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November 2015 Edition

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VOLUME 13

NUMBER 11

2015 TASTE OF IT CONFERENCE

Leveraging the Third Platform: New Technology Enhances Business Insights

Tech1st_NOV_2015_v1.qxd 10/29/15 3:47 PM

CONTENTS

22

2 Leadership

THANKS to Our 9th Annual Technology First TASTE of ITSPONSORS!

3 2015 Taste of IT Conference

Keynote Speakers

Breakout Sessions


Breakout Sessions


Exhibitor Hall

7 Technology

Leveraging the Third Platform: New Technology Enhances Business Insights

MEMBER FEATURES

15 Training

LEADERSHIP

Technology First | November 2015

By: Ann Gallaher, COO, Technology First

THANKS to Our 9th Annual TechnologyFirst TASTE of IT SPONSORS!

This year is the 9th Annual Taste of IT that

Technology First has hosted and it is our

biggest event of the year. We are proud to

have partnered with the following companies

to be able to present this year’s conference. By

providing the Taste of IT to greater Dayton IT

professionals, we are able to realize our vision

to become the best connected IT community.

BREAKFAST KEYNOTE SPONSOR

LUNCH KEYNOTE SPONSOR

WRAP-UP KEYNOTE SPONSOR

MORNING BREAK SPONSOR

AFTERNOON BREAK SPONSOR

CHARGING STATION SPONSOR

TITLE SPONSOR

9TH ANNUAL

Taste of ITCONFERENCE



33

2015 TASTE OF IT CONFERENCE

KEYNOTE SPEAKERSBREAKFAST KEYNOTE PANEL: Sponsored by:

The Emerging Unmanned Aerial Systems Industry: Applications, Challenges, and Opportunities

During this interactive discussion, a panel of experts will share their experiences and research in the emerging UAV industry. Through videos and demonstrationsthey will showcase how different industries are leveraging this technology to improve their work.

Experts Include:

LUNCHEON KEYNOTE: Sponsored by:

A Technologist at LargeJeff Almoney, General Motors Corporation

This presentation will cover the new technology that has begun to appear in the automotive industry. Technology that will change the way we look at vehiclesand will enable autonomous vehicles. Technologist to technologist this talk will cover the technology requirements and opportunities generated by thisenhancement to our everyday lives.

WRAP-UP KEYNOTE: Sponsored by:

Monkeys, a Race Car & a Stool — A Bad Joke or a Collaboration Strategy?Rob Lang, Manager, Collaboration Architecture— US Central Area, Cisco Systems

As the world has moved from Centrex services, to Private Branch Exchange (PBX) to IP Telephony, the transitions have been primarily back office and architecturalchanges. Effectively, changes for IT. As we move to Collaboration and Corporate Messaging solutions, the changes are more about user experience and “how” we workin today’s fast paced communications environment. Learn why transforming the way we work and creating agile teams is more business-critical than ever before!

Andrew D. Shepherd PhD, Director, Unmanned Aerial Systems, Sinclair Community College

Frank Beafore Executive Director At SelectTech GeoSpatial

Kelly Cohen PhD, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, University of Cincinnati

BREAKOUT SESSIONSPrepare for the Evolution of the Network Within theSoftware Defined DatacenterMany network and security solutions promise to enhance your work experiencewhile reducing the time needed for administration and management. And most solutions do just that. However, have you explored any solutions that will make yourlife easier, while successfully working across your VMware portfolio? VMware NSX isthe network virtualization platform for the software defined datacenter. With networkand security services attached to VMs using a policy-driven approach, you can trans-form the economics of network and security operations, bringing the operationalmodel of a virtual machine to your data center network. Presented by: NickBonifacio, RoundTower Technologies

Cybersecurity Compliance: If it ain’t working for Anthem,Lifelock and Neiman Marcus, what am I supposed to do formy company? The marquee breaches that have occurred recently (i.e. Anthem, Home Depot, MorganStanley,Target, Linked In, and Sony) have helped U.S. Fortune 1000 companies under-stand that data security must be taken seriously. Not only must companies invest in theirdata security, but they must proactively manage and protect it. As the Fortune 1000strengthen their collective defenses, this reduces the amount of “low hanging fruit”avail-able to cyber criminals, forcing them to target small and medium sized companies whooften have weak defenses. Currently 31% of hacks occur at companies with less than 250employees.That percentage will increase as criminals shift their focus to what may beperceived as “softer”targets. Presented by: Taft Law

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2015 TASTE OF IT CONFERENCE, CONT.

