Get Connected!

In an effective community, people share and assist each other. Nowhere is information sharing and collaboration more valued than in the IT industry. Today we salute those who have stepped up to walk that talk. Most of these 27 senior IT leaders have shared one or two of their key upcoming projects. A few trends are beginning to emerge.

Participants include Bob Arnett (Cobb Energy), Delores Kimes Barton (Spelman College), John Bartz, Dan Brown (Consumer Credit Counseling Services), Pankaj (PC) Chawla (Beazer Homes), Fred Christian (Navicure, Inc.), Mark Conde (Emory-Rollins School of Public Health), Nancy D’Amico (LeasePlan), Hank Edwards (Innovative Management Technologies, Inc.),Ryan Fernandes (Fulton County Government), Jay Ferro (Chartis Insurance), Senad Hadzic (KaMin Performance Minerals), Linwood Hayes (Travel Incorporated), Sandy Hofmann (Advanced Technology Development Center), Linda Hughes (Great Ridge Company), Paul Judge (Barracuda Networks), Bob Keefe (Mueller Water Products), Patty Lavely (Memorial Health University Medical Center), Lance Lyttle (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport), John McGuthry (Armstrong Atlantic State University), Joe Oesterling (Cbeyond), Ken Rabun (Manhattan Associates), Venki Rao (GE Energy), Mark Sohl (Chestatee River Group), Jim Strickland (Community Loans of America, Inc.), Larry White (MACTEC, Inc.), and Kathy Wooten (Caraustar).

Excerpts from these conversations are found here online.  Some have been very helpful to their peers. We have learned of a few situations where CIOs have reached out to assist each other, which was the main objective when we began creating Peer Packets just weeks ago. Take a look at these comments and you will spot a couple of indicators. We anticipate a few new offerings might soon surface to serve these developing needs.

 Have a good weekend.

 Mike Adkinson

Pointman

In an effective community, people share and assist each other. Nowhere is information sharing and collaboration more valued than in the IT industry. Today we salute those who have stepped up to walk that talk. Most of these 27 senior IT leaders have shared one or two of their key upcoming projects. A few trends are beginning to emerge.  Participants include:

      Bob Arnett (Cobb Energy)

      Delores Kimes Barton (Spelman College)

      John Bartz, Dan Brown (Consumer Credit Counseling Services)

      Pankaj (PC) Chawla (Beazer Homes)

      Fred Christian (Navicure, Inc.)

      Mark Conde (Emory-Rollins School of Public Health)

      Nancy D’Amico (LeasePlan) 

      Hank Edwards (Innovative Management Technologies, Inc.)

      Ryan Fernandes (Fulton County Government)

      Jay Ferro (Chartis Insurance)

      Senad Hadzic (KaMin Performance Minerals)

      Linwood Hayes (Travel Incorporated)

      Sandy Hofmann (Advanced Technology Development Center)

      Linda Hughes (Great Ridge Company)

      Paul Judge (Barracuda Networks)

      Bob Keefe (Mueller Water Products)

      Patty Lavely (Memorial Health University Medical Center)

      Lance Lyttle (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport)

      John McGuthry (Armstrong Atlantic State University)

      Joe Oesterling (Cbeyond)

      Ken Rabun (Manhattan Associates)

      Venki Rao (GE Energy)

      Mark Sohl (Chestatee River Group)

      Jim Strickland (Community Loans of America, Inc.)

      Larry White (MACTEC, Inc.)

      Kathy Wooten (Caraustar)

Excerpts from these conversations are found here online.  Some have been very helpful to their peers. We have learned of a few situations where CIOs have reached out to assist each other, which was the main objective when we began creating Peer Packets just weeks ago. Take a look at these comments and you will spot a couple of indicators. We anticipate a few new offerings might soon surface to serve these developing needs.

 Have a good weekend.

 Mike Adkinson

Pointman

When Joe Oesterling joined Cbeyond in 2000, he had a technologists’ dream – a green field implementation combined with the time, funding, and people to build a best in class IT environment.  A decade later the focus has shifted to supporting new services while renovating some of the applications and infrastructure that have been deployed five to ten years ago. 

While Cbeyond has grown rapidly in 10 years from a startup to more than $400 million in revenue in 2009, their need for technology innovation has never stopped.  When asked about upcoming projects, Oesterling said “We are putting more technology in the hands of our sales people.”

In each market, Cbeyond employs about 70 people of which 50-60 are direct sales reps.  Sales reps are the ones who make personal contact and present solution alternatives to small business owners. Enabling effectiveness at the point of contact for sales simply means Cbeyond, as a technology service provider, needs to put more technology in the hands of their sales teams.

