This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Kevin Brown - CIPS Fellow, Vice-President of Information Technology for ENMAX Corporation and Past Chair of the CIO Council for the Conference Board of Canada.
Kevin is an founding Fellow for CIPS which is Canada's official representative on the UN-Founded International Federation for Information Processing. He received this special "Fellow" distinction for outstanding contributions to IT, the industry, profession, and society. Kevin brings an incredible history of accomplishment and a strong vision of what are the challenges in organizations and to the broader industry and society.
Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
View Interview Time Index and Topics Listen to the Interview (MP3) About Kevin Brown
Mr. Brown is responsible for all information technology policy, planning, provisioning and reporting, as well as maximizing the corporation's return on information technology assets. In addition, he is a member of the Executive Committee. Mr. Brown has over 30 years of experience in the information systems industry including previous positions with the EPCOR Utilities, ATCO, and the Royal Bank of Canada.
Mr. Brown has been active in the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) since 1984 and has served as president of both the local and national organizations and helped gain Alberta recognition of the I.S.P. as a professional designation. He is the past Chair of the Conference Board of Canada Council of CIOs. He remains active in Alberta promoting the information and communications technology sector as a strategic contributor to the economic future of Alberta. He frequently speaks on the subject of professionalism within the IT industry.
His community contributions include serving as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Edmonton Street Performer's Festival, and serving on various advisory boards of education and community based organizations in Alberta.
On Tuesday, July 22nd, Tim Rains (Group Product Manager, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing) will be in Edmonton for an open talk on security and the changes in the threat landscape.
What? Open Discussion on Security and Threat Landscape
Who? Tim Rains (Group Product Manager, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing)
When? Tuesday, July 22, 2008 – 6 PM to 9 PM
Where? Brewsters Oliver Square (11620 104th Avenue, Edmonton, AB)
The space available for this event is extremely limited so please make sure to navigate to the following address and register ASAP!
https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=130051
On Thursday, July 24th, Tim Rains (Group Product Manager, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing) will be in Calgary to deliver two security-focused presentations that will help your mitigate the threats posed against your critical infrastructure.
What? Microsoft Security Intelligence Report & Security Strategy Briefing
Who? Tim Rains (Group Product Manager, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing)
When? Thursday, July 24, 2008 – 9 AM to 12 PM
Where? Calgary Chamber of Commerce (100 6th Avenue SW, Calgary, AB)
The space available for this event is extremely limited so please make sure to navigate to the following address and register ASAP!
https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=130020
About the Presentations
Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (http://www.microsoft.com/sir/)
The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) provides an in-depth perspective on the changing threat landscape including software vulnerability disclosures and exploits, malicious software (malware), and potentially unwanted software. Each individual report focuses on data and trends observed in either the first or second half of each calendar year and uses historical data to provide context. The purpose of the SIR is to keep Microsoft’s customers informed of the major trends in the threat landscape and to provide valuable insights and security guidance designed to help customers improve their security posture in the face of these threats.
Security Strategy Briefing
Security is a large concern of most Enterprises. This session will outline Microsoft’s security strategy, including our assessment of today’s threat environment, and where we are investing going forward. Discussion will include Microsoft’s proactive and reactive strategies, and the relationship of security investments to Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing initiatives. The session will also lead an interactive discussion around Microsoft security strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from the customer perspective.
Recommended Audiences: Technology Executives, IT Managers, IT Professionals, Business Executives, CIO, IT Directors, Microsoft Partners, Business Decision Maker
About Tim Rains
Tim Rains is a Group Product Manager in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group. Tim and his team of product managers support the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) and many product teams across Microsoft. Among other things, Tim’s team manages production of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR). Tim has worked in several roles at Microsoft including the Senior Public Relations Manager of Security Response at Microsoft, Senior Product Manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, Program Manager of the Windows Network Diagnostics team, Technical Lead on the Product Support Services (PSS) Security team and Technical Lead on the Windows Server Networking team.
