This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Jeff Kempiners, Top-ranking IT and Business Strategist and Leading Executive, Chief Technology Officer, Avanade Canada Inc.

Jeff provides insight into the "next generation workplace" and why it's essential to keep the relevant technologies (unified communications, digital collaboration, enterprise content management, enterprise search, ...) high on your planning cycle. Take the time to look at the topic index since all key trends are discussed. Jeff also provides an overview of the need for global professionalism and how this is coming about this year and in 2009 worldwide through the UN-founded IFIP IP3 initiative which Avanade is formally supporting. In Canada, CIPS is the official representative for the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).

Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP

Mr. Jeff Kempiners, as Chief Technology Officer, leads the strategic direction and growth of Avanade Canada. Avanade has more than 7,200 professionals in 22 countries, including more than 230 in its Canadian business, which has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Montreal. Recently, the company grew its business by 25%.

A seasoned leader, Mr. Kempiners has more than 12 years of experience in IT management and consulting. Mr. Kempiners joined Avanade in August, 2000 as a Solution Architect in the US-Central region. Most recently, he served as Avanade Canada Capability Director for Infrastructure and Application Solutions, overseeing the deployment of Avanade's infrastructure and application development solutions and working closely with Avanade customers. Prior to joining Avanade, Mr. Kempiners was employed with Accenture in a variety of roles, including System Analyst, Project Manager, and Engagement Manager for large customer accounts in all industries.

Over the past five years, Avanade Canada has worked with several enterprises to help them meet their business objectives, including First Canadian Title, PCL Construction, and Future Electronics.

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:42:
What is the outlook for unified messaging?
"....It's going to become part of the building foundation upon which we start to recompose business processes in order to better leverage concepts like digital collaboration and workflow...."

:03:49:
What value is returned by enterprise content management (ECM)?
"....When I think of enterprise content management, eventually we will move back to the space where ECM hosts corporate official documents (for example, public press releases, HR policy documents, quarterly sales reports - things that you are looking for that are one single version of the truth) and we will start to take away from ECM space those things that are currently a poor fit for ECM (just leveraging its search capabilities). I believe that enterprise content management will continue to be misused for at least some time in the new future...."

:07:49:
Can you explain how collaborative workspaces improve all the elements of business agility?
"....My opinion on collaborative work spaces is that it's not just about enabling two individuals but rather it's about enabling a knowledge management repository for it to grow in such a way that other individuals can leverage previous collaborative sessions...."

:10:54:
Do you have a definition of business agility?
"....Your ability to make change; to measure it against the market you are attempting to serve..."

:13:43:
What does enterprise search mean to the user and ultimately to the business?
"....Think of the applications that you use at home - your media players, consumer devices, websites - everything has searches and a search is amazingly accurate and amazingly fast. Then you get to work and it's not at all like that. You sit down in your office and log into your enterprise portal, you're digging 15 file menus deep into a shared "s" drive in order to launch the document that you work on day to day....Ultimately enterprise search means a high degree of efficiency and the ability to get what you are after without any search whatsoever...."

:17:04:
What is meant by workplace transformation vehicles?
"....As we have new ways to communicate with one another, we're are then redesigning the business processes that leverage those communications and that's a workplace transformation vehicle...."

:19:10:
How do the elements we discussed weave into the Next Generation Workplace?
"....It's collaborative, it allows business insight via business intelligence and it enables crowd sourcing via wikis and via challenges and it has unified communications and unified messaging as the core that all enables a searchable, secure, managed environment...."

:21:04:
Jeff discusses and shares a story about search as being one of the most impactful and disruptive technologies of its generation.

:26:21:
What do you see as the top five opportunities and innovations in IT and how can they be exploited for competitive advantage?
"....In no particular order.....Search....Concept of digital collaboration and capture....Service oriented architectures....Dynamic computing....Customer relationship management...."

:33:24:
Can you delve into the top risks for businesses and how they can be resolved?
"....A lack of agility....The ability to attract top talent...."

:39:24:
What question would you ask and what would be your answer if you were doing this interview?
"....Clarify the Next Generation Workplace and how Avanade differentiates itself in that space...."

:42:10:
Jeff gives his current thoughts on the International Standard for IT Professionals initiative which Avanade is supporting formally.
"....The other are truly interested in industrializing software and information technology processes in such a way that we are really adding a sense of professionalism to what it is we do in a measurable and a consistent manner. That is a big part of what the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) is attempting to accomplish. They are attempting to bring a broad professionalism and global consistency to what it is we do...."

This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview - Dave Remmer, Architect Advisor Developer/Platform Group Microsoft, Top Architecture Authority.

Dave was the principal organizer for the Strategic Architecture Forum held in Vancouver and a featured speaker due to his acknowledged expertise. Ruth provided an earlier blog for the forum where there are links to the major presentations from Dave.

Dave continues to share his valued insights in this podcast. Take the time to look at the topic index and then listen to Dave's thoughts on what IT/Business professionals, managers, and leaders need to know.

Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP

Dave Remmer, Architect Advisor Developer/Platform Group Microsoft, Top Architecture Authority

This week, Stephen Ibaraki has an exclusive interview with Dave Remmer.

An industry veteran, Dave Remmer has architected solutions in the financial, multi-media, security, manufacturing, services and health care industries. He specializes in leveraging SOA, security, and standards development to realize ongoing business value within organizations. Dave focuses on current issues in architecting enterprise solutions and how to leverage the Microsoft platform to support project's architectural success. He has achieved certifications in the Java architecture and development environment as well as the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer designation.

Dave is an Architect Advisor with the Developer and Platform Group in Microsoft Canada and works with some of the largest organizations in Canada.

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:44:
How would you best define yourself and your work?
"....I think my title, Architect Advisor, in many ways is the best way of describing what I do and what my mission statement is...."

:01:49:
What is the meaning behind being an IT architect?
"....as architects, we primarily help develop plans and models for the successful delivery of IT projects ....but that encompasses a lot of activities and one of the most important is looking at the process of how we build projects and successful solutions...."

:03:13:
What would you classify as the different categories of architects? For example, what is meant by Enterprise architect, Solutions architect, Infrastructure architect?
"....Traditionally what we've seen is that software developers as they mature in their career get very good at the process of building software and some of the challenges we experience in our projects. We often call those Solution architects....On the other side, we have Infrastructure architects who typically have filled the role of IT managers or IT professionals who help operate the systems and infrastructure we have in an organization. Then there is this concept of an Enterprise architect and that role is a lot less about building a software solution or maintaining a data center and more about looking at how the enterprise itself is architected...and then looking at how you want to align all the various resources inside an organization to best align with that particular strategic goal...."

:05:17:
What sort of attributes should one have to be an architect (i.e. Enterprise, Solutions, Infrastructure)?
"....Clearly in the IT industry you need to have IT skills, you need to understand technology, but to really evolve your career and get into the architecture game, you really need to start concentrating on the people dynamics, the ability to communicate and collaborate with your peers as well as with your fellow organizations...."

:07:34:
Dave profiles how he got to his present position in his career.

:11:12:
What do you hope to achieve professionally in the next five years?
"....One of the things that I'm hoping to do in the next five years is to help my peers really achieve their potential in their own careers, as well as, to make their own organization's strategies successful...One of the things that really excites me about that role is that it's not one of those things that is ever "done". You are constantly learning new things, you are constantly finding the priorities changing on you which are both challenging and therefore exciting...."

:14:01:
You organized the 2008 Strategic Architecture Forum. Can you first overview the forum and its intent and then share key architecture lessons of high value from the forum?
"....In Redmond, we hold a Global Strategic Architect Forum at Microsoft every year....We feel very strongly that the Canadian architecture industry needs to be supported and to have events such as the Architecture Forum closer to home so that we can invite a larger set of architects to join us. So in April we held our 4th annual Strategic Architects Forum in Vancouver BC....The number one theme that came out of the conference is this over-powering requirement in the IT industry to become better aligned with the businesses we are working in...."

:17:00:
Dave shares his views of the cloud, SAAS, Software Plus Services, and SOA.
"....We in the IT industry have had in the past, much more of the luxury of time of being able to say, 'Oh that's interesting, we'll see if we can build a project to meet that need and when we are done we will give you a call'. That's no longer possible; we are really getting ourselves to a place where we have to be able to keep up with the amazing rates of change that our business customers are experiencing and in fact, in many respects, try to get ahead of those rates of change so that we can help lead the change in positive ways...."

