Ten Questions with
LegalZoom CEO
Tracy Terrill
April 11, 2011
For 10 years now, LegalZoom has been revolutionizing the way people access the law by providing online legal document services. The company was initially conceived
by two talented lawyers and an IT guru with a vision for making legal services more accessible through the Internet.
Since joining the company in 2007, CIO Tracy Terrill has overseen the information management and technology strategy to support LegalZoom's rapid growth. His initiatives have included implementing best practices for software development, recruiting and building a global engineering team, enabling 24-hour development, and redesigning the corporate Web site infrastructure.
Tracy talked with me about what he has been seeing and expects to see with his company and in the online services business.
You can download the full 10 Questions interview with Tracy Terrill here.
PDF downloads: 51
Ten Questions with
ZL Technologies' CEO
Kon Leong
February 28, 2011
When you have 10 files, you have data. When you have a thousand files in different formats with dates, authorizations, priorities and so on, you have data about your data. Creating new ways to keep it all sorted out and managed will yield 
data about the data about your data. Et cetera ad infinitum.
Managing metadata has been Kon Leong's consuming passion for more than a decade now. He believes getting rid of a file can be an even bigger challenge than keeping it.
Kon Leong is the CEO of ZL Technologies and is based in San Jose, CA. When he's not busy running the company, he enjoys roaming around the globe, learning new languages and cultures.
Read the full 10 Questions interview with Kon Leong here.
PDF downloads: 82
Ten Questions with
NetIQ's Jay Gardner
February 1, 2011
Over three decades, Jay Gardner has worked his way up through positions at IBM, BMC Software, and now leads NetIQ as president of the business unit. He was named as a finalist for the Gartner CIO Choice Award and recognized by Computerworld as one of its Premier 
100 IT Leaders.
Jay believes there is no shortage of challenges when it comes to IT management and the steady stream of new developments every year. The decline in incremental benefits, he says, is a result of the plateau in the adoption curve that leads to failed expectations.
"The failed expectations curve is really a financial picture of the business case where the Y-axis is value and the X-axis is time... There is going to be a certain amount of deterioration in the value, or at least a diminishing gain, as the adoption curve levels off and you go from the value of implementing to the value of maintaining and improving... it often comes down to the talent in the organization that makes things happen..."
Read the full 10 Questions interview with Jay Gardner here.
PDF downloads: 194
Ten Questions with
VMware's Mark Egan
December 16, 2010
In its May 2010 research note on x86 server virtualization infrastructure, Gartner opens with the assertion that "the market has a number of viable choices." Bu
t its Magic Quadrant shows that VMware has stretched out its lead like Usain Bolt into the top-right corner of the top-right quadrant (combination of execution and vision), with the rest of the quadrant noticeably vacant.
Why is that important? Last year, the number of virtual machines passed its tipping point of outnumbering physical hosts in the world.
"...if you think of social-media apps, for example, how do we take some of these systems with a Soviet-era interface and make them look like Facebook and be as easy as Twitter? I believe the user interface trumps functionality."
VMware counts all of the Fortune 100 among its 200,000 customers and was recognized last year with the Wall Street Journal's Technology Innovation Award. Under the leadership of CIO Mark Egan's global information technology group, VMware's strategy has been to emphasize its capacity to both improve agility and cut costs.
PDF downloads: 371
on cloud computing:
Ten Questions with
Accenture's Jimmy Harris
November 10, 2010
Cloud computing is changing the way many companies view information technology. They are developing standards for the characteristics t
hat indicate whether an application is a good candidate for the cloud or not.
Accenture is one of those companies, and Jimmy Harris is using his background in outsourcing as a starting point for his role as Director of Cloud Services, which, he says, is not a surprising move.
How is outsourcing a CRM application different from outsourcing your call center? And how is it transforming the IT managers' roles? In Jimmy's appraisal, the emphasis is no longer solely on being a "digital craftsman," and monitoring service levels at the user endpoints is still going to be a challenge.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Jimmy Harris here.
PDF downloads: 668
Ten Questions with
Julius Tomei
September 2, 2010
Julius Tomei has almost three decades of IT experience in the Fortune 100. He currently oversees more than 200 locations in 45 c
ountries, and more than 50,000 end users. How has he been able to get there? By working his way up through every possible IT job description. Here's his take on mobility, outsourcing, consolidation and why IT is not a department anymore.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Julius Tomei here.
from the Outside In:
Ten Questions with
Ian Clayton
June 29, 2010
Ian Clayton was born in London, but has worked most of his 35 years as an expatriate IT professional and service management aficionado here in the 
United States. He helped cofound itSMF-USA in 1996 and commissioned the first instructor for a class offered by a U.S. business.
More recently, he has become a leading voice in managing information systems as services. His first book, The Guide to USMBOK (Universal Service Management Body of Knowledge), is drawn from his broad range of client experience and certifications in service management, LEAN, and ITIL v2 and v3, at both the expert and instructor levels. His next book, titled Outside In Service Management, is due out this summer.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Ian Clayton here.
