Nashville Technology Council

Nashville Tech Story (3/5/10)

Efficiency, Virtualization, and Cloud Computing were common themes at last night’s roundtable event, titled “The Impact of the Recession on IT Operations and Management.”  The event was hosted by Bass, Berry, & Sims (www.bassberry.com) and took place in their conference center in the new Pinnacle Building.  Scott Thomas and Bob Brewer, both practicing attorneys at Bass, Berry & Sims, moderated the discussion.  Panel members included three enterprise CIO’s: Andy Flatt, Healthspring; Scott Blanchette, Healthways; and Rick Proctor, Thomas Nelson.

Scott Thomas kicked off the session by taking us through a number of graphs, which illustrated the effect of the economic downturn over several industries, health care and information technology in particular.  In addition, he showed us the average IT Budget by percentage in revenue and a graph which showed the .com meltdown in comparison to last year’s downturn, which was had a much bigger impact.

The first panel question took us through how the recession affected the acquisition and use of software, hardware and telecom.  Proctor mentioned stretching out the lifespan of non-mission critical application deployment, while Flatt and Blanchette implied that the health care industry has not reduced spending, but has not increased it either.

Proctor was then asked, “Do you think the economic downturn is driving or hampering the transition of digital book sales?”  Proctor mentioned that the digital business is growing, but it’s not big.  Instead of driving digital, it is more about improving the efficiency of delivery by more on-demand printing and shorter runs.  In addition, Proctor mentioned Thomas Nelson, while they are providing digital for the Kindle, Sony Reader, and Apple’s iPad, their focus is more about content delivery — the mechanism in which they provide the content is not really what’s important, it’s more about getting the content in front of the readers.

When Flatt was asked if HealthSpring has to be more efficient because of the downturn, he mentioned his company is investing in technology because it is what makes business more efficient, especially in the virtualization space.   Proctor mentioned Thomas Nelson has been investing in the virtualization space for about three years, focusing on outsourcing things that are not their core competency.

Later the group as asked if Senior Management views IT as a cost or an investment, and what participation do they ask from CIOs in their strategic spending?  Proctor alluded that IT budgets have been flat over the past few years, but as expenses have decreased, the level of investments have increased.  Blanchette mentioned their focus is to take new and innovative technologies, and apply them in new ways that in turn reduce costs — the CEO asks how can Healthways wrap technology around problems and find a solution to reduce expenses. Flatt encouraged the group that IT needs to stop segregating itself, and to get out of the business of bridge building and back to building the foundation.

In regards to talent acquisition, the three panelists agreed they have been hoarding their staff over the past couple of years because employees have been staying put.  This year, their worry is that people are going to be looking places they would not have thought of looking during the downturn, and some companies even have a significant budget allocated to staff retention.    In preparation for the recovery, there has not been much change except for the staffing aspect.

When asked about purchasing new technologies, cloud computing resounded across all three panelists. Flatt mentioned three things, which all add to efficiency, virtualization, record retention, and real estate.

In closing, the group discussed vendor relationships.  Advice to vendors from the panelists:

• Understand more about the challenges each company is facing and focus on recommending solutions
• Focus on reducing revenue or marginal improvements for businesses
• Come forward with your changes, and make recommendations on how your changes can improve business

Special thanks to Bass, Berry & Sims for hosting the event.

The Nashville Tech Story (8/7/2009)

Before you decide to buy that new flat screen television this weekend in hopes the recession is beginning to head upward, you may want to hold off just a bit longer.  While individuals and companies feverishly wait for the economy to improve, various news sources are reporting that consumer spending increased for the month of June, despite falling incomes.  Consumer spending is a critical aspect to our economy, as it accounts for almost 70% of the total economic activity in our country.  Consumer spending is also critical because it has been known to lift the country out of past recessions.

Consumer spending has created a small ray of hope, but financial experts continue to predict that wages will continue to fall and unemployment will continue to rise.  Sadly, if expert predictions are correct, the rise of unemployment and the decrease in wages will eventually overshadow the positive numbers for the month of June.  This will most certainly drag spending back down as we move into the holiday months.

Although consumers spent more in June, analysts were scratching their heads as to the reason why.  Personal income experienced its steepest fall in four years in June, and wages and salaries experienced another dip. It just goes to show that the stimulus program introduced by the Obama administration, which pumped out one-time payments to consumers in May, created a very limited and only temporary solution.

However, the economy is continuing to show signs of life.  The housing market, which seemed to be the first major beginning to our current recession, showed that pending home sales rose in June for the fifth straight month.  Hopefully, the reverse will ring true and is a sign that an upswing is nearing.

Over the past year and a half we have seen one of the most severe recessions in U.S. history, a downturn even surpassing the declines seen after the burst of the dot-com bubble.  Without a doubt, the recession is causing CIOs, CTOs and telecom managers to rethink the way they invest and implement technology solutions and plan for growth in their organizations.  Join us as expert panelists discuss how they are navigating the recession and provide their insight and strategies for 2010.

March 4, 2010
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC.
150 Third Avenue South | Suite 2800 | Nashville, TN 37201

sponsored by:

Registration is now closed.  You may register at the event.

Panelists:

Rick Proctor
Thomas Nelson

Rick Proctor has held a variety of roles in the IT field for over twenty five years, working in both public and private sectors. He received an M.B.A. from Belmont University and a B.A from Trevecca Nazarene University. For the past twelve years he has lead the IT department for Thomas Nelson, implementing several enterprise technology strategies. Rick has written several IT articles and was a contributing author for the book Cutting IT Costs (Thomson West).

Scott Blanchette
CIO, Healthways

Scott Blanchette is currently serving as the senior product and technology executive at Healthways, the worlds leading provider of health and wellness programs. He manages the design, development, operations, and support for Healthways industry-leading portfolio of technologies. He manages development and computing operations delivered by more than 700 resources around the globe. Under his leadership, Healthways continues to garner numerous technology and innovation awards, most recently being recognized by Information Week as the 35th most innovative technology organization in the US.

Andy Flatt
CIO, HealthSpring

In 2006, Andy Flatt began his current role as SVP and CIO for HealthSpring, Inc. Previously, he was CIO for AIM Healthcare Services during which tenure AIM was recognized globally for early large-scale IP telephony adoption and for large scale transactional database development.  Flatt’s 25 year career includes serving in technology management roles at HCA and Baptist Hospital.  As co-founder of MIQS, Inc., Flatt worked with early electronic medical records pioneers and systems that received international acclaim. He began his career as a software developer of business and clinical systems for Dialysis Clinic, Inc. and served his alma mater, Lipscomb University, as adjunct faculty member for nine years.

Flatt is currently serving as Board Chair for the Nashville Technology Council.  He is also the chair of the Lipscomb University Information Technology Advisory Board, member of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and currently serves on the Board of the Tennessee Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.  Past appointments include CIO Executive Summit Governing Body and Medic (now Misys) Advisory Board.