1.          Resolve to stay brutally optimistic. See the opportunity in every difficulty and anticipate the most favorable outcome out of every situation. Whatever you look for, that's what you'll find. We can get better or we can get bitter; it all depends on the lessons we draw from each experience. Optimism is like electricity — very little happens without it. Know this truth: you have all the resources you'll ever need to handle all the challenges you'll ever have. In true emergencies the true you will emerge.

3.         Resolve to pump-up your personal vitality. In the game of life, it's not about who's right, it's about who's left. Over 60 percent of us are more than 36 years old. The real currency of the new century is not cash. It's vitality. It's the ability to keep going every day of every week of every month of the year with vigor and verve. All you are to the people around you is a source of energy, and you cannot give what you don't have. Ninety percent of all adults do no physical exercise at all. More than half of us are overweight. A third of us still smoke. So, this year, resolve to enhance your physical, emotional and mental vitality. Take just a small step. First you'll amaze yourself, and then you'll amaze everybody else.

Right Sourcing and Cloud Computing - Getting the Mix Right

On September 15th, the AITP Atlanta Chapter hosted its fifth annual CIO Roundtable Dinner at the beautiful Crown Plaza Ravinia in Dunwoody, Ga., the chapter’s new meeting facilities. This year’s event provided valuable insights into the ways in which Atlanta’s information technology leaders are addressing major trends facing IT departments today. The CIO’s represented a broad cross section of Atlanta’s leading technology-focused organizations with perspectives for global, public sector, and smaller entrepreneurial IT shops as well. In this article, the CIO’s discuss their organizations’ use of right sourcing and cloud computing.  Two upcoming articles will cover the “consumerization” of IT, and the security issues surrounding these initiatives, and what CIO’s consider in making hiring decisions.

From Left to Right: Danny Bensley (Hardin Construction); Curtis Rawlings (Dekalb County); Karen Painter (Turner); Bill Smith (Chamberlin Edmonds); Edwin Marcial (InterContinental Exchange); Dudley White (Equifax (TAS)); Alan Stukalsky (Randstad)

Each of the CIO’s present weighed in on the pros and cons of outsourcing and discussed strategies for achieving the right balance.  Most agreed that, in the past several years since outsourcing began to change the IT business model, we have gained a better perspective on how to achieve the right mix of in-house resources and outsourcing.  “I think many companies have run really far to the right as far as outsourcing,” said Dudley White, CIO for Equifax (TAS).  “What you see now is a kind of correction as we bring back in house certain key activities and functions.”

 
Curtis Rawlings, Assistant CIO for DeKalb County Georgia, agreed: “We’ve rushed as an industry one way, now we’re kind of pulling back because it just doesn’t work for every situation.  We use outsourcing for efficiency and cost savings, but I have to make sure that when we’ve outsourced development, we can support it internally.” “In the past, it was really about pricing pressures,” continued Alan Sukalsky.  “Today, with outsource offerings from LatinAmerica, China, and other geographies, it’s more about quality.”

Often the decision to use outsourcing is dependent upon the type of software service and business involved.  Alan Stukalsky, CIO for Randstad Corporation pointed out that, in his company’s Professional business sector, they do more outsourcing because they need to complete projects fast and ramp up quickly.  “Our IT team is split in two,” he says.   Because we have differences in what we want to own and what is our intellectual capital.  On our General Staffing business, we do more [of our development] in house.”

Karen Painter, Senior VP of Enterprise Applications for Turner Broadcasting System, also strives to determine the right mix.  “We certainly have plenty of software services where outsourcing makes sense,” she says.    “Within our expense reporting and some of our benefits package services, for example we’re looking at outsourcing for the purpose of staff augmentation.  In our industry however, there are many areas where no products are available for purchase on the market.  In these areas, we have development efforts going on that are core to our business.  Some of these, we believe, give us a competitive advantage, and these we’re not going to outsource.”

Georgia Gwinnett College’s student chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) recently capped a year of impressive firsts with a celebration on GGC’s campus.

AITP members, faculty and staff recently gathered to sign the group’s charter. Graduating senior members signed the charter, and celebrated the occasion with congratulations offered by GGC President Daniel J. Kaufman, who also signed the charter.

The chapter was created in October with 10 members, then grew to 25 and quickly achieved some notable milestones. Lissa Pollacia, AITP faculty advisor and professor of information technology, encouraged several members to attend this spring’s AITP National Collegiate Conference (NCC) in Orlando. This conference featured a range of competitions.  The newly formed GGC team was up against 600 students from 61 other colleges and universities, including Purdue University, Brigham Young University, Texas State University and many more of the finest information technology schools in the country.