Efm Events

Storage Asset Optimization:  A Model for Improved Business Efficiency and Bottom Line

There are many ways to measure how efficiently you are using your storage capacity.  Cost per raw TB, per usable TB, percent allocated, active vs inactive, structured vs unstructured are some common ways to look at storage capacity.  Is the way you "use" your storage capacity on auto-pilot?  Do you wonder if there are any wasted resources yet you keep buying more?  What about the data itself -- do you have any idea what percentage of your total capacity footprint is actually active and "in-use?”  Would you be shocked if that number was 20% or lower?  If you are purchasing physical capacity on a regular basis, does that growth rate concern you?  There are many reasons why most IT environments would be considered "inefficient" when it comes to storage resources.  This session is going to discuss what capacity efficiency problems exist today and what can be done to improve them.

This presentation will define the terms and discuss the factors that help you meet infrastructure demands you are likely to face in today’s ever changing environment. We will discuss actions companies can take to refresh infrastructure and achieve results in several areas based on experience at a Global Fortune 100 Corporation. Topics of discussion will include current demands on infrastructure, as well as strategies and approaches to increase your agility, efficiency, flexibility and sustainability. We will finish the discussion with “Four Pillars of Partnership” and a list of “rules of engagement” to ensure you effectively address your present and future Infrastructure needs.

For the past several years at Amerisure Insurance, “getting rid of the mainframe” was on the list of top IT objectives, but nothing was ever done to “move the ball forward”. Now that we streamlined our architecture through Strategic Virtualization, we turned our attention to this 900-pound gorilla” in our infrastructure. This session is perfect for you if you have a mainframe that you’ve talked about eliminating for years but just didn’t know where to begin or how to approach (it can be overwhelming). The beauty of this approach is that it keeps those critical applications that you need to support the business, but on a modern architecture at a much lower cost. You will now have the funds that you’ve saved to decide if you need to rewrite or replace the application without disrupting business functionality.

This session will address what requirements are, why a shared vocabulary is essential to developing high quality requirements, and why expert involvement from the business side of organizations is important to better business decisions. The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee has been able to avoid significant costs through comprehensive stakeholder involvement as part of our requirements management practice, and will be sharing lessons learned.

The Impact of Virtualization at WS Packaging Group, Inc.

Mr. Sackett will share his experiences with virtualization at WS Packaging Group. Business drivers will be addressed that precipitated the move from 'fat architecture' to 'thin'.  Discussions will include perceived benefits planned and what was truly realized, how well virtualization met expectations, pitfalls that we experienced, and what we are doing moving forward.

Being proactive at troubleshooting issues before they become production problems can be extremely challenging. Please join Becky as she shares her hands on experience with finding the best combination of tools to monitor mission critical systems. Discussion will include evaluating monitoring options, best practices, and using a centralized approach.

One of the fastest growing segments of the Health Services marketplace, the Tele-Psychiatry market is estimated to generate more than $3.5B in billing over the next 5 years. As such, more and more service providers are looking to enter the Tele-Psychiatry practice. In this session, Staci Wellentin, CIO of Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan (LSS), will discuss how the Behavioral Health Services Division of LSS worked hand-in-hand with her Information Technology Team to implement video conferencing technology that now allows the Agency to provide psychiatry and counseling services to clients across the 2 state area. Staci will discuss the business benefits and value gained, as well as how the chosen solution was implemented quickly, while keeping costs low and managing network and security/compliance issues.

Corporations and Institutions both have an insatiable appetite for Bandwidth.  It seems that no matter how much bandwidth we have, it is never enough.  The "pipe" into corporate, regional or branch offices seems to be a black hole sucking dollars out of our budgets.  Telecom providers enthusiastically tell you prices have dropped, while your demand continually grows exponentially.  And then along comes: FaceBook, YouTube, Hulu, Flickr, Linked-In and ESPN360 .  The budget bulges, performance lags, applications such as SAP, SharePoint and Oracle all suffer, productivity falls, management is clamoring for results and the CFO is showing you the linings of his pockets.  This session will explore the ways in which Carroll University was able to control their black holes because if you think your users are tough on your network…try a few thousand university students.

Would your CEO characterize your company as an information company?  Does your company see IT as a cost center or a strategic asset?  Do you have the same voice as leaders of other functional units?  Do you shape and enable business strategy, or do you react to it? As leaders of technology organizations, our key challenge can be to find relevance in the world of executive management, operations, and business strategy.  And as a leader, only you can define your relevance.  In this talk we will examine ideas and approaches that make IT executives effective—and keep them that way.

Mr. Miller will be discussing the evolution of virtualization in a large K-12 environment and why KUSD has chosen Dell servers to be their preferred server platform district wide. He’ll be sharing his experiences both positive and negative in hopes of helping others avoid some of the unforeseen obstacles of server consolidation and virtualization.

In times when IT departments are charged with doing more with even less than usual, along with innovating without increasing top-line costs, the challenge becomes one of dollars and sense. “Where can I find budget to get my other projects done?”

Topics of discussion will include how to meet the growing demands of your infrastructure, as well as strategies and approaches to increase your flexibility, efficiency and ways to find more budget to fund additional projects. Part of being more effective and strategic within your department includes properly managing resources, extending the life of one’s infrastructure, and freeing up resources to be proactive rather than reactive. By focusing on core competencies, IT teams can save money, and even improve service levels. Richard has 25 years experience in business and IT operations, with specific expertise in lifecycle management and systems maintenance and will talk about how SunGard has been able to internally take advantage of these methods.

Metrics, Metrics, Metrics, what do you do with them? Are you measuring your support to drive efficiencies within your organization? Are your business teams and development managers aware of the time it takes to support your tools? Come and discuss the measurements being used by Manpower and how they are delivered to the business and IS Development teams. Take a look at a balanced score card and the drive to keep support in your Service Desk and change management working through the business and development teams. Learn how Manpower delivers a 94% resolution rate in their Service Desk and keeps their developers from wasting support time!

These days, "do more with less" has become the slogan of many IT departments, and it's driving most of us crazy. But a clever and thrifty IT manager actually can improve operational efficiency, save money, and even improve service levels. Industry veteran and author Don Jones (Concentrated Technology, Microsoft TechNet Magazine, and Redmond Magazine) introduces five key focus areas that are the lowest-hanging fruit for doing more with less: Consolidation, Identity and Access Management, Compliance, Automation, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. Don spells out the key capabilities you'll need to implement to free up time and save money, while dispelling a couple of myths and dead ends that will just waste your time. By investing a bit in these projects now, you'll have a smarter, leaner infrastructure for the future.

In today’s challenging IT environment, it’s all about doing more with less.  Unfortunately, this is often at odds with the unbending requirement to move at the speed of business.  The business line is no longer content with simply receiving data – they want to interact with it - using the tools they are comfortable with; they want it when they need it, and they need it wherever they are.  They want it to be secure, accurate, and not to put a large dent in their bottom line. Dave will share how the Market Analytics and Performance Solutions team at U.S. Bank successfully partners with IT and leverages WebFOCUS across business lines to bridge the gap between doing more with less, and doing it at the speed of business.

Ask any business what level of availability its customer base expects from application systems, portals and interfaces and you’re sure to hear “Well, 24x7x365 of course.” Ensuring uptime and reliability for key application and systems is part of the cost of doing business in the age of technology, but with an almost unlimited array of potential solutions, how does a business decide which models and technologies are the best fit? Join members of the IT Design Team from Associated Bank as they discuss the costs and benefits of providing redundancy and fault tolerance within critical applications in their business. Based on uptime and disaster recovery requirements, Associated Bank has implemented a variety of solutions intended to keep uptime high while keeping overall costs manageable.

In the current climate of economic crisis and concern about the cost and availability of energy, managing the stresses on IT becomes increasingly complex. This panel discussion focuses on how to build business value by efficiently and fully utilizing the IT organization. It will take a close look at if and how the recession is impacting IT as a whole, and alignment with the business and be innovative. How do IT managers continue to meet the growth demands from business units without necessarily increasing spending? Hardware asset utilization, consolidation, configuration, and virtualization all play a critical role and will need to be discussed.  This economy will make or break the reputation of business technology leaders. This panel looks at how some are working to stay a step ahead.

Enjoy this complimentary cocktail reception featuring an open bar, hors d’oeuvres and conversation.  Make this an important element of your attendance to the IT Symposium.  The ability to network and collaborate with your peers in an open and no-hype environment will prove to provide long lasting value to your key business initiatives moving forward.