BREAKOUT SESSIONSOne Flash Platform, Any WorkloadFlash storage solutions can deliver the high performance that organizations need,but until now those solutions have come with compromises. All-flash arrays deliverhigh IOPS and low latency, but they often have a higher price tag. Hybrid arraysare more economical, but they struggle to deliver the performance necessary for IO-intensive workloads. They also typically lack features that make them a true enterprise solution. As a result, many organizations are forced to run multiple storage systems from different vendors—each dedicated to specific workloads.However, a new class of flash storage solutions are emerging that will help you solve this problem. In this presentation, you’ll learn how these new solutions can help you eliminate storage silos, simplify storage management, and reduce costs by consolidating all of your workloads onto a single flash platform. Presented by:Rajiev Rajavasireddy, Tegile

The Three Perils of Software DevelopmentTM: Understandingand Overcoming The Root Causes of Software Failure For major software projects, the road to release is oftentimes a rocky one. Hiddenchallenges and obstacles can transform a straightforward project into a bloated ini-tiative that has overrun its anticipated expense and schedule—racking up expenseswhile running the forecasted ROI into the ground. Software failures like these canlead to poor-quality releases, project cancellations/reductions in scale, and even company bankruptcies in extreme circumstances.

What’s the cause of these massive losses? The Three Perils of Software DevelopmentTM —Defects, Delays, and Dollars. In this short presentation, you’ll learn what causes them,what problems they cause, and—most importantly—what you can do to avoid them.Presented by: Julie Hagan and Jeff Van Fleet, Lighthouse Technologies

Calling an Audible: Managing Project Direction and SuccessWhen Business Priorities ShiftIn today’s constantly changing business environment, project managers must benimble and able to quickly and effectively adjust to the repositioning of businessgoals. The flexibility necessary to lead in seasons of change may require a wholesalechange in strategy or a slight adjustment; knowing the difference can mean the difference between success and failure. We’ll look at strategies that project managersand those in leadership can leverage to quickly pivot and re-focus their plans,resources, and teams as priorities change. Presented by: Dustin Werden, AfidenceIT

The Experience of Things There’s never been a more exciting time to be a designer. Or a more challenging one.While designers have more tools at their disposal than ever, expectations have alsonever been higher. There’s never before been so much emphasis on user experience.Everybody is delighted by the “mobile moment”—a point in time and space whensomeone pulls out a mobile device to get what he or she wants immediately. Yet,designers still have to wrestle with security and privacy issues. You will learn how tobalance the need for security with the ultimate user experience. Presented by: JooSerk Lee, Sogeti

Transforming IT with Hyperconvergence This session will be an introduction to hyperconverged infrastructure platforms. It willintroduce both the conceptual architecture strategy, as well as the technical innovationsthat unlock true hyperconvergence. At the end of this session, the attendee shouldunderstand how this platform strategy can provide an x86 scale-out cost model withoutsacrificing enterprise performance and data protection capabilities IT architects havegrown to expect from their platforms. Presented by: Charles Schiele, SimpliVity

Any Application, Any Device… How to Make the Cloud Work for YouIn a constantly changing business environment how do you assess which is the mostefficient and competitive way to do business? Large and small companies are movingto the cloud to remain scalable, flexible, and changeable. Ease of mobility and mobileaccess are top concerns to ensuring customers and users easy, secure, seamlessaccess to any device with the cloud. Learn what you need to know and what youroptions are now. Presented by: Mark Smith, Emerge

