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)
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 12-13-07
1993-2008
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
December 13, 2007 meeting
Present: Howard Eaton, Bob Nishi, Jeff Hecht, Rich Hoffman, Esther Delurgio, Jim Sutter, Sean Brown, 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 Howard Eaton and Bob Nishi, R360G, to the OC CIO Round Table, and thanked them for making the journey down from Santa Barbara. It was unfortunate that several members who had indicated their intentions to attend the meeting were unable to do so at the last moment. They missed a very interactive session.
We also thanked Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, who at short notice made their conference room available to the group. Sean has joined the group as a permanent member.
Topic – CIO effectiveness / 360 measures
Before introducing Howard to the group, we talked about the evolving role of CIO and how he/she has to be effective in relating to the executive group, in dealing with his senior management peers in the organization (the VPs of Operations, Sales, Marketing, Distribution, etc.), as well as managing a service organization providing reliable and effective IS. Now as the product or service content involves more and more technology, the CIO also has to interface with clients and their organizations.
Howard 1st slide dealt directly with the evolving role of the CIO from a tactical provider of services to one of providing more and more strategic leadership. In fact, in his view, the CIO is in one of the best positions to provide strategic leadership to the organization, and warned against being smothered by the service role. The CIO will be assessed for both roles – meeting user expectations in the provision of services (lagging indicators), and providing leadership in the strategic role for a better future organization (tapping into the wisdom of the organization). Bob mentioned a book worth reading called “The Wisdom of Crowds”, by James Surowiecki. Jim and Rich were not sure that being the agent of change is necessarily a long-term employment strategy for the CIO. Esther argued that it is important for the CIO to provide ideas for change to the CEO/COO, and related some of her history. The group noted that even though the CIO may be heavily involved with identifying opportunities and the project management, the leadership/sponsorship of change must come from the top. Howard went on to talk about various 360 assessments – ones that measured leadership, and other key competences; ones that focused on team building; others on emotional IQ and EQ (executive quotient). He mentioned one that Zehnder International had developed and used to evaluate 25,000 CXOs. He then focused on how the CIO can effectively leverage his/her position for the greater betterment of the organization. He believed that a CIO has both the opportunity and responsibility to do so. One way to do so is to promote the use of an organizational 360 assessment of all units that comprise the enterprise, which provides reports that detail the gap between the strategic and tactical systems. Follow this up with working sessions that identify and prioritize the issues for C-level revue and approval, and manage the implementation. Again the group warned against IT/CIO becoming the sponsor of such an effort – that has to come from the executive branch of the enterprise – but the CIO could become a catalyst and the energy behind the scenes. Howard’s last slide showed the result of such a assessment for one of his clients that showed the differences, in 9 dimensions, between how the CIO/IT group saw themselves versus other C-level departments in the enterprise.
This was a topic that the group could relate to with passion and we ran out of time to hear individual experiences with using 360 type assessments in their organizations. In assessing a CIO’s effectiveness we have to define what success means to the individual – longevity in position? Change agent? Promotion to CEO/COO? The group felt that if profit/expenses were the primary issues, the CFO is promoted to CEO. When the primary issue is sales, the SVP of Sales or Marketing is promoted. When the issue is legal, the SVP of Legal tends to get promoted.
Several other books were recommended as worth reading:
“The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson (why the future of business is selling less of more);
“Blue Ocean Strategy”, which promotes the importance of using ‘fair’ processes for change.
Good session – thank you, Howard and Bob.
See you on January 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. Attachment A
December 13, 2007
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
John Buccola, OnCure Medical
favorite gadgets/"favorite websites"
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)
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
December 13, 2007 meeting
Present: Howard Eaton, Bob Nishi, Jeff Hecht, Rich Hoffman, Esther Delurgio, Jim Sutter, Sean Brown, 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 Howard Eaton and Bob Nishi, R360G, to the OC CIO Round Table, and thanked them for making the journey down from Santa Barbara. It was unfortunate that several members who had indicated their intentions to attend the meeting were unable to do so at the last moment. They missed a very interactive session.
