In this podcast, Vass talks about technology trends in the federal government and the way Sun helps businesses market to the federal government.

Many IT leaders talk about the challenges of going from the private sector to the public sector. Bill Vass would prefer to dispute this. He has successfully fused experiences in both areas to become a key technology driver at Sun Microsystems. He joined Sun after holding several key IT positions in the Office of the CIO for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. At Sun, Vass quickly moved up the ranks to become the company’s CIO. In 2007, Vass became president and chief operating office of Sun Microsystems Federal. It is one of Sun’s fastest growing business units.

Vass consistently works with CIOs at the largest federal agencies to implement a wide variety of information technologies that will reduce costs and increase productivity.  His staff of 800 works primarily with private sector systems integrators to provide the appropriate solutions. He says, “These people make a lot of the technical, product, and architectural decisions. Sun doesn’t compete with systems integrators such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Our federal business is based on partnerships. We partner with channel partners. We partner with all major systems integrators, as well as small systems integrators. We help everyone we work with to become successful.”

Under pressure to keep IT costs down, most federal government agencies have begun to focus on open source technologies. In fact, Sun Microsystems Federal has the goal of becoming the best highly scalable, low-cost open source software and hardware provider. Vass says, “We know we can support the federal government’s Web 2.0 deployments and the consolidations happening in the federal government.”

Because Sun is one of the largest contributors to the open source community, Vass and his team have worked hard to get that message out to the federal government. He says, “Everything we have is either open source or is in the process of going in that direction. Our products have the lowest power cost per thread. Our operating systems are the least expense to deploy and maintain. We even support and sell Windows and Linux products. We have enabled all of our development tools to support Web 2.0. Our role-based, visual Web services enable you to use open source technology to put together role-based portals, such as MySpace. We also provide delivery to mobile devices and centralized messaging. Sun gives the user the security of open source and the stability of knowing that they can get support from anyone.”

Bio
William (Bill) Vass is president and chief operating office for Sun Microsystems Federal. He formerly was chief information officer of Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he was responsible for all aspects of Sun's global IT infrastructure and line-of-business application development, support, and maintenance, including information service delivery and security. While at Sun, Vass also has served as chief security officer and vice president of corporate software services.

Before joining Sun, Vass worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Office of the CIO, where he directed three large sectors of the Department of Defense's (DoD) IT infrastructure and represented DoD to Congress, the White House, and other nations. Before joining the Office of the CIO, Vass was chief technology officer and technical lead fir Army personnel systems.

Resources
Bill Vass on the Sun Microsystems You Thought You Knew - ExecutiveBiz
Top IT Issues - Bill Vass, President of Sun Microsystems Federal - Government Computer News
Bill Vass – Different Tasks, Different Chips - Government Computer News
Sun CIO Backs Blog Despite Lawyers’ Worries - ZDnet

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis

In this podcast, Sam Coursen talks about the steps he has taken to ensure that his company continues to derive business impact from IT. He also provides the three things CIOs should do it they want to ensure that IT initiatives result in business impact, and the takeaways CIOs can use for working with their CFOs on capital IT investment decisions.

In 2005, Freescale Semiconductor, the $5.7 billion global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors, began rolling out an integrated manufacturing system. The company, however, acknowledged a lack of progress automating some of the key semiconductor manufacturing steps involving IT systems, such as process control. That year, Sam Coursen, the former CIO of NCR Corporation, stepped into the CIO role at Freescale Semiconductor. Armed with experience transforming NCR's IT organization, Coursen immediately launched a strategic program with manufacturing management. The business impact of IT for this program returned about $38 million to shareholders.

He says, "We began a multi-year program to close those gaps, and to become equal to or better than the best-in-class practice for each of those manufacturing processes. That resulted in substantial savings."

Bio
Sam Coursen is the vice president and chief information officer for Freescale Semiconductor in Austin, Texas. Before joining Freescale Semiconductor, he was vice president and CIO at NCR Corporation, where he held the position from 1998 to 2005. He also held other IT leadership positions at NCR. In 2007, the Austin chapter of the Association of Information Professionals named Sam Coursen as IT Executive of the Year. Computerworld named him to its list of Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2009.

Resources
IT Leaders Who Shatter the Mold - InfoWorld
CIO Values - InformationWeek
Freescale's CIO Builds on IT Foundation - Computerworld

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis

In this podcast, Bates talks about what it means to speak like a CEO, what makes President Obama's communications style so effective, how CIOs can use good communications to maintain staff morale, and how gender differences in communications styles can affect your job performance.

What do President Obama and Jack Welch have in common? They're both excellent communicators. Although they have different communications styles, they both know how to command attention and to get results. They also both know how to inspire and to motivate others.

If you want to move up the IT ladder, you, undoubtedly, need to have good technical skills and solid business experience. On the other hand, if you want to earn that CIO seat at the executive table, your better hone your communications skills. You might start by going to amazon.com and ordering either Motivate like a CEO - Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! or Speak Like a CEO - Secrets to Commanding Attention and Getting Results. Suzanne Bates, the author, is CEO of Bates Communications, an executive communications consultancy, and a former award-winning television anchor and reporter.

When Jose Alvarez, president and CEO of Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. wanted to improve his communications skills, he turned to Bates Communications, based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm offers everything from formal strategic communications consulting to executive presence seminars and workshops. Clients include Blue Cross Blue Shield, Dow Chemical, Fidelity, and Mellon/Bank of New York. Bates says that the company's mission is to transform leaders into powerful communicators who get business results.

She says that many leaders get promoted because of their business and technical skills. "When you reach the leadership of a C-level position, your primary role is to communicate the organization's vision, strategy, and values. You need good communication skills if want to inspire, to motivate, and to align the organization with the vision and strategy.  Even middle managers need good communications skills. In many cases, communications is the missing link that holds people back from reaching their full potential."

During her 20-year year in television news reporting, Bates interviewed 1,000 of political leaders, CEOs, experts, authors, and celebrities. She says that some people were better speakers than others. After Suzanne started working with executives at Bates Communications, she realized that good communications skills aren't necessarily an innate ability. "It's something you can learn. Leaders, like Jack Welch and President Obama, have learned to develop their own compelling communications style. All writing and all speaking has to come from inside. Many executives struggle with bringing out their authentic voice. It takes practice."

Bio
For about 20 years, Suzanne Bates was an acclaimed news anchor and news reporter with major television stations: WBZ-TV Boston, WCAU-TV Philadelphia, and WFLA-TV Tampa-St. Petersburg. She won an AP News Award and was nominated for a Columbia DuPont Award.

In 2000, Bates started Bates Communications, an executive communications and executive coaching consultancy. In 2005, her book, CEO-Secrets to Commanding Attention and Getting Results, topped the best-seller's list at amazon.com. The book is in its seventh printing and also has been published in several languages. In February 2009, Bates came out with Motivate like a CEO-Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act!
Bates has a B.S. in broadcast journalism from the University of Illinois.

Resources
The Benefits of Executive Presence - Bates Communications
How to be Yourself in front of an audience - EmploymentCrossing
Harvard Business School - Suzanne Bates Delivers Message on the Power of Communication

Production Credits
Elizabeth Ferrarini, Executive Producer
Tom Parish, Host and Audio Producer
Audio Editing by Doug Marcis