Don’t be Left Behind: Embrace the Third Platform The explosion in popularity of mobile devices, social media, cloud solutions, big dataand the Internet of Things is forcing organizations to change the way they do business.Many organizations will have to rethink their products, services, external systems,internal systems and their go-to-market strategies because of the emergence ofthese new technologies—collectively referred to as the third platform. This platformwill fundamentally transform who provides IT solutions, who applies them and howthey are used. Organizations will need to embrace this shift to consumerization inorder to evolve and thrive. Presented by Jim Klimkowski, RSM

Database Services in the CloudData is the key to all business operations and strategic decision making. That trans-lates to data and databases as the most important asset within the IT ecosystem—whether data resides on-premise or in the cloud. The perception by many providersthat the databases in the cloud are basically “plug and play” and self-sustaining issimply not true in most cases, and certainly not at the enterprise level. Successfulcloud migrations which includes pre-deployment, deployment and post-deploymentsupport require successful Database-as-a-Service (DaaS) provisions. This presentationdiscusses what those provisions are and why it is necessary to have database servicesin the cloud. Presented by: Steven Woody, CommitDBA

Bridge the Gaps. Make Your Data Relevant for Your CustomersOrganizations are being driven to make customer data and interaction available inreal time. We will showcase a smart solution for the management, off-line or on-line,of your documents, forms and field services with a tablet. The challenge is to make ithappen with the systems you already have in place, in a timeframe that you probablydidn’t choose and of course, with limited resources. Whether it is Web, Mobile orEmail, you need to have a strategy supporting customer interaction. Presented by:Leah Seymour, Document Solutions and Chad Stigall, Cranel Imaging

From the Back Room to the Board Room: Elevating Securityin the Business Cyber security is in the spot light. Leaders at all levels of organizations want to knowabout it. We will look at how IT Security needs to evolve in order to meet thedemands placed on it and become a strategic partner to the business. Presented by:Brian Minick, Morphick Cyber Security and sponsored by IO

The New View: An Augmented Reality & Virtual RealityExperienceBringing creativity and technology together for a unique, one of a kind experience.We explore the world of Augmented/Virtual Reality and its use for potential businessneeds. Companies want the next big thing that will take them to a new marketinglevel. Many people do not understand the potential of virtual and augmented reality,but we have seen an exponential growth in interest and purchasing in these tech-nologies. Seeing what is the “art of the possible” gives companies a chance to envisionwhat they might be able to do with these amazing technologies. Presented by:Marsha Martin and Nicole Podach, Standard Register


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How to Hack Your Own IoT DeviceWhen it comes to industry buzzwords like “IoT” we’ve all heard about Internet-enabled refrigerators, but what the heck does that mean? And, exactly, how does anIoT device work? In this session you’ll learn practical “thing” concepts about micro-controllers, sensors, actuators, data collection, transmission, and capture that will putyou well on your way to building your own IoT devices. Presented: by DavidMezera, DataYard

The Flash Array ExperienceThe flash performance epiphany has come and gone. The all-flash array experience is as much about simplifying operations as it is about sub millisecond applicationresponse times. Pure Storage is hard at work delivering all-flash arrays with data services, operational efficacy and a support experience that customers love. Beyondthe performance and operational benefits, Pure Storage has eradicated the notion of extended support. With Pure Storage, support costs are flat in perpetuity and controllers are upgraded at no cost every three years when support is renewed.Presented by: Kyle Keller, Pure Storage

High Performance Technology Teams How do you get the most sought after, in demand, and valuable technical resourcesin the talent market to fall in love with their work, engage positively, and producebetter results than you could ever get by traditional management theory? In thisclass you will be introduced to the key principals for building high-output, high-quality, high-predictability teams. You will learn how to identify and optimize thebehaviors that lead to sustainable high performance technology teams. Presentedby: Mike Martin, Smart Data Systems