Tim earned a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) at Seattle University and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree at the University of Alberta. Tim also holds several technical certifications including CISSP, MCSE, MCSA, including a Computer Systems Technology diploma from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Joël Quimper, Architect Advisor MSDN, Top IT Architecture Authority
Best regards,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
View Interview Time Index and Topics
Listen to the Interview (MP3)
About Joël Quimper
Joël Quimper is an Architect Advisor for Eastern Canada, working mainly with architects in large accounts, helping them to leverage the richness of the Microsoft Platform in order to allow them and their business to realize their full potential. Joël has extensive experience into designing service oriented solutions and using web services. He is passionate about interoperability and how with .Net you can leverage the existing enterprise investments.
Before joining Microsoft, he worked 10 years for IBM Canada in several roles. Most recently, he worked as a WebSphere Integration Architect. He worked with several customers in successfully implementing SOA solutions.
Stuart R. Crawford (Calgary, AB - Business Development Manager of IT Matters)
Where do you see this world in the next five to ten years? How did the last five or ten years play out for you? Like you expected? The world as we know it is constantly changing, new economic factors are affecting the way we do business, the price of energy is creating second thoughts in the minds of a lot of people, demand on an individual’s time combined with many other factors are shaping the way we look at our lives and our businesses.
We do live in a virtual world today! The changing landscapes of life have forced many of us to change the way we do things today and those who immediately understand it are reaping the benefits. It is true; we are living in an always on and always connected world that keeps business rolling along and never really shuts down. In today’s always on and connected world, thousands of IT professionals have trouble simply turning devices off and keeping our focus. However, does this new world of business provide us with a competitive edge?
With the virtual advantage, adopting a virtual practice can provide many IT Professionals with a competitive advantage over those businesses that elect to remain with the standard brick and mortar type of services. In the technology industry, being able to respond to client needs with lightening fast speed and pin point accuracy is separating the winners from those that struggle. Having a virtual strategy will free us from stresses of the Instant Gratification mindsets in existence today. However, how do you do this without being plugged in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?
Virtually, is the only answer, with a combination of personal interactions to keep the relationship balanced. Many new services are now online that are leveraging the deep resource pools in the emerging markets that have the capacity to assist IT Professionals with the toughest technical challenges.
Today, IT Professionals have options to lean on remote help desks located on the other side of the planet to take care of those important services that many of us struggle to do keep up with during regular business hours or continue to do things ourselves, with options of certified engineers in Network Operations Centres across the globe who are able to assist us in the middle of the night while you are recharging your batteries getting your 7 – 8 hours of recommended sleep.
What about the cloud? Where does the cloud fit in? The Internet is no longer just a tool for business today; it is the toolbox that many companies now use to deliver services to the market without geographical, time zone or any other limitations. Are you embracing the cloud with your business? Many services can now be offloaded to the solutions available on the Internet such as spam filtering, CRM solutions with Microsoft CRM Online, web hosting and email have been in the cloud forever, combine this with the offerings in Microsoft’s Online Services that include Live Meeting, SharePoint, Exchange and others. We can now move services once only thought for our offices into a virtual environment allowing clients to fully embrace technology only once thought of for the largest corporations.
Meeting new prospects is now being done virtually, business deals are being closed on the Internet without people meeting each other. Today’s email services have become mission critical and business depends on these services being available at all times, even more important than the telephone. If the email goes down at a client’s site you will know about it almost immediately that is the impact virtual communications has in today’s flat world. Combine this with services online from services like Second Life which allow corporations to exist in a virtual world, virtual tradeshows, meetings and many other transactions and even relationship building activities are happening in these virtual worlds are growing and expanding the economic landscape.
Is your business ready to go virtual? If you doubt that this virtual world will continue to grow beyond its current existence, it is time to accept the fact that this interaction is occurring and it is time to learn what it is all about or hire someone who understands this brave new world. The younger generations of today live on SMS, Messenger applications and on social networking sites, this is how they communicate and transact with everyone. The businesses of today that understand this world, can speak the language and have a presence in the virtual world and economy will have real dollars in their pockets.
