In this podcast, Schaefer talks about why the company continues to fuel IT spending, how three key investments have demonstrated business impact from IT, what the company is doing to move up the IT maturity scale, how the company makes IT investment decisions, and what two things CIOs can do to achieve business impact during this economic downturn.

Some insurance companies, such as AIG, have put themselves in dire financial circumstances. The billion in these companies have received in federal bailout money has added fuel to the economic downturn. On the other hand, the $21 billion Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company doesn’t need one cent of taxpayers’ dollars to preserve its customers’ wealth. This 150-year old, highly profitable company has more than $1 trillion of life insurance protection in force. Products include life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance, annuities, mutual funds, and employee benefit services. In fact, the company maintains the highest available ratings for insurance financial strength from all four major ratings agencies.
 
Despite the economic downturn, Northwestern Mutual isn’t about to rest on its financial strength.  In fact, this company has continued to invest in areas, such as information technology, that can provide great value in terms of productivity, improved businesses processes, and revenues. Tim Schaefer, Northwestern Mutual’s chief information officer, says, “We can’t loose sight of the fact that we are in a downturn, but we don’t want to completely give away our opportunity to pursue some strategic projects for the business.”
 
As CIO for Northwestern Mutual, Schaefer leads 1,300 employees and 1,000 contractors in advancing the company’s strategy, for which relationships among customers, representatives, and executives drive the business forward.  One of his key responsibilities is to carry out a strategic IT plan to bring the IT organization to a higher level of solutions and systems delivery maturity and business process enablement. His other priorities include helping the company remain customer-centric, making better use of analytics, and integrating product lines to strengthen financial offerings.

Bio
In 2008, Timothy G. Schaefer became chief information officer for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.  He joined the company as a programmer in 1988. During his 20-year career, he has held a variety of senior leadership positions including director of policy owner services, director of systems, and director and vice president of life benefits. He currently sits on a variety of leadership committees, including chair of the technology strategy committee. He received a master’s degree in management and organizational behavior from Silver Lake College, where he is a member of the board.

Resources
Northwestern Mutual CIO Schaefer Drives Greater Maturity - Insurance & Technology
CIO Leadership Series – Tim Schaefer, Northwestern Mutual - CIO Fusion
Ed Zore Reconciles Prudence and Opportunism in Northwestern Mutual’s Technology Investment - Insurance & Technology

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

In this podcast, Brian Wolfe comments on the security issues around cloud computing and provides several takeaways CIOs can use to improve their corporate security.

It’s hard to avoid all of the news stories about the economic downturn, company layoffs, or employees being asked to take drastic pay cuts.  Most employees understand that businesses have no choice but to reduce their costs. On the other hand, those disgruntle employees or former employees in dire financial straits could find themselves doing things they wouldn’t normally do. As a result, these employees could pose a whole new set of security threats to an organization. Brian Wolfe, a security expert and co-founder of Laurus Technologies, an IT consulting firm specializing in security, says that companies must have controls in place to make sure that people can’t do things, such as authorizing a purchase order to a fictitious vendor, and having funds disbursed to a company that never receives the goods.”
 
Meanwhile, security breaches still continue to plague America at the rate of about one a week. In fact, within the first few months of 2009, Merrill Lynch, Continental Airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the United States Postal Security all became victims of security breaches. Wolfe says that CIOs do have something to worry about.  He adds that about 75 companies out of the Fortune 1000 have an ISO 27001 certification for security.  “ CIOs must think about whether or not they have the proper security controls in place to both prevent on-going threats, and these newer threats. They need to have some access controls that clearly delineate between the software development area, test and quality assurance, and product. The goal here is make sure that no one person is in a position to introduce fraudulent or malicious code or data into some critical applications. CIOs also need to cover all of their bases with respect to vulnerability assessment, and penetration testing, especially data loss or data leakage prevention.”