“We’ve previously rolled out a sales force automation solution including basic capabilities on the Blackberry, but now we will bump it up a notch. The price point for business class netbooks is moving within range, and we can empower the sales person with information and demos of our services and extend our full sales force automation solution to drive more sales effectiveness and efficiency,” observed Oesterling.

“Our sales professionals will be demonstrating technology which small businesses can use to level the playing field with larger competitors.  A small law firm in the suburbs can now compete with a large firm in the city. There are many new innovations coming into the market which will be good for Cbeyond and great for our customers,” said Oesterling in a voice which reflected the fun he truly seems to be having these days.

The bottom line message here is that if you are hooked in with innovative mobile applications like sales force automation, rest assured that there is rising interest and demand for them.

By Mike Adkinson

March 2010

If you look at the appointment calendar belonging to Lance Lyttle these days you would notice a major chunk of his time is focused on two key initiatives. They are (A) cost reduction and (B) finding new sources of revenue (non-airline).

 “We are taking the steps needed to impact our bottom line and these initiatives represent the way we need to be thinking now. Both of these initiatives are fueled by innovative thinking, and that means good brain power. We are open to ideas, suggestions and recommendations from anyone who wants to contribute. Hartsfield-Jackson belongs to all of us so we can all give thought to ways of growing the business of our airport,” said Lyttle.

 Limited employment of digital signatures has been used to achieve some operational efficiencies in the past, and now they plan to widen the circle for participation. “We have hundreds of contractual situations where we can gain attractive savings through expanding our adoption of digital signatures,” acknowledged Lyttle.

 Other projects on his plate included IT support for the creation of the new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the new Airport Operations Center (AOC) which will come online in April. These are huge projects but they pale in comparison to the real biggie which is now in motion. The new international terminal will open in 2112 and it will have state of the art technology services. According to Lyttle “Travelers are really going to like this new facility and it will provide many time-saving features.”

By Mike Adkinson

March 2010

Because I have been given the opportunity to meet and learn from several hundred local IT executives over recent years, it has been natural for a few impressions to form in my mind.  For me, Linwood Hayes conjures up images of one who is highly organized. He can be visionary and still deal with the details within complex environments.  My conversation with him today reinforced the image in my mind.

We all know about the difficult conditions that exist in the travel industry and that Travel Inc. has endured lately. They have used this challenging time to anticipate, research, learn and plan for their future. Linwood Hayes is optimistic about their plans for good reason.  He’s also interested in what others are doing.

“Other IT leaders who have dealt with these issues are of interest to us. We are always open to learn from the experiences of others so let me mention the two areas which are our primary focus now,” commented Hayes.

Cloud Computing – Three Classification Groups. 

“Increased efficiencies delivered by the cloud are inviting and we are moving in that direction. We are organizing our efforts into these clusters: (1) Software as a Service, (2) Platform as a Service and (3) Infrastructure as a Service. Others might have suggestions or advice as to better ways to configure our plans,” said Hayes.

 Going Google – A Communications Platform.

“We are making a move that will allow us to continue our growth within a standard communications platform and that is exciting to us,” he remarked. “We plan to use Google Mail, Calendar, Talk, and Google Apps. Obviously this is a bold departure from how we have operated in the past, but we also know there are others moving down this same adventure trail. We want to learn from them as we go.”

By Mike Adkinson

March 2010

I had not been in contact Patty Lavely since she proudly walked off the stage with the CIO of the Year Award for her category last year. She is a clearly a very sharp person and I had been looking forward to this conversation.

 “Like so many other CIOs from healthcare organizations, I am exploring the HiTech Act within theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act in search of guidance, clues and ideas for what we need to be doing to insure our organization is where we need to be. We and all others will need to increase the use of the Emergency Healthcare Records (EMR) and the path to follow is not clear. So that is what we are doing Mike.”

 There are many good things that will logically come from the full implementation of these mega-spending federal programs, but the absence of proper guidance is absorbing a lot of energy these days. Each healthcare related CIO seems to be working independently on the same issue. It is not exactly a Rubik’s Cube but it might be called an EMR Cube. Finding the right answer seems to require a lot of trial and error.

 While the path to success is not exactly clear, there does seem to be a consensus that a few software companies are going to have true windfall opportunities. Once the final guidance from Washington is made clear, most healthcare organizations are going to be clamoring to receive priority attention from those few software companies. (More about this when we talk with Lisa Lavelle of McKesson.)

