By Meredith Pruden

IT executives from seven of Atlanta’s top businesses recently met for the April 28, 2008 TechLINKS Exchange MarketPlace roundtable discussion. The topic was ISP / Internet Hosting, and the group of industry leaders from 22squared, Southern Polytechnic State University, Southern Company, Merge Healthcare, Boys & Girls Club of Metro Atlanta, Saia and AutoTrader.com had plenty to discuss about internal versus external hosting. Cost, service and security were consistent themes throughout the discussion.

Pay to Play

Roundtable participants agreed the choice to host internally could be cost prohibitive for some, so the decision to contract with an external hosting provider sometimes is a forced choice.

“Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta is non-profit, so money is always an issue,” said Atlanta Director of Systems Jean Scott. “We do ...

By Logan C. Ritchie

At the March 18, 2008 TechLINKS Exchange MarketPlace event, focused on project management / consulting, senior IT directors and CIOs explored shared challenges in hiring skilled project managers, sourcing project management vendors and handling the fast-paced change of IT projects.

The roundtable discussion included industry leaders from AIG Agency Auto, Ames Taping Tools, Atlanta Housing Authority, AutoTrader.com, Delta Air Lines, Merge Healthcare, PBD Worldwide Fulfillment Services, Simmons Bedding Company, Southern Company, TSYS Debt Management and the Weather Channel. Through an in-depth discussion, the participants concluded that the duties of a project manager are difficult to define because the job description is less universal than other IT positions. The group agreed that a project manager must adapt to project changes, ask thorough questions and commit to the success of the project.

Patti Bunker&l ...

Heavy hitters of Georgia’s IT industry gathered around the CIO roundtable to wrestle the topic of corporate social networking at the April 17, 2008 TechLINKS “Let’s Do Business!” event. Pointed discussion engaged leaders in lively conversation and led to some interesting insights. All of this—including some immediate social networking punctuated by premium drinks and tasty roast beef—were compliments of roundtable sponsor Abacus Solutions and reception sponsor NIIT Technologies.

The CIO roundtable featured particularly engaging discussion about social media / networking and its role in internal and external communications within organizations. Conversation was skillfully moderated by Don Riley, CIO of Mohawk Industries. The 22 CIOs in attendance covered governance issues and reflected on the impact social media / networking tools might have on marketing.

Robert Taylor, formerly CIO/Director of IT at Fulton County Government, has started KennTechnologies – a consulting firm that helps coordinate procurement opportunities between government agencies and qualified vendors, provides strategic and long term planning and project coordination, and conducts technology assessments of enterprises and strategic plans.

Under Taylor’s leadership, Fulton County was named as one of the Top 10 Digital Counties by the National Association of Counties and Center for Digital Government under his leadership from 2003-2007.

Formerly Vice President IT, Lodgian and Vice President of Information Technology at Network Communications, Charlie James has recently joined Kforce as IT Technical Architect - ATT Wireless. Kforce is an approximately $1 billion specialty staffing company based in Tampa, Fla.

In addition to his role as CIO at Havertys, J. Edward Clary is now also SVP, Distribution as a result of a recent promotion. Clary has been CIO at Havertys since 2000.

Vyto Razminas, CIO at Flowers Foods, has also been promoted to senior vice president.

Exide Technologies is promoting Dr. Erach Balsara to the position of Vice President and Chief Information Officer, to replace Carlos Cabrera who is leaving the company. According to a press release, “Dr. Balsara is a highly skilled information technology strategist. He joined Exide in February 2007 and has led Exide's Human Resource Management System project in North America. Prior to Exide, Dr. Balsara held numerous IT positions in automotive and pharmaceutical businesses. His last assignment was as Chief Information Officer at FleetPride, Inc., the largest independent distributor of heavy-duty parts in the U.S.”

An article in the AJC reports how Beach Clark and his IT team helped add cell phone tours to enhance the Georgia Aquarium experience.

Jim Baumann, CIO of the Georgia Student Finance Commission, was featured in a March article in Campus Technology about electronic transcripts.

From the article:

"Georgia made the decision early on, Baumann explained, to eschew electronic transcript systems that exchange images of transcripts--often PDFs. That seemed an interim step to the final goal of a completely electronic data exchange system. Baumann said Georgia was thus the first state to fully implement the PESC (Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council) XML standard online. "Others [states] are still thinking of moving images around. That speeds it up, but ...

Dwain Wilcox has been named Vice President, Information Systems at CHEP, a global pallet and container pooling services company based in Orlando, Florida. It is a business segment of Brambles, a company based in Australia whose other business segment is Recall.