Sigh…I meant to get this blog post out earlier today, but as luck would have it, Murphy’s Law came into effect and I’ve spent the afternoon troubleshooting network issues on my home network. Even now, I’m connected directly into my Internet modem just so that I can finish up this and a few other things before the weekend…and before I officially start my maternity leave. Yup, that’s right, it’s time for me to start a whole new adventure! For those who haven’t heard, I’ve got twin boys on the way – double the trouble and double the fun, so I’m told. I can hardly wait!
Although I’ll be leaving you for a while, Stephen isn’t going anywhere and I know he’s got some excellent interviews lined up. And taking my place here on the IT Managers blog will be Rick Claus, whom you may already know from the Canadian IT Pro blog. I’m confident I’m leaving you in good hands!
When I think back to when I started writing for this blog, it seems a long time ago. I had never written a blog post before and it was quite intimidating to all of a sudden be writing on a Microsoft property that already had hundreds of readers. Over the past year and a half, I like to think I’ve gotten the hang of it. You’re not the intimidating bunch I imagined you to be after all, and in fact I’ve enjoyed the dialog we’ve shared through the comments and I’ve very much enjoyed meeting some of you face to face.
So don’t count me totally gone – I’m sure you’ll see me in the comments section now and again. And if the boys don’t show up for another couple of weeks, I may actually squeeze in another post or two as there are some interviews I’ve done which I want to share and some thoughts I’ve had I’d like to write about. We’ll see. But this is officially my last day and this is officially my last post as a Resident Blogger on the IT Managers Connection blog.
So good-bye…for now.
Canadian midmarket companies are rapidly expanding their networks by adopting the latest mobile and collaboration technologies. However, a reactive management environment can make it more difficult to quickly deliver security and application upgrades and instead forces IT staff to spend their time putting out fires. So what is keeping midmarket companies from investing in tools that will help create a well-managed IT environment? This month, Ruth talks with Rod Kreutzfeld (Compugen), Alex Saltman (Bonnett’s Energy) and Derick Wong (Microsoft Canada) about the three most common management myths, the benefits of adopting management technology, and how system management tools can help save time and deliver greater security across company networks.
This podcast is available in both MP3 and WMA formats. Full video interviews as well as more information about the IT Manager Podcast series can be found on the IT Manager Podcast web page.
I recently completed more than 10 keynotes/presentations over the last few weeks. I'm providing a blog series from these keynotes--lessons to be shared. This blog will focus on the SAF (Strategic Architecture Forum) where I gave the results on research of industry trends. The SAF is an invitation-only event for IT architects from typically mid-to-large organizations from all sectors including top global solutions providers. Ruth posted a blog on the Strategic Architecture Forum where I keynoted on the opening day.
From a career standpoint, where is it heading?
IT Specialists have narrow but deep competencies in one domain or category. IT Generalists have a variety of skills though they are not deep in any one area.
For longer term career growth, the focus will be on multi-skillists or versatilists. This group has multiple deep competencies. They will actively seek a wide range of "challenging" roles in their careers. Over time, they will develop broad experience and be recognized as possessing considerable experience in several domains. They will also demonstrate BAIT attributes. That is an acronym for the IT practitioner possessing: business skills and core industry knowledge; a service-oriented attitude; interpersonal skills; and technical competencies. [Click on the BAIT link for more details.]
Though outsourcing represents only 12% of organizations right now, with mid-size outsourcing more than large organizations, the area of highest growth at 5.8% annually, is in desktop/networking or in the IT Specialist area. There's also a trend towards Dynamic Environments. This is due to policy and business-rule based real-time dynamic IT service allocation stemming from increasing automation and virtualization. Ultimately, this leads away from IT Specialists.
Demand for IT Technical Specialists will drop over time with IT roles in the future having a business-focus. It's good to start preparing for this trend now!
