Points of View

By Fearless IT Support I 28 Nov, 2023
StrataFusion Announces Benjamin Dai to Rejoin Firm as Partner StrataFusion is pleased to announce that Benjamin Dai has rejoined the partnership. A technology strategist and transformation leader who brings exceptional executive guidance to StrataFusion, Benjamin brings a robust foundation in Fortune 100 global expertise to SFG, specializing in engineering and information technology across diverse industries, including healthcare, pharma, consumer products, and biomedical research. His extensive background encompasses health technology delivery, data engineering & analytics, biomedical informatics, enterprise architecture, end-to-end software delivery, infrastructure, portfolio management, and comprehensive information technology (IT) leadership. “I’m so pleased to be back among the thought leaders of StrataFusion,” Benjamin said. “This partnership compiles decades of CIO know-how and incredible strategic insight, leadership skills that are crucial to effectively navigate industry challenges and times of fast-moving change.” StrataFusion delivers a full portfolio of CIO-oriented advisory services for today’s most difficult business and technology challenges. StrataFusion leverages refined methodologies with proven experience, empirical data, industry best practices, and analytical models to build programs that reduce project complexities and accelerate investment returns. With executive-level technology and operational experts, clients access deep industry experience spanning fast-growth enterprises to FORTUNE 500 corporations. Read BIO >>
15 Aug, 2023
StrataFusion Announces Greg Higham Rejoins Firm as Partner StrataFusion is pleased to announce that Greg Higham has rejoined the partnership. A customer-focused Silicon Valley technology executive, Greg has enabled growth for business of all sizes across many industries, from public companies to start-ups. “We are thrilled to have Greg return to StrataFusion and bring his strategic mindset of revenue growth, optimization and an incredibly deep understanding of customer service with a strategic lens on the changing business landscape,” said Ken Crafford, StrataFusion founding partner. “Completing a successful interim CIO role with Malwarebytes, a StrataFusion client, Greg is a great example of how our fractional and interim executive services can work for clients.” Navigating the technology challenges of fast, transformational growth and acquisitions, Greg brings a leadership perspective of business needs, technology solutions and customer experience. He co-founded Periscope Group, where he put into action a powerful combination of technology expertise and business acumen to evolve this historically analog business toward a technology-first mindset, laying the foundation for a bright future. As CIO of Marketo, he helped navigate a successful IPO and subsequent sale to Vista Equity Partners for $1.7 billion. Greg has honed his leadership skills and deep industry knowledge through senior leadership roles across many fast-growing global organizations, including Witness Systems, FrontRange Solutions, Epiphany, Inovis, Peregrine Systems, Harbinger, Premenos and Tandem Computers. Greg earned a degree in Computer Technology from CDI, San Francisco and is also a graduate of Stanford University's Professional Education program. StrataFusion delivers a full portfolio of CIO-oriented advisory services for today’s most difficult business and technology challenges. StrataFusion leverages refined methodologies with proven experience, empirical data, industry best practices, and analytical models to build programs that reduce project complexities and accelerate investment returns. With executive-level technology and operational experts, clients access deep industry experience spanning fast-growth enterprises to FORTUNE 500 corporations.
2023 CIO Marathon
18 Apr, 2023
Expanding the Cybersecurity Talent Pipeline: 2023 CIO Marathon Each year, the CISE Education Fund hosts its most important fundraising event of the year: the CIO Marathon. The 2023 CIO Marathon is slated for Oct. 5 and 19 – and presentation slots are already filling early. Employers across the Bay Area continue to struggle with shifting cybersecurity workforce readiness, availability, and geographic concerns. As consistently reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, roles like information security analyst will have a growth rate of 31 percent over the next decade compared to the 4 percent average growth rate for most other occupations. While the data is daunting, there is a resource dedicated to preparing the next generation of great talent right in the heart of Oakland, California – the Merritt College Cybersecurity Program. The Consortium of Information Systems Executives (CISE), a non-profit and professional community of current and former Chief Information Officers, works closely with Merritt College to raise funds to improve and develop the capabilities of the next generation of technology professionals in the Bay Area – preparing great talent ready for internships and entry-level positions. The CIO Marathon Each year, the CISE Education Fund hosts its most important fundraising event of the year: the CIO Marathon. The 2023 CIO Marathon is slated for Oct. 5 and 19, hosted at Merritt College – and presentation slots are already filling early. This event helps raise funds to support top cybersecurity talent by bringing together top technology leaders from Bay Area companies to provide feedback to presenters who have reserved pitching slots. Perspective presenters can reserve their spot for $9,500. All proceeds go to fund scholarships. To date, CISE has had more than 10 CIO Marathons, has heard 100+ company pitches, sponsored more than 110 students and raised more than $1 million to fund student scholarships. StrataFusion Partner Mark Egan has been involved from the start as a member of CISE and the Merritt College Cybersecurity Program, helping students prepare for the workforce. “With the collective cost of data breaches expected to reach $5 trillion by next year, Cybersecurity is more crucial to business resiliency, and we must ensure we have the talent ready to meet the challenges ahead,” Egan says. “The Merritt College Cybersecurity program provides the talent pipeline and CISE ensures students have a viable path to success.” As your cybersecurity needs grow, be sure to connect with Merritt College to hire some of the best (and most prepared) young professionals entering the cybersecurity workforce. Take action! Reserve now! CISE is now accepting corporate presenters for the 2023 CIO Marathon ! Prospective presenters can email Mark.Egan@stratafusion.com . The CIO Marathon also includes “Selling to CIO training” and two presentation dry runs. Networking dinner Oct. 19 for all participants. Each company can have up to two guests at the CIO Marathon dinner. Learn how you can strengthen your cybersecurity bench by hiring Merritt College graduates and interns https://community.stratafusion.com/merritt-job-seekers
24 Aug, 2022
The Leadership Gap Imperative in Uncertain Economic Times: Fractional Solutions Fractional leadership can solve many challenges by bringing seasoned executives to the table for short-term engagements. StrataFusion partners are former CIOs, CISOs and c-suite executives who have worked across many industries for some of the world’s leading organizations. Now as trusted advisors, they are able to take on shorter-term projects to their share vast knowledge, mentor future leaders and help organizations navigate change. Our Value Proposition  StrataFusion’s fractional CIO/CISO approach is focused on short-term leadership assists for long-term results – advise, solve, handoff. That means access to senior-level technology leaders who bring vast career expertise and can easily step into leadership gaps to help companies solve specific technology problems or leadership changes -- and then smoothly transition out. For organizations experiencing change, the fractional model is highly beneficial by bringing in seasoned executives who can be laser focused on the strategic imperatives and reduce distractions. Fractional leaders can help a companies keep momentum for technology transformations, strategy evolution, and guide organization change. When economic pressure sets in, any organization can face leadership obstacles. StrataFusion is here to help when you need technology expertise and interim or fractional assistance. We’d love to discuss your needs and timing and determine if one of our partners can assist – contact us today !
02 Jun, 2022
CIO Trends: Mid-2022 Pulse Check In January 2022, The StrataFusion Group took some time at our Partner meeting to weigh in on the McKinsey and Gartner Group “top annual trends” reports. In May, we revisited our choices based on clients’ experiences. We think we nailed it. Of the 15 or so mentioned in the trend reports, three main areas resonated with our team: process automation & AI, infrastructure & platforms, and zero-trust security. Now, we want to share our thoughts about how they progressed. The IT investment money followed our predictions. Computer Economics April 22 report (see link below) validates our top two choices. They report that after a relatively slow burn in recent years, more companies are now embracing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and projects, as shown in their annual Technology Trends survey. “In the survey, AI showed impressive gains in both adoption and investment rates, compared to our survey in 2021. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) also showed impressive gains in both adoption and investment rates among our survey respondents,” their report says. Here are our insights and conclusions: 1. Process Automation & AI – We thought this would ramp up as part of a natural progression in the past few years, and also as a result of worker shortages and remote work. Self-learning is driving reconfiguration of aspects of workforce technology. Recently the WSJ ran a big spread on CIO’s turning to supply chain automation, incorporating process automation and AI. Our Conclusions: We see this happening, but it’s not easy and it takes time to implement. In many companies, a solid foundation of documented, standardized processes doesn’t exist, and building that adds to the delivery window and delays ability to augment with machine learning. The ROI on automating isn’t a quick win. 2. Infrastructure & Platforms – We see cloud and edge computing continuing to accelerate and agree with projections of a 30x reduction in work time for software development and analytics. But digitization and better use of more data requires major infrastructure support, and those needs will continue escalating. Our Conclusions: CIOs should leverage hyperconverged and dynamic compute, storage and network technologies as well as IaaS. A robust architecture management platform will help address the operational aspects of availability, security, performance, economics and change. For more insight, see our “Four Key Steps to Agile Infrastructure” blog linked below. 3. Zero-Trust (ZT) Security – NIST refers to ZT as an evolving set of cybersecurity paradigms that move defenses from static, network-based perimeters to focus on users, assets, and resources. We support the approach. Instead of assuming everything behind a firewall is safe, ZT shifts the security mindset to viewing every request as if it carries a degree of risk and must be explicitly verified. Our Conclusions: ZT philosophy is the basis of security program implementations and upgrades for our ​customers and is a critical culture change in this time of hybrid work and operating environments. Moving into the second half of 2022 and onward, these three trends will be fundamental components of IT road maps, and we’d like to hear your reactions, approaches, and plans. The StrataFusion team will continue to share topics from our Partner meetings regularly. We are here to help your team develop a strategy for success. Contact us today. Resources and Links: Computer Economics Avasant research -- AI and Cloud Infrastructure Show Greatest Jump in Investment Priorities in 2022 Four Key Steps for Agile Infrastructure
