Symposiums

February 4, 2004
7:30 to 10:00 AM
Fox/Gittis Foyer
Liacouras Center
Temple University Main Campus

There is no technology topic that is currently more visible to the collective communities of technologists, business executives and even the general public than the subject of Outsourcing. From its origin as a management efficiency practice for controlling IT costs and focusing upon core competencies, Outsourcing has ventured far beyond its original technology boundaries. The practice of Outsourcing now has economic, competitive and even political implications. Outsourcing has reached the point of being not only a component of a company’s technology strategy but in many cases their business strategy. But is the growing practice of outsourcing technology functions and the execution of specific business practices a viable long term strategy?

Panelists

• Larry Dignan, News Editor, Baseline
• Bruce Hillier, Partner, Global PeopleSoft AMS, IBM
• Michael Palmer, Allied Office Supplies, Inc., CIO & EVP Supply Chain Management
• Niraj Patel, Executive VP & CIO, GMAC Commercial Mortgage
• Rajiv Tandon, SVP Banking, Financial Services, and Automotive, Syntel

Moderator

• Bill Siegle, CIO, ACE INA Holdings, Inc.

Summary

The Panel primarily focused upon three major components of the topic of Outsourcing. These were the long term viability of Outsourcing, the critical success factors in its implementation and career and developmental considerations for students.

Outsourcing is first and foremost a business response to fundamental and competitive factors. Such opportunities as expense reduction, efficiency improvements, organic business growth, response to acquisitions and skill improvement are quite simply driven by the economic reality of globalization. The business practice of Outsourcing has no geographic or political constraints. Outsourcing will in fact penetrate more deeply into the value chain of a company, having been initiated as a technology practice but now growing rapidly into areas of business process.

The implementation of Outsourcing requires considerable skill and focus beyond conventional projects. Aspects of onshore, nearshore and offshore Outsourcing were discussed. While greater opportunity for expense reduction occurs with the practice of offshoring, there is also a greater degree of risk. Successful Outsourcing practices must include:

• Substantial change in processes to leverage the new business model
• Keen awareness of cultural impacts upon doing business
• Complete and thorough documentation of processes being changed
• Honest and open communication to employees

From a student perspective there were a number of observations:

• Recognize that Outsourcing is a reality and do not restrict yourself to one specialized area of expertise
• Always focus upon what value you bring to your employer and constantly upgrade your skills
• Know your employer’s business, not just the technology you individually support
• Smaller companies, in particular, may be driven to Outsourcing and this provides opportunity for an employee to understand multiple components of a business.

November 19, 2003
7:30 to 10:00 AM
Fox/Gittis Foyer
Liacouras Center
Temple University Main Campus

Business Intelligence (BI) can provide managers with actionable knowledge about the firm, its customers, and competitors. Analysis of data from a BI can lead to competitive advantage, new sources for revenue, and cost savings via opportunities for new products, mergers, demand forecasting, key performance monitoring, and what if analysis on scenarios. However, realizing a successful BI may be beyond the realities of most organizations. An ideal BI implementation implies integration of Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, financial, and legacy accounting systems into a data warehouse that provides on demand information. Organizations also need sophisticated knowledge management capabilities to successfully learn from and apply BI insights. An iterative approach that combines the search for BI with existing efforts in visualization, data mining/warehousing, knowledge management, or geographic information analysis may prove simpler. In this panel, we will review the state of BI and offer insights for adoption and usage.

Panelists

• John Bryer, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Parkway Corporation
• Gregory Meyers, CRM & Marketing Business Unit Manager, McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson
• Robert Smith, Managing Partner, DoubleStar, Inc.
• Ken Cox, Vice President, Walklett Group

Moderator

• Thanhia Sanchez, Director, Cognos Corporation

 

September 24, 2003
7:30 to 10:00 AM
Fox/Gittis Foyer
Liacouras Center
Temple University Main Campus

Web based services can potentially provide the answer to the problem of integrating different systems. The benefits of web-based services include the ability to integrate best of breed applications, speed, cost, incremental implementation, a more open architecture, and the ability to have newer distributed applications co-exist with legacy apps. Web services are now often seen as an alternative to investing in large enterprise resource planning systems, and/or proprietary systems that require significant upfront investment and time and vendor lock in. In this panel, we will explore if web services are ready for adoption today.

