CIO Talk Radio

Guest: Nicholas R. Colisto Title: Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Hovnanian Enterprises Guest: John Conley Title: Deputy CIO, Governor's Office of Information Technology, State of Colorado Guest:  John Conley Title: Deputy CIO, Governor's Office of Information Technology, State of Colorado The state of our IT, short or long term, is a direct reflection of how well we've planned. Our hindsight is only as good as the plans we made the previous year and the end results. So, how should we plan? Do we plan based on empirical data? What about using creativity or projections? How well thought out is the IT planning process and what safeguards do we need to ensure that the final result is a strategic IT plan which will create success and growth?

Guest: Brendan O'Malley Title: Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Tasty Baking Company Guest: Mark Griesbaum Title: EVP, Chief Information Officer for Cardean Learning Group Over the years, organizations build any number of IT applications to get work done. They then keep those same applications limping along, year after year. Would there be any value to identifying which ones are truly strategic and then focusing on investing resources in them, while outsourcing the rest? How about a cleaner IT application portfolio by design?

Guest: Rich Gius Title: VP and CIO, Atmos Energy Guest: Eric Dirst Title: Senior Vice President and CIO, DeVry Inc. Today, IT spending can represent up to fifty percent of annual corporate capital expenditures. Not all CIO's are blessed with procurement departments and savvy buyers who know the technology well enough. So, a CIO needs to step in. How well are today's CIO's using their expertise to get the best value for their IT dollars?

Guest: Donald F. Martin Title: Vice President and CIO, Armstrong World Industries Guest: Merv Tarde Title: VP, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Vice President of Facilities and Property Management, Interstate Battery System of America, Inc. Lately, new customers are hard to come by. What about focusing our attention on our current customers and getting more (and maybe additional) business from them? What would it take to get our current customers to use us more? Can IT help?

Guest: Yuvi Kochar Title: CTO and VP of Technology, The Washington Post Guest: Mike Hugos Title: CIO at Large, Center for Systems Innovation [c4si] A Friend in need is a friend indeed. In a severe economic downturn, everyone is affected. What do you look for from your vendors, to signal their willingness to work with you to help you successfully weather the downturn? For the most part, how have your vendors successfully or not-so successfully adjusted to your IT's changed needs and wants?

Guest: Marti Menacho Title: SVP and CIO, JDS Uniphase Guest: Robert Fort Title: CIO for Virgin Entertainment Group's North America Megastores Everyone is trying to get a handle on costs, but an indiscriminate slash and burn of assets can reduce productivity and profitability. Cost cutting needs to be more precise. Could IT help capture costs as well as the impact of cuts in those costs, in a more organized and transparent way, to avoid such overkill? What are the ways that IT can help structure Enterprise Cost Reduction (ECR) efforts?

Guest: Dr. John J. Sviokla Title: Vice Chairman, Global Managing Director of Innovation and Research, Diamond Management & Technology Consultants Former professor, Harvard Business School Guest: Dr. George O. Strawn Title: Director of the National Coordination Office (NCO) for the Federal government’s multiagency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program. Co-Chair of the NITRD Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council. In the past, R&D built products and designed services to be cheaper and cheaper. Today however, competition is driven by knowledge vs. price. Instead of selling what we produce, we need to produce what sells. User driven innovation can make that happen. How well is IT and IT leadership positioned to enable user driven innovation?

Guest: Robert J. Vitello Title: Chief Information Officer (Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Technology) for the New York State Department of Labor Guest: Zeus Kerravala Title: Senior Vice President, Yankee Group Guest: Pieter Schoehuijs Title: Chief Information Officer, AKZO Nobel N.V. All workers have networks of colleagues, both outside as well as inside the organization. To access all ideas available in both networks, what is the best way to introduce social networking into business strategy? How do IT and business leaders leverage worker networks, including those outside the organization, to get the best results?

Guest: Alex Cullen Title: Vice President and Research Director, Forrester Research Guest: John W. Lambeth Title: SVP & CIO, Erickson Retirement Communities When facing a tough global economic downturn, companies may merge for greater competitive and synergistic strength. In good times, when growth is the prime reason for an M&A, budgets for the integration can be generous, but what happens in lean times, when money is hard to come by, and every penny must be justified to corporate stakeholders and bean counters? How does IT get the money it needs to do the integration right?

Guest: Dr. Claudio F. Abreu Title: President & CEO, Bayer Business and Technology Services (BBTS) LLC Head of Global Information Technology Operations Head of Bayer Business Services NA Region IT boosts productivity to make more money. IT allows efficiencies that save money. IT innovation creates topline growth. However, could IT cause "revenue leakage"? If so, under what circumstances? And what about IT creating the necessary plug for a "revenue leakage"?

Guest: Ashwin Rangan Title: Former CIO, Wal-Mart Guest: Tim Payne Title: Research Director, Gartner, Inc. Guest: Simon Ellis Title: Practice Director, Supply Chain Strategies, IDC Guest: Larry Lapide, Ph.D. Title: Research Director, Demand Management Solutions Group Director, Demand Management, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics Demand management promises the next generation of supply chain forecasting, however it can be a complex initiative involving a cascade of changes in jobs, organizational structure, and communications within and outside the enterprise. Is such an initiative worth it? How hard will it be, to get it right the first time?

Guest: John Stevenson Title: Past president, SIM Former CIO, Sharp Electronics Corporation Guest: Ashvin Vellody Title: Senior Vice President, Yankee Group The global economic slump has prodded IT leaders into considering new ways to become self-reliant. Coveted outsourcing destinations are more expensive then they used to be. The IT talent pool has been overfished. And, the dream of an "idea economy" where corporations keep the elite idea generation in-house and outsource the grunt work, has had its problems. Is the time right for insourcing?

Guest: Bruce Carver Title: CIO, Cummins, Inc. Guest: Tom Pyke Title: CIO, US Department of Energy Comparing IT with martial arts is not far fetched. Think of it this way... Each member of an IT crew should be an agile thinker, have team spirit, and should be able to courageously fight IT's daily battles. However, whether the team member is leadership, mid-management, or an operational member, everyone enters the IT dojo with their own strengths in terms of background, personality, aspirations, apprehensions, etc. How can IT leadership, become a Sensei in the true sense, and help its people achieve their optimum performance level (i.e., their respective IT 'black belts')?

Guest: Brian Simmermon Title: Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Subaru of America, Inc. Guest: James Markarian Title: Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Informatica Business knows clients and generally tells IT what the client wants. IT is strategic, and understands how to make Innovation happen. Since innovation is what the customer really wants, shouldn't IT be invited to the table to work in tandem with business to better create the Innovation that business wants to deliver to the customer?

Guest: Michael L. Capone Title: Corporate Vice President and CIO, Automatic Data Processing, Inc. Guest: Bob Keefe Title: Past President (2008), SIM Senior Vice President and CIO, Mueller Water Products, Inc. Some organizations have been nursing legacy IT systems and applications along for decades in the belief they are squeezing the maximum value out of them. At what point do you decide you've gotten your money's worth? When do you let go of obsolete technologies to utilize newer, better technologies? What's the least painful way to end them?