It’s Always Sunny in Orlando:

Leveraging local gems to win the Talent War and 8 other key learnings

Softchoice Innovation Executive Forum, Orlando 2015

About the IEF

An invite-only community, the Innovation Executive Forum gives

senior IT executives a platform to share experiences and engage

in discussions about trends affecting their business and their role

as a leader.

Introduction

In April 2015, the IEF made a stop at the Waldorf Astoria in

Orlando, Florida, bringing together senior IT leaders from across

industries to share a dinner and their stories from the field.

What follows is a distillation of 9 key findings that were unveiled,

offering insight into best practices and challenges for those

working in the innovation department, everywhere.

1• Talent Wars becoming unsustainable

Recruiting people with the right skills and education is harder than

ever. Unfortunately some organizations are setting new financial

benchmarks to hook young people to the tune of $95k – leading to

the question, “how sustainable can this practice be in the future?”

 

2• Technology + entertainment = happy talent

In Orlando, like other university towns, businesses and local

government struggle to keep talent after graduation. The solution?

Re-establish the district in a way that brings technology and

entertainment together.

3• It’s always sunny in Orlando

Local IT leaders are attracting new talent by leveraging bad winters

and inviting candidates down to Orlando with the whole family to

interview. Highlighting life in Florida places a new level of “work/life

balance” on the table.

4• Cloud pricing - an unknown

Today, services such as AWS are incredibly cheap. But consider

what happens when they turn up the dial from 1 penny to 2. All of a

sudden, budgets need to double. Planning for the future should not

only account for the fee structure of today but the costs of

tomorrow, too.

5• Be a listener and an enabler

Listen to various lines of business to find ways to work with them

and get things done. Shadow IT is an example of how you can do

more to support the business. IT should be seen as the broker of

new services – not the police.

6• Hail to the chief (of security)

The demand grows for security leadership. Why? Simple: It’s more

important than ever to the business – and the brand.

7• Core or contextual?

Understand your business so intimately that you know what is

“core” and what is “contextual.” This lets you partner with

organizations that do things better than you and can bring far more

value to your business.  

8• Cloud FOMO syndrome

Some IT leaders notice a plague in the executive circle, cited as

the “Fear of missing out (FOMO) syndrome.” This is causing some

to dip their proverbial toes into the cloud, without having an actual

plan or strategy. That’s a poor way to start a massive undertaking.

 

9• The business analyst rises

We are seeing ever more business analyst roles in IT– clearly

there is a growing need. As one member stated, “it just makes

sense as they know and are skilled in managing both the technical

and business outcomes discussions.”

Want more from your peers?

Take part in the Softchoice Innovation Executive Forum and

discover free resources like our IEF whitepapers at

blogs.softchoice.com/ief

Softchoice Innovation Executive Forum – Orlando participants

The Softchoice Innovation Executive Forum Membership represented senior executives from a cross

section of industries from various sectors and sizes of organizations each bringing unique perspectives

together as thought leaders within their own business. The membership included:

• Chief Information Officer at a large University

• Chief Information Officer at a largest Consumer Protection and Personal Injury Firm

• Vice President of IT at a largest Recycler of Refinery and Natural Gas

• Director of IT Operations at a leading Supplier of Cellulose Specialties Products

• President, CEO and Founder of a Software Solutions Company

Softchoice participants

• David MacDonald, Chief Executive Officer

• Erika Van Noort, Senior Director, Strategic Customer Enablement

• Chip Stein, District Sales Manager

Guest IEF participant

• Bob Meyers, Account Manager Orlando District, Cisco Systems

IEF Sponsorship

A Special Thank You to our Innovation Executive Forum Platinum Sponsors

“As key Softchoice partners, Cisco, Dell, VMware and Microsoft share the same belief of connecting a community of IT Leaders, I’m

honored and thankful that Cisco, Dell, VMware and Microsoft have accepted our invitation to act as the Softchoice Innovation

Executive Forum - Platinum Sponsors to support this peer-to-peer experience focused on driving innovation back into our businesses

collectively.”

– David MacDonald, President & CEO

About Vmware

VMware is a leader in cloud infrastructure

and business mobility. Built on VMware’s

industry-leading virtualization technology,

our solutions deliver a brave new model of

IT that is fluid, instant and more secure.

Customers can innovate faster by rapidly

developing, automatically delivering and

more safely consuming any application.

With 2014 revenues of $6 billion, VMware

has more than 500,000 customers and

75,000 partners. The company is

headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices

throughout the world and can be found

online at www.vmware.com

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide

leader in IT that helps companies seize the

opportunities of tomorrow by proving that

amazing things can happen when you

connect the previously unconnected. For

ongoing news, please go to

http://thenetwork.cisco.com

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ:

MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software,

services, devices and solutions that help

people and businesses realize their full

potential. For more information, news and

perspectives from Microsoft, please visit

the Microsoft News Center at

http://www.microsoft.com/news

About Dell

Dell Inc. listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. Dell Services develops and delivers a comprehensive suite of services and solutions in applications, business process, consulting, infrastructure and cloud services to help customers succeed. Visit Dell Services on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter