Digital Discourse / Software

Webinar: 2013 Federal IT Predictions

February 4, 2013 By

Webinar Description
The past several years have brought a great deal of change to the federal IT market, and 2013 will be no exception. One thing is for sure, 2013 will bring a convergence of issues impacting agencies from budget uncertainty, IT mandates and acquisition policies, to oversight and human capital issues. With all of those issues at hand, what will be the top federal IT predictions for 2013? Listen to this pre-recorded webcast to find out.

Panelists:
Susie Adams
Federal Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft

Kevin Plexico
Vice President Information Solutions, Deltek

Mike Binko
President and CEO, kloudtrack

Share|
Filed Under: Cloud/Gov, Software Tagged With: , , ,

Interview with New Member: Argos Software

February 1, 2013 By

SIIA recently welcomed Argos Software to the membership. I had a chance to sit down with their CEO, Lee Anne Mulvehill, to learn more about the company, their solutions, and vision for the next 18 months.

Rhianna: Welcome to SIIA! Tell us a little about Argos Software and what makes your solutions unique.

Lee Anne: From our start in 1979, Argos Software has focused on developing specialized business software for the agri-business, supply chain and logistics industries. In addition, we offer a variety of services that help our customers succeed in their planning, implementation, and on-going training activities.

Rhianna: Why is it important that each implementation be customized for the customer?

Lee Anne: Each implementation is designed around the customer’s requirements as no two businesses are alike! Our network engineers work with our customers to specify their network requirements. We want to be sure that their infrastructure will properly support the software. Then, we conduct an “implementation planning workshop” that will begin to configure the system to meet the customer’s business processes, to train the administrator on the system features of the system, to define the data conversion requirements, and to train the trainer. We work with the customer’s administrator and staff on implementing each of the functional areas. The implementation process is tailored to the customers’ requirements and staff. Our goal is our customers’ success with the right balance of on-site and web training sessions.

Rhianna: You partner with a number of top provides. How important is that partner ecosystem to your business?

Lee Anne: Our partners are critical to our success. Without their development efforts and technical support, our own products cannot grow to meet the ever-changing demands of our user partners. We are reliant on our supply side partners to ensure we can provide a modern and robust infrastructure and foundation for our suite of applications. We rely to a large extent on our user partners to provide the roadmap for our own development efforts. In today’s ‘flat world’, partner ecosystems are vital.

Rhianna: How does Argos keep their customers up-to-date on upgrades and the latest enhancements of your software?

Lee Anne: Our ABECAS Insight Subscription Service provides both on-going support by our technical team as well as updates to the software. A new version of our software is released about every 4 months and is available to all subscribers. The Version number that customers are currently working with can be seen by clicking ‘about’ on the ABECAS Insight menu. When a system is first installed and changes are required in the software during the implementation process, we generally provide our development version so that updates can be installed as needed. Our technical team works with customers all the way!

Rhianna: What do you think will be the next major advancement in supply chain management systems in the next 12-18 months?

Lee Anne: To date, SCMS has focused on operational efficiency, but with an ever increasing demand for visibility, both upstream and downstream, we will see systems to systems communication and visibility tools (and mobility) growing in importance. Summary data provided by dashboards, accessible from mobile computers will be high on the selection criteria for next year’s buyer, as will automation of exception alerts triggered for suppliers and customers.

 

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA.

Share|
Filed Under: Software Tagged With: , ,

All About the Cloud Program Committee: Russell Hertzberg, SoftServe

February 1, 2013 By

I recently sat down with AATC Platinum Sponsor and Program Committee member Russell Hertzberg, Vice President Technology Solutions for SoftServe, Inc. to discuss AATC 2013, their goals for the conference and what we hope to see from the program and our industry in the coming year.

Rhianna:Why was it important to you to be a part of the AATC Program Committee?

Russ: Being a part of the Program Committee helps SoftServe give input into the shape, structure, and content of the event agenda, while staying abreast of the latest developments with respect to the event plan.

Rhianna: What are your goals for the conference this year?

Russ: As always, to get some strong new ISV leads, or to further nurture existing prospects. We do this through networking, speaker presentations, and the sponsorship.

Rhianna: What is unique about AATC that makes it so valuable to ISVs?

Russ: AATC is the premier event for ISVs who are just entering or already leading in various segments of the Cloud Computing market. This event has it all: thought leaders, great panels, practical education, and how to content.

Rhianna: What are some of the topics you are excited to see in the program this year?

Russ: Mobile + cloud monetization strategies, the evolution of PaaS technology, a report card on Azure, and the role that Big Data platforms are playing in various SaaS offerings.