:24:00:
What are the major interoperability challenges and their solutions?
"....I think that interoperability is a hard problem to solve and I think that it's going to remain a hard problem to solve throughout the lifetime of our industry. But I do think that there are some tools and techniques that really are starting to help us solve some of those deep problems. One of these is the idea of having standardized vocabularies and standardized processes...."

:26:44:
From your current work, what IT insights can you give that would be of greatest value to the audience?
"....We are seeing the information technology world becoming more and more commoditized and I think that we as IT professionals need to be prepared for that...."

:29:39:
What are your recommended IT best practices?
"....I have one overarching best practice....that is to remain extremely pragmatic...My best practice is the 80 - 20 rule. To look at the 20% of the things that we do that creates the 80% of the value to our organizations...."

:30:52:
What are five little known but essential tips in IT?
"....Not necessarily little known.....Communication is key....Organizations have very ambiguous strategy....Less is more....The complexity is the greatest challenge we have in IT....Agility is becoming the key driver for our success in IT...."

:34:18:
What are the most important current roadmap-level tips involving architecture?
"....the idea of using service oriented architecture combining a variety of services as well as technologies that we purchase, and building around that rather than proprietary systems really gives the roadmap for architecture moving forward....."

:36:18:
Take the prior question and apply it to the next 3 to 5 years.
"....I think that is one of the things we are going to see more and more over the next five years. Higher level patterns describing how business patterns have been solved and our ability to adapt those patterns for the needs of our own organizations...."

:37:21:
What is the most important broader IT and business challenge and solution in 2008?
"....having to do more with less...."

:40:38:
The industry is changing. What advice would you give to IT professionals to stay on top of what is happening in the industry in order to position themselves (from a career standpoint) and their organizations to benefit from these trends?
"....We as an industry have been forced to evolve because the industry itself is so immature and I think we have to make sure that we get on top of that and continue to lead change...."

:43:26:
In your current role, what are the biggest challenges, and their solutions? How does this relate to business?
"....I think that change is in fact one of my biggest challenges....Working with architects trying to understand the complexity in their systems and look for strategies and avenues to reduce that complexity....Helping individuals and teams build maintainable systems really concentrating on this idea of solutions....We as IT professionals really need to start stepping up to the plate and become full partners with the business in helping to develop strategy and helping to organize structure...."

:46:45:
Dave shares some thoughts about his work.

:48:42:
Provide your predictions of future IT/Business trends and their implications/opportunities?
"....We are going to find that this idea of mega projects is really becoming much less sustainable....We are going to find ourselves much more entwined in the cycles of the business....The idea of communication and coordination will be the norm. We are going to see the tools around collaboration will be very tightly woven into pretty much everything we do in IT....We are going to start using models a lot more than we have in the past....Computing is going to become increasingly important in an integrated platform as opposed to a propriety platform...."

:55:26:
Which are your top recommended resources and why?
"....Almost everybody does research on the web....but the one thing the web lacks is really strong editing. I think that is its strength and it weakness....Another is the Economist magazine....Also the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review....There are some fantastic technology books as well less technology focused....'Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution' (by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David C. Robertson)..."

:59:15:
If you were doing this interview, what questions would you ask and what would be your answers?
"....What kind of problems have you been seeing at your customer's organizations and how can they been solved?...."

This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview computing pioneer, Calvin C. (Kelly) Gotlieb, C.M., M.A., Ph.D. (University of Toronto), D. Math. (Hon., University of Waterloo), D. Eng. (Hon., Technical University of Nova Scotia), Fellow CIPS (FCIPS), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the British Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

In my next chat with Kelly, we will discuss Kelly's work with the UN-Founded International Federation For Information Processing (IFIP) and the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS). Kelly was instrumental in the founding of IFIP and CIPS.

Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP

Kelly Gotlieb is currently Professor Emeritus in Computer Science and in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto (UT). He is a computing pioneer, whose innovations and accomplishments helped lay the foundation of an entire worldwide industry, educational stream, and profession. His contributions are so profound and their impact so diverse and in so many areas that the lasting value cannot be comprehended. Have a look at this blog to find out more: http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/archive/2006/09/29/459971.aspx

To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link

DISCUSSION:

Interview Time Index (MM:SS) and Topic

:00:36:
Can you provide a brief history of how you initially got into computing?
"....During the war we were doing calculations (usually on desk computers) and electronics. After the war when the interest came up in electronics in the days of computers, it was a natural for me...."