We also thanked Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, who at short notice made their conference room available to the group. Sean has joined the group as a permanent member.
Topic – CIO effectiveness / 360 measures
Before introducing Howard to the group, we talked about the evolving role of CIO and how he/she has to be effective in relating to the executive group, in dealing with his senior management peers in the organization (the VPs of Operations, Sales, Marketing, Distribution, etc.), as well as managing a service organization providing reliable and effective IS. Now as the product or service content involves more and more technology, the CIO also has to interface with clients and their organizations.
Howard 1st slide dealt directly with the evolving role of the CIO from a tactical provider of services to one of providing more and more strategic leadership. In fact, in his view, the CIO is in one of the best positions to provide strategic leadership to the organization, and warned against being smothered by the service role. The CIO will be assessed for both roles – meeting user expectations in the provision of services (lagging indicators), and providing leadership in the strategic role for a better future organization (tapping into the wisdom of the organization). Bob mentioned a book worth reading called “The Wisdom of Crowds”, by James Surowiecki. Jim and Rich were not sure that being the agent of change is necessarily a long-term employment strategy for the CIO. Esther argued that it is important for the CIO to provide ideas for change to the CEO/COO, and related some of her history. The group noted that even though the CIO may be heavily involved with identifying opportunities and the project management, the leadership/sponsorship of change must come from the top. Howard went on to talk about various 360 assessments – ones that measured leadership, and other key competences; ones that focused on team building; others on emotional IQ and EQ (executive quotient). He mentioned one that Zehnder International had developed and used to evaluate 25,000 CXOs. He then focused on how the CIO can effectively leverage his/her position for the greater betterment of the organization. He believed that a CIO has both the opportunity and responsibility to do so. One way to do so is to promote the use of an organizational 360 assessment of all units that comprise the enterprise, which provides reports that detail the gap between the strategic and tactical systems. Follow this up with working sessions that identify and prioritize the issues for C-level revue and approval, and manage the implementation. Again the group warned against IT/CIO becoming the sponsor of such an effort – that has to come from the executive branch of the enterprise – but the CIO could become a catalyst and the energy behind the scenes. Howard’s last slide showed the result of such a assessment for one of his clients that showed the differences, in 9 dimensions, between how the CIO/IT group saw themselves versus other C-level departments in the enterprise.
This was a topic that the group could relate to with passion and we ran out of time to hear individual experiences with using 360 type assessments in their organizations. In assessing a CIO’s effectiveness we have to define what success means to the individual – longevity in position? Change agent? Promotion to CEO/COO? The group felt that if profit/expenses were the primary issues, the CFO is promoted to CEO. When the primary issue is sales, the SVP of Sales or Marketing is promoted. When the issue is legal, the SVP of Legal tends to get promoted.
Several other books were recommended as worth reading:
“The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson (why the future of business is selling less of more);
“Blue Ocean Strategy”, which promotes the importance of using ‘fair’ processes for change.
Good session – thank you, Howard and Bob.
See you on January 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. Attachment A
December 13, 2007
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
John Buccola, OnCure Medical
favorite gadgets/"favorite websites"
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)
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 11-8-07
To: OC CIO Participants
From: Dave Phillips and Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group
Date: November 15, 2007
Subject: Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
Copy: CIO Participants
Attached are the November 8, 2007 meeting minutes. Minutes are also at http://www.peergroup.net/, the Peer Consulting Group website.
The next CIO Breakfast Round Table will be on Thursday, December 13, at 7:00 a.m. at HISNA, 111 Peters Canyon Road, Irvine, CA . The topic for this meeting will CIO Effectiveness / 360 Measures and Howard Eaton, R360G, will introduce the topic. E-mail tdavidphillips@cox.net, by December 12th, 2007 to confirm your attendance.
.
1993-2007
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
November 8, 2007 meeting
Present: David Mann, Jeff Reid, John Pringle, Jennifer Curlee, Subbu Murthy, Esther Delurgio, Rich Hoffman, Randy Miller, Randy Farner, Jim Sutter, Michael Thorton, Scott Campbell, Bob Case
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
We welcomed Randy Miller, Vice President, and CIO, Toshiba to his first OC CIO peer group Roundtable.
Topic – SOA ( Service Oriented Architecture)
Randy Farner, Mercury, described the effort undertaken at AAA to integrate many legacy systems (VB, Pl/1, CICS,COBOL, MsDos) on to a .net framework using an SOA approach. He described their experience as a very successful way to make a rich set of applications available to a wide range of users, in an up-to-date, web environment. He pointed out that SOA means several things: Business services, Architectural style, and a Programming model. It fosters reuse of services that improve time to delivery and lower cost. It also enforces standards such as XML. The effort was a large undertaking, beginning in 2004 and employed 30 – 50 outside contractor/consultants.
Agents at AAA now consult one large display containing all the information regarding a customer instead of having to log onto multiple systems. Productivity and systems performance are difficult to measure, but the tools to do so are improving. Randy’s and his team took a selective approach to wrapping the legacy applications, which he emphasized was an important success factor. Most critical was governance and the senior level sponsorship they received. He stated that “success is proportional to how high in the organization the sponsorship is.”
Clientsoft exposed the services and the team built and automated test scripts. In Randy’s view, done properly, SOA delivers on the promise of EAI and componentization. An IBM handout outlined best practices in undertaking an SOA.
Jennifer Curley pointed out that her environment at Surefire includes the Epicor ERP suite and provides a Service Connect feature that is used largely to support internal users. It is not a comprehensive framework, and Jennifer would be concerned about her own staff’s degree of knowledge to tackle a complete SOA architecture at this time.
Esther Delurgio implemented several pilots intended to foster reuse. She asked about training. Randy said that it began with the consultants – who trained trainers. Contractors also provided ongoing training. The learning curve is not as steep if you have people who have an object-oriented background.
Subbu Murthy, UsourceIT, built an IT Diligence Model that was able to expose perceived ROI. He pointed out that while a calculated ROI may not be achieved, there is still value in pursuing SOA because it fosters change and innovation.
Scott Campbell, First American, stated that they were a Microsoft shop and were interested in the real benefits of an SOA initiative. He asked for measures of both savings and performance. American does not have an SOA framework and worries about system performance in a large, heavy transaction oriented environment.
David Mann, Word & Brown, has brought in SOA consultants. The partnership is just beginning with Neudesic, who specialize in M/S (.net) environments and the SOA framework. W & B will use up to 30 consultants in the effort.
Randy Miller, Toshiba, asked for the best way to identify opportunities. He worried that his team might not be able to identify or define the right services. He pointed out that in recent years, he has replaced the old legacy environment with a new Oracle suite of software and that most systems at Toshiba are very contemporary. He is pursuing areas to connect the Oracle applications to the web.
We thanked Randy Farner and his team for a very comprehensive review of SOA.
See you on December 13, 2007 – 7:00 a.m. in the HISNA conference room at:
111 Peters Canyon Road, Irvine, CA 92606.
It’s the KIA Motors building at the end of Peters Canyon Road next to the 5 Freeway. Peters Canyon Road is off Walnut between Jamboree and Culver, near the 5 Freeway. Park in the Visitors parking lot, near the 3 flags, and walk to the glass lobby.
From: Dave Phillips and Jim Sutter, Peer Consulting Group
Date: November 15, 2007
Subject: Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
Copy: CIO Participants
Attached are the November 8, 2007 meeting minutes. Minutes are also at http://www.peergroup.net/, the Peer Consulting Group website.
The next CIO Breakfast Round Table will be on Thursday, December 13, at 7:00 a.m. at HISNA, 111 Peters Canyon Road, Irvine, CA . The topic for this meeting will CIO Effectiveness / 360 Measures and Howard Eaton, R360G, will introduce the topic. E-mail tdavidphillips@cox.net, by December 12th, 2007 to confirm your attendance.
.
1993-2007
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
November 8, 2007 meeting
Present: David Mann, Jeff Reid, John Pringle, Jennifer Curlee, Subbu Murthy, Esther Delurgio, Rich Hoffman, Randy Miller, Randy Farner, Jim Sutter, Michael Thorton, Scott Campbell, Bob Case
The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, with links to the host’s presentation material, when available. Please provide us with the “url” of your presentation materials.
We welcomed Randy Miller, Vice President, and CIO, Toshiba to his first OC CIO peer group Roundtable.
Topic – SOA ( Service Oriented Architecture)
Randy Farner, Mercury, described the effort undertaken at AAA to integrate many legacy systems (VB, Pl/1, CICS,COBOL, MsDos) on to a .net framework using an SOA approach. He described their experience as a very successful way to make a rich set of applications available to a wide range of users, in an up-to-date, web environment. He pointed out that SOA means several things: Business services, Architectural style, and a Programming model. It fosters reuse of services that improve time to delivery and lower cost. It also enforces standards such as XML. The effort was a large undertaking, beginning in 2004 and employed 30 – 50 outside contractor/consultants.
Agents at AAA now consult one large display containing all the information regarding a customer instead of having to log onto multiple systems. Productivity and systems performance are difficult to measure, but the tools to do so are improving. Randy’s and his team took a selective approach to wrapping the legacy applications, which he emphasized was an important success factor. Most critical was governance and the senior level sponsorship they received. He stated that “success is proportional to how high in the organization the sponsorship is.”
Clientsoft exposed the services and the team built and automated test scripts. In Randy’s view, done properly, SOA delivers on the promise of EAI and componentization. An IBM handout outlined best practices in undertaking an SOA.
Jennifer Curley pointed out that her environment at Surefire includes the Epicor ERP suite and provides a Service Connect feature that is used largely to support internal users. It is not a comprehensive framework, and Jennifer would be concerned about her own staff’s degree of knowledge to tackle a complete SOA architecture at this time.
Esther Delurgio implemented several pilots intended to foster reuse. She asked about training. Randy said that it began with the consultants – who trained trainers. Contractors also provided ongoing training. The learning curve is not as steep if you have people who have an object-oriented background.
Subbu Murthy, UsourceIT, built an IT Diligence Model that was able to expose perceived ROI. He pointed out that while a calculated ROI may not be achieved, there is still value in pursuing SOA because it fosters change and innovation.
Scott Campbell, First American, stated that they were a Microsoft shop and were interested in the real benefits of an SOA initiative. He asked for measures of both savings and performance. American does not have an SOA framework and worries about system performance in a large, heavy transaction oriented environment.
David Mann, Word & Brown, has brought in SOA consultants. The partnership is just beginning with Neudesic, who specialize in M/S (.net) environments and the SOA framework. W & B will use up to 30 consultants in the effort.
Randy Miller, Toshiba, asked for the best way to identify opportunities. He worried that his team might not be able to identify or define the right services. He pointed out that in recent years, he has replaced the old legacy environment with a new Oracle suite of software and that most systems at Toshiba are very contemporary. He is pursuing areas to connect the Oracle applications to the web.
We thanked Randy Farner and his team for a very comprehensive review of SOA.
See you on December 13, 2007 – 7:00 a.m. in the HISNA conference room at:
111 Peters Canyon Road, Irvine, CA 92606.
It’s the KIA Motors building at the end of Peters Canyon Road next to the 5 Freeway. Peters Canyon Road is off Walnut between Jamboree and Culver, near the 5 Freeway. Park in the Visitors parking lot, near the 3 flags, and walk to the glass lobby.
Monday, October 29, 2007
minutes - October 2007
1993-2007
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
October 11, 2007 meeting
Present: Omar El Sawy, John Pringle, Joel Manfredo, Esther Delurgio, John Buccola, Bob Houghton, Larry Godec, William Zauner, Randy Farner, 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 reviewed the results of the voting for topics for 2008, and several members volunteered to prepare introductions. Check Attachment A to confirm the date and the topic that you volunteered for – let me know ASAP if this date will not work for you.
We thanked Professor Omar El Sawy, USC, for stepping in at the last moment to introduce this topic, and Rich Hoffman, HISNA, for hosting the event at this very nice new KIA Motors facility.
Topic: How consumer electronics innovations are ahead of the Enterprise: implications for CIOs
Omar El Sawy started by listing innovations such as blade servers, virtualization, ERP, CRM, BI, SaaS, Laptops, SOA, Office 2007 that the IT department has introduced in recent times. User centric innovations started with end-user computing and PCs in the 80’s; Internet browsers, online purchasing, travel reservations, etc. followed in the 90’s. The role of IT started to change from providing the infrastructure for connection, to providing an IT environment, to becoming part of the enterprise fabric. Consumer centric innovations since 2004 include VoIP (?), mobile phones, SMS, instant messaging for the Millennial Generation (those born since 1982, to whom email is so 5 min ago!!), social networking sites, and virtual environments, wikis & blogs, easy videoconferencing, open APIs and mashups, Google flight checks, HD TV, iPods, iPhones, high end multimedia handhelds… Nowhere is this seen more that in the home, with advanced home entertainment, wireless, implicit SLA for usability and functionality, and integration of functions. What are the implications for CIOs? What should they do: resist; embrace; experiment incrementally; enable the home/road as the hub for employees; outsource. There are many issues for discussion. Let’s start with privacy and security, SaaS a la Google, compliance, and demands for support. The discussion soon focused on the effect that these digital natives – children of technology – who will drive the usage of technology whether it is disruptive, like IM, or not. The business, the IT department and tech support are all in react mode. Products are driven by technology - the newest automobiles are full of electronics. The virtual world, virtual space and Second Life avatars will become commonplace. The average age of game players is 30, not under 20, as might be imagined. The discussion was wide-ranging and interactive!
To close, I asked members to share with us his or her biggest concern, or challenge, that they face with integrating these new technologies into their infrastructure.
Bob Houghton, DDI, is most concerned about the health of his employees – 7X24 availability, and the demands of being on call all the time even at home, and the effect of that on family life.
Joel Manfredo is concerned about the cost of second life adoption, avatars and the hardware infrastructure needed to support this.
John Pringle, RCM Technologies, said he was worried about security, the potential to exploit the vulnerabilities, and availability.
Randy Farner is worried about management of the information generated by all these devices, hardware usage and control.
Rich Hoffman, HISNA, thanked Omar for a great presentation. He was also worried about security, the 7X24 support expectation, the effect on employee health, the availability of multipurpose PDAs, and the challenge of knowing what employees were working on in the office. He has had to terminate a few people for working other company assignments while on the job at HISNA.
William Zauner, JAMS, is worried about productivity, and the difficulty in knowing what his employees are working on. They have banned the availability of uTube in the work place. He remarked that the most explosive growth in the legal business comes from e-discovery, as most IT departments save everything – all emails, etc. It’s important to have an email retention policy.
We had a very interactive meeting, and enjoyed Omar’s presentation and his ability to lead the discussion.
See you on November 8, 2007 – 7:00 a.m. in the HISNA conference room at:
111 Peters Canyon Road, Irvine, CA 92606.
It’s the KIA Motors building at the end of Peters Canyon Road next to the 5 Freeway. Peters Canyon Road is off Walnut between Jamboree and Culver, near the 5 Freeway. Park in the Visitors parking lot, near the 3 flags, and walk to the glass lobby.
Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
October 11, 2007 meeting
Present: Omar El Sawy, John Pringle, Joel Manfredo, Esther Delurgio, John Buccola, Bob Houghton, Larry Godec, William Zauner, Randy Farner, 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 reviewed the results of the voting for topics for 2008, and several members volunteered to prepare introductions. Check Attachment A to confirm the date and the topic that you volunteered for – let me know ASAP if this date will not work for you.
We thanked Professor Omar El Sawy, USC, for stepping in at the last moment to introduce this topic, and Rich Hoffman, HISNA, for hosting the event at this very nice new KIA Motors facility.
Topic: How consumer electronics innovations are ahead of the Enterprise: implications for CIOs
Omar El Sawy started by listing innovations such as blade servers, virtualization, ERP, CRM, BI, SaaS, Laptops, SOA, Office 2007 that the IT department has introduced in recent times. User centric innovations started with end-user computing and PCs in the 80’s; Internet browsers, online purchasing, travel reservations, etc. followed in the 90’s. The role of IT started to change from providing the infrastructure for connection, to providing an IT environment, to becoming part of the enterprise fabric. Consumer centric innovations since 2004 include VoIP (?), mobile phones, SMS, instant messaging for the Millennial Generation (those born since 1982, to whom email is so 5 min ago!!), social networking sites, and virtual environments, wikis & blogs, easy videoconferencing, open APIs and mashups, Google flight checks, HD TV, iPods, iPhones, high end multimedia handhelds… Nowhere is this seen more that in the home, with advanced home entertainment, wireless, implicit SLA for usability and functionality, and integration of functions. What are the implications for CIOs? What should they do: resist; embrace; experiment incrementally; enable the home/road as the hub for employees; outsource. There are many issues for discussion. Let’s start with privacy and security, SaaS a la Google, compliance, and demands for support. The discussion soon focused on the effect that these digital natives – children of technology – who will drive the usage of technology whether it is disruptive, like IM, or not. The business, the IT department and tech support are all in react mode. Products are driven by technology - the newest automobiles are full of electronics. The virtual world, virtual space and Second Life avatars will become commonplace. The average age of game players is 30, not under 20, as might be imagined. The discussion was wide-ranging and interactive!
To close, I asked members to share with us his or her biggest concern, or challenge, that they face with integrating these new technologies into their infrastructure.
Bob Houghton, DDI, is most concerned about the health of his employees – 7X24 availability, and the demands of being on call all the time even at home, and the effect of that on family life.
Joel Manfredo is concerned about the cost of second life adoption, avatars and the hardware infrastructure needed to support this.
John Pringle, RCM Technologies, said he was worried about security, the potential to exploit the vulnerabilities, and availability.
Randy Farner is worried about management of the information generated by all these devices, hardware usage and control.
Rich Hoffman, HISNA, thanked Omar for a great presentation. He was also worried about security, the 7X24 support expectation, the effect on employee health, the availability of multipurpose PDAs, and the challenge of knowing what employees were working on in the office. He has had to terminate a few people for working other company assignments while on the job at HISNA.
William Zauner, JAMS, is worried about productivity, and the difficulty in knowing what his employees are working on. They have banned the availability of uTube in the work place. He remarked that the most explosive growth in the legal business comes from e-discovery, as most IT departments save everything – all emails, etc. It’s important to have an email retention policy.
We had a very interactive meeting, and enjoyed Omar’s presentation and his ability to lead the discussion.
See you on November 8, 2007 – 7:00 a.m. in the HISNA conference room at:
111 Peters Canyon Road, Irvine, CA 92606.
It’s the KIA Motors building at the end of Peters Canyon Road next to the 5 Freeway. Peters Canyon Road is off Walnut between Jamboree and Culver, near the 5 Freeway. Park in the Visitors parking lot, near the 3 flags, and walk to the glass lobby.
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