OSU Study: Middle Market Thriving, But Challenges Still Exist

Midsize companies may be experiencing strong momentum but they face a complex set of business challenges in the areas of international competition, accessing money from the capital markets, regulatory compliance and the cost of compliance, a recent study found.

“The senior managers of the participating middle market organizations expressed a lot of optimism of their firms going forward but, of course, also noted some challenges as well,” said Anil Makhija, professor of finance in the Fisher College of Business at OSU and the academic director of the National Center for the Middle Market Center. In conjunction with GE Capital, OSU’s Fisher College surveyed nearly 1,500 middle market C-level executives on a wide range of business issues to help define the middle market.

Fisher College’s Middle Market Center is showcasing the results of the initial survey and its ongoing research.

Some of the most interesting survey results focusing on the challenges are:

• Seventy-one percent are challenged by regulatory compliance.
• Seventy-five percent are challenged by cost of compliance.
• More than half (55 percent) of midmarket businesses say they face challenges when it comes to accessing money from capital markets.
• Forty-five percent of middle market organizations are challenged by international competition.

So, how does this affect the CIOs and IT leaders of those middle market organizations? Some of these challenges obviously will have to be addressed by IT leaders who are already struggling to finance existing projects. Regulatory compliance is perhaps the thorniest issue because IT must manage, secure and provide access to mountains of data housed either in an on-site data center, a remote data center or even in the cloud.

 “In regard to compliance, the biggest IT challenge is to make sure that you work with a vendor that is compliant with SAS 70 and Finra [the largest independent regulator for all securities firms doing business in the U.S]. CIOs must make sure that the company is reputable and secure in that sense—it is important that the vendor has been around for a while and is not on the bleeding edge because, if compliance issues arise, the challenges will grow even greater,” said Tony Diaz, the director of information technology at Montgomery & Co.

Being that Montgomery & Co. is an investment-banking firm, Diaz has higher compliance costs than most. He shared a specific example in which he had some challenges with the costs of compliance within his IT budget. “Recently, surrounding Box.net, we found that people within our organization were bringing consumerization into the firm and we had to spend a lot of money on licensing for compliant service.”

In regard to accessing money from capital markets and international business competition, middle market IT departments need to learn how to do more with less. When the business itself struggles, it is safe to say that IT departments aren’t going to be getting any extra money for technology growth any time soon. CIOs are increasingly learning how to innovate their IT infrastructures with limited costs to the business, and it is this type of cost innovation that is keeping CIOs in the technology game without emptying the organizations’ pockets.

“These challenges have involved working more efficiently with the money that we have. And, in some cases, it has allowed us to get larger budgets by reutilizing and retooling some of the pieces of software that we already purchased or some of the hardware that we already had in place. This has allowed a lot of the business users to work more efficiently with less,” said Shawn Michael, CIO and senior vice president of operations at Wine Warehouse.

Stay Classy,

Mr.Midmarket

Vendor Spotlight: Ruckus Takes Wi-Fi To New Heights

As Wi-Fi becomes the primary network connection for many employees CIOs must anticipate that their wireless needs are going to continue to increase exponentially. In this interview with GT Hill, director of technology marketing for Ruckus Wireless, Hill talks about what Ruckus offers middle market CIOs and the impact of mobility on Wi-Fi solutions. He even shares some information on Ruckus’ newest Wi-Fi product for the very first time!

MES: How does Ruckus Wireless cater to middle market CIOs and their needs?

Hill: By providing a reliable Wi-Fi product that doesn’t require a lot of transition, or ramp-up, time for their personnel.

MES: How loyal are middle market CIOs to your brand?

Hill: We found that once they become a customer, they become our best salespeople. They tell their friends and peers within the IT community about Ruckus and that’s how we generate a lot of our business and gain a lot of our partners.

MES: How do your solutions compare to those of your wireless competitors?

Hill: We focus on the connection itself. A lot of our competitors focus on software and interface feature sets, where we focus on—what we think is the biggest problem with Wi-Fi—is the wireless connection itself. We focus on making that connection fast, reliable and trustworthy.

MES: What new products should our MES CIOs expect from Ruckus?

Hill:  We have a new suite of access points coming out with a new flagship AP that promises to be the fastest Wi-Fi access point ever produced. It will be released in early Q2.

MES: How has the increase in mobility affected your business?

Hill: We actually consider the increase in mobility and mobile devices as the factor that took Wi-Fi to the next level. As far as our business with the midmarket and carrier spaces that we serve, mobile devices have defined what we do. We focus a lot on serving mobile devices because if we were going to look at devices that connect to the Ruckus network, they represent a significant portion of those devices.

MES: From a vendor perspective, where do you see wireless going over the next year?

Hill: Over the next year, we are going to see a convergence of middle market and enterprise Wi-Fi with cellular and carrier. There are actually going to be a lot of blurred lines where mobile devices, and the people using these mobile devices, will be relying more heavily on Wi-Fi vs. cellular networks. Over the next year to two years, you will see that become seamless. The end user will not know when they are switching back and forth from Wi-Fi to cellular. The mobile problem itself is that cellular cannot handle all of the data requirements that customers have, and Wi-Fi is the solution to that.

MES: Please share an example of the successful implementation of a Ruckus product or solution in a middle market space.

Hill: One of our most successful flagship customers is St. Vrain School District in Longmont, Calif. They typically have a lot of problems with Wi-Fi because of their high density and the fact that they have a lot of people on their network who bring their own devices. They have become a champion of Ruckus. 