Best regards,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP
Stuart R. Crawford (Calgary, AB - Business Development Manager of IT Matters)
Twenty minutes. That’s all it takes to become “a knight in shining armour” in your client’s eyes, adding stickiness in all of your business relationships. What do I mean by the twenty minute miracle? The twenty minute miracle is something that all successful IT Professionals perform automatically by habit and often without even thinking about it, becoming a key differentiater between the really successful IT firms and those that struggle to find success in our market.
So what is the twenty minute miracle? The twenty minute miracle is simply taking the time to sit down with your clients so that they completely understand the technology that they are using. If you are in sales, this same principle applies to increase your IT sales. When clients are educated with technology they feel more comfortable using it, purchasing it and even recommending it to others. It doesn’t matter if it is on the desktop, mobile devices, web services, server architecture or printers. IT Professionals must take twenty minutes to sit down with their clients so that they completely understand everything that they use on a daily basis or looking at investing in.
Coming up with a twenty minute miracle strategy in your business today will be one of those value added actions that your business can do for all your clients. This is critical especially as we move into a time when uncertain economic conditions are on the horizon in some markets and here for others. When you are taking care of your clients needs and listening carefully to what they really need and hitting their business requirements will position you as someone who cares about your clients needs and eventually set your company up for success and even you personally as the individual.
We have to go deep and make sure that we are addressing all of our client’s concerns, and not skim over the top and expect our clients that they would just get it. Our clients are just as busy as we are. We must connect with people, the technology is very important; however, the people side of the business is the key and critical component.
In my personal experience, I have never won business from another IT provider who took care of the personal side of the business. This just doesn’t happen. When I am meeting with clients or prospects to discuss reasons why they are switching providers, the number one reason is lack of communications which is ultimately a breakdown in the people side of the business. However, a balance of the people side and the technology has to occur - you cannot be to far on one side or the other.
In our day to day business we can do everything right in the server room; however we only need to make an error on the desktop only once that may lead a client to look elsewhere to service their IT needs. When we make errors that affect the daily lives of our clients they begin to question how we do things, our creditability and our knowledge. In my days as an IT technician, the end user was the number one priority and anything that affected the end user experience was dealt with before any server challenge that the end users really didn’t experience. This is not limited too just technical challenges. Your accounting department, sales, and every department in your firm must practice the twenty minute miracle.
What else can your team do to ensure that your clients are looked after? There are a number of simple daily activities that your staff can do, like ensuring that a follow up call is done after work is completed. Lack of follow up is a huge concern with a number of end users that I speak with and I know that the majority of technical minded people have the mindset that the client will call if they have a problem. I agree sometimes they will, however many clients really appreciate a simple follow up phone call or even an email. Follow up skills are something that all professionals can work on at all times.
When you master the skills needed to create a positive unforgettable end user experience you will see an immediate increase in your client satisfaction scores. Increased client satisfaction will also provide immediate benefits to your bottom line profits, more sales, happier clients, more new business and a great reputation in the industry. Remember your reputation doesn’t follow you, it precedes you.
This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Jean-Luc David, Developer Advisor MSDN, Top International Developer Authority.
Best regards,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP
View Interview Time Index and Topics
Listen to the Interview (MP3)
About Jean-Luc David
Jean-Luc David is a Developer Advisor for Microsoft Canada. He has written five technical books for Wiley Publishing, including Professional Visual Studio 2005 Team System and Professional Team Foundation Server. In his current role, he spends much of his time with development communities, companies and schools, connecting them to the resources they need to learn new skills and improve their careers. Prior to joining Microsoft, Jean-Luc ran a successful development and consulting firm specializing in areas such as Web Development and providing early guidance on Team System. You can reach Jean-Luc at: jean-luc.david@microsoft.com.
A senior ICT director recently shared a story with me. He talked about a program to drive Sharepoint into all the departments and I asked him why? "It's about sparking passion for work and supporting the user experience. It's also about engaging the youth, who are entering the workforce and expect personalization of work and a rich experience at work!"
