IVIS-34, Innovation via corporate policy – Dallas Tech Firm Delivers New Maternity Policy with Paid Leave for Both Parents | General Datatech

IVIS-34, Existing corporate policies, including in HR, can be “innovated” as well as new ones can be implemented (see IVIS-16 and IVIS-30)

Next Step – Are there any existing policies “ripe” for innovation opportunity in your company?  Maybe “employee onboarding” can be simplified via DaaS?  Is “unlimited vacation time” more innovative than current company policy?

The “next step” questions are not recommendations; they are possible samples to evaluate in the context of your own corporate culture.

Referring back to the “Dallas Tech Firm” cited in the subject line, General Datatech (GDT) of Dallas, TX  is demonstrating innovation via an HR policy.  In today’s economy where there is both a high-level of “underemployement” (e.g. stagnant job growth) with a shortage of skilled technical workers, what’s great about GDT’s approach is summarized:

‘It’s not required. It’s not the most risk-averse from a legal standpoint. But frankly, it’s the right thing to do.’” Roberts (i.e. JW,, the company CEO), a 48-year-old father of four young children, thought it was a no-brainer. “I’m for anything that improves our culture,” he says. “I didn’t care about the economics of it. I just said, ‘Go.’ That time is a magical time where people shouldn’t be worried about a paycheck.”

GDT’s parental leave policy shows just how simple innovation: focus on “doing the right thing” for employees (not just customers) and make that a part of corporate culture.  Kudos to GDT!

Dallas Tech Firm Delivers New Maternity Policy with Paid Leave for Both Parents | General Datatech

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Gen Y employees will break BYOD rules | ZDNet – newsle #FixVDA

From a survey focused internationally….another reason why cloud-hosted desktops, or DaaS, make sense….especially given the new VMWare/Desktone combination….

Patrice Perche: Gen Y employees will break BYOD rules | ZDNet – newsle.

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Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund, Boston Marathon Bib fundraiser…

From the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund…
==================================================
Team Ouimet!

Good morning friends,
We are excited to announce that the Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund has been selected by the John Hancock Non-Profit Marathon Program to receive two (2) charity bibs for the 118th running of the Boston Marathon on April 21, 2014!
…Last year, two Ouimet Alumni (Chad Crocker ’10 and Mike Giansanti ’12) completed the Marathon and raised over $13,000 for The Fund. We are honored to have Ouimet Fund representation from our dedicated supporters, once again.

Here’s how you can help:
Are you, or someone you know, interested in running the 2014 Boston Marathon for Team Ouimet?
Each Team Ouimet runner must raise a minimum of $7,500 in fundraising dollars. To apply for a Team Ouimet Boston Marathon Bib, please download the application here. There is a $35 non-refundable fee to apply to Team Ouimet and applications are due December 1.
Have you or someone you know secured your/their own 2014 Boston Marathon bib and are looking for a charity to support? Registered runners are encouraged to join Team Ouimet!
Please note: there is no minimum fundraising amount for registered runners.
Please pass along this opportunity to your family, friends, and colleagues. We look forward to hearing from you!

For more information about the 2014 Boston Marathon Non-Profit Program and/or how you can support the Ouimet Fund through other fundraising opportunities please contact Danielle Pourbaix at daniellep@ouimet.org or 774.430.9041.

Thank you for your support!
Danielle Pourbaix
Coordinator, Development & Alumni Relations

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Innovation 1 of 5 summary recommendations – SAVVIS Cloud Survey 2013

From Savvis’ recent survey, which can be downloaded via http://go.savvis.net/2013-VansonBourne-LinkedIn#! .  Expected results given the source, but the report does have a few interesting perspectives on how private cloud fits in the overall cloud migration.

…..innovation is also one of the 5 summary survey recommendations….

“…2 Invest in innovation to fuel growth 

IT infrastructure models are evolving. Over the next two years,  we’re going to see radical changes in how companies pay for and manage IT. Your competitors are planning for this — shouldn’t you?

Not surprisingly, almost a quarter of respondents (24 percent) say that adapting to the new era of outsourced IT and cloud computing is at the top of their list for the next 12 months.

If you have not begun to explore your options, now is the time to get started.”

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Free Summarizer, online automatic tool to summarize any text or article – StumbleUpon

Free Summarizer, an online automatic tool to summarize any text or article – StumbleUpon.