The DO’s and Don’ts of Vulnerability Scanning In this session, Isaac will go over the Do’s and Don’ts of Vulnerability Scanning. He willdiscuss what every organization should know about their security vulnerability.Current issues, what tools are out there, and policys and procedures you may want tohave in place. Presented by Isaac Dunifon, Digital C.O.P.S. division of PERRY proTECH

Big Data Workload ChallengesToday’s unstructured data growth trends are causing next generation, scale-out storagearchitectures to emerge. Traditional architectures are unable to scale and keep pacewith Big Data workloads. Learn how companies are utilizing independently scalingarchitectures to maximize time-to-results for Big Data analytics initiatives as well asaddressing unstructured data growth challenges. You'll understand what Big Dataworkloads look like to optimally design a next generation infrastructure stack opti-mized for Big Data analytics. Presented by Isilon and Cloudera

Improving Business Operations through Best PracticeJoin Jeff Biggs as he discusses real life examples and use cases specific to the greaterDayton area where he has discovered and replicated best practices to improve hiscompany’s performance and bottom line. Jeff will discuss Wright Patterson Air ForceBase and how he changed how we approach every flight since 1935 and how thisaffects every passenger to this day. In addition he will speak about Lexis Nexis andhow perceived failure (dirty data)—proved to be a gold mine! And finally Jeff will talkabout Proctor and Gamble and how dirty hands helped transform how we look atsimple procedures which helped a local company make countless millions.Presented by: Jeff Biggs, Peak 10

The Paradox of Trust in the Digital AgeTrust is difficult to build, but easy to lose. Trust is the basis of our digital lifestyle and that trust is under constant attack. Breaches continue to threaten our trust incommunication, finance, and healthcare systems to name a few. How do you design a trust-worthy system when the concept of “the network” has transformed and continues to do so at a rapid pace into something amorphous in nature? The answerintroduces the Paradox of Trust in the Digital Age. Trust in the overall system increasesas you stop trusting the individual parts of the system. This Zero Trust security postureallows organizations to prevent breaches whether the network is on premise, in thecloud, or has data stored off the network in third-party applications. Presented by:John Glass, Palo Alto Networks


BREAKOUT SESSIONS(continued from page 4)

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EXHIBITOR HALL



TECHNOLOGY

Leveraging the Third Platform: New TechnologyEnhances Business Insights

By: Jim Klimkowski & Bill Kracunas, RSM

How Mobility, Social Media, the Cloud and Big Data Can Support Success.

It is 4:45 a.m. and your smartphone alarm goes off next to the bed.You use your fingerprint to login and open your calendar to see what’s in store for that day.You open the travel application anddiscover your flight is delayed by 45 minutes.

Once in your car, the navigation system projects traffic congestion on your normal route to theairport.You select an alternate route to avoid the traffic and get to the airport as quickly as possible.

As you enter the airport, you skip the check-in line because you have already checked in for yourflight on the airline application (app). Browsing the application on your smartphone, you noticeyou are in a middle seat, but that three aisle seats are open. Instead of going to the counter torequest a change, you change your seat through the app.

When you arrive in Chicago, you use your smartphone to arrange a ride to your destinationthrough a local ridesharing service.While you ride, you go online to check the day’s time to failuremeasures and adjust your product production schedule accordingly.

What used to be science fiction has become real—and commonplace. According to a recentGartner information technology (IT) spending forecast, IT investment is on the rise across allindustries.Overall spending is projected to grow 2 percent in 2015 to almost $2.8 billion withbanking and securities, retail and health care leading the way, although all industries areimplementing strategies to increase innovation.

Whether investments are used for upgrading software or infrastructure, they are playing critical roles in productivity and client service.The enhanced functionality and customerinsight new technology offers is becoming a key differentiator for successful organizations.