PDF downloads: 419
Ten Questions with
Bob Kress
of Accenture
April 30, 2010
Like gold and real estate, technology needs to adapt to a changing economy, particularly when it's uncertain how long it may be before there's a sustained recovery. Bob Kress is
at the helm of IT operations for a $2.6 billion global company and has developed a roadmap of ideas he started developing even before the downturn.
He's recently put his ideas together in his book, IT Governance to Drive High Performance, which came out last month. We talked about some of the strategy he's been working on in the areas of collaboration, cloud computing, consolidation and saving jobs during this ten-question interview.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Bob Kress here.PDF downloads: 285
Ten Questions with
Bill Keyworth
of Ptak-Noel
March 8, 2010
Seeing the future of business technology is a strong suit for Bill Keyworth. He was one of the first to recognize the need to connect the steadily accumulating silos of corporate technology and tie their value to their effect o
n the business. This vision led him to a role as a VP and research director at Gartner Group, where he created the Network and Systems Management service.
Bill was an early proponent of ITIL and its formalized standards and best practices for managing corporate technology. Now he has returned to an analyst role with Ptak, Noel & Associates. I had a chance to talk with him about a range of his favorite topics, including technology marketing, current trends like cloud computing, and the relationship between a handful of battleship enterprise software conglomerates and their high-revving startup acquisition targets.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Bill Keyworth here.
PDF downloads: 145
Ten Questions with
Jason Fried
of 37signals
February 18, 2010
Whether you want to build applications or just use them, Jason Fried has some ideas on how to do it a better way.
His emphasis has been on staying small and agile and building from the use backward. Jason started 37signals in 1999 as a Web design firm and began building out the tools he needed to do business. In the process, he realized that building the tools was an even more successful business.
Since then, 37signals has transitioned to being one of the biggest names in the dynamic world of online Web tools. In 2006, the company got the attention of (Amazon's) Jeff Bezos, who is now their sole investor. Jason talked with me recently about the secrets of his success, how he defines his business and his competition, and the myriad ideas he's poured into his new book, REWORK, about how to build a business.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Jason Fried here.
PDF downloads: 355
Ten Questions with
Anthony Abbattista
of Allstate Insurance
January 27, 2010
Is it possible to deliver top customer service while implementing green IT practices? Allstate's VP of technology solutions explains how the company's new eco-friendly datacenter is achieving both 
goals. This fifty-million dollar building project is expected to win national recognition this year as a gold-level winner of the Green Building Council. Anthony Abbattista answers my ten questions about what that means to Allstate and to their customers.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Anthony Abbattista here.
PDF downloads: 110
Ten Questions with
Antonio Hylton
of Cook County, IL
November 18, 2009
As the CIO of the second-largest county in the United States, Antonio's responsibilities include a comprehensive disaster-recovery plan and a countywide business continuity plan. He is transforming 
the technology infrastructure throughout a complex set of layers in the organization through his "Vision 2010" plan which includes the City of Chicago and a total budget of more than three billion dollars. Antonio talks about the dangers of procrastination and what it has taken to reach the point where he can get the ball rolling.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Antonio Hylton here.
PDF downloads: 159
Making Change:
Ten Questions with
John Golden
of CNA Insurance
October 20, 2009
As the CIO of CNA Insurance, John Golden has shouldered a range of responsibilities in both the business-process
ing and technology areas, making effective decisions on how technology investments will contribute to corporate profitability.
In this interview, John answers ten questions about the challenges of his role as CIO, as well as how he faced the biggest challenge within himself.
See the full 10 Questions interview with John Golden here.
PDF downloads: 34
"Delivering Happiness:"
Ten Questions
with Tony Hsieh
of Zappos
October 1, 2009
Tony Hsieh has good reason to be smiling lately. He's the face behind a billion-dollar business. His company has gone through the roof in the decade since it started with his mission to be the leader in cust
omer service and also to sell shoes - lots of shoes.
On July 22 of this year, he wrote the employees of Zappos to say, "This is a big day..." The open letter announced that the company was being acquired for $887.9 million by Jeff Bezos' online giant, Amazon. By Hsieh's description, acquisition "doesn't really convey the spirit of the transaction." It's more like "Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree."
Tony's not in this for the short haul. He describes the window he's looking through as being "really long-term" and is open to new directions for the company, like (among other things) an airline. He talks here about what happiness means to him and to Zappos and how it will figure into his upcoming book.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Tony Hsieh here.
PDF downloads: 120
Ten Questions
with Bob Kress
of Accenture
May 27, 2009
Bucking the notion that IT should operate quietly in the background, Bob Kress has worked to raise IT's profile within his organization. In fact, they've been so successful in 
cutting costs, improving efficiency, and increasing customer satisfaction, IT is considered a model for how all of Accenture's business functions are run.
His underlying objective is for his customers to become high performers as a result of the products and services he provides, and they are. What's his secret? Organizational discipline in the form of accountability, scrutiny, and realism.
Can other companies imitate Accenture's success? Bob Kress says they can.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Bob Kress here.
PDF downloads: 705
Ellen Barry
April 13, 2009
The CIO for one of the largest convention centers in the country is not only responsible for providing technical support for the business, but running a revenue-generating IT shop that delivers services to show organizers, exhibitors and attendees. She recently met with the International Olympic Committee on its first stop to Chicago for the city's bid on the 2016 Olympics.
Ellen Barry is a native Chicagoan with a degrees in mathematics and quantitative methods. She runs the IT group for the Municipal Pier Expo Authority in her own unique way. Prior to accepting her position with the MPEA in 2000, her experience as a First Deputy CIO with the City of Chicago prepared her for this taxpayer-funded job, but she's anything but your average public sector functionary.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Ellen Barry here.
- be sure to check out the photo gallery link with this article!
PDF downloads: 216
Siemens Healthcare CIO
March 31, 2009
Overseeing IT operations for a global company in a flat world brings some unique challenges. But the issues David talks about here - managing technology, improving the business, reducing costs, driving revenue, and remaining customer-centric - will be familiar to all IT leaders.
David Edelstein has been with Siemens since 2007, following its acquisition of Dade Behring, where he had served as CIO for nine years. He is responsible leading the development of the advanced information and eBusiness systems that support the worldwide organization. He's right on the cutting edge of a leading industry in one of the world's largest global organizations.
See the full 10 Questions interview with David Edelstein here.
PDF downloads: 608
Barnier Group President
February 25, 2009
PDF downloads: 550
with
Ultra Consulting Founder
Jeffrey Carr
February 12, 2009
If you were fascinated by Eli Goldratt's business novel "The Goal," or if you're just curious about whether Google or IBM might be entertaining the notion of getting into the ERP business (or buying 
SAP for that matter), Jeffrey Carr has some thoughts on the subject for you. Starting out as a young entrepreneur in 1975, Jeffrey left his job at IBM to start his own company, Professional Computer Resources, which developed one of the first Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) software packages in the 1980's. Carr eventually sold PCR to Pansophic and went on to create two more startups with venture capital funding. He then started his own consulting company in the business information arena in the mid 1990's, which he has been running now for the last fifteen years.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Jeffrey Carr here.
PDF downloads: 915
Ten Questions on
the New Rules of Risk and Compliance
with
Fulcrum-Meade Principal
Joe Degidio
January 21, 2009
New security risks, along with increased demands for accountability, are changing the complianc
e picture. IT risk management and compliance expert Joe Degidio recently discussed the compliance landscape and the issues that organizations must understand and address. When he started, he says, compliance standards as we know them today did not exist. I asked him to talk about some of the key pieces of compliance that need to be generally understood, as well as how the current compliance picture is changing with the new risks of ubiquitous access and the need for up-to-the-minute accountability.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Joe Degidio here.
PDF downloads: 533
Ten Questions on
Business Service Management
with
generationE CEO
Casey Kindiger
November 11, 2008
Not quite sure what business service management entails, where it's headed, or what benefi
ts it offers? The CEO and founder of generationE Technologies explains how BSM works, how it's evolving, and what your organization can gain from its implementation. On a recent trip out to San Clemente, CA, I got the chance to sit down with Casey Kindiger to get his views on the future of business service management. He offered some practical explanations about the inner workings of this popular technology/business nexus-building strategy and how it relates to today's corporate marketplace.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Casey Kindiger here.
PDF downloads: 432
Ten Questions on
Customer Relationship Management
with
The Success Rabbi
Jon Cline
October 13, 2008
Find out where CRM expert Jon Cline thinks customer relationship manage
ment is headed, the benefits it offers and what business leaders should expect from a CRM solution. Jon Cline is a Los Angeles based customer relationship management veteran with more than a decade of consulting experience, including his work as a registered partner with salesforce.com since 2003. He recently sold Enthusiast Solutions (www.enthusiastinc.com), which he co-founded in 1999, to launch Hip3 Marketing (www.hip3.com) and focus on CRM, along with internet marketing and lead generation. His clients have included The American Film Institute, Telecare, and MAP Management Development. He has assisted hundreds of companies through his speaking, writing, and coaching on relationship management and internet marketing. Here’s his take on where CRM is headed.
See the full 10 Questions interview with Jon Cline here.
PDF downloads: 1123
Ten Questions on
the IT Infrastructure Library
with
ITIL Chief Architect
Sharon Taylor
tructure Library in the 1990's and accepted the key role in creating version 3 which was released in May of 2007. She is also the author of the recently-published book, The Official Introduction of the ITIL Service Lifecycle and is president of the Aspect Group, an ITSM education and consulting firm based in Ottowa, Ontario. She was a special guest at the landmark itSMF-Fusion event in September. In her work on the latest “Refresh” of ITIL, also known as version 3, Sharon has taken on a challenge that leaves the original six-month agreement she made with the British Office of Government Commerce in the proverbial dust. I talked with her recently and got her answers to questions about her work on the newest version, her vision for the ITIL of the future, ROI, and the changing culture of ITIL-adoption.See the full 10 Questions interview with Sharon Taylor here.
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