard to be very interesting, and took note that the light in the conference room was too bright.
Paul Gray, Claremont (Emeritus), was working on the office hotelling concept in the early 90’s, and attended a conference on the subject in Orlando although he recognized that they used a lot of carbon just to fly there and back! With reference to Joel’s Cisco example and IBM reports, they showed that it didn’t and shouldn’t matter which office space one used when working in the central office and not at the home office. He and John Mooney agreed that to change behavior one needs incentives.
Thank you, Joel, for
Friday, December 19, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 11-13-08
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
November 13, 2008 meeting
Present: Andy King, Tina Haines, Sean Brown, Jim Sutter, William Zauner, John Pringle, Dave Loomis, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Dave Loomis, ex-Barnes & Noble, IBM, and Siemens to his first meeting.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the presentation material, when available.
Topic: IT Policies
Andy King, Exemplis Corporation, defined a policy as a statement of intent intended to influence and determine decisions, actions and other matters, for example: a company’s personnel policy. Reasons for having IT policies include prevention of abuse of IT resources, protection of owners and employees, provide guidelines for IT management decision making, integrate with corporate governance, and to meet regulatory, legal, and ethical requirements. Andy had a couple of slides defining where IT policies fit in an organization. Andy listed every IT policy he found - about 33 in total – and focused on the 7 major policies that Northwestern University have developed. These include policies on security, network/infrastructure, hardware, software, residential network, email and external vendors. Each of these can be expanded to multiple sub-policies. He showed us how the security policy expands into 9 sub-policies. I recommend that you refer to Andy’s presentation slides for detail listings. Andy also circulated examples that he gathered from organizations as varied as a mature indutrial (1 long legal 14 page policy document), several universities policies statements, and a government IT policy. He also listed reference items such as http://www.itgi.org/ (IT Governance Institute), and the British Standard ISO/IEC 38500:2008 on corporate governance of IT
We asked members to tell us what IT policies they have or would recommend.
Tina Haines, Meggitt Electronics, in the continuum of time, they have developed sets of IT policies, but they are not very well coordinated. The company has 35 IT groups which they are just now pulling them all together. The first step is to develop a common set of standards. They intend to develop policies regarding protection of data, security of equipment, email, etc. They are also attempting to install rigorous IT change control and DR. They do have accounting policies in place.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that they have a very limited set of IT policies in place. Customers have their own and their consultants have to abide by those policies. They find that it is quite difficult (3 or 4 days) to gain access to customer’s computing resources because of the access policies in place.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, said his philosophy over the years has been fewer policies are better than too many, and if the current financial crisis is anything to go by, having policies in place doesn’t seem to guarantee proper behavior. Policies should capture a set of rules, and IT policies should be part of corporate policies, just like HR policies. When he was at Rockwell, he had the same person who drafted IT strategies in charge of drafting IT policies
William Zauner, JAMS, relating to the handout document, agreed that one paragraph could easily turn into many pages of legal policy. He had an outside council work with the HR department draft the HR policies. What he tries to do is fix behavior rather than define policies on things like password protection, and intellectual property protection when external contractors are involved.
John Pringle, ex-RCMT, said that they did not have many policies until SOX compliance became an issue. A manual was developed and they all had to sign a document to acknowledge having read the manual. To control internal usage of the Internet they use a content filter. They also have asset management policies. More and more customers are requiring their consultants to comply with their policies. The top security issue is access to data.
Dave Loomis said that when he worked with Siemens, they had to comply with the customer’s policies. They also controlled internal Internet access using technology, and were rigorous in controlling what you had installed on your computer, and in installing antivirus software. Quite often, the executives were among those who got caught. They insisted that new employees attended training as a condition of employment.
Andy King, Exemplis Corp., added that they also have all new employees sign a technology use policy as a condition of employment, which is tied into the corporate strategy.
Thank you, Andy, for a very good presentation and handout. A copy can be found at: http://www.slideshare.net/occio .
See you on December 11, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
November 13, 2008 meeting
Present: Andy King, Tina Haines, Sean Brown, Jim Sutter, William Zauner, John Pringle, Dave Loomis, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Dave Loomis, ex-Barnes & Noble, IBM, and Siemens to his first meeting.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the presentation material, when available.
Topic: IT Policies
Andy King, Exemplis Corporation, defined a policy as a statement of intent intended to influence and determine decisions, actions and other matters, for example: a company’s personnel policy. Reasons for having IT policies include prevention of abuse of IT resources, protection of owners and employees, provide guidelines for IT management decision making, integrate with corporate governance, and to meet regulatory, legal, and ethical requirements. Andy had a couple of slides defining where IT policies fit in an organization. Andy listed every IT policy he found - about 33 in total – and focused on the 7 major policies that Northwestern University have developed. These include policies on security, network/infrastructure, hardware, software, residential network, email and external vendors. Each of these can be expanded to multiple sub-policies. He showed us how the security policy expands into 9 sub-policies. I recommend that you refer to Andy’s presentation slides for detail listings. Andy also circulated examples that he gathered from organizations as varied as a mature indutrial (1 long legal 14 page policy document), several universities policies statements, and a government IT policy. He also listed reference items such as http://www.itgi.org/ (IT Governance Institute), and the British Standard ISO/IEC 38500:2008 on corporate governance of IT
We asked members to tell us what IT policies they have or would recommend.
Tina Haines, Meggitt Electronics, in the continuum of time, they have developed sets of IT policies, but they are not very well coordinated. The company has 35 IT groups which they are just now pulling them all together. The first step is to develop a common set of standards. They intend to develop policies regarding protection of data, security of equipment, email, etc. They are also attempting to install rigorous IT change control and DR. They do have accounting policies in place.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that they have a very limited set of IT policies in place. Customers have their own and their consultants have to abide by those policies. They find that it is quite difficult (3 or 4 days) to gain access to customer’s computing resources because of the access policies in place.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, said his philosophy over the years has been fewer policies are better than too many, and if the current financial crisis is anything to go by, having policies in place doesn’t seem to guarantee proper behavior. Policies should capture a set of rules, and IT policies should be part of corporate policies, just like HR policies. When he was at Rockwell, he had the same person who drafted IT strategies in charge of drafting IT policies
William Zauner, JAMS, relating to the handout document, agreed that one paragraph could easily turn into many pages of legal policy. He had an outside council work with the HR department draft the HR policies. What he tries to do is fix behavior rather than define policies on things like password protection, and intellectual property protection when external contractors are involved.
John Pringle, ex-RCMT, said that they did not have many policies until SOX compliance became an issue. A manual was developed and they all had to sign a document to acknowledge having read the manual. To control internal usage of the Internet they use a content filter. They also have asset management policies. More and more customers are requiring their consultants to comply with their policies. The top security issue is access to data.
Dave Loomis said that when he worked with Siemens, they had to comply with the customer’s policies. They also controlled internal Internet access using technology, and were rigorous in controlling what you had installed on your computer, and in installing antivirus software. Quite often, the executives were among those who got caught. They insisted that new employees attended training as a condition of employment.
Andy King, Exemplis Corp., added that they also have all new employees sign a technology use policy as a condition of employment, which is tied into the corporate strategy.
Thank you, Andy, for a very good presentation and handout. A copy can be found at: http://www.slideshare.net/occio .
See you on December 11, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
Monday, October 20, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 10-9-08
1993-2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
September 11, 2008 meeting
Present: Jim Pick, Paul Gray, John Pringle, Carmella Cassetta, Andy Stameson, Tak Fujii, Jim Sutter, Andy King, Jennifer Curlee, Sean Brown, Dave Phillips
Paul Gray introduced our guest speaker, Professor James Pick, University of Redlands, as our subject matter expert and author of several books on the topic. We also welcomed Andy Stameson, ex-CIO at FileNet, to his first meeting.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: GIS – Its time has come for business
Jim Pick, University of Redlands, defined Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a database of attributes, spatial information, and a linkage between the two. Jacqueline Tyrwhitt began using overlays for land use planning in 1950. Ian McHarg carried it much further and published “Design with Nature” in 1969. Also in the late 60’s, ESRI (HQ in Redlands) developed a software package, Arcinfo, and GIS was born. Military R & D eventually developed satellite systems for Global Positioning Systems (GPS). GIS moved into the business environment in the early 1990’s. Jim showed several examples, including a routing and scheduling application for a business fleet (see his presentation slides for other examples). The family of spatial technologies also includes RFID, sensors, handheld devices (such as PDAs), and LIDAR (light detection and ranging) for laser 3-D profiles. There are legal and ethical issues with using spatial technologies – including privacy and eligibility. GIS has moved towards web and mobile platforms, and almost everyone is familiar with Google Earth and Yahoo maps. Jim gave many other examples. GIS is starting to be integrated with ERP systems, especially with Oracle ERP, and in the energy (oil) value chain. It is also being used as a strategic business weapon (e.g. at Rand McNally) and it needs to be aligned with the IT strategy. Jim described at some length the use of GIS at Norwich Union. It is coming to the point where most companies should evaluate GIS and its potential. The management issues include cost vs. benefit (ROI). Should the GIS group be part of IT? In-house or outsourced? When should it be integrated into the ERP systems (not yet a smooth process)? Jim’s slides contain much more information and I recommend that you take the time to review them. They are at http://www.slideshare.net/occio .
We asked members to tell us what they are doing with GIS.
Paul Gray, Claremont, complimented Jim for a very comprehensive presentation. Paul’s knowledge is limited but he has reviewed favorably several of Jim’s books. Claremont is starting to get interested and have a few education projects – young Ph.Ds are good as missionaries. So far, it seems that people have problems viewing things spatially.
John Pringle, ex-RCMT, said that he is somewhat familiar with GPS tracking on boats as a component of marine technology. He has been thinking about the privacy implications when you start to link GPS/GIS to social networks.
Carmella Cassetta, Corinthian Colleges, can see how this has implications for the transportation industry, tracking trucks and delivery status. She is less certain about its use in student related activities. One issue is what is the ideal background for people who want to go into GIS? Is it a background in IT, or government, or geography? ESRI alumni may be the ideal!
Andy Stameson, ex FileNet, said that they had started to look into these technologies at FileNet. They were trying to link Salesforce.com with GIS to get a better feeling for the ideal territories for sales and service.
Tak Fujii, Olson Company, said that since they are in housing development downtown, they have used GIS for years for mapping purposes. Now that Google Earth is readily available and very useful, they have started to use it in place of more expensive tools. They overlay demographic data and infrastructure data over the physical picture. Google is putting pressure on ESRI.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, recalled that Rockwell had an early contract to build the first constellation of GPS satellites. He remembers meeting Jim Pick years ago and taking him on a tour of Rockwell Semiconductor (which became Conexant). Gallo Winery is a big user of GIS in the vineyard to track application of fertilizers, etc., and in marketing to track selling demographics. Adding an RFID tag to each case is costly (50c)
Andy King, Exemplis Corp., expressed two thoughts – this was a very informative presentation, especially as he has been thinking about how to introduce it to his executives for personal navigation aspects, and to find where books are available. The second was to his Boy Scouts troop in place/addition to the map and compass exercise.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, also had two thoughts. He is working with a small company, which is thinking about going public, and they want to track drill bits, combining positioning and soil characteristics. GIS is also a plus for any CIO to present innovative ideas to his/her management where it might add value.
This was a very good presentation by Jim Pick, supported by a good handout and list of references.
See you on November 13, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
September 11, 2008 meeting
Present: Jim Pick, Paul Gray, John Pringle, Carmella Cassetta, Andy Stameson, Tak Fujii, Jim Sutter, Andy King, Jennifer Curlee, Sean Brown, Dave Phillips
Paul Gray introduced our guest speaker, Professor James Pick, University of Redlands, as our subject matter expert and author of several books on the topic. We also welcomed Andy Stameson, ex-CIO at FileNet, to his first meeting.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: GIS – Its time has come for business
Jim Pick, University of Redlands, defined Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a database of attributes, spatial information, and a linkage between the two. Jacqueline Tyrwhitt began using overlays for land use planning in 1950. Ian McHarg carried it much further and published “Design with Nature” in 1969. Also in the late 60’s, ESRI (HQ in Redlands) developed a software package, Arcinfo, and GIS was born. Military R & D eventually developed satellite systems for Global Positioning Systems (GPS). GIS moved into the business environment in the early 1990’s. Jim showed several examples, including a routing and scheduling application for a business fleet (see his presentation slides for other examples). The family of spatial technologies also includes RFID, sensors, handheld devices (such as PDAs), and LIDAR (light detection and ranging) for laser 3-D profiles. There are legal and ethical issues with using spatial technologies – including privacy and eligibility. GIS has moved towards web and mobile platforms, and almost everyone is familiar with Google Earth and Yahoo maps. Jim gave many other examples. GIS is starting to be integrated with ERP systems, especially with Oracle ERP, and in the energy (oil) value chain. It is also being used as a strategic business weapon (e.g. at Rand McNally) and it needs to be aligned with the IT strategy. Jim described at some length the use of GIS at Norwich Union. It is coming to the point where most companies should evaluate GIS and its potential. The management issues include cost vs. benefit (ROI). Should the GIS group be part of IT? In-house or outsourced? When should it be integrated into the ERP systems (not yet a smooth process)? Jim’s slides contain much more information and I recommend that you take the time to review them. They are at http://www.slideshare.net/occio .