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ITconnecter Job of the Week, CIO @CDM Smith, Cambridge, MA

CDM Smith – Experienced Professionals

Chief Information Officer
Massachusetts – Cambridge
Primary Purpose: The CIO plays a highly visible and strategic role at CDM Smith and will have a direct impact on the short and long term growth of the company. The CIO will provide strategic and tactical information systems (IS) direction that fits CDM Smith’s short and long term business objectives. Play a lead role in identifying and bringing to fruition economically sound business opportunities that will be value added to CDM Smith. In partnership with the business units, provide leadership in the assignment of technical resources for the design, development, test, and implementation of information technology solutions and services. Personally assure appropriateness of service value, customer service focus, and quality for all services. Take a mentoring lead in establishing a creative, high technology support team that provides both innovative and practical business solutions.

What skills do you need to be successful? Outstanding relationship building, customer service, collaboration, communication, organizational, and decision‐making skills. Ability to rapidly understand the functions and capabilities of new information systems trends and provide guidance on appropriate application to differentiate CDM Smith in the marketplace. Proven success in managing large scale projects. Strong problem solving skills.

Responsibilities:
– Reporting to the COO, the CIO is a key officer and involved with various leadership activities at CDM Smith. This includes involvement in overall corporate strategy, policy formulation, workforce planning, and community involvement.
– Work closely with senior Business Executives to establish the strategy, vision and direction for IS. This includes helping to clarify the business objectives, the role for IS, key IS initiatives, potential business benefits, and supporting technology direction.
– Select and develop a competent, well-motivated and effectively utilized Business Technology team.
– Serve as Chair of the IT Advisory Group which provides overall governance of the IT function.
– You will have overall responsibility for systems development and implementation for all business units and service groups . As well as ensure that the organization has strong systems analysis and project management skills with experience in organizing and executing large scale projects.
– Direct the design, planning, implementation, operation, and maintenance of the computing infrastructure components that support the Company’s business applications.
– Ensure that a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure is in place to meet current and prospective business objectives. Ensure that technical solutions, long-term architecture, and investments in new technology are aligned with company objectives. Monitor industry technology developments and provide appropriate updates to all constituencies; stay current with emerging technologies and integrate into the IT plan those that are determined to be beneficial for corporate objectives.
– You will establish, negotiate, and maintain strategic, relationships with key IT suppliers, vendors, and consultants. Reevaluate these relationships frequently in order to maximize value to the Company
– You will manage the comprehensive corporate IT budget in consultation with business heads; this includes Business Technology Division and all business unit IT costs.

The CIO combines good managerial techniques with a strong information technology and business competence. Qualifications include the following:
– Master’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent field. or MBA.
– 10 plus years managing a business technology team, with some experience with non-US technology operations.
– A strong business acumen and experience aligning technology with business needs in a proactive, strategic manner. Solid general business knowledge and experience.
– Provide a vision of technology that supports enterprise objectives and demonstrated experience with the implementation of large enterprise systems.
– Experience leading the creation of ITIL and cyber security programs.
– Experience overseeing the implementation of large enterprise systems including ERP functions of Human Capital Management, Enterprise Financial Management, Project Accounting, Project Control and Construction systems, Document and Knowledge management.
– Oracle ERP experience preferred.
– Ability to manage global business technology staff with oversees development centers.
– Demonstrated ability to ensuring appropriate infrastructure to support global operations. [I took this out because of our discussion that global experience is a nice to have, and will be a growth opportunity for strong CIOs who are not yet fully global]Must be innovative with a strategic and tactical orientation, strong planning skills and attention to detail.
– Previous success in change management by establishing relationships of trust and credibility with key players.
– Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written; the ability to grasp and communicate the big picture while remaining conversant with details.
– Excellent negotiation skills with internal customers and external service providers.
– A current understanding of IT management disciplines and the technical tools in use and the ability to keep up with and assess new technology and provide leadership in applying it strategically to business.
– Must have proven large scale project management experience with the ability to influence direction of key initiatives and work with the IT and business teams to structure and staff efforts.
– This position requires occasional travel within the US and/or to international locations.
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CommScope and DC of future event = business impacting

Thanks to Commscope for a great event today in Boston Commscope event….few notes from session:

…Commscope is $3B+ co, from Bell/Lucent days, focus on Layer 1
…why should people care about Layer 1?
…due to the increase in load and continued need for consistent performance
…examples include going from 1GbE to 10GbE yields 80% improvement in Big Data apps and per user storage needs to reach 130TB (yes, TB) by 2020 so need viable “plumbing” to move that data
– Cat3 and Cat5 which was big reason for Cisco success in 10Mbs 20 + yrs ago now being engineered as Cat8 (twisted pair) for 40Gbs; research begun on 400Gbs and even 1TB over fiber
….Impactful across entire industry including future success of virtualization, cloud, SDN

Brocade:
…1B new “on net” consumers by 2020 while “complexity” of business also increasing
…Inefficient data centers will be turned off = think of whether it makes sense to have your own DC? Can you keep current? Should you with uptick in network upload speeds?
…industry impact – hcare industry is 30% of data today and will exist in perpuity (family history, etc)
…from 2010 to 2020, 40x increase in data, from 1 zetabyte to 40 zetabytes globally
….dynamic infrastructure needs driven by VM density/mobility, SDN and “East-West” traffic patterns, which refers to a “matrix” need for data access rather than solely “hierarchical” (think of social media data)
….re:SDN, HCare, dynamically access “specialist” data if/when need, eliminate need to preconfigure connectivity specialist data by specialist data
…re:SDN, what about dynamic low-cost routing and impact on internal svc catalog/costing? On telco network pricing? Creating market for network additional capacity?

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from Computer Economics, “Larger Companies Lead SaaS Adoption” overview

industry leader in IT spend metrics, www.computereconomics.com
September, 2013

Contrary to popular wisdom, the greatest adoption of software as a service is not in small companies. In fact, the opposite is true: the larger the organization, the more likely it is to have SaaS technology in place.

As shown in Figure 7 from our study, SaaS Adoption Trends and Customer Experience, 50% of large organizations have adopted SaaS technology, compared with 32% of midsize organizations and 34% of small organizations.


Likewise, the larger the organization, the more likely it is to be making new investments in SaaS. Again, in Figure 7 we see that 39% of large companies are investing in SaaS technology over the next 18 months, compared with 23% of midsize organizations, and 17% of small companies.

Why do we see SaaS as more popular in larger companies? When small companies are considering new systems, they may find SaaS an attractive deployment option. However, many small companies—especially those in slow-growth mode—already have their systems in place, such as their accounting, purchasing, and customer ordering systems. If a small company is satisfied with its application portfolio, it is not likely to consider moving parts to the cloud just for the sake of cloud deployment.

On the other extreme, large companies have many more systems than smaller companies do, and at any point in time may be actively investigating options for new systems. In addition, resource constraints may encourage individual business units to go out and shop for new systems that they can deploy without involving the central IT organization—and SaaS often meets that criterion. Therefore, there are simply more opportunities for SaaS in larger companies.

In this study, we define organization size by revenue. Small organizations in the study have from $50 million in annual revenue to less than $350 million. Midsize organizations range from $350 million to nearly $1 billion, and large organizations have at least $1 billion in annual revenue.

The software-as-a-service model of application deployment is picking up momentum with organizations of all sizes and in all regions of the world. In the full study, we quantify the current adoption and investment trends for SaaS as well as the benefits driving companies to expand their use of SaaS as a deployment option. We assess these trends by organization size and geography. The study also measures the customer experience with return-on-investment (ROI) and total-cost-of-ownership (TCO). We conclude with practical advice for those considering investing in SaaS.

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IVIS-33, Get to Know the “All Things Open” Conference | Raleigh, NC | October 23-24 2013

IVIS-33, Get to Know the “All Things Open” Conference in Raleigh, NC, October 23rd and 24th, 2013

Next Step –  Attend or have your “chief of staff” attend the conference next week in Raleigh, NC  All Things Open Conference | Raleigh, NC | October 23-24 2013

From the site as to why CIO/CTOs should attend:

  • Creating an open source policy
  • The open source business model – OS communities in a for-profit world
  • Open Source is different – The Brand is All You’ve Got
  • Open Source licensing
  • Open Source lessons learned – 30 years of experience to OpenStack
  • OS Foundations 2.0 – GNU, Apache, Eclipse and the changing landscape
  • OS Community/Commercially Successful – Mutually Exclusive?

 

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VMware Acquires Desktone

VMware Acquires Desktone

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