 Other projects on the list included making major changes in their data center operations. “We are moving over to blade and VMware in a few months, so we are looking around to learn of the experiences of others. We will make our decisions in a few months, but I want to touch base with a few who have already made that same journey. We know we can save a lot of money so we might as well do it right and save a bunch.”

We ended the conversation with some talk about who she might nominate for the CIO of the Year Awards and a little chat about our mutual friends in Savannah. Howard and Mary Morrison seem to be connected with all things good that happen in this area.

By Mike Adkinson

March 2010

I had not been in contact Patty Lavely since she proudly walked off the stage with the CIO of the Year Award for her category last year. She is a clearly a very sharp person and I had been looking forward to this conversation.

 “Like so many other CIOs from healthcare organizations, I am exploring the HiTech Act within theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act in search of guidance, clues and ideas for what we need to be doing to insure our organization is where we need to be. We and all others will need to increase the use of the Emergency Healthcare Records (EMR) and the path to follow is not clear. So that is what we are doing Mike.”

 There are many good things that will logically come from the full implementation of these mega-spending federal programs, but the absence of proper guidance is absorbing a lot of energy these days. Each healthcare related CIO seems to be working independently on the same issue. It is not exactly a Rubik’s Cube but it might be called an EMR Cube. Finding the right answer seems to require a lot of trial and error.

 While the path to success is not exactly clear, there does seem to be a consensus that a few software companies are going to have true windfall opportunities. Once the final guidance from Washington is made clear, most healthcare organizations are going to be clamoring to receive priority attention from those few software companies. (More about this when we talk with Lisa Lavelle of McKesson.)

 Other projects on the list included making major changes in their data center operations. “We are moving over to blade and VMware in a few months, so we are looking around to learn of the experiences of others. We will make our decisions in a few months, but I want to touch base with a few who have already made that same journey. We know we can save a lot of money so we might as well do it right and save a bunch.”

We ended the conversation with some talk about who she might nominate for the CIO of the Year Awards and a little chat about our mutual friends in Savannah. Howard and Mary Morrison seem to be connected with all things good that happen in this area.

 By Mike Adkinson

March 2010

Because I have been given the opportunity to meet and learn from several hundred local IT executives over recent years, it has been natural for a few impressions to form in my mind.  For me, Linwood Hayes conjures up images of one who is highly organized. He can be visionary and still deal with the details within complex environments.  My conversation with him today reinforced the image in my mind.

We all know about the difficult conditions that exist in the travel industry and that Travel Inc. has endured lately. They have used this challenging time to anticipate, research, learn and plan for their future. Linwood Hayes is optimistic about their plans for good reason.  He’s also interested in what others are doing.

“Other IT leaders who have dealt with these issues are of interest to us. We are always open to learn from the experiences of others so let me mention the two areas which are our primary focus now,” commented Hayes.

Cloud Computing – Three Classification Groups. 

“Increased efficiencies delivered by the cloud are inviting and we are moving in that direction. We are organizing our efforts into these clusters: (1) Software as a Service, (2) Platform as a Service and (3) Infrastructure as a Service. Others might have suggestions or advice as to better ways to configure our plans,” said Hayes.

 Going Google – A Communications Platform.

“We are making a move that will allow us to continue our growth within a standard communications platform and that is exciting to us,” he remarked. “We plan to use Google Mail, Calendar, Talk, and Google Apps. Obviously this is a bold departure from how we have operated in the past, but we also know there are others moving down this same adventure trail. We want to learn from them as we go.”

 By Mike Adkinson

March 2010

If you look at the appointment calendar belonging to Lance Lyttle these days you would notice a major chunk of his time is focused on two key initiatives. They are (A) cost reduction and (B) finding new sources of revenue (non-airline).

 “We are taking the steps needed to impact our bottom line and these initiatives represent the way we need to be thinking now. Both of these initiatives are fueled by innovative thinking, and that means good brain power. We are open to ideas, suggestions and recommendations from anyone who wants to contribute. Hartsfield-Jackson belongs to all of us so we can all give thought to ways of growing the business of our airport,” said Lyttle.

 Limited employment of digital signatures has been used to achieve some operational efficiencies in the past, and now they plan to widen the circle for participation. “We have hundreds of contractual situations where we can gain attractive savings through expanding our adoption of digital signatures,” acknowledged Lyttle.

 Other projects on his plate included IT support for the creation of the new Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the new Airport Operations Center (AOC) which will come online in April. These are huge projects but they pale in comparison to the real biggie which is now in motion. The new international terminal will open in 2112 and it will have state of the art technology services. According to Lyttle “Travelers are really going to like this new facility and it will provide many time-saving features.”