:02:00:
You joined the ACM in 1949. Can you tell us more about the ACM and how you got initially involved?
"....I got to meet the founder and the early principals and contributed some articles. Ed Berkeley, for example, was one of the key persons....I wrote some articles on the Future of Computing for his magazine, Computers and Automation...."

:03:12:
How did you get into ACM publications? What led to you being Editor-in-Chief of two flagship journals of the ACM?
".....the first journal they started was the Journal of ACM but later on they formed the Communications of ACM. I was invited to become an editor of the Business Section because I had written some articles on computer sorting ....... Then when the founding editor became president of ACM, he decided not to be editor-in-chief so they invited me to be editor in chief of Com ACM which I did for about three years....When the editor-in-chief of the Journal of ACM left, I was invited to me to move over to that, which I did....I was involved with the publications for about eight or nine years...."

:04:54:
Can you tell us more about the book you wrote with Hume?
"....We wrote this book called 'High Speed Data Processing' with Hume. It is one of the things of great satisfaction to me...."

:07:34:
Kelly met Turing in 1952. He shares more about that time.
"....It's kind of interesting that computer people think of Turing and the Turing Test and the giant which he was in the computer field. Chemists regard him as the originator of the Chaos theory and they regard him highly for a completely different discipline.... "

:12:30:
Kelly talks about the ACM National Computing Conference which was held in Canada in 1952.
"....We were getting a Ferranti machine.....There was a tremendous interest in the machine. So the ACM was holding a conference and they decided to hold their 4th (I think at it was one of the only ones they ever held outside the US)....They were so anxious to see this Ferranti machine that they accepted our invitation to hold the conference here and it was a very successful one. Almost anyone who was famous in computing came up to see that machine...."

:14:28:
You had an interesting offer from the Dean at Cornell - can you tell us more about that?
"....One day while I was walking outside the university, someone introduced himself to me as the Dean of Graduate School at Cornell University. He said they were starting up a new department and they would like me to become the Chair of the department...."

:16:14:
You were involved in creating the glossary of computing - please share more about this?
"....I wasn't involved in that for long....but I was a participant in creating one of the glossaries of computing terms...."

:17:01:
Tell us more about the travelling lecture program for the ACM?
"....In the early days, the ACM was heavily populated by academics and they set up a lecture program which they make available to universities. Volunteers would give lectures and would travel around. So I volunteered...."

:19:05:
From your ACM work, this afforded opportunities to have guest lecturers-can you share some memorable stories?
"....For about twenty years I've been chair and co-chair of the ACM Awards committee so you get to meet award winners who are bright and have a huge range of interests....You get to meet a wonderful range of interesting people....It's one of the kinds that keeps me doing this because you get to meet some interesting people.... "

:23:54:
You have touched on this earlier - about your work on the various Awards committees which continues to this day. What insights can you share?
"....They have more and more profile, for example, the Turing Award and the Infosys Foundation Award (new) - the winners attract attention and are written up in the New York Times. The Turing award has always been spoken of as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize but for computing....One thing that has helped a lot is the recognition that the ACM award process is one that is very fair...."

:29:19:
With regards to the awards themselves I know that you were able to establish some of the key policies in the early days of the awards to bring that shape and formality to the awards. Can you share more about this?
"....When we invite someone to the awards committee usually they serve for three to five years. One policy I did was....when you are appointed to the committee you gravitate up and you become chair of the committee usually in your second last year.....Everybody who is on the committee is game to be worthy of chairing the committee so that is never a concern...."

:31:00:
Kelly talks about his Fellow's work with the ACM.

:32:40:
As we come to a close with this interview, what else would you like to share about ACM?
"....It's a very dynamic organization....When it started it was heavily populated by academics but now about two thirds of the membership are practitioners....They are making special efforts right now to provide technical backgrounds for their practitioners who form a large part of their membership by conferences and digital library. I'm quite admiring of the organization. I think they have a lot lessons for others...."