Dwain was previously Vice President Global Information Services at Serologicals Corporation – which was acquired by Millipore in July 2006. He stayed at Millipore until July 2007 in the same role.

He was a nominee for Regional CIO of the Year in 2004 by the Georgia CIO Leadership Assocation.

This article was in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, and features a quote from Esat Sezer, CIO of Coca-Cola Enterprises about the shift Microsoft is making to online services - and how his company is testing some of those services.

From the article:

"One early convert is Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., the cola maker's largest bottler and distributor. The Atlanta company is beginning to shift from International Business Machines Corp. software it runs itself to Microsoft Online Services, says Esat Sezer, chief information officer at Coca-Cola Enterprises. The move will happen gradually, starting with a plan to shift 20,000 employees, of 75,000 in total, to the new services by the end of May, Mr. Sezer said.

"Offload ...

For a long time, the words “online networking” seemed to make IT executives smile when mentioned at those “old-fashioned” traditional networking events. These executives, though, have also kept a trained eye on social networking trends (after all, the Internet once drew smiles too). They have watched their children and younger generations utilizing it as they enter the workforce. However, as enticing as this trend may be, few CIOs and technology executives find benefits in being bleeding edge. Instead, they wait until new tools and technologies can “enable the business.”

One example of a business enabling networking tool that has clearly entered the business mainstream is LinkedIn. Its approximately 20 million registered users, including professionals of all stripes spanning 150 industries, have given this website the necessary critical mass to turn it into a powerful business intelligence tool. In addition, LinkedIn users now have the capability to create networking groups focuse ...

Dan Kurtz-Quality Technology Services

There has been an increase in demand for high density compute space with the ability to support up to and through 150 watts per square foot. The compute environment has changed; people are turning to more blade center type technologies that require more power and create more heat, therefore need more cooling. This causes a denser footprint that requires the ability to not only provide the power but to cool it. This is a trend that is likely to continue. In order to compete, data centers must expand their ability to provide higher watts per square foot to customers.

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Jana Vallecillo-Global Crossing

Globalization and true converged networks are no longer things just being talked about – they are now requirements.  We are seeing more and more enterprise companies dealing with the collapse and integration of their traditional voice and data networks into a fully meshed, globally available IP network.  Companies are looking for migration strategies from legacy networks and equipment to IP enabled applications that are operated an ...

Randall McCroskey-Pyramid Consulting

Over the last few months, I have seen a trend toward consolidation; several companies are being completely sold off or selling major chunks of their business. This trend is affecting the middle-market and small businesses. One impact on local technology is that when consolidation occurs, many of the acquiring companies are moving their headquarters to the metro Atlanta area.

Josh Lieberman, CSC Software Services

ISV offers a more dynamic marketplace in which “go to market” timeframes are shortened through more aggressive methodologies, better technologies and a growing understanding of their delivery. SaaS can address this concern to allow a product to evolve dynamically as well as allowing a flexible model for customization of the data, presentation, workflows and business rules on a per customer basis.

Many ISVs have already implemented, or are in the process of implem ...

Dave Evans-Optimus Solutions

The market is making an effort to trim costs through workload consolidation using virtualization tools. Companies have virtualized their environment so that they can provision more quickly with less hardware expenditures to better utilize their existing assets and increase speed and efficiency. I see this trend continuing at the same pace with priorities changing slightly from revenue generating to cost cutting. However, in the end the cost cutting will create revenue once the economy picks back up.

Randy Hulse-MDI

Customers are beginning to investigate how they procure different types of IT services. Services are being segmented across a continuum; from very specific individual placements up to very large complex multidisciplinary projects.  What they are looking at from a talent acquisition prospective is how to get the most consistent delivery and pricing engagement success across all of the vendors that supply to us. Providers must evaluate where they meet the client and the different services that they offer for IT consulting needs as well as consulting with customers on best practices for the procur ...

Michael K. McClellan-Plexus Marketing

In-depth customer surveys are increasingly being implemented in order to identify new and better ways to expand business with current customers, as well as to increase customer retention rates and uncover new product and service offerings for those customers.  Lead generation programs, particularly those integrated with digital marketing tools also continue to be in strong demand.  A number of these programs involve integration of e-marketing and lead management tools with telephone based follow-up and qualification.     

Aninda Bose-NIIT Technologies

As a large global IT services company we are continuously expanding our new hires both in sales and delivery; we opened new offices for BFSI and Marketing H.O. in New Jersey. We have acquired 5 blue chip companies in the last 6 months and acquired one major European Travel and Transportation IT company.