The Evolution of the Third Platform Many of the opportunities these companies are identifying and the products and servicesthey are offering have come about as a result of the phase in technological developmentfirst discussed in 2008 and popularly known as the third platform. As the name suggests,this is the latest step in a continually evolving technology environment:

The first platform was mainframe-based, with thousands of apps—most of which were custom developed— and available for millions of users. Integration between applicationsrequired intensive, complex interfaces that were hard to maintain.The IT leader in any organ-ization was a technologist who focused on simply keeping the systems up and running.

The second platform was characterized by client servers (supported by the personal computer) and tiered applications developed using a client server architecture or runningon the Web. Tens of thousands of apps were available, accessed via a browser by millionsof users. The functionality of these applications became configurable and included appli-cation protocol interfaces for easy integration. The role of the IT leader was focused onimproving the efficiency of business processes.

The third platform is the aggregate of mobile platforms, social media, cloud solutions, bigdata and what is known as the Internet of Things.There are millions of applications availableto billions of mobile users.The functionalities of these applications are designed and built towork for numerous situations as well as seamless integration with other apps.The role of the

IT leader has now become focused on managing complex relationships and leveragingemerging technologies; the role is no longer limited to simply keeping systems running.

The third platform and its capabilities have fundamentally changed who creates IT solutions,who applies them and how they are used.

How We Got Here There are several reasons for the emergence of the third platform:

Moore’s law, named for Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, is commonly understood tosuggest that the processing power in computers doubles every two years and costs half asmuch to produce.There is every reason to believe that these improvements will continue,dramatically reducing the cost of IT solutions.

Mobile technologies are becoming the new personal computer. By 2017, 85 percent of theworld will have 3G wireless coverage, with a tenfold increase in mobile data traffic between2013 and 2019. It has been predicted that more American consumers will access the Internetthrough a mobile device than a PC by 2015.




TECHNOLOGY, CONT.

The Internet of Things.These networks of sensors are gathering and tracking data on everything from hand-held devices to appliances, with connected machines increasing 300 percent in the last five years.This has been enabled by mobile sprawl and public access to Wi-Fi spots throughout the world.The Internet of Things is being used in industriesranging from manufacturing to health care to mining and, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, has the potential from sized applications to create an economic impact of $2.7 trillion-$6.2 trillion by 2025.

Changing demographics.The millennial generation is quickly becoming the majority in theworkforce and, more importantly, makes up many new customers, as well.The characteristicsand needs of millennials— multitaskers who are technologically savvy and require work-lifebalance, flexibility, collaboration and transparency—have driven changes in workforce management and consumer product development.

Breaking Down the Third PlatformLet’s break down the third platform into its basic components:

Mobile

All mobile devices are now offered in a mode that keeps the user connected wherever theyare. Smartphones are allowing for additional storage, applications and a screen that enablesusers to interact with more complex applications. Among health care solutions, for example,is a device that can send a family member a health alert, along with your location when youare having an epileptic seizure.

Cloud Computing

The cloud computing revolution is similar to the evolution of electrical generation. In thiscase, the Internet is the transmission wire and the data centers are power plants. Just likeelectricity, cloud-based solutions are pay as you go, pay as you use solutions.

There are three types of cloud solutions:

1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) delivers networking, storage, servers, virtualization and an operating system as a service.

2. Platform as a service (PaaS) delivers all these things, plus middleware and a database.

3. Software as a service (SaaS) builds on PaaS and provides data and applications.

For users, these technologies are accessible from anywhere there is a connection to the Internet.There is no software to install and the applications are typically operating system-agnostic.These solutions are scalable for both users and functionality—allowing foradditional infrastructure or modules as required. For technologists, there is no need to worryabout backups as these solutions are readily available and have redundancy built in to avoidunnecessary business interruption.

Social Media

Social media continues to evolve and become more integral to everyday lives.What startedwith basic email from home quickly morphed into sites and applications for professional andsocial interaction.These tools not only allow companies to communicate with importantstakeholders—enabling management to gather feedback from the field, provide producttraining and track product usage.They also allow companies to collect customer informationand preferences that might otherwise take years to gather through nonsocial, traditionalmedia channels.