Panelists

• John Dalton,  Principal Direct Investor Systems, Vanguard Group
• Mike Kovach, Senior Vice President Software Development & Technology, FullTilt Solutions
• Edward S. Ferrara, Director of Enterprise Transformation Services, Technology & Architecture, Unisys Corporation
• Stephen J. Byrne, Manager, Enterprise Application Architecture, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company

Moderator

• Jason Glazier, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology & E-Commerce Officer, Lincoln National Corporation

April 03, 2003
7:30 to 10:00 AM
Fox/Gittis Foyer
Liacouras Center
Temple University Main Campus

After 9/11 security has become an important topic in industry and government. IT security already under pressure from the threat of viruses and hackers has become even more complex and important. There continue to be major misconceptions about what is feasible, practical, and important. A completely secure enterprise is not a realistic goal but how much is a company willing to spend to go from 80% security to 90%? The panel will provide insights on the relative role of IT security in the management of the enterprise.

Panelists

• Raymond Blair, Vice President – Global Security Solutions, IBM
• James Finn, Principal, eBusiness Security, Unisys
• Douglas Hurd, Senior Product Manager, Network Associates International
• R.K. Raghavan, eSecurity Practice Head, Tata Consultancy Services
• Tommie Sonby, Vice President of Technology, Concord EFS, Inc

Moderator

• Nicholas Economidis, Vice President, AIG eBusiness Risk Solutions

Summary

The key points highlighted by the panel include:

Quality vs. Quantity

Focus your IT-security resources appropriately. Many organizations focus an inordinate mount of resources on a limited number of “quality” attacks. Quality attacks typically required a great deal of sophistication, and as a result are infrequently seen in real life. Rather, organizations should focus on “quantity” attacks which require less user-knowledge on behalf of the attacker, but happen with much greater frequency. For example, “social engineering” involves relatively little knowledge of computer systems but rather involves convincing users to divulge User-ID’s, passwords and other information.

Security is a Management Function

As fast as companies employ new security measures, hackers and criminals invent new ways to cause damage. As a result, IT-security is not a something that can be purchased off the shelf. Rather, good IT-security is a management function. IT-security involves the same critical elements as any other management function. These include:

• Analysis and Assessment: educate yourself as to what the risks are, what laws/regulations you may be subject to, where you may be vulnerable and what your security options are.
• Implement appropriate risk controls: take reasonable actions to prevent and mitigate loss. Plan for recovery and business continuity should an incident occur.
• Feedback: Review the results of your security efforts, note changes in the environment, and make changes as necessary. Security is a continuous effort.
• Fundamentals: The Importance of Basic Blocking and Tackling.

Focus on the fundaments of good security. Some of the fundamentals highlighted by the panel included:

• Data Backup
• User Awareness Training
• Policy & Controls (instructing users what is permissible)
• Delegation of duties (assigning security as a responsibility);
• Separation of duties (don’t rely on a single employee; have appropriate checks and balances).
• Compliance: audit for compliance with policies and controls.
• It’s Not What You Spend on Security, but How You Spend It!

There is no magic formula for how much to spend on security. The importance is to spend wisely and in an appropriate manner. Avoid spending money on “vanity” items that may sound good but provide few real benefits. Don’t rely on technology along for security. The following allocation for a security budget was provided as an example:

• 15% Policy development and maintenance
• 40% User awareness training
• 10% Assessment
• 20% Technology (software and hardware)
• 15% Compliance

 

February 12, 2003
7:30 to 10:00 AM
Fox/Gittis Foyer
Liacouras Center
Temple University Main Campus

The goal is to focus on the difficulties and promises of integrating applications across the enterprise. In the 70’s and 80’s companies started on major integration projects so that their disparate applications such as accounts receivable and accounts payable would be integrated together. In the 90’s vendors such as SAP and Peoplesoft were successful in helping many organization integrate their applications. However, the rapid rise of ebusiness meant that in many organizations integration efforts were often abandoned so that web based systems could be rapidly deployed. Starting from simple web sites to complex transaction processing systems companies now (again) have to face new challenges in integrating their web projects with traditional systems.

Panelists

• Dianah L. Neff, CIO, City of Philadelphia
• Jason Glazier, Senior VP and CTO, Lincoln National Corporation
• Arnold Kurtz, VP, CTO, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company
• Kathleen M. Walters, VP, Exelon Energy Delivery

Moderator

• Kent Seinfeld, CIO, Commerce Bank