Stay Classy,

Mr.Midmarket

IT Buying Behaviors: What Are Middle Market CIOs Saying?

Middle market CIOs face the same day-to-day fight—they need to do more with less. Small budgets and limited resources are nothing new for IT leaders who must answer to line-of-business managers demanding ROI on IT investments. It has forced CIOs to be more innovative and creative than ever before. So, how are they coping and how this new normal affected their buying behaviors? Well, we asked several CIOs and what follows is a no-holds-barred, spleen-venting and illuminating string of comments. Enjoy. 

“With smaller budgets, you learn to live with technology a little longer and try to identify where you can eke out another six months, or maybe a year, on certain technology. It also makes you re-evaluate what you have, how much you’re spending and determine when it’s time to swap things out. It makes you consider whether the vendor you chose is the best vendor to begin with.” - Jeff McLarty, IT director, Ignited

“These challenges have involved working more efficiently with the money that we have. And, in some cases, it has allowed us to get larger budgets by reutilizing and retooling some of the pieces of software that we already purchased or some of the hardware that we already had in place. This has allowed a lot of the business users to work more efficiently with less.” - Shawn Michael, CIO & senior VP of operations, Wine Warehouse

“We typically try to buy technology, which when we need to reutilize it, is able to be redeployed. So, we aren’t buying for a specific need, but rather general-purpose needs where it can be reutilized throughout the organization when necessary.” - James Underwood, senior manager of IT & engineering services, Canon Information & Imaging Solutions

“IT budgeting and limited resources do affect our buying behaviors, but our CEO tells us: ‘Bring one good idea and the cost is insignificant’.” - Steve Mortellaro, VP of information technology, Shield Healthcare

“That’s always going to be the case in most shops, whether it’s for profit or non-profit. There will always be budget limitations. In this case, it’s about being creative with limited resources and making sure that you are getting every bang out of your buck that you can, and making sure that every project really counts. It’s about doing something that will advance the business in a meaningful and structural way.” - Michael Skaff, CIO, San Francisco Symphony

“I would say that we do a really good job vetting companies all across the spectrum in any of the spaces we are looking at. We are also looking for really good value—what kind of support we are going to get, the product features. We look for all-in-one solutions with overall value.” - Bradley Burns, technology director, Duncan/Channon

“I think we definitely have to become more innovative, and maybe instead of giving 100 percent of what people are looking for in a product, we would come up with giving them about 70 to 75 percent of something and trying to find one product that does things for different groups and different needs.” - Tim Fraser, manager, BDO

“It’s a struggle to do this, but in the long run we will probably be able to reduce staff and reduce our tactical effort because of what we can garner from the cloud in terms of operations and needs. Cloud opportunities and functionalities have really helped our overall IT budget.” - Edward Skokowski, director of IT, ACP Interactive

“You definitely want to get more with less—you, literally, have to do more with less. Budgets may be cut in half and midmarket CIOs have to take things in-house and choose vendor partners who offer more all-in-one solutions for cheaper costs.” - Tony Diaz, director of information technology, Montgomery & Co.

Although these IT leaders may vary in opinion and viewpoint based on their personal experiences, they all still share the same consensus: Smaller budgets and limited IT resources definitely affect their buying behaviors. It’s all about finding all-in-one solutions and riding out current technology to its maximum lifeline.

Stay Classy,

Mr.Midmarket 

Top 20 iPad Apps For CIOs

With the recent release of the new Apple iPad and the increasing need to take their work on the go, CIOs everywhere are taking advantage of all the innovative aspects that the iPad has to offer. It is becoming even easier to access data, rework a network, patch an issue and communicate with one’s IT team from remote locations around the world, especially with the growth of cloud services. So, once a CIO gets his or her iPad in hand, the question is: What apps should they download?

Below are the 20 most sought-after iPad applications that CIOs should (must) have, compiled by a leading researcher and trade publication.

1.     Salesforce for iPad

2.     BIRT Mobile View

3.     MobileIron MyPhone@Work Client

4.     ZP MDM

5.     VMWare View for iPad

6.     AirWatch MDM Agent

7.     BoardVantage Collaborate

8.     Dropbox

9.     MicroStrategy Mobile for iPad

10. Spotfire

11. VabletLite

12. Cisco WebEx Meetings

13. SyncPad

14. Huddle v2

15. Citrix Receiver

16. Yammer

17. Socialcast

18. Box.net

19. Roambi Analytics Visualizer

20. QlikView

“I bring my iPad everywhere as it’s a great way to access my data and do my work regardless of where I am—it’s light and efficient. Sometimes I carry three devices: my laptop, my iPad and my smartphone, but I definitely use the apps on my iPad the most when I am traveling,” said Fernando Gonzalez, CIO of Byer California.

And, with mobility plans in motion, many CIOs are faced with the task of distributing iPads to the masses within their organization. More employees are bringing iPads to the office and asking they be connected to the network. This consumer uprise has led to the need for proficient, productive and useful applications for professionals to use on the iPad.

“Because we had so many employees bringing in iPads, we ended up buying them for everybody in the organization—we just accepted the fact that it was an expense that we were going to have to take on as long as the users meet the policies of the server. Instead of virtualizing, I am now going into cloud-based legions and am working with box.net as a universal application for all employee iPads,” said Tony Diaz, director of information technology a Montgomery & Co, an investment-banking firm.

These, and many other, iPad applications can truly change a CIO’s life if they are used properly. The technology revolution is upon us, and iPad apps are the software of the future.

Top 20 iPad Apps list from Gartner and Network World.

Stay Classy,

Mr.Midmarket