JDResources, Inc. (JDR) is expanding our executive technology talent offerings to the US west coast by offering a new set of Information Technology (IT) leadership services provided by our pool of experienced Chief Information Officers (CIO) and Chief Technology Officers (CTO).  Over the years, JDR has been providing interim CIOs and CTOs for companies that need strategic business leadership combined with strong, hands-on technology experience.

Now, JDR clients will be able to choose specific CIO leadership services.  Such CIO services include Business Transformation, Mergers and Acquisitions, agile Business Intelligence, Security & Compliance, Enterprise Architecture, institution of PMO , IT co-sourcing, IT organizational composition, cloud computing initiatives & delicate SaaS  transitions, and much more.

JDR is pleased to announce that Dean Samuels will be leading the development and operations of these CIO services from San Francisco, CA. Recently as CIO at Genesys Telecommunications, Dean led the IT business transformation and information technology integration with Alcatel-Lucent, and leveraged IT to provide improved value from services to employees, partners, and customers.

There is a unique balance between JDR, our clients and our people.  In all the years of market growth and change, one thing has remained the same – JDR provides dedication and exceptional customer service.   A commitment to high performance and unsurpassed industry knowledge, personal service, confidentiality, and ethical, professional standards is the reason that our clients continually utilize all of our services and refer us to their trusted business associates and colleagues.

Founded in 1987, JDResources provides specialized consulting, permanent staffing, outsourcing, and C-level Executive services for Management, Technology and Supply Chain talent requirements.  Our mission is to understand your business initiatives, and make those initiatives successful by supplying the resources you need in a timely and cost-effective manner.  Over the past twenty-three years, JDR has cultivated an extensive network of diversified professionals that provide a broad array of expertise.  Our firm has a unique blend of European precision and American assertiveness enabling us to provide the very best people for our clients’ important positions.

JDR is providing a variety of CIO and IT leadership services to its customers to increase competitive value to the business and lower IT costs. To learn more about these attractive CIO level services from JDR, please contact Jill Herrin at (901) 753-0500.

JDResources and GetUsROI, the Warehouse Management System (WMS) experts, introduce a better way to get your WMS work done: MyWMSTeam.

GetUsROI LLC, of Montgomery TX and Brookfield WI, announces a more effective and inexpensive method to complete your WMS modifications and enhancements.  “It’s called MyWMSTeam” announced Mark Fralick, president of GetUsROI LLC. “It is the most innovative approach that we have used for our in-house customers over the past few years.  We are making it more public due to its tremendous success.”   MyWMSTeam allows customers of GetUsROI LLC to have access to their own team of WMS experts – but only pay for what they use.   “We apply the best resource depending on the assignment, providing the best ROI for the customer, “Fralick continued.  “Look, not all resources are created equal; some are great at reports, some at building components, and some at doing integrations.  With a team approach, we have more ability to assign a resource that has the best fit for what the customer is trying to achieve.”

“We’ve been working side-by-side with Mark and GetUsROI for several years,” adds Jill Herrin, CEO of JDResources.  JDResources, located in Memphis, Tennessee, provides specialized, technical staffing and has a thriving Supply Chain/WMS consulting practice.  “What GetUsROI have done with MyWMSTeam is removed the risk of getting inappropriate resources involved in task assignments due to incumbency.  One thing you don’t want to do, for example, is to put someone inadequate at integrations on an integration job just because that is the resource you have – this adds no value at all to the customer.” Herrin concludes.

MyWMSTeam is 100% free to start.  A private task website is created for each customer.  The customer creates tasks or even just asks for advice.  MyWMSTeam provides an estimate for the customer to review and give approval.  If the customer does not move forward with the work, they pay nothing.  Customers are billed at month end only for tasks that are completed and accepted.  “If the customer does not accept the changes, due to some error on our part, they do not pay until the task is completed to their satisfaction.” said Fralick.  “It’s only fair.  We are the experts here – we know what we are doing and have a lot of confidence that the work we do will be of the highest quality for a very fair price.  If there is an issue with quality or delivery, you don’t pay.  That’s the way it should be – don’t you think?” Fralick concludes.

Founded in 1987, JDResources provides specialized consulting, permanent staffing, outsourcing, and C-level Executive services for Management, Technology and Healthcare talent requirements.  Our mission is to understand your business initiatives, and make those initiatives successful by supplying the resources you need in a timely and cost-effective manner.  Over the past twenty-three years, JDR has cultivated an extensive network of diversified professionals that provide a broad array of expertise.  Our firm has a unique blend of European precision and American assertiveness enabling us to provide the very best people for our clients’ important positions.

The terms “integration” and “interfacing” are sometimes thrown around interchangeably when discussing this subject – but is there a difference in the real meaning of these terms?

The answer is definitely Yes.

Let’s take one specific example, which involves Warehouse Management Systems. When it comes to ERP/legacy to WMS interactions, there can be a huge difference.

Here are my observations about this.

Inexperienced people do “interfaces.” Also, unfortunately, many IT people think about connecting systems as “interfaces.”

But experienced people and people who have operational sensibilities think about things as “integrations.”

Here is an example: In a recent project where we were integrating a WMS with SAP, I was discussing the intricate nature of inventory recognition. Sometimes the lines of the warehouse boundaries can be a bit blurry and sometimes it is more like a hard line. In this specific case, the IT members of the team, all smart well-meaning people, insisted we do a particular interface a certain way.  What they were proposing would place an unreasonable burden on the receiving operations, in my opinion.

This caused me to pull out a couple of lines that, if you’ve done projects with me you know, I am famous for.  The first is “Information is virtual.  If we can’t figure out a way to not impact the physical part of the operation with requirements that are merely virtual – we are all a bunch of idiots.”

To which there was silence on the phone.  After some more discussion, a manager who should of known better said “You are doing the interface, you are not in operations.”

I thought this might be coming and got to use one of my other favorite lines. Unlike the first one, I cannot take credit for this. This is Brendon Sullivan in his defense of Ollie North in the Iran/Contra hearings of the 1980s:  “Because I, sir, am not a potted plant.”

In other words, I was not here just to do an interface. I was here to do a proper integration.  In an integration discussion, someone has to be the defender of the operation. I like to call this role the “operational conscience.”

The role of operational conscience is entirely about understanding, mitigating and/or removing the pain points that operations might feel when certain decisions are made by staff in other areas, such as IT, who although well-meaning have little domain experience.

In other words, there are a lot of good IT people doing interface work who have never set foot in a warehouse or DC. They do not understand the consequences of things like an extra keystroke or field entry on a mobile terminal.  They don’t understand that saying something as simple as “You’ll have to hold all of the inventory in receiving for a return until it is all ready to be processed in our interface” means a clogged dock.

Well-meaning does not imply well-versed.

So, how can you tell the difference between someone doing interfaces versus integrations?  One is just working on plumbing, the other is doing the plumbing and making sure it fits in the best way with the rest of the structure.

Good integrators are not, to borrow Mr. Sullivan’s line, “Potted Plants.” They are the operational conscience that determines the difference between successful integrations and those that do not serve operations the way they could.  When you are building an integration team, make sure you get integrators and just a bunch of “Potted Plants” writing interfaces.

http://www.scdigest.com/assets/experts/Fralick_10-04-08.php

I went back to school for a Masters in Organizational Psychology once I figured out that I knew a lot about computers, but practically nothing about people – and that people-skills and human behavior figured prominently in the success of my IT projects.

But why blog about LinkedIn?  Because in 2009 I suddenly started getting requests for advice and training on LinkedIn.  Collaborative work supported by technology has been my primary interest for 20 years – starting with Groupware in the 80’s and culminating in today’s Social Media.  As a result I have run classes for IT professionals “In-Transition” (the current euphemism for suddenly unemployed) and have sat next to clients, friends and family members to help them understand and leverage LinkedIn.  I want to share with you some of the same things I have been sharing with my other friends and colleagues.

I have been promoting LinkedIn for 5 years – asking my clients, “Are you on LinkedIn?  If you are, connect to me.  If you’re not, you should be.”  I usually get one of two answers:

• Yeah, I have a profile there, but I haven’t visited LinkedIn in a
  couple of years.
• No, I don’t need to be on LinkedIn; I’m not looking for a job.

So let me explain what is wrong with both of these answers.  For the “I have a profile there” guy or gal, the problem is one of two things.  Either they have what I call a “place holder” LinkedIn profile (you know it, the one with no picture, only their current job listed and maybe where they went to school) or they have a decent profile, but they don’t actively participate in Groups, answer questions, update their status or interact with other people on LinkedIn.

What I want to know is whether anyone would hand out a resume that had only  their name, current position and where they went to school.  Because that is exactly what you are doing with a “place holder” LinkedIn profile.  People who are recruiting, people who might want to join your organization and vendors or clients  who might want to do business with you will judge you based on what they see on your LinkedIn profile, just as they would if they were reading your resume.  Treat your LinkedIn profile with the same respect you give your resume – and include the same kinds of information about your previous jobs, accomplishments and affiliations.

I have heard some people fret that they don’t want to put a picture on their profile because they don’t want anyone to “know how old” they are.  However, without a picture it’s difficult for people to remember if you are the Bob Jones they met at a conference or not.  The other implications of no picture are that you:

1. are not technical enough to upload a picture (a very bad thing for an IT exec)
2. are 90 years old (I’m not talking about 60 – remember 60 is the new 40!)
3. have something to hide – such as matching a Most Wanted poster

So find a recent, flattering business-appropriate picture and put it out there.

As for the folks who think they don’t need to be on LinkedIn until they are job-hunting, guess what?  The best time to “network” is when you are NOT looking for a job.  That allows you to participate in discussions (which lets you demonstrate how knowledgeable you are.) It allows you to be generous with your time and attention, to mentor others, to point them to jobs you know about – basically it lets you build your “LinkedIn karma” (metaphorically) so when you need it, a broad, geographically-distributed network of people who want to help you are ready and waiting.  The two to three years PRIOR to looking for your next position is when you need to be actively participating on LinkedIn.

Of course LinkedIn is only beneficial if you actually participate in the online community.  That means join Groups – not just your college and previous workplace alum groups, but groups centered around topics that interest you – whether that means specific technologies (e.g., Oracle apps) or leadership skills (CIO Forum) or hiking, you will find people in these groups who, one way or another, can help you find whatever information, advice or position you are seeking.

Of course I am not the only, or even the best, source of advice on using LinkedIn.  A friend of mine, Laurel Bailey, took a buy-out package from her VP job to “retire” and start a consulting firm.  Her blog, http://habaconsulting.blogspot.com/, has at least three entries from 2009 that are very relevant to this discussion:  June 8 “LinkedIn: A Networking Must,” June 15 “10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence” and July 20 “Weak Ties – Strong Benefits.”  The first two are self-explanatory.  The July 20^th entry follows an interesting thought that came out of a social networking study in the 70’s (yes, there were social networks before there was technology to support them; remember, people wrote letters even before there were typewriters, computers and email.)  The theory is that the connections on the “edge” of your network – those people who are friends of friends – are the ones most likely to produce results if you are looking for information, a job etc.  The reason is that you and your immediate friends (at work, in your neighborhood) have all the same information and connections.  The people at the “edge” of your network have a very different view and can help you more than those in your immediate circle.

What actions should you take after reading this?  Spruce up (or create) your LinkedIn profile.  Join a few groups. You can join up to 50, so err on the side of over-joining; you can always drop out later if the group is not interesting or helpful.  Answer some questions.  Look up people in your city who have similar backgrounds (using the People Search box at the top right of the Home screen) and either connect with them or join the same groups they are in.   Go look for companies in your area (using the Companies menu item under “More..” at the far right of the Home menu bar) that are either potential clients, potential vendors or possibly future employers for you. LinkedIn conveniently tells you where people worked before joining, and after leaving, a company so you can see where your colleagues go when they leave your company.

Besides why wouldn’t we, as technology professionals, be the best at online networking?   Go conquer LinkedIn.  You will be glad that you did.

The good folks over at the Gartner Group have revealed the top 10 technologies that they believe will change the world over the next four years:

1. Multicore and hybrid processors
2. Virtualization and fabric computing
3. Social networks and social software
4. Cloud computing and cloud/Web platforms
5. Web mashups
6. User Interface
7. Ubiquitous computing
8. Contextual computing
9. Augmented reality
10. Semantics

What caught my attention were items 1-4. I think that Gartner got it right this time around. Muticore servers and virtualization will mean that firms will need fewer boxes and apps can be easily moved from box to box (and right out the door to an outsourced data center). Workplace social networks and cloud computing means that the need for a centralized IT department will go away. Firms will no longer need to own/maintain the boxes that they use to run their firm’s apps. With no need to touch a box, there will be no need to have the IT staff co-located with the boxes. Oh, oh — can you hear your job going away?

What does this all mean, and more importantly what should a successful IT staffer (or CIO) do today? The key to your future success is to understand how IT is going to change and what you need to do to change with it. IT is going to become much more about information and how it can be used to help the business grow and prosper. This IT function is going to leave the IT department as we know it today and will migrate into the business unit itself. What this means to you is that you need to know what your firm does, and even more importantly, how it does it. The next question will be what information is needed by the business units to improve how they do their work. This is what tomorrow’s IT staff will provide. Thanks Gartner for the peek into the future!

To find the original article, please visit

http://www.thebusinessofit.com/gartner/gartner-reveals-top-10-technologies