We asked members to tell us what they are doing with GIS.
Paul Gray, Claremont, complimented Jim for a very comprehensive presentation. Paul’s knowledge is limited but he has reviewed favorably several of Jim’s books. Claremont is starting to get interested and have a few education projects – young Ph.Ds are good as missionaries. So far, it seems that people have problems viewing things spatially.
John Pringle, ex-RCMT, said that he is somewhat familiar with GPS tracking on boats as a component of marine technology. He has been thinking about the privacy implications when you start to link GPS/GIS to social networks.
Carmella Cassetta, Corinthian Colleges, can see how this has implications for the transportation industry, tracking trucks and delivery status. She is less certain about its use in student related activities. One issue is what is the ideal background for people who want to go into GIS? Is it a background in IT, or government, or geography? ESRI alumni may be the ideal!
Andy Stameson, ex FileNet, said that they had started to look into these technologies at FileNet. They were trying to link Salesforce.com with GIS to get a better feeling for the ideal territories for sales and service.
Tak Fujii, Olson Company, said that since they are in housing development downtown, they have used GIS for years for mapping purposes. Now that Google Earth is readily available and very useful, they have started to use it in place of more expensive tools. They overlay demographic data and infrastructure data over the physical picture. Google is putting pressure on ESRI.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, recalled that Rockwell had an early contract to build the first constellation of GPS satellites. He remembers meeting Jim Pick years ago and taking him on a tour of Rockwell Semiconductor (which became Conexant). Gallo Winery is a big user of GIS in the vineyard to track application of fertilizers, etc., and in marketing to track selling demographics. Adding an RFID tag to each case is costly (50c)
Andy King, Exemplis Corp., expressed two thoughts – this was a very informative presentation, especially as he has been thinking about how to introduce it to his executives for personal navigation aspects, and to find where books are available. The second was to his Boy Scouts troop in place/addition to the map and compass exercise.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, also had two thoughts. He is working with a small company, which is thinking about going public, and they want to track drill bits, combining positioning and soil characteristics. GIS is also a plus for any CIO to present innovative ideas to his/her management where it might add value.
This was a very good presentation by Jim Pick, supported by a good handout and list of references.
See you on November 13, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 9-11-08
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
September 11, 2008 meeting
Present: Paul Gray, Omar El Sawy, Joel Manfredo, Jeff Reid, Kirk Minami, Randy Farner, Randy Miller, Rich Hoffman, Steve Wallace, Jennifer Curlee, David Mann, Jeff Hecht, Sean Brown, William Zauner, Jim Sutter, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Kirk Minami, Aviana Global, and Steve Wallace, Hansen Beverage, to their first meeting.
We reminded members about the evening event of September 17th from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on SaaS, sponsored by SAP and RJT Compuquest.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: Analytics - Maximizing the ROI from the BI investment
Paul Gray, Professor Emeritus at Claremont Graduate School, defined BI systems as a combination of data gathering, data storage, knowledge management with analysis to evaluate complex internal and competitive information, and present quality results in a timely manner. See slide 5 for the relationship of BI to DSS/EIS, data mining, OLAP, data warehouse, Web 2.0, CRM/DB marketing, and GIS. It is not sufficient to look back at internal performance data, or past competitive results. It is important to provide analysis tools to produce “what if” scenarios and make the analytic tools and results available to many in the organization, not to just a few planners. Paul showed examples of Web 2.0 bashups, combining many sources of data. Web 2.0 user-friendly interface allows for widespread use of such systems. The challenges include data quality, common data definitions and having the right infrastructure. There are many implications for the CIO (see slide 17). CI (competitive intelligence) is a systematic and ethical program for gathering, analyzing and managing external information about your competitors, which can affect your company’s performance. There are many sources of CI, such as government databases, online data, interviews and the media. The problem is not lack of information but the ability to use it effectively. There are many vendors of BI systems (see slide 25). There are many BI managerial issues – it’s about understanding your own position and performance, your customers and your competitors, and disseminating that knowledge to many people in the company. The technologies for BI and CI are getting better, as part of a better DSS capability. Paul attached a list of references, including “Successful Business Intelligence”, by Cindy Howson, and a review of “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning” by Tom Davenport & Jeanne Harris.
Paul's slides are at: http://www.slideshare.net/occio
We asked members to share with us their experiences with BI and Analytics.
Omar El Sawy, USC, thanked Paul for his presentation. He took a stab at defining the difference between BI (focused on presenting the data from various sources) and Analytics (trying to use tools to gain insight from the data). He saw lots of integration between process workflow data and intelligence, which changes the way ROI is viewed as more part of the process. The science of exceptions is becoming better, but there is a lot of skepticism out there on the ROI of analytics.
Joel Manfredo recalled when he was in the leasing business in 1996, he was focused on the long process, from concept to building to leasing and you could be dead before you knew it. He was focused on collapsing the cycle time, and used BI tools to help. He also was interested in analyzing demographic data, using Cognos for reporting, which is invaluable in retail, like Starbucks, although it didn’t seemed to stop them from opening a store on every corner!
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling, said that they used the SAP tool to get at their data. So far they pull together data from 4 of the 7 or 8 processes, and intend to extend it to all the processes. Fundamentally, it’s about getting the right data at the right time to the right people, so that better decisions can be made.
Kirk Minami, Aviana Global, shared with us information about a project he is working on in manufacturing. It is an early warning detection system, analyzing data from customer problem call logs to spot problems with the manufacturing process that might be causing units to fail, and to indicate what early steps can be taken to solve the problems at inception. The payback is huge.
Randy Farner, Vitreous Solutions, recalled from his experience with the Auto Club and Mercury. They used data mining a lot to analyze data on their Terradata platform, and the results were very good for CA. The Auto Club used a rich array of tools to help them drill down.
Randy Miller remembered fondly his days at Toshiba ABS, where he worked with Steve Wallace’s wife on a BI project using Cognos. In that project, 85% of the sales were made in the last 3 days of the month, and so the reports were produced every hour and studied intensely. The CI tools produced reports on the competition but despite the forecasts, this did not seem to influence change.
Rich Hoffman said that DW and SAS seem to have been around forever. Maybe Analytics is a new wrinkle. In the auto industry they have used BI for many years, tracking things like real time comparison shopping on the web, customer retention, conversion, faster failure diagnosis, repair order tracking, etc. He has noticed of late that they won’t hire the necessary Ph. D’s to do the job properly, and won’t spend the effort to cleanse the data.
Steve Wallace, Hansen Beverage, said that this discussion was very timely as they are going through a maturation cycle, which will affect processes, systems, and their global reach. In the past, they only reacted to BI – now it is part of the equation, and they are developing lots of pockets of CI, which will enrich the reports.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that they have just finished implementing an ERP system, with the help of a consulting company, which they hoped was going to push them into BI, document management, etc. Unfortunately, they have found that they products are only interfaced, not integrated with one another, and data definitions are not consistent. This turns out to be an opportunity to start a new DD project, and to drive that effort deep into the organization.
David Mann, Word & Brown, said that they too are starting a major initiative, including BI. The major challenge is to define the ROI, and this presentation and discussion will help. They are blessed with having12 to 22 years of data to mine
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, thanked Paul for his presentation and said that Paul forgets more about this subject than he will ever know. The focus of their initiative is to present data in a better way, one that adds value to the data, but it’s hard to get people to believe that better information with result in better decision-making. Our executives have a hard time believing that a computer will make a better decision than they can.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that his company is making a significant investment in BI, and in becoming experts with the SAP analytic product and tools. They are aiming to generate real time ROI from the use of these tools.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that his company has a customized BI system. Each of their judges is treated as a mini profit center, and they use analytics to their competitive advantage as part of their recruiting strategy. The next phase is to use Business Objects to do “What if” studies to change the business focus.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, said that the Gallo Winery used a host of BI tools, like Cognos, to help them with strategic pricing each weekend. They are in the process of moving to the OutlookSoft product, because of its Excel look and feel. They have also consolidated their BI efforts, and now have a director of BI in IT. He liked Paul’s mashups for CI and is helping start-up companies get a handle on their competitors by tracking contacts on Linkedin, etc. to find out who knows who in the other companies.
John Pringle, RCMT, said that he was the DSS manager in MacDonald Douglas many years ago. He now uses a tool called DIVA to track KPI, performance tracking by sales person, dashboards, charts etc – when you visit John’s office you see them posted all over the walls.
This was a very good session, thanks to Paul’s presentation and excellent handouts.
See you on October 9, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
September 11, 2008 meeting
Present: Paul Gray, Omar El Sawy, Joel Manfredo, Jeff Reid, Kirk Minami, Randy Farner, Randy Miller, Rich Hoffman, Steve Wallace, Jennifer Curlee, David Mann, Jeff Hecht, Sean Brown, William Zauner, Jim Sutter, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Kirk Minami, Aviana Global, and Steve Wallace, Hansen Beverage, to their first meeting.
We reminded members about the evening event of September 17th from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on SaaS, sponsored by SAP and RJT Compuquest.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: Analytics - Maximizing the ROI from the BI investment
Paul Gray, Professor Emeritus at Claremont Graduate School, defined BI systems as a combination of data gathering, data storage, knowledge management with analysis to evaluate complex internal and competitive information, and present quality results in a timely manner. See slide 5 for the relationship of BI to DSS/EIS, data mining, OLAP, data warehouse, Web 2.0, CRM/DB marketing, and GIS. It is not sufficient to look back at internal performance data, or past competitive results. It is important to provide analysis tools to produce “what if” scenarios and make the analytic tools and results available to many in the organization, not to just a few planners. Paul showed examples of Web 2.0 bashups, combining many sources of data. Web 2.0 user-friendly interface allows for widespread use of such systems. The challenges include data quality, common data definitions and having the right infrastructure. There are many implications for the CIO (see slide 17). CI (competitive intelligence) is a systematic and ethical program for gathering, analyzing and managing external information about your competitors, which can affect your company’s performance. There are many sources of CI, such as government databases, online data, interviews and the media. The problem is not lack of information but the ability to use it effectively. There are many vendors of BI systems (see slide 25). There are many BI managerial issues – it’s about understanding your own position and performance, your customers and your competitors, and disseminating that knowledge to many people in the company. The technologies for BI and CI are getting better, as part of a better DSS capability. Paul attached a list of references, including “Successful Business Intelligence”, by Cindy Howson, and a review of “Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning” by Tom Davenport & Jeanne Harris.
Paul's slides are at: http://www.slideshare.net/occio
We asked members to share with us their experiences with BI and Analytics.
Omar El Sawy, USC, thanked Paul for his presentation. He took a stab at defining the difference between BI (focused on presenting the data from various sources) and Analytics (trying to use tools to gain insight from the data). He saw lots of integration between process workflow data and intelligence, which changes the way ROI is viewed as more part of the process. The science of exceptions is becoming better, but there is a lot of skepticism out there on the ROI of analytics.
Joel Manfredo recalled when he was in the leasing business in 1996, he was focused on the long process, from concept to building to leasing and you could be dead before you knew it. He was focused on collapsing the cycle time, and used BI tools to help. He also was interested in analyzing demographic data, using Cognos for reporting, which is invaluable in retail, like Starbucks, although it didn’t seemed to stop them from opening a store on every corner!
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling, said that they used the SAP tool to get at their data. So far they pull together data from 4 of the 7 or 8 processes, and intend to extend it to all the processes. Fundamentally, it’s about getting the right data at the right time to the right people, so that better decisions can be made.
Kirk Minami, Aviana Global, shared with us information about a project he is working on in manufacturing. It is an early warning detection system, analyzing data from customer problem call logs to spot problems with the manufacturing process that might be causing units to fail, and to indicate what early steps can be taken to solve the problems at inception. The payback is huge.
Randy Farner, Vitreous Solutions, recalled from his experience with the Auto Club and Mercury. They used data mining a lot to analyze data on their Terradata platform, and the results were very good for CA. The Auto Club used a rich array of tools to help them drill down.
Randy Miller remembered fondly his days at Toshiba ABS, where he worked with Steve Wallace’s wife on a BI project using Cognos. In that project, 85% of the sales were made in the last 3 days of the month, and so the reports were produced every hour and studied intensely. The CI tools produced reports on the competition but despite the forecasts, this did not seem to influence change.
Rich Hoffman said that DW and SAS seem to have been around forever. Maybe Analytics is a new wrinkle. In the auto industry they have used BI for many years, tracking things like real time comparison shopping on the web, customer retention, conversion, faster failure diagnosis, repair order tracking, etc. He has noticed of late that they won’t hire the necessary Ph. D’s to do the job properly, and won’t spend the effort to cleanse the data.