Rhianna: What are your industry predictions for what’s in store for 2013-2014?

Russ: 1. SaaS. Large ISVs are in an adaptive race to both build and buy SaaS capability. In this race, the course of 2013 will show increasing gaps between executing leaders and confused or denying followers. This race is the single most important determinant of the future value of the 100 largest ISV providers. The leaders will not simply make more SaaS acquisitions. They will also create hybrid solutions for current install bases. They will deliver new SaaS offerings in the SMB market by refactoring current on-premises technology. And they will adapt channel, sales and marketing models to the economics of the SaaS business.

2. DevOps. Cloud computing is changing the skill set and composition requirements of technical teams. Designing and developing software is now the front end for the long-run challenge: service delivery management and continuous application enhancement. Development operations (DevOps) are one of the critical disciplines for the new technical team. The skill set of a DevOps tech lead includes systems programming, build management, configurations management, service monitoring, security, backup, recovery and more. Over time, the technical team composition for a large SaaS deployment will trend towards an equal number of software engineers and DevOps engineers.

3. PaaS. PaaS remains a clever software technology for rapid application development or refactoring rather than a specific market. Small PaaS players can survive by deploying their technology primarily to create conventional and nimble SaaS solutions in established markets. PaaS technology will be combined with Big Data platforms to create new services and sites in several business and consumer markets.

4. Health Information Exchanges. The firmer establishment and acceptance of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (“Obamacare”) resulting from the re-election of Obama is driving acceleration in construction and deployment of Healthcare Information Exchanges and Health Insurance Exchanges. HIE construction and operation is attracting large hardware/software providers and major systems integrators. The cloud-based security and data integration requirements for HIEs will introduce new software and security technology like JSON and Oauth into the healthcare IT market. Other industry-specific community clouds may begin to develop in public education, finance, retail and manufacturing.

5. Social media. The technology behind the massive horizontal scalability of major social and search platforms is driving into the smaller-scale footprints of independent colocation facilities, hosters, ISPs, and enterprise data centers. Enterprises will refactor and redeploy more and more applications into hybrid and private cloud deployments, taking advantage of virtualization, multi-tenancy and horizontal scalability to become more competitive with public cloud-computing metrics and price points.

6. Mobile. Scalable back-end cloud services continue to be the anchor for mobile business and consumer applications. Mobility and cloud computing enjoy a virtuous synergy that can be seen in the rich native mobile applications for popular social networks, the hugely successful online store models for application purchase and delivery from Google/Apple/Amazon, and the overall growth in mobile device traffic on popular cloud-based sites and services.

Share|
Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Software Tagged With: , , , ,

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

January 31, 2013 By

Cloud/GOV 2013 to feature keynote address from Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel: SIIA’s annual Cloud/GOV Conference announced earlier this week that Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel will provide the opening keynote address at the association’s the 7th Annual Federal IT Conference. VanRoekel joins an already impressive list of keynotes that includes David DeVries, Deputy CIO for Information Enterprise at DOD and Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The conference will also highlight the latest developments in federal IT with panel discussions on FedRAMP, choosing the right cloud solution for your agency, the convergence of data and cloud and the ever popular CIO Panel. Attendees can expect to network with attendees and speakers from DOD, DHS, DOL, DOE, the RAT Board and many others. See the full agenda.

USPS moves ahead with cloud ID management program: The US Postal Service continues to solicit proposals for a cloud-based ID credentialing hub pilot project. The program seeks a software-as-a-service solution that would provide access to non-government providers of ID credentials who have been approved under the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) initiative. Responses are due February 11th. GCN has more.

OFPP to push contractor past performance reviews: The Office of Federal Procurement Policy announced an aggressive effort to ensure that all contractor past performance information is entered into the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS), aiming for 100 percent compliance by 2015. The effort comes on the heels of a recent report from DOD that showed only 67.5 percent of required contractor reviews at DOD were added to the system. By making this push OFPP hopes to achieve better outcomes for taxpayers by ensuring that contracting officers better understand specific contractor performance. Read more.

Dell announces Project Ophelia cloud key: This week Dell announced what they are calling a cloud key, which looks to me like an operating system in a flash drive. The idea is to allow you to carry your desktop functionality with you and plug into any device with an HDMI jack, allowing you access to what is now only available on your desktop or laptop. GCN asks whether this is the future of remote computing.

Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

Share|
Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Cloud/Gov, Events, PSIG, Software, Software Events

Reed Elsevier and Intel Offer Free Data Privacy Resource for Teens in Honor of Data Privacy Day

January 24, 2013 By

SIIA member companies Reed Elsevier and Intel are supporting privacy education by offering free downloads of a data privacy book for teens. The book, “LOLOMG,” will be available for free from January 25-29, in honor of Data Privacy Day (January 28).

The book, available here, teaches high school students what they need to know about online reputation management, digital citizenship and cyberbullying. It describes the various privacy risks young people face online, and helps them take steps to protect themselves.

Data Privacy Day is an effort to empower people to protect their privacy and control their digital footprint. It is spearheaded by the National Cybersecurity Alliance and its partners.

Read more about Data Privacy Day and online privacy protection for teens.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team at @SIIAPolicy.

Share|
Filed Under: Education, Policy, Policy - Privacy, Software Tagged With:

All About the Cloud Program Committee: Eileen Boerger, CorSource Technology

January 18, 2013 By

I sat down with AATC Program Committee sponsor, Eileen Boerger, President of CorSource Technology to discuss AATC, her goals for the conference and why this event is so important for ISVs.

Rhianna: Why was it important to you to sponsor AATC and be a part of the Program Committee?

Eileen: Sponsoring All About the Cloud is important because the audience at AATC is our target market, ISVs, and one of our key consulting areas is consulting and cloud developing for ISVs. AATC allows us to network with our target audience and potential partners. We’ve seen success in the past and we look forward to continued participation.

Being part of the program committee is important because we have a much stronger network ourselves in terms of the types of topics people want to see and we know a number of people that are excellent speakers. We want to contribute to making this as strong a conference as possible by helping leverage our resources.

Rhianna: What are your goals for the conference this year?

Eileen: We’d like to hear about some of the new trends from other leading vendors and hear about the current key issues that ISV’s are discussing. We’re looking to establish some new partnerships as well as generate new business.

Rhianna: What is unique about AATC that makes it so valuable to ISVs?

Eileen: It’s one of the only forums where ISVs can come together and share what works, what doesn’t work and what is still needed to be successful in developing and delivering SaaS products. It’s also the one place they can go to talk to the vendors in the space and get a much better idea of what is possible for them.

Rhianna: What are your industry predictions for what’s in store for 2013-2014?

Eileen: ISV’s have been developing SaaS products and almost all new products are SaaS…the acceptance is ok, but Enterprises are still worried about cloud. We need to prove the environment is secureand make integrations easy between products to establish confidence with the larger Enterprises.

Share|
Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Software Tagged With: , , ,

Executive Profile: David Roth, Chief Executive Officer, AppFirst

January 17, 2013 By

SIIA Software Division Executive Profile

 

 Name:  David Roth
Title: Co-Founder & CEO
Company: AppFirst, Inc.

 

 

Bio:
David brings more than 25 years of experience leading organizations and leveraging partnerships for building successful hight tech companies. He sets the AppFirst, a leading SaaS based performance & big data platform, strategic direction and guides the day-to-day business execution. Prior to AppFirst, he was CEO at Trigence (now AppZero), an application virtualization company, where he established the company’s success with quarter over quarter revenue growth through enterprise adoption.

In 2003, David became Vice President, Sales, Services and Business Development at Consera, an IT automation company which was acquired by HP in 2004. As the Founder and CEO of Stratis Group, currently inside EMC, David built teams that drove the growth of this B2B solutions company throughout the late 1990s.

David began his career as a National Accounts Manager in the late 1980s at NYNEX and early 1990s at Microsoft. David received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California.

Home town: Munster, Indiana / Los Angeles, California

First job: Worked at an Ice Cream Shop

What are you currently reading?  The Advantage by Pat Lencioni

All-time favorite music:  I love jazz, classical and classic rock but with young daughters I listen to my share of pop music

What is the best meal you have had recently? At the BBQ in our back yard.

What is your next (dream) career?  I love being an entrepreneur.  The day I stop starting and building high tech companies I envision putting all my energy into helping others realize their dreams, which I may drive through education, non-for-profit projects and consulting.

Hobbies:   Playing on the company basketball team, weekend softball, supporting my daughters’ sports and dance passion.

What do you think is the hot button issue for the software & services industry going into 2013?  Software CTO’s are looking for better control points for running their SaaS businesses.  In 2013 the industry will be driven for all players to enhance their API’s & deliver cross system integration so that insight & automation can drive the greatest level of cost value performance.

Why is your company a member of SIIA?   To support our industry and further our firm’s networking so across this vast ecosystem we can all help each other grow.

Share|
Filed Under: Software Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »