Florida Proconnect Hosts Second Panel Event with Top Notch C-Level Executives

On October 8th 2013, seven of the brightest IT executives were brought together by Florida ProConnect to participate in the panel discussion: “Making Sense of the Latest Technologies.” During this event, the panel members shared their perspectives on the latest technologies that are of most importance for their industry. Chetu Inc., a leading software development provider sponsored the affair, which took place in Tampa, FL.
The event started off with a networking period where 35 C-level attendees had the opportunity to connect and share their insights and experiences. Among the brilliant members of this panel were thought leaders in Tampa Bay: Alex Patent, Sr. Director, Global Technology Leader at Nielson Research, Chris Cate, CIO of ValPak, Dusty Williams, CIO of Planet Hollywood, John Kuemmel, CTO of Triad Retail, Stanley Curtis, CTO of Pilgrim Software, Andy Swenson and Vice President and CIO of UPC Insurance. The panel was moderated by Kate Mullin, CISO of HealthPlan Services who is a frequent speaker as well as a CISA, CRISC, and CISM instructor. The event was organized and hosted by Pat Jimenez, National Accounts Manager for Chetu and founder of Florida ProConnect.
The panel discussion began with the topic of Cloud solutions, differentiating between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Desktop as a Service (DaaS) and everything as a Service (EaaS). During this segment, the distinction between self-hosted and outsourced for each infrastructure was also established.

The topic of Business Intelligence (BI) had many of the companies fully engaged with the overall concern of how to effectively implement BI to assist customers with information and purchases without being intrusive. The CIO’s of the panel also addressed the subject of Off-Shoring versus On-Shoring pertaining to information technology solutions. In this case, the panel was seemingly divided on their preferences for a number of reasons including: pride, application control, security, and financial constraints.
The panel rounded out the conversation with an in-depth discussion on Compliance and Security Threats. The conversation focused mostly on how compliance drives the actionable items such as Payment Card Industry (PCI) and a host of financial regulations. Security was discussed as a matter of compliance and protection of information like HIPAA. Most felt their networks: internal, external and wireless are pretty well protected against intrusion and provide periodic scans to ensure the privacy. Eric Ratcliffe, Sales Director for 360 Advanced and Treasurer for Florida ProConnect, stated: "The insight that the panel provided included how business leaders insure that data security is monitored when utilizing service providers. By the use of PCI, SSAE 16 or by creating their own compliance checklist they all realized that data security is a growing concern."
During the panel dialogue, John Kuemmel, CTO of Triad Retail, shared that Cloud has given them the opportunity for advertising, maintain a fairly small IT staff, allowing for infrastructure and software services, flexibility and scalability. According to Stanley Curtis, “SaaS provides a lower entry point cost and generally quicker time to implement for applications by reducing the need for additional infrastructure and headcount in IT.”
According to Alex Patent, Sr. Director, Global Technology Leader at Nielson Research : “As part of our 90 year anniversary, centering on innovation, we continue to look at ways to enable our business and clients to innovate by providing better and faster access to Business / Competitive Intelligence through Analytics as a Service (AaaS), Mobility and Cloud.”
According to Ron Laker, CEO of NCS.TV/Next Century Studios and member of ProConnect, “In today's fast paced business world I try to stay abreast of the latest macro trends that are being utilized by successful companies that make themselves more efficient." There has been tremendous insight from the Florida ProConnect IT Executives panel. The format serves as a podium for them to dive deeper for better understanding." Mark Hall, CEO of Southern Data storage and ProConnect member stated: “I enjoyed the discussion, particularly when it centered on the topic of public vs. private cloud deployments.”
As a commercial real estate broker with iCore Global, John DiSalvo assists many technology based companies that are searching for the right space to support their business model. John, member of Florida ProConnect stated “ I found the discussion to be enlightening as I quickly realized just how important flexible building environments and spaces that support mobile or changing technology is becoming the new standard in new building design. “
Lee Kermode, Director of Informatik Group, Inc also attended the panel and stated: “I felt the panel was well qualified to speak on Cloud, BI and Security. It was particularly interesting to see that Cloud was part of the overall IT strategy for all the companies represented, but most were providing Cloud services internally in their own data centers. This shows that outsourcing Vendors have not yet cracked the code on Cloud offerings and pricing models.”
Florida ProConnect is an integrated business tech association where non-competing companies service a similar client base. The goal of our quarterly panel discussions and customer appreciation events, which are exclusive to C-level and IT executives, is to become a valuable resource for customers through increased knowledge of how various technologies integrate. www.floridaproconnect.com

Chetu, Inc is a global world class custom software development company headquartered in Miami. Chetu employs over 700 engineers and offers a unique “best of both worlds” model with a team approach combining onshore project management with offshore development and application support. As a final unique benefit, our teams work in US time zones, eliminating the time disconnect that sometimes comes with outsourcing.

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This release was published on openPR.