Bio
Brian is a co-founder of Laurus Technologies, where he directs the software solutions group. He has 18 years of IT experience, with emphasis on healthcare.  His accomplishments in this area include the development of an early TCP/IP-based distributed medical imaging protocol “Simple Image Transfer Protocol” (SITP) for UNIX and VMS systems at the Medical Imaging Research Center of Henry Ford Hospital. His paper on SITP was accepted and presented at the Radiological Society of North America.  He belongs to the Greater Chicago Chapter of HIMSS, and the Society for Information Management.  He also chairs the Sun Microsystems Education Market Advisory Board and belongs to the Sun Microsystems Software Partner Council. Wolfe is also a member of the advisory board for the School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems at DePaul University. He received his MS in Computer Science from DePaul University in 1996, and his BS in Computer Science from University of Michigan.

Resources
Searchstorage.com: Healthcare IT Eyes Medical Record Digitization Hurdle
Chicago Tribune: Building on Trouble Times
Entry-Level Security Technician: Laying the Groundwork Certification Magazine (pdf)

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

Dr. Norman Jacknis has much experience finding innovative ways to use technology. For 10 years, he served as the CIO for Westchester Country, one of the most prosperous counties in New York State. His mission focused on working with business leaders to create real business impact from IT. Because he had extensive knowledge of the business, Dr. Jacknis used every opportunity to speak to the CEO, who he reported to, about how to improve things, some of which didn't necessarily involve technology, but management issues or policy issues. He says, "I wasn't afraid to say we can use technology here, but you first need to address this issue."
 
One of Dr. Jacknis' innovative solutions involved establishing a unit that   analyzed all of the data Westchester County collected from its transactional systems. He says, "We fed the analyzed data back to the business lines according to what actions made them successful and visa versa, based on long-term criteria. For example, the police department might look at programs that kept repeat offenders out of jail or programs that helped to prevent traffic accidents."
 
Under Dr. Jacknis leadership, Westchester County earned many technology innovation awards, including the Center for Digital Government's top ten digital countries in the country, and American City & County's Crown Communities Awards for technology. Government Technology Magazine named Dr. Jacknis as one of the country's Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers who broke bureaucratic inertia to better serve the public.
 
In 2008, Dr. Jacknis left his post at Westchester County and joined a think tank within Cisco Systems, established by John Chambers, Cisco's CEO. He says, "People kept asking Chambers what they needed to do if they wanted to run a successful business such as Cisco." As director of the state and local government strategic consulting unit within Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group, Dr. Jacknis speaks to business leaders and government professionals about how to use technology in innovative ways in their organization. He says, "We don't charge anything, we don't sell anything, and we don't ever talk about products, especially Cisco's products. We are out there as strategic advisors."
 
Because many government agencies have an interest in Web 2.0 technologies, Dr. Jacknis is working on a concept within the government to take advantage of Web 2.0's collaboration capabilities. He says, "We give them examples of how it has been used successfully, how they can apply these examples to their needs, and how it is meaningful to political leaders. We might talk about the Web site Samsung set up for customers to help each other.  People trust more what they hear from other customers. In return, Samsung is getting loyal customers, and free market research."
 
In this podcast, Dr. Jacknis talks about what he did to achieve business impact of IT, how organizations can use technologies, such as Web 2.0, in new ways, and what advice he would give to CIOs who have become blindsided by innovation.

Bio
In 2008, Dr. Norman Jacknis became the director of the state and local government strategic consulting unit within Cisco Systems' Internet Business Solutions Group. For 10 years, he was the CIO and commissioner of Westchester County, New York. During this time, he served as the co-chair of the technology and architecture committee of the New York State CIO Council. He is chairman of the Fairfield-Westchester Chapter of the Society of Information Management. Dr. Jacknis continues as the technology adviser to the County Executives of America. He received all three of his degrees from Princeton University.

Resources
Government Technology - Digital Communities: Westchester County, N.Y., CIO Norman Jacknis, One of Government Technology's 25 'Doers Dreamers and Drivers'
Westchester Business Journal: High-speed Network Pays Offs for County
Westchester Gov.com Newsletter
Cisco Systems: A Platform for Preparedness: Starting the Disaster Recovery Planning Discussion

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