The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things refers to technology that connects everyday products to a networkand collects information for the management of these products.This information can be

applied to help increase efficiency, enhance product services or otherwise improve the quality of the products. Connected products can be found in:

1. Wearables such as products in fitness, watches, glasses and cameras

2. Homes that include connected thermostats, appliances, sump pumps, security,lighting and entertainment systems

3. Cars that utilize sensors to improve safety, navigation, diagnostics, infotainment and fleet management

4. Industries that can access real-time analytics, identify factory automation opportunities and enhance supply chain efficiency

5. Cities that are using real-time analysis of information from parking meters, traffic lights and traffic itself to monitor traffic speed, flow and congestion

Big Data

Big data is a relatively new term that is used to describe the extraction of actionable intelli-gence from disparate, nontraditional and often unstructured data sources. Of course, big dataalso includes structured data, such as normalized databases, sensors enabled by the Internetof Things, clickstream recording and location data. Additional components include unstruc-tured data, such as email, HTML, social media data, blogs, audio recordings, video and staticimages. After extraction, actionable information can be represented visually and manipulatedin ways that allow it to be analyzed with traditional data. Ultimately, the information can helporganizations answer numerous questions regarding where and how to focus resources.

Leveraging the Third PlatformFrom enhancing customer service with personalized solutions to increasing efficiencies inproduction, companies are using third-platform technologies in a wide range of products,services and functions. Certain industries are moving forward faster, as some manufacturersare committing that all of their products will connect to the Internet by 2025.The goal is tomake every product smart to provide greater insight and functionality, but those sameadded dimensions and information can help any business make better organizational decisions and increase revenue.

Forecasting Demand • The third platform can allow companies to learn more from data, turning that resource

into actionable information. Regardless of the industry, organizations can take informa-tion from data sets and utilize it for forecasting and scenario planning. For example, byusing big data, the Centers for Disease Control can predict when virus outbreaks arelikely to occur, allowing for more production of medication and planning for demand.The same processes can be adopted by any business; forecasting for increased produc-tion needs for products and services.

• Hewlett-Packard (HP) installs devices in their products to monitor individual components. These devices use the Internet of Things to send diagnostics to HP and alert the company regarding the potential risk of failure. This enables HP toanticipate the need to replace the part, analyze quality assessment data and ensurethat production will meet predicted demand. The data could be used for demand forecasting for consumers by household, state or region.

Building Smarter Products • For consumers, the interaction of products and devices allows for the mobile manage-

ment of several products.Third platform technology is expanding throughout thehome, enhancing information and insights for thermostats, appliances and even pools.





TECHNOLOGY, CONT.

Nest Labs, for example, offers a thermostat that can be accessed from a mobile deviceto maintain temperature levels; the thermostat even “learns”the home schedule andadjusts accordingly.

Increasing Functionality • The health care industry has embraced the third platform to improve product offerings,

thoroughly leveraging the cloud, social media, mobility and big data. For example, withinmedical technology, pacemakers have evolved quickly to take advantage of emergingtechnology. Older pacemakers required a surgical procedure to check status and adjustsettings. Now, through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, newer devices can send real-time performancedata to a doctor, and settings and medications can be adjusted much more efficiently.

Connecting to Donors and Streamlining Fundraising • Nonprofit organizations are leveraging the third platform, connecting with donors

via social media to give them more visibility and transparency into their mission andprojects. Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook provide a more engaged audienceand more direct contact to generate donations or volunteers. Organizations are alsotaking advantage of big data to understand more about their donor trends andmotivations, and gather more insight to develop future projections.

Boosting Efficiency • To improve performance for its clients, GE Aviation shares fuel-use data gathered through

its smart, connected products to help clients identify flight procedures that reduce fueluse. Similarly, wind turbine blades can be adjusted to capture maximum wind energy—and minimize the impact on nearby turbines— through the use of microcontrollers.

• A trucking company developed a mobile application that connected companies withspace on their outgoing trucks to companies that needed products shipped.Ultimately, the technology helped the trucking company grow revenue by $200 million.

Enhancing Sales and Marketing Efforts • One high-profile (and somewhat controversial) use of big data enabled a retailer to

examine and interpret shopping patterns.The store could identify with some accuracywhen a shopper was pregnant and thus susceptible to promotions for baby items.However, this practice is common and can be applied in any industry.With this audi-ence microsegmentation, companies can better leverage data to target their tone,marketing messaging and product offerings to consumers.

• Knowing customer trends and products or services they use can help draw conclusions about what they need and how to best serve them. Enhanced data can be transitioned into actionable information, allowing companies to marketrelated products to an engaged customer base.

The third platform effectively changes the role of traditional information technology. IT profes-sionals can no longer be concerned simply with keeping internal systems running; the func-tion needs to interact directly with internal and external clients via third platform applications.

Making the Case for Using the Third Platform Before companies will allow their IT budgets to shift priorities or increase to accommodatenew technologies, a case will have to be made to support the return on such investments.

Middle-market leaders first need to understand how they currently spend money on infor-mation technology. Gartner has conducted extensive research and determined the averagebusiness spends 4 percent of its revenue on information technology. Across industries, anaverage of 74 percent of the IT budget is spent on operational expenses or “keeping the

lights on,” i.e., maintaining legacy applications and infrastructure.This leaves only 26 percentof the average IT budget to be spent on implementing strategic business solutions such asnew applications or IT infrastructure.

Ideally, middle-market IT leaders should be spending 50 percent of their IT budgets on maintenance and 50 percent on strategic technology initiatives.To take advantage of thirdplatform opportunities, budgets will need to increase or priorities will need to shift.

Following are steps to consider as companies start down the third platform path:

1. Form an innovation team. A team should be assembled to identify ways to leverage third-platform technologies.The team should have a charter and defined budget that have been approved by senior leadership. Members should include personnel from multiple levels in the company.

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TECHNOLOGY, CONT.(continued from page 9)

2. Benchmark competitors. How a company competes in the marketplace will provide a framework for what makes its products or services distinctive—and will help focus the team’s efforts to identify opportunities.

3. Align with the company’s strategic plans.With proper due diligence, analysis and review, organizations can ensure that IT resources are aligned with business requirements.

4. Review customer requirements. A customer relationship management system can provide a single view of the customer base and should prove very helpful in learning customer needs and priorities.

5. Prioritize ideas. Consider placing a higher priority on those ideas that directly support how the company competes in the market. Leverage customer focus groups to vali-date ideas before investing resources in their implementation.

6. Develop an IT road map.This road map should include approved, prioritized IT projectsfor the next one-to-three years.The road map should be reviewed on a quarterly basis by an IT steering committee comprised of personnel from upper-level management and functional non-IT leaders.

7. Test your ideas. Pilot, and pilot some more, before making any significant investments.

8. Consider outsourcing commodity requirements. Start with the simple things: ongoing app support of packaged software, an internal IT help desk, on-premise infrastructure management or business process outsourcing. Management should choose reputable partners who have established solutions with the scope and service level that you need to satisfy your stakeholders.This will help reduce or shift IT spending to strategic projects.

The Only Constant

IT leaders must have a seat at the business strategy table.

How a company leverages technology has an impact that is felt by a broad array of internaland external constituents. With so much riding on how IT is utilized—providing productsand services, increasing efficiencies, optimizing product usage, customizing client engage-ment—management must allow IT leaders to play a primary role in the strategic directionof the company.

The IT landscape will continue to change and technology will be increasingly disruptive to all businesses. Embracing third platform technologies now will help companies survive andcompete in (and even bring change to) their industry. But that means being willing to examinehow IT resources are currently being prioritized and adjusting accordingly—and continually.

As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus noted, “Change is the only constant in life.”



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