Paul Aliff-Madison Henry

Companies have seen recent success in developing Application Life-Cycle Management (ALM) strategies and solutions to help clients better align business goals with IT investments while overcoming the frustrating challenges with application development. The tools that are especially helpful a ...

Michael Kogon-Definition 6

Mid February is a time when many budgets have received final approval. Healthy projects should come through the cycle within the next 60 days. However, I am sensing some trepidation from CIOs because a lot of their budgets are from capital expenditure funds. Companies are feeling anxious about liquidity and I feel that this is affecting CIO budgets.

Patrick Hiller-Abacus Solutions

With the onset of the recession, companies have begun to make cost cutting a priority. Saving money is top of mind for most CIOs as they are constantly looking for ways to reduce their capital and operational expenses. In order to compete, solutions providers m ...

Lane Tucker-H&A Consulting

Historically, if the economy takes a hit, organizations will cut back on permanent placements and increase contract hiring. Companies begin to shy away from making the costly commitment of hiring permanent employees. However, permanent hiring is still strong today despite the looming threat of a recession and I have not seen many cut backs yet.

Clint Bailey-Hunter Technical Resources

There was a 100% increase in contract to permanent hiring from 2006 to 2007. Clients want to see what the individual can do; it’s the old try and buy method. This also enables the candidate to check out the company and decide if it is a good fit for them. By using this model, companies build higher quality teams over time. When the IT talent market is tight, companies must make more informed decisions as turnover can be expensive.

A Computerworld article, "Can Macs Conquer the Enterprise?" features some comments from Guido Sacchi, CIO of CompuCredit.

From the article:

"In addition to legacy issues, managers are concerned about Mac supportability and total cost of ownership. 'These issues will be the deal killer,' predicts Guido Sacchi, chief information officer and senior vice president of corporate strategies at CompuCredit in Atlanta. 'Can Apple make the case for itself, understand all of the CIO issues and help me solve them?' For now, Sacchi says, for him, that answer is no.

"Usually, Macs are more exp ...

Mark Beck recently became CIO of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His previous experience (at companies such as Unisource and Georgia-Pacific), on the surface, appears to be far removed from the current industry he finds himself in.

Yet, during the course of interviewing hundreds of CIOs in Georgia, we have noticed many instances of CIOs with diverse experiences brought into a new industry because either 1) their basic IT infrastructure leadership skills are formidable, and that's what is really needed, or 2) the company needs a fresh perspective, and an experienced, talented executive will often be successful in a variety of industries, rather than only one industry.

Either way, ...

Dan McDade-PointClear

There are two trends impacting the sales and marketing of IT solutions and services.  First, buyers are using the Internet to research solutions well in advance of purchasing; and are becoming more sophisticated in their evaluation and knowledge gathering.  The second is that the market is less patient about mediocre sales reps.  In many organizations, 20% of the reps sell 80% of what gets sold.  Four out of five technology buyers state that ...

Rob Patten-Northridge Systems

There has been an increased adoption of Performance Management and Business Intelligence solutions within the mid-market. While these tools were commonplace within global 2000 level firms, the dramatic decrease in the price point for these solutions in recent years has attracted the mid-market.  The tools themselves are also evolving.  In the past, only top level executives regularly leveraged B.I. solutions whereas today the tools provide valuable bus ...

Veanne Smith-SolTech

In recent months, we have seen a huge push toward converting contract resources to full-time employees. There seems to be a trend to continue to hire. Companies recognize that there is less risk in converting contractors to full-time employees; they are very familiar with their abilities, work ethic and overall cultural fit.  We have not seen any hint of a recession with our customers. The highly qualifi ...

Dave Mims-Mimsware

Companies with successful software solutions are seeing increasing international demand for their products. However, globalizing software is not simply translating the text into a new language; to produce a truly globalized product, companies must also support and account for culturally based modifications such as multiple dialects and various cultural, political and religious requirements. Such changes need to encompass the entire application, taking into consideration text, layout ...

Linda Hughes has stepped into the role of Chief Information Officer at AIG Agency Auto, an insurance company offering auto, motorcycle, recreation vehicle and commercial vehicle insurance products - and part of American International Group (AIG).

Previously, Linda was Chief Information Officer at North Highland, and she has been involved with many local groups such as the Atlanta Telecom Professionals, Women in Technology, GlobalEXECWomen,

Danny Ryan-ThreeWill

Large enterprises are beginning to take advantage of the social networking trend. Marketing departments are leading the way for organizations to experiment with tools such as blogs and wikis. Initially, these tools are being used internally; however companies will begin to make investments in this area and open it up externally to partners and eventually to customers. We will begin to hear more about the results of using these tools within the next six months.