14 Mar, 2022
You Can Do Anything, But You Can’t Do Everything This is the final installment of a three-part series dedicated to the critical success factors for today’s CIO: financial acumen , business acumen , and technology acumen. Technology Acumen Business model changes impact momentum for an enterprise: from product and people to customers and investors. If momentum stalls, it can be difficult and sometimes impossible to regain. Technology should not be an obstacle to momentum, technology should underpin and enable an enterprise’s ability to sustain momentum. With that in mind, and the year unfolding in front of you, take the time to look back over the past two or three years and think about your top three “ No Regrets ” technology decisions. A “No Regrets” decision is one that if you had it do over, you would make the same choice again – regardless of its current state. It represents your point of view as a CIO, your decision-making, and has a lot to do with what defines you as a leader. This type of decision might be a short effort or a longer initiative. It is not judged by cost or longevity; it is judged by its importance – its impact on creating value to the business. A CIO who enables and/or leads business and technology adaptation during times of rapid growth and change will move the business forward, which is why technology acumen is the third side of the triangle for a CIO. Think about where we are now. The first quarter of the year is frequently when various projects and initiative requests get a hard look as business priorities, goals and financial considerations become clearer. This is the right time to get focused on strategic execution , here are three factors for CIOs to use: Table Stakes – Everything Can’t Be a #1 Priority – underpinning any successful technology execution you’ll find cybersecurity and operational resilience. These focus areas don’t show up on the top three list of priorities every year; that does not mean they are unimportant. It means they are assumed. They need continuous attention to create a stable environment and foundation to support everything else, particularly in high-change environments. They are cross-company, cross-functional, cross-partner, and cross-technology. If they are not kept at the right level of maturity, a CIO will be challenged to focus on other priorities. Architecture Matters. Focus on Platforms Before Products -- Looking again at Board priorities for 2022, #2 on the list is the pace of digital transformation. Technology has rapidly increased in criticality to the enterprise ability to pivot and succeed, and focus is on Customer Experience. Architecture is more critical than ever. It must be practical, implementable, focused on platforms (third-party/partner integration, data, connectivity) and create value to the business model. Look where you placed your technology bets in 2019, 2020, and 2021 -- where did architecture play into them? It is not uncommon for architecture to go by the wayside in times of cost reductions and organizational change, so be thoughtful about the practicality and what the greatest need is. Interim & Fractional Architects can be an effective solution for some environments. Architecture is both strategy and execution, and an important capability to evaluate and create technology acumen in an organization. Much Has Been Written About the “Great Resignation” -- Talent is number one on the list of 2022 Board priorities for many companies, according to an NACD Survey . Meanwhile “The Great Resignation” terminology is rapidly evolving. The Great Resignation is not a particularly insightful term. In recent conversations with clients and colleagues on this topic, three important points emerged: The focus is shifting from working for a brand to working for a leader. Think about the implications of this for a C-Suite and C-1 management team – it’s about what you and your whole management team offers. A global executive search firm has placed twice the number of positions compared to pre-COVID cadence. Many are looking for re-employment, skill, learning and career development opportunities. Recruit and re-recruit talent who are excited and want to be part of something, and spend time with them, coaching and developing. Stay on top of your organization, and understand how your people are doing, from structure and technology capability, to engagement, commitment, and aspirations. Keep your organization competitive in the talent market by having the right people in the right roles, ensuring a commitment to career and skills development opportunities, and aligning your organization and people with your technology choices. I hope you enjoyed this series on CIO Value Creation, as viewed through the lens of financial , business , and technology acumen -- all of us at StrataFusion look forward to hearing from you. If you’d like more information about StrataFusion advisory services, contact us today!
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