Steve Wallace, Hansen Beverage, said that this discussion was very timely as they are going through a maturation cycle, which will affect processes, systems, and their global reach. In the past, they only reacted to BI – now it is part of the equation, and they are developing lots of pockets of CI, which will enrich the reports.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that they have just finished implementing an ERP system, with the help of a consulting company, which they hoped was going to push them into BI, document management, etc. Unfortunately, they have found that they products are only interfaced, not integrated with one another, and data definitions are not consistent. This turns out to be an opportunity to start a new DD project, and to drive that effort deep into the organization.
David Mann, Word & Brown, said that they too are starting a major initiative, including BI. The major challenge is to define the ROI, and this presentation and discussion will help. They are blessed with having12 to 22 years of data to mine
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, thanked Paul for his presentation and said that Paul forgets more about this subject than he will ever know. The focus of their initiative is to present data in a better way, one that adds value to the data, but it’s hard to get people to believe that better information with result in better decision-making. Our executives have a hard time believing that a computer will make a better decision than they can.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that his company is making a significant investment in BI, and in becoming experts with the SAP analytic product and tools. They are aiming to generate real time ROI from the use of these tools.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that his company has a customized BI system. Each of their judges is treated as a mini profit center, and they use analytics to their competitive advantage as part of their recruiting strategy. The next phase is to use Business Objects to do “What if” studies to change the business focus.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, said that the Gallo Winery used a host of BI tools, like Cognos, to help them with strategic pricing each weekend. They are in the process of moving to the OutlookSoft product, because of its Excel look and feel. They have also consolidated their BI efforts, and now have a director of BI in IT. He liked Paul’s mashups for CI and is helping start-up companies get a handle on their competitors by tracking contacts on Linkedin, etc. to find out who knows who in the other companies.
John Pringle, RCMT, said that he was the DSS manager in MacDonald Douglas many years ago. He now uses a tool called DIVA to track KPI, performance tracking by sales person, dashboards, charts etc – when you visit John’s office you see them posted all over the walls.
This was a very good session, thanks to Paul’s presentation and excellent handouts.
See you on October 9, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 8-14-08
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
August 14, 2008 meeting
Present: Mike Allen, Joel Manfredo, Larry Godec, Tina Haines, Bob Houghton, Randy Farner, Jeff Hecht, Mitch Morris, Carmella Cassetta, Sean Brown, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Mike Allen, The Irvin Company, as our guest speaker, and new member Carmella Cassetta, Corinthian Colleges, to her first meeting.
We reminded members to reserve the evening of September 17th from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. for the SaaS special event, sponsored by SAP and RJT Compuquest.
Please check Attachment A for the list of topics chosen for the rest of the year, the dates of each meeting and the person who has volunteered to prepare the introduction.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Joel Manfredo, ex-CIO at the Irvine Company (TIC), introduced Michael Allen, Director of Process Excellence, and described the context for the ITIL initiative at TIC – poor change control. Mike described ITIL as a framework of 11 common sense, service oriented principles – it is the What, rather than the How. Created by the British Government in the ‘80s to address inefficiencies with providing IT services, it is now at Version 3, which was released in June 2007. There are 5 core books entitled: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. ITIL Service Strategy is about the practice of service management, principles, strategy, economics (IT financial management, ROI, service portfolio management, demand management), organization culture, technology and operations. ITIL Service Design is about service design principles and processes – service catalogue management, service level management, capacity management, availability management, service continuity management, information security management, supplier management, application management, data and information management, requirements engineering, and design considerations (organization, process and tools). ITIL Service Transition is about transition principles and processes – transition planning and support, change management, asset and configuration management, release and deployment management, validation and testing, evaluation and knowledge management. ITIL Service Operation is about principles and processes - event management, incident management, request fulfillment, problem management, access management, monitor and control domain management. It is also about functions like service desk, technical management, IT operations management, and application management. ITIL Continual Service Improvement processes include the 7-step improvement process, service reporting, measurement, ROI for CSI, and SLA management. To operate IT like a business, it behooves you to embrace ITIL principles to provide reliable, available and serviceable IT services and infrastructure. It leverages Deming’s PDCA model. Widely accepted in Europe, it is quickly moving into the US market. Mike recommended starting with one aspect of your IT operations that needs improvement. TIC started with change management to add structure to a somewhat chaotic environment by dedicating resources in 2004, and the metrics show the value. Mike’s handout lists what they have done – self-assessment, 5-year plan, incident and problem management, configuration management and IT service continuity. I recommend that you read his entire handout to get a better sense of all that they have accomplished. The slides are at: http://www.slideshare.net/occio
We asked members to share with us their experiences with ITIL.
Mitch Morris, IAMPO, told us that his environment is still very immature with respect to IT. He is evaluating ERP systems with the intention of replacing custom software. He is also trying to educate both management and users in the need for IT policies and procedures. In past positions, he has implemented many ITIL concepts.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said before listening to the presentation, he would have said that they did nothing with ITIL. He now realizes that they do a lot in areas like demand management. The need for availability is increasing, and they need predictable procedures to handle change management. The business is still very immature, as it grows from 200 to 1000 employees, and they tend to be sloppy about a lot of things. But the business is starting to be more demanding so his first step will be to do a self-assessment.
Randy Farner, Vitreous Solutions, said that at the Auto Club and Mercury, they have implemented many ITIL procedures in name, but not in spirit. Problems keep reoccurring, and there is little route cause analysis. What he likes about ITIL is that it gives you a checklist of processes and procedures that one should implement to run IT as a business.
Bob Houghton, DDI, said that at Western Digital, with 26,000 all over the world, the need for such a process was recognized so that they could communicate the cost of poor IT practices. Implementing IT services based on the ITIL model brought the cost of IT per drive down from 26 cents to 6 cents. At DDI, they are coming out of bankruptcy, and had just failed a SOX audit in change control. They had to use ITIL to get some structure.
Tina Haines, Meggitt Electronics, initial reaction to ITIL was “what’s in a name”. But since she has been working with her new division in the last 18 months, mostly in the UK, she has came to see that ITIL is very much accepted as a body of work which is supportable. Their problem today is that they are in a very profitable aerospace industry, and have tended to become lazy. So it is good to have a foundation for providing IT services. ITIL is in demand by both the government and their customers. She complimented Mike and TIC for doing a really good job of relating process maturity to the business.
Larry Godec, First American, is a big fan of ITIL. They have implemented many ITIL concepts and find that it is an excellent foundation for IT service provisioning. With the demand for high availability, it has become absolutely necessary to control changes, and manage demand. Unfortunately, with the budget cuts due the real estate crunch, he has had to reassign his ITIL full time resource. He is contemplating bringing him back to do another assessment.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that they are not ITIL compliant. It would seem to him for this to be critically important for all CIOs to know how compliant they were to the ITIL principles in all aspects of providing IT services. If they don’t know, then they need to do at least do a self-audit, if not hire a company to do one, like TIC did.
Carmella Cassetta, Corinthian Colleges, said the first thing they did was address change management. They were able to show $ savings from implementing ITIL principles. When she joined Corinthian Colleges, they had multiple years of failed SOX audits. After implementing change management, they have moved to address incident management. Listening to Mike, she realizes that there is another whole level that they need to address. They are at best at 50-60% of where they should be.
This was a very good session, thanks to Mike’s presentation and a very lively discussion.
See you on September 11, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260
August 14, 2008 meeting
Present: Mike Allen, Joel Manfredo, Larry Godec, Tina Haines, Bob Houghton, Randy Farner, Jeff Hecht, Mitch Morris, Carmella Cassetta, Sean Brown, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Mike Allen, The Irvin Company, as our guest speaker, and new member Carmella Cassetta, Corinthian Colleges, to her first meeting.
We reminded members to reserve the evening of September 17th from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. for the SaaS special event, sponsored by SAP and RJT Compuquest.
Please check Attachment A for the list of topics chosen for the rest of the year, the dates of each meeting and the person who has volunteered to prepare the introduction.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Joel Manfredo, ex-CIO at the Irvine Company (TIC), introduced Michael Allen, Director of Process Excellence, and described the context for the ITIL initiative at TIC – poor change control. Mike described ITIL as a framework of 11 common sense, service oriented principles – it is the What, rather than the How. Created by the British Government in the ‘80s to address inefficiencies with providing IT services, it is now at Version 3, which was released in June 2007. There are 5 core books entitled: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. ITIL Service Strategy is about the practice of service management, principles, strategy, economics (IT financial management, ROI, service portfolio management, demand management), organization culture, technology and operations. ITIL Service Design is about service design principles and processes – service catalogue management, service level management, capacity management, availability management, service continuity management, information security management, supplier management, application management, data and information management, requirements engineering, and design considerations (organization, process and tools). ITIL Service Transition is about transition principles and processes – transition planning and support, change management, asset and configuration management, release and deployment management, validation and testing, evaluation and knowledge management. ITIL Service Operation is about principles and processes - event management, incident management, request fulfillment, problem management, access management, monitor and control domain management. It is also about functions like service desk, technical management, IT operations management, and application management. ITIL Continual Service Improvement processes include the 7-step improvement process, service reporting, measurement, ROI for CSI, and SLA management. To operate IT like a business, it behooves you to embrace ITIL principles to provide reliable, available and serviceable IT services and infrastructure. It leverages Deming’s PDCA model. Widely accepted in Europe, it is quickly moving into the US market. Mike recommended starting with one aspect of your IT operations that needs improvement. TIC started with change management to add structure to a somewhat chaotic environment by dedicating resources in 2004, and the metrics show the value. Mike’s handout lists what they have done – self-assessment, 5-year plan, incident and problem management, configuration management and IT service continuity. I recommend that you read his entire handout to get a better sense of all that they have accomplished. The slides are at: http://www.slideshare.net/occio
We asked members to share with us their experiences with ITIL.
Mitch Morris, IAMPO, told us that his environment is still very immature with respect to IT. He is evaluating ERP systems with the intention of replacing custom software. He is also trying to educate both management and users in the need for IT policies and procedures. In past positions, he has implemented many ITIL concepts.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said before listening to the presentation, he would have said that they did nothing with ITIL. He now realizes that they do a lot in areas like demand management. The need for availability is increasing, and they need predictable procedures to handle change management. The business is still very immature, as it grows from 200 to 1000 employees, and they tend to be sloppy about a lot of things. But the business is starting to be more demanding so his first step will be to do a self-assessment.
Randy Farner, Vitreous Solutions, said that at the Auto Club and Mercury, they have implemented many ITIL procedures in name, but not in spirit. Problems keep reoccurring, and there is little route cause analysis. What he likes about ITIL is that it gives you a checklist of processes and procedures that one should implement to run IT as a business.
Bob Houghton, DDI, said that at Western Digital, with 26,000 all over the world, the need for such a process was recognized so that they could communicate the cost of poor IT practices. Implementing IT services based on the ITIL model brought the cost of IT per drive down from 26 cents to 6 cents. At DDI, they are coming out of bankruptcy, and had just failed a SOX audit in change control. They had to use ITIL to get some structure.
Tina Haines, Meggitt Electronics, initial reaction to ITIL was “what’s in a name”. But since she has been working with her new division in the last 18 months, mostly in the UK, she has came to see that ITIL is very much accepted as a body of work which is supportable. Their problem today is that they are in a very profitable aerospace industry, and have tended to become lazy. So it is good to have a foundation for providing IT services. ITIL is in demand by both the government and their customers. She complimented Mike and TIC for doing a really good job of relating process maturity to the business.
Larry Godec, First American, is a big fan of ITIL. They have implemented many ITIL concepts and find that it is an excellent foundation for IT service provisioning. With the demand for high availability, it has become absolutely necessary to control changes, and manage demand. Unfortunately, with the budget cuts due the real estate crunch, he has had to reassign his ITIL full time resource. He is contemplating bringing him back to do another assessment.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that they are not ITIL compliant. It would seem to him for this to be critically important for all CIOs to know how compliant they were to the ITIL principles in all aspects of providing IT services. If they don’t know, then they need to do at least do a self-audit, if not hire a company to do one, like TIC did.
Carmella Cassetta, Corinthian Colleges, said the first thing they did was address change management. They were able to show $ savings from implementing ITIL principles. When she joined Corinthian Colleges, they had multiple years of failed SOX audits. After implementing change management, they have moved to address incident management. Listening to Mike, she realizes that there is another whole level that they need to address. They are at best at 50-60% of where they should be.
This was a very good session, thanks to Mike’s presentation and a very lively discussion.
See you on September 11, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260
Monday, July 21, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 7-10-08
1993-2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
July 10, 2008 meeting
Present: Omar El Sawy, Joel Manfredo, Jeff Reid, Randy Miller, Tina Haines, John Pringle, Jim Sutter, Joe Cracchiolo, Sean Brown, Paul Gray, Jeff Hecht, Bill Baker, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Bill Baker, the new CIO at Arbonne, to his first OC CIO Round Table.
Please check Attachment A for the list of topics chosen for the rest of the year, the dates of each meeting and the person who has volunteered to prepare the introduction.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: The Future of IT & Business Scenarios for 2013
Omar El Sawy, USC, divided his presentation into 3 parts: IT-savvy line managers in 2013; Top 10 Omarisms; and Whither uber-CIO? It’s not about technology - it is how the use of technology is an enabler, a transformer, how people adapt it to their needs, and take advantage of the relationship between IT and the business. IT has become part of the fabric – boundaries between IS and BP (think SOA), and work and life (think mobiles and Blackberrys) have become blurred. Line managers are IT-savvy, and manage with IT. Omar shared with us slides depicting the strands of IT-enabled management, and the Yin & Yang of managing with IT. A McKinsey report (12/07) listed 8 business technology trends to watch, from managing relationships and interactions (Web 2.0, open source), to leveraging information through analytics/BI, to managing value chains. Omar suggested 3 possible scenarios for managers in 2013: business as usual (with some disconnect between the business and IT); rise of the global “BizTech” manager; emergence of the “Eco-globalistic” manager. He then moved on to his 10 Omarisms:
- consumerisation of IT (Web 2.0 is just the tip of the iceberg)
- personalization and customization through “rich digital identity”, where advertising becomes recommendations from friends
- open source will permeate all aspects of managing enterprises
- digital rights laws will be turned upside down to benefit the user
- mobile devices will have multiple personalities
- multiple personality IT-enabled supply chains
- business models for services through digital platforms
- in 2013, web services and SOA will be the prevalent IT application architectures
- proliferation of hybrid 3D virtual worlds
- “emerging” countries will become “high growth” economies, not “catch-up” economies
Read Omar’s presentation slides for more detail. He then went on to describe various models for the uber-CIO in 2013:
- HUMMER: the transformational all-terrain CIO, part of top management
- PRIUS: innovative, lean CIO-plus, focused on new products and marketing
- OLDSMOBILE: traditional shrewd CIO, efficient, cost conscious, reports to CFO
- MINI COOPER: hip web 2.0 CIO, customer-centric, emerging technologies focus
- TATA: super efficient, cost-conscious CIO, reports to CFO, lots of outsourcing
We asked the members to describe their view of the future of IT and the CIO.
Joel Manfredo reminded us that he came from the business into IT. He still believes that business analysts should be in the business unit. The future of IT in 2013 will be web 2.0/3.0 based, and the business models have yet to emerge to take full advantage.
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling, said the most important IT contribution will be social networking, like Linkedin. The successful CIO will be more like a Prius, although looking back at his time at Conexant, the CIO had to move back and forth depending on the direction of the business at any particular time.
Randy Miller, reflecting on his search of a new opportunity, finds that specific technical skills, such as SAP implementation experience, and industry knowledge are the two most important qualities to get past the gatekeeper and on to an executive search’s short list of candidates. Only then do you get to try to impress the hiring CXO.
Tina Haines, Meggitt Electronics, said that in the aerospace industry, the CIO is most valued as the element which keeps the company glued together - not sure where that fits within Omar’s 5 varieties of CIO. A good CIO helps develop the company strategy, and is valued as the transition agent.
John Pringle, RCMT, feels that the financial health of the company will determine what type of CIO will succeed. In the last 5 years, there was lots of money to spend on new projects. The next five years does not look that rosy. In his mind, the major IT issue of the next five years will be security.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, thanked Omar for his thoughtful presentation. When CEOs are asked what they are looking for in a CIO, they invariably say they want a team player, someone who can work with the other members of the management team, and who is an effective technology leader. Promotions to CIO from within a business unit are usually not well received by the IT technical staff.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, reflected on the fact that times are changing, the economies of business are changing, which will result in how things get accomplished, more than what is accomplished. New technologies will provide a variety of different approaches to getting things done.
Paul Gray, Professor Emeritus at Claremont, had several comments. He suggested that young new CIOs are willing to try anything – older CIOs learned from their parent’s memory of the depression not to take chances. Maybe if the depression we are in hits hard, attitudes might change. It takes 40 years for new technologies (like the PC) to really blossom, and even then senior people in industries, like medicine, are still uncomfortable using computers. The latest Government manpower forecast shows a reduction in the number of programmers required.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, also liked Omar’s presentation but suggested that he missed one CIO model – the one where the CIO becomes the CEO/CIO – the one who has the technical vision and the ideas and strategies about how best to move forward. He is the one who hires the best people with the appropriate technical knowledge to implement his ideas. In the end, it is the people who become the keys to success.
Bill Baker, Arbonne, had the luxury of working with some of the biggest IT groups and successful CIOs when he was a consultant. He joined Arbonne a few months ago and they sell to consultants who use their products. Arbonne is about $1B in sales and sell 100% through the web. They are similar to an Amway, and sell skin products, etc., to distributors. IT is driving the strategy, and is heavily involved with product marketing.
Our thanks to Omar, who as usual did a great job in introducing the topic, and preparing the handout.
See you on August 14, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
July 10, 2008 meeting
Present: Omar El Sawy, Joel Manfredo, Jeff Reid, Randy Miller, Tina Haines, John Pringle, Jim Sutter, Joe Cracchiolo, Sean Brown, Paul Gray, Jeff Hecht, Bill Baker, Dave Phillips
We welcomed Bill Baker, the new CIO at Arbonne, to his first OC CIO Round Table.
Please check Attachment A for the list of topics chosen for the rest of the year, the dates of each meeting and the person who has volunteered to prepare the introduction.
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: The Future of IT & Business Scenarios for 2013
Omar El Sawy, USC, divided his presentation into 3 parts: IT-savvy line managers in 2013; Top 10 Omarisms; and Whither uber-CIO? It’s not about technology - it is how the use of technology is an enabler, a transformer, how people adapt it to their needs, and take advantage of the relationship between IT and the business. IT has become part of the fabric – boundaries between IS and BP (think SOA), and work and life (think mobiles and Blackberrys) have become blurred. Line managers are IT-savvy, and manage with IT. Omar shared with us slides depicting the strands of IT-enabled management, and the Yin & Yang of managing with IT. A McKinsey report (12/07) listed 8 business technology trends to watch, from managing relationships and interactions (Web 2.0, open source), to leveraging information through analytics/BI, to managing value chains. Omar suggested 3 possible scenarios for managers in 2013: business as usual (with some disconnect between the business and IT); rise of the global “BizTech” manager; emergence of the “Eco-globalistic” manager. He then moved on to his 10 Omarisms:
- consumerisation of IT (Web 2.0 is just the tip of the iceberg)
- personalization and customization through “rich digital identity”, where advertising becomes recommendations from friends
- open source will permeate all aspects of managing enterprises
- digital rights laws will be turned upside down to benefit the user
- mobile devices will have multiple personalities
- multiple personality IT-enabled supply chains
- business models for services through digital platforms
- in 2013, web services and SOA will be the prevalent IT application architectures
- proliferation of hybrid 3D virtual worlds
- “emerging” countries will become “high growth” economies, not “catch-up” economies
Read Omar’s presentation slides for more detail. He then went on to describe various models for the uber-CIO in 2013:
- HUMMER: the transformational all-terrain CIO, part of top management
- PRIUS: innovative, lean CIO-plus, focused on new products and marketing
- OLDSMOBILE: traditional shrewd CIO, efficient, cost conscious, reports to CFO
- MINI COOPER: hip web 2.0 CIO, customer-centric, emerging technologies focus
- TATA: super efficient, cost-conscious CIO, reports to CFO, lots of outsourcing
We asked the members to describe their view of the future of IT and the CIO.
Joel Manfredo reminded us that he came from the business into IT. He still believes that business analysts should be in the business unit. The future of IT in 2013 will be web 2.0/3.0 based, and the business models have yet to emerge to take full advantage.
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling, said the most important IT contribution will be social networking, like Linkedin. The successful CIO will be more like a Prius, although looking back at his time at Conexant, the CIO had to move back and forth depending on the direction of the business at any particular time.
Randy Miller, reflecting on his search of a new opportunity, finds that specific technical skills, such as SAP implementation experience, and industry knowledge are the two most important qualities to get past the gatekeeper and on to an executive search’s short list of candidates. Only then do you get to try to impress the hiring CXO.
Tina Haines, Meggitt Electronics, said that in the aerospace industry, the CIO is most valued as the element which keeps the company glued together - not sure where that fits within Omar’s 5 varieties of CIO. A good CIO helps develop the company strategy, and is valued as the transition agent.
John Pringle, RCMT, feels that the financial health of the company will determine what type of CIO will succeed. In the last 5 years, there was lots of money to spend on new projects. The next five years does not look that rosy. In his mind, the major IT issue of the next five years will be security.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, thanked Omar for his thoughtful presentation. When CEOs are asked what they are looking for in a CIO, they invariably say they want a team player, someone who can work with the other members of the management team, and who is an effective technology leader. Promotions to CIO from within a business unit are usually not well received by the IT technical staff.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, reflected on the fact that times are changing, the economies of business are changing, which will result in how things get accomplished, more than what is accomplished. New technologies will provide a variety of different approaches to getting things done.
Paul Gray, Professor Emeritus at Claremont, had several comments. He suggested that young new CIOs are willing to try anything – older CIOs learned from their parent’s memory of the depression not to take chances. Maybe if the depression we are in hits hard, attitudes might change. It takes 40 years for new technologies (like the PC) to really blossom, and even then senior people in industries, like medicine, are still uncomfortable using computers. The latest Government manpower forecast shows a reduction in the number of programmers required.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, also liked Omar’s presentation but suggested that he missed one CIO model – the one where the CIO becomes the CEO/CIO – the one who has the technical vision and the ideas and strategies about how best to move forward. He is the one who hires the best people with the appropriate technical knowledge to implement his ideas. In the end, it is the people who become the keys to success.
Bill Baker, Arbonne, had the luxury of working with some of the biggest IT groups and successful CIOs when he was a consultant. He joined Arbonne a few months ago and they sell to consultants who use their products. Arbonne is about $1B in sales and sell 100% through the web. They are similar to an Amway, and sell skin products, etc., to distributors. IT is driving the strategy, and is heavily involved with product marketing.
Our thanks to Omar, who as usual did a great job in introducing the topic, and preparing the handout.
See you on August 14, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 6-12-08
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
June 12, 2008 meeting
Present: Larry Godec, Jeff Reid, William Zauner, Tak Fujii, Randy Farner, Rich Hoffman, Jim Sutter, Jennifer Curlee, Joe Cracchiolo, Subbu Murthy, Sean Brown, Jeff Hecht, David Mann, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: Business Continuity Program
When Larry Godec, First American, worked at Nissan, he put together a BCP for them following 9/11. When he joined First American, he built on those ideas to put together an Emergency Response (ER), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) program, in response to the Florida hurricanes, which wiped some of their offices in FL off the map. The ER ensures the safety of employees and the security of facilities. The DR restores the technology infrastructure following an event. The BC ensures the preservation of revenue through continuity of operations following an event. They have about 1400 offices in the US, and they have organized the program by region. Each region (now 10) has a business line continuity officer (BLCO), whose function includes documentation of BP flows, identifying recovery teams, each with fully defined tasks, recording all critical contact data, posts all material on the unit’s Sharepoint page, and facilitates annual review of plans and tabletop testing. The corporate office role (in Corporate Security) is to integrated plans, train BLCOs, perform periodic assessments and report to executive management. Read Larry’s handout to get a more complete feel for the four phases involved in the planning process. An event is defined as 40% workforce shortage, technology and facility unavailable, and critical vendor failure. The plan requires that you define objectives and the command process, identity recovery teams and detailed tasks, define the communications strategy and complete documentation. Larry’s handout shows samples, templates and storage. They use LDRPS, a system by Strohl, to manage the plan.
We asked the members to describe their BC plan, if any, and to highlight the most important problem they had in dealing with this issue.
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling, said that they do not yet have a BC plan. Their problem is a lack of organizational maturity. Formed in 2003 and built for speed, they have too many other things to fix first, such as developing an IT governance approach, and a DR approach. At Western Digital they had both a DR and BC plan. At Conexant they had developed a BC plan, but when Jazz was spun off, it changed everything. That highlights the major challenge – trying to stay current with all the business changes.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that they do have a DR and BC plan and had a building in downtown NY, which was affected by the 9/11 attacks. However, they have found that the small problems cause most of the BC events. Recently on the same day, they had a bomb scare which shut down their DC office, and a fire, which affected their backup office in Boston. What they have found to be critical are the people, judges and phone systems, not the computer systems and infrastructure.
Tak Fujii, Olson Company, they are a small company but do have a BC and DR plan in place as the owner put a lot of emphasis on them. However, only the DR system is kept up-to-date. The BC has not been tested for 4 years, people have changed and contact data is out of date. Thus the IT department becomes the BC resource, by default.
Randy Farner, Vitreous Solutions, agreed with Tak that the IT group used to be the default group – no one in the business seemed to care. Things changed at the Auto Club after the Houston hurricane. They developed an emergency response team, with joint ownership by the business, HR and IT.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that plans are great but in the end, it’s the people who are the most important element. He mentioned a talk given by the CIO of the city of New Orleans, who said that when Katrina hit all their plans were rendered ineffective. It soon became survival first, food and water second, and everything else a distant third. At Yamaha, they did some planning but never put it into the job description, and so no one was made responsible. At Hyundai, when the roof fell in, they had to keep people out, and didn’t have an 800 # for employees to call to find out the latest status.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, agreed with my opening comments that BC seems to be a great opportunity for the CIO to show business acumen and executive potential. He mentioned how Dave Kepler at Dow Chemical is now Chief of Business Sustainability, responsible for not only IT but for all Dow’s Green activities and raw material availability. At Rockwell’s auto parts company, which was contracted to provide sunroofs to VW in 35 seconds after receiving the order, BC has a totally different meaning. In IT they had a back-up data center in Dallas until changes in the world political climate (when the Berlin Wall came down) caused a major business reduction. They eventually phased out the back-up center and went with Sunguard.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that BC has all sorts of implications for a manufacturing company. They have started on a BC project, headed by a retired business executive. IT is working on a DR plan first. They store all documents on Iron Mountain. Their defined event is a 7.9 earthquake.
Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, said that they built a BC/DR plan 5 years ago. It has become an IT responsibility. Their event envisions that most of the current staff will be engaged in saving their own family unit. Their major problem was how to build a plan for someone from the outside to execute. Another fact is that the technology has changed significantly since they first built a plan, and through the years, the IT challenge is not as significant. Being out of action for 12 hours is not a real problem, but it can affect customer confidence.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that they do have DR (plan and tested), using Sunguard as a last resort. They don’t have a BC plan. They have tried to think through 3 scenarios – HQ gone, Data Center gone, and both gone. There is a difference between some availability, and a complete disaster. In the end, it’s the people who will make the difference.
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said that 90% of disasters need a DR plan, not a BC plan. The changes in technology allow for shared services, and building a DR will be much cheaper. A lot of it is common sense, and paying attention to the potential problem goes a long way to solving it. It should be a regular agenda item, not an annual event. He favors using scenario planning.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, agreed with the CIO from New Orleans. When real disaster hits, it’s survival first, then food and water. A massive event is unlikely, so plan to recover from smaller events that will happen.
John Pringle, RCMT, said that they do have a BC plan, which was as a result of becoming SOC compliant. They are a regional office, and rely on corporate for back up. Their major need is to have an ability to print checks. They back up their Oracle clients with Sunguard. They devised a 3-tiered approach for each client and all their clients opted for level 1!
This was a great topic, and a lively discussion. Thank you, Larry, for a great introduction and handout.
June 12, 2008 meeting
Present: Larry Godec, Jeff Reid, William Zauner, Tak Fujii, Randy Farner, Rich Hoffman, Jim Sutter, Jennifer Curlee, Joe Cracchiolo, Subbu Murthy, Sean Brown, Jeff Hecht, David Mann, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: Business Continuity Program
When Larry Godec, First American, worked at Nissan, he put together a BCP for them following 9/11. When he joined First American, he built on those ideas to put together an Emergency Response (ER), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) program, in response to the Florida hurricanes, which wiped some of their offices in FL off the map. The ER ensures the safety of employees and the security of facilities. The DR restores the technology infrastructure following an event. The BC ensures the preservation of revenue through continuity of operations following an event. They have about 1400 offices in the US, and they have organized the program by region. Each region (now 10) has a business line continuity officer (BLCO), whose function includes documentation of BP flows, identifying recovery teams, each with fully defined tasks, recording all critical contact data, posts all material on the unit’s Sharepoint page, and facilitates annual review of plans and tabletop testing. The corporate office role (in Corporate Security) is to integrated plans, train BLCOs, perform periodic assessments and report to executive management. Read Larry’s handout to get a more complete feel for the four phases involved in the planning process. An event is defined as 40% workforce shortage, technology and facility unavailable, and critical vendor failure. The plan requires that you define objectives and the command process, identity recovery teams and detailed tasks, define the communications strategy and complete documentation. Larry’s handout shows samples, templates and storage. They use LDRPS, a system by Strohl, to manage the plan.
We asked the members to describe their BC plan, if any, and to highlight the most important problem they had in dealing with this issue.
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling, said that they do not yet have a BC plan. Their problem is a lack of organizational maturity. Formed in 2003 and built for speed, they have too many other things to fix first, such as developing an IT governance approach, and a DR approach. At Western Digital they had both a DR and BC plan. At Conexant they had developed a BC plan, but when Jazz was spun off, it changed everything. That highlights the major challenge – trying to stay current with all the business changes.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that they do have a DR and BC plan and had a building in downtown NY, which was affected by the 9/11 attacks. However, they have found that the small problems cause most of the BC events. Recently on the same day, they had a bomb scare which shut down their DC office, and a fire, which affected their backup office in Boston. What they have found to be critical are the people, judges and phone systems, not the computer systems and infrastructure.
Tak Fujii, Olson Company, they are a small company but do have a BC and DR plan in place as the owner put a lot of emphasis on them. However, only the DR system is kept up-to-date. The BC has not been tested for 4 years, people have changed and contact data is out of date. Thus the IT department becomes the BC resource, by default.
Randy Farner, Vitreous Solutions, agreed with Tak that the IT group used to be the default group – no one in the business seemed to care. Things changed at the Auto Club after the Houston hurricane. They developed an emergency response team, with joint ownership by the business, HR and IT.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that plans are great but in the end, it’s the people who are the most important element. He mentioned a talk given by the CIO of the city of New Orleans, who said that when Katrina hit all their plans were rendered ineffective. It soon became survival first, food and water second, and everything else a distant third. At Yamaha, they did some planning but never put it into the job description, and so no one was made responsible. At Hyundai, when the roof fell in, they had to keep people out, and didn’t have an 800 # for employees to call to find out the latest status.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, agreed with my opening comments that BC seems to be a great opportunity for the CIO to show business acumen and executive potential. He mentioned how Dave Kepler at Dow Chemical is now Chief of Business Sustainability, responsible for not only IT but for all Dow’s Green activities and raw material availability. At Rockwell’s auto parts company, which was contracted to provide sunroofs to VW in 35 seconds after receiving the order, BC has a totally different meaning. In IT they had a back-up data center in Dallas until changes in the world political climate (when the Berlin Wall came down) caused a major business reduction. They eventually phased out the back-up center and went with Sunguard.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that BC has all sorts of implications for a manufacturing company. They have started on a BC project, headed by a retired business executive. IT is working on a DR plan first. They store all documents on Iron Mountain. Their defined event is a 7.9 earthquake.
Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, said that they built a BC/DR plan 5 years ago. It has become an IT responsibility. Their event envisions that most of the current staff will be engaged in saving their own family unit. Their major problem was how to build a plan for someone from the outside to execute. Another fact is that the technology has changed significantly since they first built a plan, and through the years, the IT challenge is not as significant. Being out of action for 12 hours is not a real problem, but it can affect customer confidence.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that they do have DR (plan and tested), using Sunguard as a last resort. They don’t have a BC plan. They have tried to think through 3 scenarios – HQ gone, Data Center gone, and both gone. There is a difference between some availability, and a complete disaster. In the end, it’s the people who will make the difference.
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said that 90% of disasters need a DR plan, not a BC plan. The changes in technology allow for shared services, and building a DR will be much cheaper. A lot of it is common sense, and paying attention to the potential problem goes a long way to solving it. It should be a regular agenda item, not an annual event. He favors using scenario planning.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, agreed with the CIO from New Orleans. When real disaster hits, it’s survival first, then food and water. A massive event is unlikely, so plan to recover from smaller events that will happen.
John Pringle, RCMT, said that they do have a BC plan, which was as a result of becoming SOC compliant. They are a regional office, and rely on corporate for back up. Their major need is to have an ability to print checks. They back up their Oracle clients with Sunguard. They devised a 3-tiered approach for each client and all their clients opted for level 1!
This was a great topic, and a lively discussion. Thank you, Larry, for a great introduction and handout.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 5-8-08
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
May 8, 2008 meeting
Present: Rich Hoffman, Paul Gray, Andy King, Rich Cormier, Joel Manfredo, Randy Miller, Jim Sutter, Joe Cracchiolo, Mitch Morris, Jennifer Curlee, Jeff Hecht, Sean Brown, Subbu Murthy, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: Virtual workers – does it matter where you work from?
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, was going to present his introduction remotely to see if it affected the quality of the presentation and subsequent discussion. But in the end, he arrived in person to present his list of questions to the group (see attached). The 1st few questions are about how many employees are virtual today (even if you exclude field and service personnel)? It’s hard to find a definitive answer but, according to Joel Manfredo, IBM is 40% virtual, and has saved $350M in office rental from workstation hotelling. SUN is almost too successful, and many of their staff do not want to go in to the office as almost no one is there, except 1st year employees who are not allowed to telecommute. What kind of jobs can be/should be done from home? Jobs that are measurable, independent, unsupervised (like claims processing, contract administration, Helpdesk), that don’t involve much face time with customers. What companies are using virtual departments? Does it depend on where they are located? London used to have 30% of all UK office workers commuting to downtown locations, so they had to disperse for logistic reasons. Prudential had a central office downtown LA but the neighborhood changed and they ended up with two locations in the valley. Does working from home come naturally to boomers? No. To Gen X? Yes – they even text each other in the same office! How do you get virtual workers to care about the company? They won’t unless they are treated right – see John Pringle’s comments from last week. Paul Gray found that they can’t work offsite all the time – they need to spend some time together. Rich expressed the opinion that only customer facing jobs had to be onsite – business analysts, client principles, process specialists/owners. Other jobs such as operations/production environment could be done offsite, but in 1st world countries, if you are concerned about downtime or business continuity (see Larry Godec’s topic next month). Rich handed out a Virtual Workplace Do’s and Don’ts from Business Week, which is very good. In summary:
Do’s: Get good gear; encourage small talk; help them stop; create office space for when they come in to the office; set goals.
Don’ts: neglect training; assume it’s a fit for all employees; lose track of people; forget face time.
We asked each member to talk to his/her approach re virtual workers.
Paul Gray, Claremont (Emeritus), co-wrote the 1st book on this topic with Jack Nilles years ago. They found that people could work at home/telecommute a lot of the time but not all the time. Whether a company was successful or not depended whether the management was for or against it. They found that to be successful at universities, it had to be interactive. He did it successfully at Stanford in the 60’s, but no one would go for it at Claremont.
Andy King, SitOnIt Seating, said that it depended on the culture. If you can define the deliverables, then it can be successful. You have to have the right mix, because it is not fun being the employees in the office fielding all the questions when most of the other employees are telecommuting.
Rich Cormier, Edwards Lifesciences, said that it could work depending on the job. They have used telecommuting centers, and have warehouses offsite. To get some of the community interfacing and human connecting, people from different companies would get together.
Joel Manfredo said that he was a member of the Lotus learning space council. They had no issues with telecommuting people staying engaged. Companies like SUN and GSA are deep into it. They have characterized each job, and each person, as suitable or not. Productivity for the right job and person goes up.
Randy Miller, Toshiba ABS, said that they did not have a formal policy regarding telecommuting – informally, it depended on the person and the position. They would allow it to keep the knowledge of the employee. When they conducted an employment engagement study, they found the virtual worker to be very demanding.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, said that the general trend was to become more virtual. The Winery is very traditional and discourages telecommuting. At Rockwell, they tried telecommuting but insisted that everyone had to be in the office on Mon. and Fri. and during “core” hours. He found that at USC, the trend was against it as they were very team and relationship oriented. That doesn’t seem to matter at UCI.
Mitch Morris, IAMPO, said that telecommuting works for those who want it, depending on the company and culture. There is still the question of how best to manage those who are virtual. IAMPO has a policy against telecommuting.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that when they were a small company, everybody came in to work. Since 9/11 they have grown at 60% and have 6 facilities. Manufacturing is done onsite. IT employees are working remotely, and at odd hours. They use tools like “Go to Meeting” to keep in touch.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that their HR is very much against telecommuting. He has no problems with individuals working at home. He took some classes on TV and it worked out well. He encourages employees to do the same. Working remotely works for certain kinds of jobs, but no all. He wonders how individuals become managers if all their experience is being a virtual employee.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, finds that certain administrative functions can be done remotely, but they operate as a team to respond to client needs, and they find that having everyone in the office most of the time works better for them.
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said it depends on the 4 Cs – the culture (trusting that the worker will perform); communication (ability of the worker and manager, and tools); cost (balancing the savings in office space vs. cost of network, etc.); and collaboration skills.
John Pringle, RCMT, agreed in depends on the culture but he warned that employers would have to become more flexible because unemployment is less than 2%. We will have to do more of this, rather than less. At RCMT, 80% of their Oracle practice is done remotely. In the past, it was for cost reduction reasons. In the future, it will be to accommodate human capital flexibility demands.
See you on June 12, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
May 8, 2008 meeting
Present: Rich Hoffman, Paul Gray, Andy King, Rich Cormier, Joel Manfredo, Randy Miller, Jim Sutter, Joe Cracchiolo, Mitch Morris, Jennifer Curlee, Jeff Hecht, Sean Brown, Subbu Murthy, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic: Virtual workers – does it matter where you work from?
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, was going to present his introduction remotely to see if it affected the quality of the presentation and subsequent discussion. But in the end, he arrived in person to present his list of questions to the group (see attached). The 1st few questions are about how many employees are virtual today (even if you exclude field and service personnel)? It’s hard to find a definitive answer but, according to Joel Manfredo, IBM is 40% virtual, and has saved $350M in office rental from workstation hotelling. SUN is almost too successful, and many of their staff do not want to go in to the office as almost no one is there, except 1st year employees who are not allowed to telecommute. What kind of jobs can be/should be done from home? Jobs that are measurable, independent, unsupervised (like claims processing, contract administration, Helpdesk), that don’t involve much face time with customers. What companies are using virtual departments? Does it depend on where they are located? London used to have 30% of all UK office workers commuting to downtown locations, so they had to disperse for logistic reasons. Prudential had a central office downtown LA but the neighborhood changed and they ended up with two locations in the valley. Does working from home come naturally to boomers? No. To Gen X? Yes – they even text each other in the same office! How do you get virtual workers to care about the company? They won’t unless they are treated right – see John Pringle’s comments from last week. Paul Gray found that they can’t work offsite all the time – they need to spend some time together. Rich expressed the opinion that only customer facing jobs had to be onsite – business analysts, client principles, process specialists/owners. Other jobs such as operations/production environment could be done offsite, but in 1st world countries, if you are concerned about downtime or business continuity (see Larry Godec’s topic next month). Rich handed out a Virtual Workplace Do’s and Don’ts from Business Week, which is very good. In summary:
Do’s: Get good gear; encourage small talk; help them stop; create office space for when they come in to the office; set goals.
Don’ts: neglect training; assume it’s a fit for all employees; lose track of people; forget face time.
We asked each member to talk to his/her approach re virtual workers.
Paul Gray, Claremont (Emeritus), co-wrote the 1st book on this topic with Jack Nilles years ago. They found that people could work at home/telecommute a lot of the time but not all the time. Whether a company was successful or not depended whether the management was for or against it. They found that to be successful at universities, it had to be interactive. He did it successfully at Stanford in the 60’s, but no one would go for it at Claremont.
Andy King, SitOnIt Seating, said that it depended on the culture. If you can define the deliverables, then it can be successful. You have to have the right mix, because it is not fun being the employees in the office fielding all the questions when most of the other employees are telecommuting.
Rich Cormier, Edwards Lifesciences, said that it could work depending on the job. They have used telecommuting centers, and have warehouses offsite. To get some of the community interfacing and human connecting, people from different companies would get together.
Joel Manfredo said that he was a member of the Lotus learning space council. They had no issues with telecommuting people staying engaged. Companies like SUN and GSA are deep into it. They have characterized each job, and each person, as suitable or not. Productivity for the right job and person goes up.
Randy Miller, Toshiba ABS, said that they did not have a formal policy regarding telecommuting – informally, it depended on the person and the position. They would allow it to keep the knowledge of the employee. When they conducted an employment engagement study, they found the virtual worker to be very demanding.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, said that the general trend was to become more virtual. The Winery is very traditional and discourages telecommuting. At Rockwell, they tried telecommuting but insisted that everyone had to be in the office on Mon. and Fri. and during “core” hours. He found that at USC, the trend was against it as they were very team and relationship oriented. That doesn’t seem to matter at UCI.
Mitch Morris, IAMPO, said that telecommuting works for those who want it, depending on the company and culture. There is still the question of how best to manage those who are virtual. IAMPO has a policy against telecommuting.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that when they were a small company, everybody came in to work. Since 9/11 they have grown at 60% and have 6 facilities. Manufacturing is done onsite. IT employees are working remotely, and at odd hours. They use tools like “Go to Meeting” to keep in touch.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that their HR is very much against telecommuting. He has no problems with individuals working at home. He took some classes on TV and it worked out well. He encourages employees to do the same. Working remotely works for certain kinds of jobs, but no all. He wonders how individuals become managers if all their experience is being a virtual employee.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, finds that certain administrative functions can be done remotely, but they operate as a team to respond to client needs, and they find that having everyone in the office most of the time works better for them.
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said it depends on the 4 Cs – the culture (trusting that the worker will perform); communication (ability of the worker and manager, and tools); cost (balancing the savings in office space vs. cost of network, etc.); and collaboration skills.
John Pringle, RCMT, agreed in depends on the culture but he warned that employers would have to become more flexible because unemployment is less than 2%. We will have to do more of this, rather than less. At RCMT, 80% of their Oracle practice is done remotely. In the past, it was for cost reduction reasons. In the future, it will be to accommodate human capital flexibility demands.
See you on June 12, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 4-10-08
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
April 10, 2008 meeting
Present: John Pringle, Larry Godec, Joe Cracchiolo, Rich Hoffman, William Zauner, Sean Brown, Randy Farner, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic – Attracting and Retaining IT Talent
John Pringle, RCM Technologies, gave us a short history of his company as a qualification for addressing the subject – 37 years in business, 3,000 consultants globally specializing in engineering and IT, 200 IT employees in the Western Region. He gave an overview of the US human capital market – more tech. opportunities than qualified people to fill them because baby boomers are retiring, fewer university IT graduates, and companies are creating new IT jobs faster than they are exporting. IT employment is at an all time high – almost 4M, driven by business growth, user support and system upgrades. We might be in for some uncertainty as in March, there was a decrease, after 32 months of growth; RCM Technology’s business is down, except in support of mid-sized companies. He gave us a summary of the CA market, mainly based on 2006 data (see John’s slides attached). There is a new breed of employee – more demanding, diverse, technically astute, less likely to believe employer has their best interest at heart. They expect more than a job, more balance. To manage this talent, you need an applicant tracking, recruiting, web-based requisition and harvesting management system. Focus on employee initiation and on boarding, covering reporting structure, standards, position and project scope, and administration. Incentive and compensation management is important, as is employee self-service and communication. To attract and retain talent, start with pursuit of the best and brightest, treat employees fairly, create a good environment, work together as a team, and provide on-going training. He listed the top 10 paying job positions, and the most sought after skills (see his slides). He had some general tips for managing your career in IT, and the value of networking. The long-term trend is for the IT professional to more actively manage his/her career, anticipating that you will have many (8-10) position/careers in your lifetime. John listed his sources on the last page of the handout.
We asked each member to talk about their staffing strategy, and the balance between full-time employees, temporary consultants, outsourcing and offshoring.
Larry Godec, First American, said he had a succession plan for his senior management positions. His use of offshore resources is currently at 40% of total, and his new management wants that to grow to 60% to reduce costs. He is converting most of his consultant positions to full time employees.
Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, said that they do not have an offshore strategy, but they do have a contractor strategy – hire full time to steady state, and staff peaks with contractors. They also have a training strategy even if does encourage some to leave after they have upgraded their skills.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that every company needs a resource strategy, and that it varies by company, timing and culture. Cummings went offshore to find talent, which was not as available in the Mid West. GE had a 30/30/30 strategy, with 30% onshore fulltime, 30% offshore fulltime and 30% outsourced. HISNA is using more subcontractors to keep the permanent headcount steady. Even Deloitte staffs their projects with 80% subcontractors.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that they use contractors for most of their projects. Full time employees form the core of their staff. Their strategy is to hire college graduates and to train them, with the expectation that they will likely last no more than 3 years.
Randy Farner spoke to his experience at the Auto Club and Mercury. He noted a commoditization of IT resources, where true productivity gets lost. The corporate mentality is in the numbers, but it is very hard to buy the super star. There must be a right mix because you cannot subcontract or outsource everything.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that he works with many companies in the area on resourcing their IT talent pools. He advised the group to look at the HI B talent pool – you can find good talent and if you can lock them into a green-card process, you will build loyalty. Also investing in training and using the latest technology is good for employee retention
We thanked John Pringle for an interesting presentation and handout.
See you on May 8, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260. Attachment A
April 10, 2008
1993 - 2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
Notes
Purpose: To provide a forum in an informal setting for senior IS executives to exchange ideas with their peers on key issues of interest to the group.
Goal: To get to know each other and to feel comfortable discussing issues and solutions.
Format: Select one topic per meeting; have one member be responsible for a 30-minute introduction, and have each participant come prepared to present not more than 5 minutes on how they are approaching the issues in their environment.
Time: 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Place: The RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Date: 2nd THURSDAY of each month
Schedule for the meetings through August 2008:
DATE INTRODUCTION TOPIC
1/10/08
Chris Andreozzi, Knowledge Centrix
VoIP
2/14/08
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group
Web 2.0
3/13/08
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest
Offshore outsourcing
4/10/08
John Pringle, RCM Technologies
Attracting / Retaining IT talent
5/8/08
Rich Hoffman, HISNA
Productivity - does where you work from matter?
6/12/08
Larry Godec, 1st American
Business Continuity Planning
7/10/08
Omar El Sawy, USC
Future of IT
8/14/08
Tim McClain, The Irvine Company
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
(See voting spreadsheet for other topics to consider)
April 10, 2008 meeting
Present: John Pringle, Larry Godec, Joe Cracchiolo, Rich Hoffman, William Zauner, Sean Brown, Randy Farner, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
Topic – Attracting and Retaining IT Talent
John Pringle, RCM Technologies, gave us a short history of his company as a qualification for addressing the subject – 37 years in business, 3,000 consultants globally specializing in engineering and IT, 200 IT employees in the Western Region. He gave an overview of the US human capital market – more tech. opportunities than qualified people to fill them because baby boomers are retiring, fewer university IT graduates, and companies are creating new IT jobs faster than they are exporting. IT employment is at an all time high – almost 4M, driven by business growth, user support and system upgrades. We might be in for some uncertainty as in March, there was a decrease, after 32 months of growth; RCM Technology’s business is down, except in support of mid-sized companies. He gave us a summary of the CA market, mainly based on 2006 data (see John’s slides attached). There is a new breed of employee – more demanding, diverse, technically astute, less likely to believe employer has their best interest at heart. They expect more than a job, more balance. To manage this talent, you need an applicant tracking, recruiting, web-based requisition and harvesting management system. Focus on employee initiation and on boarding, covering reporting structure, standards, position and project scope, and administration. Incentive and compensation management is important, as is employee self-service and communication. To attract and retain talent, start with pursuit of the best and brightest, treat employees fairly, create a good environment, work together as a team, and provide on-going training. He listed the top 10 paying job positions, and the most sought after skills (see his slides). He had some general tips for managing your career in IT, and the value of networking. The long-term trend is for the IT professional to more actively manage his/her career, anticipating that you will have many (8-10) position/careers in your lifetime. John listed his sources on the last page of the handout.
We asked each member to talk about their staffing strategy, and the balance between full-time employees, temporary consultants, outsourcing and offshoring.
Larry Godec, First American, said he had a succession plan for his senior management positions. His use of offshore resources is currently at 40% of total, and his new management wants that to grow to 60% to reduce costs. He is converting most of his consultant positions to full time employees.
Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, said that they do not have an offshore strategy, but they do have a contractor strategy – hire full time to steady state, and staff peaks with contractors. They also have a training strategy even if does encourage some to leave after they have upgraded their skills.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that every company needs a resource strategy, and that it varies by company, timing and culture. Cummings went offshore to find talent, which was not as available in the Mid West. GE had a 30/30/30 strategy, with 30% onshore fulltime, 30% offshore fulltime and 30% outsourced. HISNA is using more subcontractors to keep the permanent headcount steady. Even Deloitte staffs their projects with 80% subcontractors.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that they use contractors for most of their projects. Full time employees form the core of their staff. Their strategy is to hire college graduates and to train them, with the expectation that they will likely last no more than 3 years.
Randy Farner spoke to his experience at the Auto Club and Mercury. He noted a commoditization of IT resources, where true productivity gets lost. The corporate mentality is in the numbers, but it is very hard to buy the super star. There must be a right mix because you cannot subcontract or outsource everything.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that he works with many companies in the area on resourcing their IT talent pools. He advised the group to look at the HI B talent pool – you can find good talent and if you can lock them into a green-card process, you will build loyalty. Also investing in training and using the latest technology is good for employee retention
We thanked John Pringle for an interesting presentation and handout.
See you on May 8, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260. Attachment A
April 10, 2008
1993 - 2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
Notes
Purpose: To provide a forum in an informal setting for senior IS executives to exchange ideas with their peers on key issues of interest to the group.
Goal: To get to know each other and to feel comfortable discussing issues and solutions.
Format: Select one topic per meeting; have one member be responsible for a 30-minute introduction, and have each participant come prepared to present not more than 5 minutes on how they are approaching the issues in their environment.
Time: 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Place: The RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Date: 2nd THURSDAY of each month
Schedule for the meetings through August 2008:
DATE INTRODUCTION TOPIC
1/10/08
Chris Andreozzi, Knowledge Centrix
VoIP
2/14/08
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group
Web 2.0
3/13/08
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest
Offshore outsourcing
4/10/08
John Pringle, RCM Technologies
Attracting / Retaining IT talent
5/8/08
Rich Hoffman, HISNA
Productivity - does where you work from matter?
6/12/08
Larry Godec, 1st American
Business Continuity Planning
7/10/08
Omar El Sawy, USC
Future of IT
8/14/08
Tim McClain, The Irvine Company
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
(See voting spreadsheet for other topics to consider)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 3-13-08
1993-2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
March 13, 2008 meeting
Present: Sean Brown, William Zauner, Randy Miller, Tak Fujii, Joel Manfredo, Rich Hoffman, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
We welcomed Tak Fujii, The Olson Company, to the OC CIO Round Table.
Topic – Offshore Outsourcing
We thanked Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, for agreeing to introduce the topic for discussion at the last moment. No sooner did Sean start his presentation by defining terms that Rich challenged the first definition, and after a little discussion we tended to agree. Outsourcing is more than the act of obtaining IT services; it is the transfer of responsibility (but not accountability) to an external firm for the provision of an IT service. Offshore outsourcing adds complexities to that transfer. There are many potential advantages for offshore outsourcing, but be clear WHY you are considering this option. Sean listed some of the advantages, including an available cheaper talent pool, domain expertise, and world-class providers with infrastructure. There are disadvantages too, including differences in language, culture, 20% greater management overhead, and IP security risks. The best approach is to hire someone who has experience in offshore outsourcing, including helping you think through the WHY, creating an RFP, sending it to many vendors who fit your needs, negotiating a rigorous contract, contemplating both the transition in and out of the contract, defining appropriate service level agreements, and including penalties for lack of performance. Practices that pay off include making sure that you go offshore for the right reasons – don’t outsource a mess, or a broken process. Choose your model carefully – will it be a captive operation (an offshore subsidiary, like the B of A model) or a contracted service? Get your people on board, including your management – takes lots of communication because your people can make it happen, or not. Be prepared for serious investment of management time and money. Sean included lists of Do’s and Don’ts, and of the major players in the game. He also gave a list of countries providing services, dominated by India but including lots of other countries. Gartner lists 5 critical steps – set objectives, judge the current situation, analyze the market, identify risks, and evaluate options. Sean’s presentation slides are attached. He also distributed 2 handouts, which are available on-line:
DER management: Offshore lessons learned http://www.dermanagement.com/archives/9
CIO Magazine: 10 Outsourcing Predictions for 2008 http://www.cio.com/article/print/166108
We asked each member to share with us his experience with offshore outsourcing.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that they had not done any offshore outsourcing but he was very interested to learn from others the dos and don’ts involved. He has outsourced network support to a company within the USA.
Randy Miller, Toshiba ABS, shared with us his experience with Patni Computer Systems, India. He had to fire their project manager because of his very belligerent attitude, and the rest of the Patni team walked off the job - he got little timely support from the company. He had checked out the company rigorously and they have a good reputation, but he neglected to check out the project manager. Make sure you include a termination at will clause in the contract.
Tak Fujii, Olson Company, said that the company is small and privately held. The Board has asked him several times about outsourcing to India, and they have done a trial run with a good project, and a well-defined spec. They have successfully outsourced their infrastructure and network support, and the Helpdesk to Sigmanet in Ontario.
Joel Manfredo, ex-Irvine Company, said that they have very limited experience with offshore outsourcing. They did use Deloitte to implement SAP, and they used some offshore resources. They do outsource their Helpdesk to Everdream, which is being purchased by Dell.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that RJTCompuquest is partly an India-owned company. They do offshore BPO to their Indian office, so they do have skin in the game.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that they did use offshore companies for fixed priced contracts. You have got to be good at writing contracts. He has nothing against using offshore resources provided it is measurable better than other options, but be careful with the contract. There are significant cultural and legal differences. He would never run critical applications offshore. He was talking with GE about their approach to offshore outsourcing, and they also recommend against using offshore operations to run business critical applications.
We thanked Sean again for a very interactive discussion, good slides and the handouts.
See you on April 10, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
March 13, 2008 meeting
Present: Sean Brown, William Zauner, Randy Miller, Tak Fujii, Joel Manfredo, Rich Hoffman, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
We welcomed Tak Fujii, The Olson Company, to the OC CIO Round Table.
Topic – Offshore Outsourcing
We thanked Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, for agreeing to introduce the topic for discussion at the last moment. No sooner did Sean start his presentation by defining terms that Rich challenged the first definition, and after a little discussion we tended to agree. Outsourcing is more than the act of obtaining IT services; it is the transfer of responsibility (but not accountability) to an external firm for the provision of an IT service. Offshore outsourcing adds complexities to that transfer. There are many potential advantages for offshore outsourcing, but be clear WHY you are considering this option. Sean listed some of the advantages, including an available cheaper talent pool, domain expertise, and world-class providers with infrastructure. There are disadvantages too, including differences in language, culture, 20% greater management overhead, and IP security risks. The best approach is to hire someone who has experience in offshore outsourcing, including helping you think through the WHY, creating an RFP, sending it to many vendors who fit your needs, negotiating a rigorous contract, contemplating both the transition in and out of the contract, defining appropriate service level agreements, and including penalties for lack of performance. Practices that pay off include making sure that you go offshore for the right reasons – don’t outsource a mess, or a broken process. Choose your model carefully – will it be a captive operation (an offshore subsidiary, like the B of A model) or a contracted service? Get your people on board, including your management – takes lots of communication because your people can make it happen, or not. Be prepared for serious investment of management time and money. Sean included lists of Do’s and Don’ts, and of the major players in the game. He also gave a list of countries providing services, dominated by India but including lots of other countries. Gartner lists 5 critical steps – set objectives, judge the current situation, analyze the market, identify risks, and evaluate options. Sean’s presentation slides are attached. He also distributed 2 handouts, which are available on-line:
DER management: Offshore lessons learned http://www.dermanagement.com/archives/9
CIO Magazine: 10 Outsourcing Predictions for 2008 http://www.cio.com/article/print/166108
We asked each member to share with us his experience with offshore outsourcing.
William Zauner, JAMS, said that they had not done any offshore outsourcing but he was very interested to learn from others the dos and don’ts involved. He has outsourced network support to a company within the USA.
Randy Miller, Toshiba ABS, shared with us his experience with Patni Computer Systems, India. He had to fire their project manager because of his very belligerent attitude, and the rest of the Patni team walked off the job - he got little timely support from the company. He had checked out the company rigorously and they have a good reputation, but he neglected to check out the project manager. Make sure you include a termination at will clause in the contract.
Tak Fujii, Olson Company, said that the company is small and privately held. The Board has asked him several times about outsourcing to India, and they have done a trial run with a good project, and a well-defined spec. They have successfully outsourced their infrastructure and network support, and the Helpdesk to Sigmanet in Ontario.
Joel Manfredo, ex-Irvine Company, said that they have very limited experience with offshore outsourcing. They did use Deloitte to implement SAP, and they used some offshore resources. They do outsource their Helpdesk to Everdream, which is being purchased by Dell.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that RJTCompuquest is partly an India-owned company. They do offshore BPO to their Indian office, so they do have skin in the game.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that they did use offshore companies for fixed priced contracts. You have got to be good at writing contracts. He has nothing against using offshore resources provided it is measurable better than other options, but be careful with the contract. There are significant cultural and legal differences. He would never run critical applications offshore. He was talking with GE about their approach to offshore outsourcing, and they also recommend against using offshore operations to run business critical applications.
We thanked Sean again for a very interactive discussion, good slides and the handouts.
See you on April 10, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Monday, February 25, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 2-14-08
To: OC CIO Participants
From: Dave Phillips, Peer Consulting Group
Date: February 20, 2008
Subject: Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
Copy: CIO Participants
Attached are the February 14, 2008 meeting minutes, and a copy of Jim Sutter’s presentation slides. Past meeting minutes and proceedings are posted to http://www.peergroup.net/, the Peer Consulting Group website.
The next CIO Breakfast Round Table will be on Thursday, March 13, at 7:00 a.m. at RJTCompuquest, 940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. The topic for this meeting will Offshore Outsourcing and Fred Degley, RJTCompuquest, will introduce the topic. E-mail tdavidphillips@cox.net, by March 12th, 2008 to confirm your attendance.
CIO Round Table Peer Group
Chris Andreozzi, Knowl. Centrix
Bruce Blitch, Tessenderlo Kerley
Mark Brinton, SCE
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest
John Buccola, Panavision
Michael Connolly, IBM
Rich Cormier, Edwards Lifesci.
Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire
Esther Delurgio
Omar El Sawy, USC
Randy Farner
Tak Fujii, Olson Company
Larry Godec, First American
Paul Gray, Claremont (Emeritus)
Bob Greenburg, Nissan
Jon Hahn, Telmar NT
Tina Haines, Meggitt Electronics
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown
Rich Hoffman
Bob Houghton, DDI
Paul Jones, SCE
Andy King, SitOnIt Seating
Joel Manfredo
Tim McClain, Irvine Company
David Mann, Word & Brown
Fred Magner
Bill Mao, OCTA
Randy Miller, Toshiba ABS
Brian Montemagni, Aviana Global
John Mooney, Pepperdine
Mitch Morris, IAMPO
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT
Gregg Parker, Ultigon
Dave Phillips, Peer Consulting Grp
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling
John Pringle, RCMT
Steve Smith, Medtronic Minimed
Sharon Solomon, Jacuzzibrands
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Grp
Ken Venner, Broadcom
Paul Volkman, Keenan & Assoc.
William Zauner, JAM
1993-2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
February 14, 2008 meeting
Present: Jim Sutter, Jeff Reid, Esther Delurgio, Paul Gray, Rich Hoffman, Joe Cracchiolo, Sean Brown, Jeff Hecht, David Mann, Jennifer Curlee, Brian Montemagni, Mitch Morris, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
We welcomed Brian Montemagni, Aviana Global, to the OC CIO Round Table.
Topic – Web 2.0
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, started by defining Web 2.0 key principles: the Web as a platform (just like Unix); data (content) as a driving force; an architecture of participation; open source development; content and service syndication; the end of software application release cycles; leveraging the power of the long tail. Comparing Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, Jim listed several examples including Ofoto (1.0) > Flickr (2.0); mp3.com (1.0) > Napster (2.0); Britannica online > Wikipedia; personal websites > blogging; screen scraping > web services. Web 2.0 is a transition from information silos to information sharing, from designed to customizable (i.e. iGoogle), from “1 to many (publication)” to “many to many (conversational)”, from authority to consensus (i.e. The Wisdom of Crowds). Jim had several slides describing blogs as examples of conversational, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) as an example of syndication, Wikis as examples of consensus, and social bookmarking as an example of sharing. Web 2.0 might be a disputed term as there are no real boundaries – it’s a moving target with no release versions. There is no disputing the growth of the Internet, and Jim had several slides to show this. eBusiness is easier than ever, and startup is cheap. The core competencies of Web 2.0 companies include services, not packaged software; trusting users as co-developers; and harnessing collective intelligence. The web has become a participating experience. New challenges include sharing control, competition everywhere, ideas everywhere, privacy vs. transparency, sustainability, and performance. Jim’s slides (http://www.slideshare.net/occio) contain a wealth of information and I encourage you to reread them.
We asked each member to share with us his/her experience with Web 2.0.
Mitch Morris, IAMPO, said that they are not doing anything with Web 2.0 at IAMPO, but in prior consulting assignments he built a lot of applications for almost nothing. For startups, it is a great way to go and gives you an opportunity to show how well you can respond. One problem: HTTP needs to get better.
Brian Montemagni, Aviana Global, did not think that Web 2.0 was a fit for Aviana but they do a lot of work directly with clients. One of the problems is how to maintain a competitive position, how to build a better mousetrap. The Web 2.0 bubble is overblown with high expectations. The companies that retain value will be those who evolve the quickest.
Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, has a set of products, and the bulk of sales are to the military and police. The web site has to focus on these special circumstances. They are looking at redoing their web presence to target specific segments. A problem with the current web site is that it provides lots of information, and its content is being used by knock offs. Is it wise to sell your product on-line?
David Mann, Word & Brown, said that he had not used Web 2.0 yet but it is in their technology road map. They are starting to think about it, and he thanked Jim for bringing him up-to-date. They might start with creating a Wiki for their corner of the market to share knowledge with their broker network, to develop partnerships.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, added to David’s remarks by saying that they have such a mix of customers, some of whom have evolved over the last 20 years. The older constituents are a very different group of people from the newer, all-singing, all-dancing customers.
Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, also thanked Jim for a good presentation. They do a lot of work with clients with large IT organizations, which have invested heavily in infrastructure. Web 2.0 provides a new way, but it will take a paradigm shift. It also provides RJTCompuquest with a new channel to do business.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, saw this as a way to use TV to do the branding, and the web to do local selling and marketing. The CIO must use the new technology. New stats suggest that over 50% of those who watch TV also have laptops searching the web at the same time. So the branding could be done on TV while the buyer is doing competitive analysis on the web. Of course, you must have confidence in your product to sell on-line. Hyundai is at Web 1.5, as they do support competitive analysis on-line.
Paul Gray, Claremont (Emeritus), had several points. There are legal problems about leaving Facebook. He was the 1st to put a Wiki together for his class at UCI, which worked out well as students couldn’t copy one another without it being obvious. Wikipedia has had problems with unsubstantiated comments, especially in biographies. Delphi/”Wisdom of Crowds” (James Surowiecki, 2005 Paperback $14.00 list ($10.17 at Amazon) is a natural evolution.
Esther Delurgio is active in SCORE/small business consulting which uses Web 2.0 extensively. She is also active in a woman’s investment group, who use Goggle for on-line education. She notes that Obama is using the web effectively in his campaign. She also uses the web for on-line bidding for travel.
Jeff Reid, Toyota Material Handling, and Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, had to leave early before getting their turn to speak.
Brian Montemagni, Aviana Global, said that Aviana do a lot of work directly with clients. One of the problems is how to maintain a competitive position, how to build a better mousetrap. The Web 2.0 bubble is the latest, full of promise and high expectations. The companies that retain value will be those who evolve the quickest.
We thanked Jim for a great presentation, which contained a wealth of information.
See you on March 13, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260. Attachment A
February 14, 2008
1993 - 2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
Notes
Purpose: To provide a forum in an informal setting for senior IS executives to exchange ideas with their peers on key issues of interest to the group.
Goal: To get to know each other and to feel comfortable discussing issues and solutions.
Format: Select one topic per meeting; have one member be responsible for a 30-minute introduction, and have each participant come prepared to present not more than 5 minutes on how they are approaching the issues in their environment.
Time: 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Place: The RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Date: 2nd THURSDAY of each month
Schedule for the meetings through August 2008:
DATE INTRODUCTION TOPIC
1/10/08
Chris Andreozzi, Knowledge Centrix
VoIP
2/14/08
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group
Web 2.0
3/13/08
Fred Degley, RJTCompuquest
Offshore outsourcing
4/10/08
John Pringle, RCM Technologies
Attracting / Retaining IT talent
5/8/08
Rich Hoffman, HISNA
Productivity - does where you work from matter?
6/12/08
Larry Godec, 1st American
Business Continuity Planning
7/10/08
Omar El Sawy, USC
Future of IT
8/14/08
Tim McClain, The Irvine Company
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
(See voting spreadsheet for other topics to consider)
Saturday, January 19, 2008
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 1-10-08
1993-2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
January 10, 2008 meeting
Present: Chris Andreozzi, Kim Troxel, Jim Sutter, Sean Brown, Jeff Hecht, Joel Manfredo, Subbu Murthy, Rich Hoffman, Joe Cracchiolo, Mitch Morris, Gregg Klang, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
We welcomed new members Joe Cracchiolo (FluidMaster) and Mitch Morris (IAMPO), and guests Kim Troxel (KnowledgeCentrix), and Gregg Klang (Sprint) to the OC CIO Round Table.
Topic – VoIP
Chris Andreozzi, KnowledgeCentrix, described the market place for VoIP by referring to 2 Cisco slides (see Chris’s presentation slides which are attached)
Individual consumers and the enterprise represent 2 different types of needs and expectations. Companies like Vonage, the cable companies and Skype go after the consumer market, while Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, Avaya, Mitel and Asterisk go after the enterprise market. It is not clear that the feature set available/suitable for the enterprise is as rich as the one available to the consumer. The enterprise demands much more but it is not clear that it can prevent the infiltration of consumer technologies. The ROI can be elusive especially now that long distance telephone costs have come down. The major savings are in moves/adds/changes and you gain advantages from application integration (UC – Unified Communications), removal of human latency and in support of business continuity (BC) solutions. He described a recent project where they were able to realize most of the benefits – 40 locations, 250 employees, leveraged SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for BC, moved contact center to Costa Rica, and adopted a complete UC solution. What is UC? It is the integration of disparate communications systems, media, devices and applications. This includes fixed and mobile voice, email, instant messaging, desktop and advanced applications, IP-PBX, VoIP, presence, voice mail, fax, audio video and web conferencing, unified messaging and voicemail, and whiteboarding into a single environment offering the user a more complete but simpler experience. No one vendor really provides this yet but this is where we are heading. Chris then compared the offerings from Microsoft and Cisco (see slides). Again he wished they were more compatible. The challenge for the IT department is to use best of breed from each, understanding the hidden costs of integration. He described KnowledgeCentrix’s qualifications, business relationship with those vendors, (and with Citrix and VMWARE), their solutions and success/growth.
We asked each member to share with us his/her experience with implementing VoIP, and the major reason driving that implementation.
Mitch Morris, IAMPO, said that he has been involved with 2 implementations of VoIP. In one case, it was to support an international organization needing reception in any location. There was no immediate ROI, but it was worth the effort as it was function driven. The second implementation is a fully integrated Cisco system, with lots more function than they will use to begin with. Again this was not driven by a positive ROI.
Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, said that in one division, they were able to upgrade their switch and save $50,000. However, corporate is sticking with a uniform call center, as it has been hard to justify a positive ROI.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that about a year ago they implemented a Cisco VoIP solution in the new KIA building, and it worked great. The finance company, HMFC, will be implementing VoIP soon, and it is justified totally on moves/adds/changes as they have a heavy turnover of staff. Hyundai will not be making that move in the immediate future.
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said that 5 years ago he was involved with a $500,000 VoIP failure using Avaya – compare with success at the consumer level with Skype for $150. Even though the industry has matured, he warned to treat this as a major project and manage it appropriately.
Joel Manfredo has implemented Cisco VoIP twice and both times, ROI was not a problem. With the Irvine Company, it was justified on moves/adds/changes. There is an issue with 911 – they implemented a 9911 alternative. Employees are less reliant on the desk-top, unless they work in the call center. He noted that Cisco went after the big companies first; Microsoft went after the small ones.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that VoIP has eliminated all long distance costs – they have implemented 5 digit dialing to all locations. They won’t be replacing the PBX in the homeoffice as there is no ROI. He is not sure that the features justify VoIP, but the sales staff are much more efficient. He likes it from a DR perspective.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, remembered savings lots of $ in the 80’s going to digitized voice over T1 lines. Dow Chemical does most things very well in IT but it cost them big bucks implementing VoIP several years ago. At the Winery, all international traffic is VoIP – some savings but not much, and they are interested in the Microsoft approach to unified communications.
John Pringle, RCMT, said that they had implemented VoIP across 35 offices in the US, and they enjoy unified messaging, video conferencing, and a positive ROI (10-15%), but it was not driven by ROI but by features. He can’t wait to get off their PBX.
Gregg Klang, Sprint, thanked Chris for the presentation. He warned about paying attention to the underlying infrastructure. Avaya is a big player in the VoIP implementation space, followed by Nortel. Hybrid solution sets are popular. The drivers are convergence, and mobile handsets. The ROI is mostly in the moves/adds/changes.
We thanked Chris for a great presentation and interactive discussion.
See you on February 14, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
January 10, 2008 meeting
Present: Chris Andreozzi, Kim Troxel, Jim Sutter, Sean Brown, Jeff Hecht, Joel Manfredo, Subbu Murthy, Rich Hoffman, Joe Cracchiolo, Mitch Morris, Gregg Klang, John Pringle, Dave Phillips
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
We welcomed new members Joe Cracchiolo (FluidMaster) and Mitch Morris (IAMPO), and guests Kim Troxel (KnowledgeCentrix), and Gregg Klang (Sprint) to the OC CIO Round Table.
Topic – VoIP
Chris Andreozzi, KnowledgeCentrix, described the market place for VoIP by referring to 2 Cisco slides (see Chris’s presentation slides which are attached)
Individual consumers and the enterprise represent 2 different types of needs and expectations. Companies like Vonage, the cable companies and Skype go after the consumer market, while Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, Avaya, Mitel and Asterisk go after the enterprise market. It is not clear that the feature set available/suitable for the enterprise is as rich as the one available to the consumer. The enterprise demands much more but it is not clear that it can prevent the infiltration of consumer technologies. The ROI can be elusive especially now that long distance telephone costs have come down. The major savings are in moves/adds/changes and you gain advantages from application integration (UC – Unified Communications), removal of human latency and in support of business continuity (BC) solutions. He described a recent project where they were able to realize most of the benefits – 40 locations, 250 employees, leveraged SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for BC, moved contact center to Costa Rica, and adopted a complete UC solution. What is UC? It is the integration of disparate communications systems, media, devices and applications. This includes fixed and mobile voice, email, instant messaging, desktop and advanced applications, IP-PBX, VoIP, presence, voice mail, fax, audio video and web conferencing, unified messaging and voicemail, and whiteboarding into a single environment offering the user a more complete but simpler experience. No one vendor really provides this yet but this is where we are heading. Chris then compared the offerings from Microsoft and Cisco (see slides). Again he wished they were more compatible. The challenge for the IT department is to use best of breed from each, understanding the hidden costs of integration. He described KnowledgeCentrix’s qualifications, business relationship with those vendors, (and with Citrix and VMWARE), their solutions and success/growth.
We asked each member to share with us his/her experience with implementing VoIP, and the major reason driving that implementation.
Mitch Morris, IAMPO, said that he has been involved with 2 implementations of VoIP. In one case, it was to support an international organization needing reception in any location. There was no immediate ROI, but it was worth the effort as it was function driven. The second implementation is a fully integrated Cisco system, with lots more function than they will use to begin with. Again this was not driven by a positive ROI.
Joe Cracchiolo, FluidMaster, said that in one division, they were able to upgrade their switch and save $50,000. However, corporate is sticking with a uniform call center, as it has been hard to justify a positive ROI.
Rich Hoffman, ex-HISNA, said that about a year ago they implemented a Cisco VoIP solution in the new KIA building, and it worked great. The finance company, HMFC, will be implementing VoIP soon, and it is justified totally on moves/adds/changes as they have a heavy turnover of staff. Hyundai will not be making that move in the immediate future.
Subbu Murthy, USourceIT, said that 5 years ago he was involved with a $500,000 VoIP failure using Avaya – compare with success at the consumer level with Skype for $150. Even though the industry has matured, he warned to treat this as a major project and manage it appropriately.
Joel Manfredo has implemented Cisco VoIP twice and both times, ROI was not a problem. With the Irvine Company, it was justified on moves/adds/changes. There is an issue with 911 – they implemented a 9911 alternative. Employees are less reliant on the desk-top, unless they work in the call center. He noted that Cisco went after the big companies first; Microsoft went after the small ones.
Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that VoIP has eliminated all long distance costs – they have implemented 5 digit dialing to all locations. They won’t be replacing the PBX in the homeoffice as there is no ROI. He is not sure that the features justify VoIP, but the sales staff are much more efficient. He likes it from a DR perspective.
Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group, remembered savings lots of $ in the 80’s going to digitized voice over T1 lines. Dow Chemical does most things very well in IT but it cost them big bucks implementing VoIP several years ago. At the Winery, all international traffic is VoIP – some savings but not much, and they are interested in the Microsoft approach to unified communications.
John Pringle, RCMT, said that they had implemented VoIP across 35 offices in the US, and they enjoy unified messaging, video conferencing, and a positive ROI (10-15%), but it was not driven by ROI but by features. He can’t wait to get off their PBX.
Gregg Klang, Sprint, thanked Chris for the presentation. He warned about paying attention to the underlying infrastructure. Avaya is a big player in the VoIP implementation space, followed by Nortel. Hybrid solution sets are popular. The drivers are convergence, and mobile handsets. The ROI is mostly in the moves/adds/changes.
We thanked Chris for a great presentation and interactive discussion.
See you on February 14, 2008 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.It’s opposite the Carl Strauss Brewery on South Coast Dr. If you are driving N on the 405, take the SOUTH COAST DR EXIT, and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. If you are driving S on the 405, take the FAIRVIEW EXIT, make a LEFT over the freeway and turn RIGHT on South Coast Dr. Turn LEFT on Greenbrook, and immediately right into the parking lot of 940. Proceed to the 2nd floor to Suite 260.
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