 By Mike Adkinson

March 2010

When Joe Oesterling joined Cbeyond in 2000, he had a technologists’ dream – a green field implementation combined with the time, funding, and people to build a best in class IT environment.  A decade later the focus has shifted to supporting new services while renovating some of the applications and infrastructure that have been deployed five to ten years ago. 

While Cbeyond has grown rapidly in 10 years from a startup to more than $400 million in revenue in 2009, their need for technology innovation has never stopped.  When asked about upcoming projects, Oesterling said “We are putting more technology in the hands of our sales people.”

In each market, Cbeyond employs about 70 people of which 50-60 are direct sales reps.  Sales reps are the ones who make personal contact and present solution alternatives to small business owners. Enabling effectiveness at the point of contact for sales simply means Cbeyond, as a technology service provider, needs to put more technology in the hands of their sales teams.

“We’ve previously rolled out a sales force automation solution including basic capabilities on the Blackberry, but now we will bump it up a notch. The price point for business class netbooks is moving within range, and we can empower the sales person with information and demos of our services and extend our full sales force automation solution to drive more sales effectiveness and efficiency,” observed Oesterling.

“Our sales professionals will be demonstrating technology which small businesses can use to level the playing field with larger competitors.  A small law firm in the suburbs can now compete with a large firm in the city. There are many new innovations coming into the market which will be good for Cbeyond and great for our customers,” said Oesterling in a voice which reflected the fun he truly seems to be having these days.

 The bottom line message here is that if you are hooked in with innovative mobile applications like sales force automation, rest assured that there is rising interest and demand for them.

 Mike Adkinson

March 2010

We come into your inbox this week with four more local Chief Information Officers. We call these brief chunks of information Peer Packets. Local CIOs have made time available to share their thoughts and their work priorities with us. We hope you will find their comments useful.
 
The CIO of the Year Awards for 2010 is going to be a record setting event. (You heard it here first.)  Michael Capellas (First Data) will be the keynote speaker and nominations are already starting to be made. Ken Rabun (Manhattan Associates) has been nominated by Tim Davis (winner in 2008) and Barb Kunkel (Troutman Sanders) has been nominated by Sandy Hofmann (winner in 2003). Gerald Shields (Aflac) has been nominated by Carl Abercrombie (Aflac team member) and the following arrived just before going to press: Jay Ferro (Chartis Aerospace), Don Zimmerman (Wendy’s/Arby’s) and Dan Brown (Consumer Credit Counseling Services). These last three were nominated by Joe Osterling (winner in 2006).
 
Now add the fact that all Gold Sponsor positions have already been committed and the outcome for this year begins to look very promising.
 
Go to www.cioawards.com for more information about how to nominate a deserving CIO and to obtain information about sponsorship.
 
Have a good weekend.
 
Mike Adkinson
Pointman
www.techlinks.net

A really good batch of new webinars has been approved and are posted on the website.  We remain pleased with the quality of most presentations. We have not yet discovered how to make our fortunes through the promotion of these free events, but we do believe we are providing a useful service. If you have a solution for the gap in our business model then come on over and sit for a spell.

I enjoyed an invitation to attend a very good presentation/discussion this week with the Omicron team. Their topic was Business Contingency / Disaster Recovery. It was interesting to watch the program participants drill down to share experiences and to get to the fundamentals of this important topic. David Harmer (Abacus Solutions) has significant experience in this area and maintained a high level of interest among attendees. There is a lot of data showing that American corporations are spending money on this topic, but unfortunately most corporations are not following through to realize the benefits. Disaster Recovery readiness is much like our health and exercise readiness. We all pay the fitness club membership fees but are we really doing the hard part? I don’t think so…

Social networking is often mentioned by IT executives these days, but seldom do I hear as much positive energy as in my talk with Nancy D’Amico. “Mike, just this morning we had a very informative and productive discussion about the emergence of social networking and we discussed how important those tools are becoming to how business is being done. We sat down for several hours with marketing, sales, client services and IT, all sharing views of what we see happening out there. We all know it is important to focus on the impact of the interactive communications trends which are clearly in motion now.”

 Businesses and consumers are making changes to their shopping patterns and D’Amico recognizes the importance of aligning with these changes. Social networking allows consumers to access information from other consumers rather than having to rely on the marketing speak of those who want to sell the products. These trends now prevail in the B2B and B2C worlds, and the positive direction of growth is evident.

 D'Amico talked about the importance of making the right choices for business intelligence tools. “We need to look at what’s available and then pick the options that best fit us for the long term. We will make good choices about what will work for us. But hey, I think that is what the whole marketplace is doing these days.”

 By Mike Adkinson

Feb 2010