His comments speak to Generation Y or Millennials. This group is identified as being born from 1980 and are into Instant Messaging, Social Media, Mashups, Web 2.0, and really were the focus of the Time Person of the Year for 2006. This generation is also larger than baby boomers in many countries; and in Canada, nearly as large. They expect personalization of their work and typically have a richer experience with technology outside of work than at work. So what are their other attributes that you have to be mindful of? They are collaborative and into teamwork. They have an entrepreneurial bent. They are the first generation totally infused with technology and essentially born with it; keep in mind that the first PC came out at the same time as the beginning of this generation. They trust their friends or peers as sources of information and they can be hard working when focused on a passion or cause. Undeniably, they will hold many job and roles in their careers. The two generations have the greatest impact on IT as a strategic asset in organizations are Baby Boomers, due to retirements, and Generation-Y, due to their differences in attributes.
So the question is: are you planning for Generation Y? Are you looking at incorporating social media concepts into your workforce--concepts that resonate with Generation Y? More than 80% of college-age Gen-Y use social media services like FaceBook, and there's a blog coming up every second. In another conversation I had with the Chair of a prominent CIO leadership group, he was emphatic about recognizing this workforce and implementing strategies to engage them. Watch for several upcoming podcasts in this area!
It's clear that Generation-Y and their social media bent impacts: Commerce, collaboration, innovation, produces business and social transformation. After my keynote at the Strategic Architecture Forum (SAF), I was invited to speak before approximately 75 federal business and IT leaders in Ottawa; in a follow-up, one manager commented about the urgent need for addressing Generation-Y for all the reason given here (the above slide came from my presentation).
Examples of social media (and Gen-Y) influence include: Boeing Dreamliner (designed using mass collaboration/co-creation), CambrianHouse.com (crowdsourcing), Bell Canada (using internal blogs for Jam sessions, managing projects, fostering collaboration), Scotia Bank (using Sharepoint to foster collaboration and sharing of best practices through online communities, user profiles, blogs, wikis). Yahoo, Google and MySpace promote OpenSocial - as a neutral, community-governed specification for building social-networking applications. In a Cisco commissioned study, adoption of these social media tools fosters more effective collaboration (66 per cent) and reduce travel costs (56 per cent).
Food for thought...
Regards,
Stephen Ibaraki,
FCIPS,
I.S.P.,
MVP
I have blogged about the Global MVP Summit. However the Global MVP Summit has also put the spotlight on the IT Manager Connection blog -- one of 6 highlighted out of the hundreds of millions worldwide. However, have a look at all the top recommended blogs profiled with Steve Balmer, Ray Ozzie, and MVPs. They represent useful resources for IT practitioners.
Blogs (from the MVP Virtual Pressroom):
2008 Global MVP Summit Virtual Pressroom (scroll down for the blogs):
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/mvpsummit/materials.mspx
Best regards,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP
Today a letter from Bill Veghte, Senior VP of Windows at Microsoft, has gone out to all Windows customers about the “end of sales” date (June 30) for Windows XP and what that means as well as an update about Vista and Windows 7. You can read the full letter here. I’ve outlined some of the key points below:
About Windows XP:
- Support will continue until April 2014.
- Windows XP will still be available for those that need it through downgrade rights.
- Windows XP Home and Windows XP Starter will be available for customers interested in buying a low-end PC (also called a Netbook or NetTop).
- System Builders may continue to purchase Windows XP until January 31, 2009.
About Windows Vista:
- Significant security advances built into Vista have had the following results:
- half the number of critical vulnerabilities in Vista as Windows XP SP2 had in the same time period
- 60% less likelihood of being infected with malware compared with Windows XP SP2
- IE 7, included with Vista, stops about 1 million phishing attempts every week
- Architectural changes which improved system security and resilience led to compatibility issues. However, this is a continual focus and today the following is true:
- Vista supports about 77000 components and devices – twice as many as at launch
- 98 of the top 100 applications for Windows sold at retail stores in the US last year are compatible
- there are updates for more than 125 popular PC games to enable them to work with Vista, all available through Windows Update
- Service Pack 1 includes no new features, but hundreds of small updates allowing for files to copy up to 50% quicker, large folders to decompress 71% faster and improved system diagnostics to make Vista easier for IT organizations to support, among other things.
- We’ve helped OEM partners shorten the time it takes to startup/shutdown Vista and extend battery life by improving driver quality.
- We continue to collect feedback from customers and work with partners to improve compatibility and remove barriers that prevent people from taking advantage of Vista.
About Windows 7:
- This is the working name for the next release of Microsoft Windows.
- It will be delivered approximately 3 years after the general availability launch date of Windows Vista (which was January 2007).
- It will be built off the same core infrastructure as Windows Vista, so there will be less compatibility issues and a straightforward migration process.
While none of this information is new, Bill’s letter is part of the continued effort to engage in open and continuous communication between Microsoft and Microsoft customers. If you have any questions or comments about the Windows roadmap and what it means to your organization, leave them below and our team will answer them.
There weren’t any IT Manager webcasts to tell you about in June but there is one coming up in July which I’ve listed below. You can also check out past webcasts and view them on-demand.
IT Manager Webcast: Deep Dive into Windows Server 2008 File Services (Level 300)
Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Drew McDaniel, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032381104&Culture=en-US
Additional Resources
Here's something different. Two video links from the MVP Newsletter courtesy of Canadian MVP Lead Sasha Krsmanovic!
- There's a new MSDN & TechNet infrastructure that allow for social media tagging and more.
- Two Canadian MVPs, Donald Belcham and Dave Woods lead a project that provides empowerment for those with visual impairment with tactile difficulties allowing the ability to read and write. The results are illustrated in this CBC story. As noted in the MVP newsletter, "Dave & Donald and EDMUG’s community started a codeplex project and developed a .NET application to provide these capabilities."
Cheers,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP
This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Stéphane Boisvert, Internationally Renowned Leader and Executive; President - Bell Canada Enterprise Group.
Enjoy!
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP
View Interview Time Index and Topics Listen to the Interview (MP3) About Stéphane Boisvert
Stéphane Boisvert belongs to the new generation of managers who enjoy challenging the status quo. A dynamic leader with a strategic change management approach, he is driven by a desire to resolve complex business issues and a focus on continually improving customer service.
Acknowledged for his disciplined approach, excellent overall technological knowledge and ability to rally team members around a shared goal, Mr. Boisvert is a manager who promotes a participatory leadership culture while paying particular attention to training future leaders.
His career in the technology sector began in 1985 when he was hired by IBM as a commercial accounts manager. He quickly stood out and played a critical role in IBM's $30 million investment in NetGen, a program created to support technology start-ups across the country. Success quickly followed, and barely a year later his business unit increased its revenues from $12 million to $150 million.
In 2002, Sun Microsystems offered Stéphane a challenge that he was unable to resist: to turn around the corporation's activities in Canada. In a mere three years, he completely revamped the operations of the Canadian division, as a result of which it moved from 14th place to 1st place in terms of profitability and earnings growth. In 2005, Mr. Boisvert moved to California, where he led a specialized Sun Microsystems group dedicated to the integration of international acquisitions.
In August 2006, Mr. Boisvert was named President of Bell Canada's Enterprise group. In this position, he is responsible for leveraging the group's market value proposition and maximizing the financial performance of its various business units, notably through the addition of professional and consulting services.
Mr. Boisvert currently sits on the Board of Directors of Wellspring, an organization dedicated to offering support to cancer victims with numerous centres in Ontario. He is also a member of the boards of the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation and the Fondation de l'Hôpital Sainte-Justine. In 2000, Mr. Boisvert was named to Canada's prestigious "Top 40 under 40" list of successful businesspeople.
A Montréal native, Mr. Boisvert holds a degree from McGill University. He has two children, to whom he devotes considerable time despite his undeniably heavy workload.
