Nearly 70 people enjoyed a tremendous 2007 Fall Conference this month at the Ritz Carlton Naples. According to attendees, networking, presentations, interactive discussions and value were of high quality. Following are some highlights:

• Steve Handschuh, president and COO of AASA, and several speakers challenged attendees to ensure their company executives understand the value of IT and how IT should be a part of the strategic planning process.
• Bruce Eccles, owner of Eccles Auto Service and its three shops, provided an extremely entertaining look at a successful service provider that utilizes technology.
• Chris Gardner, vice president of AASA, introduced the newly released white paper on Internal Data Management (see below).
• Ian McNabb, technical services director for Pricedex, demonstrated the new MIS Council E-commerce Matrix application (see below).
• Three members – Judy Lorch, Robert Bosch Corp.; Tom Malone, NGK Spark Plugs; and Jim Schwinn, Schaeffler Group – discussed best practices for supporting and collaborating with business units and generated numerous questions and discussion points.
• Carlos Cabrera, Exide Technologies’ CIO, provided an inside look at how Exide positions its IT resources to support a growing and successful organization.
• Ray Nicholas, Standard Motor Products, revealed results to two IT/data questions from the 3rd Quarter AASA Supplier Barometer and then led a discussion on how IT can ensure collaboration at the executive level.

The MIS Council board of governors elected Jim Schwinn, director of IT and finance, Schaeffler Group’s Automotive Aftermarket Business Unit, to the 2008 board. Jim’s election was announced during the Fall Conference Banquet. He has more than 30 years of experience in the automotive industry and has spent 12 years with Schaeffler’s aftermarket unit. Welcome Jim!

The MIS Council launched a program late in 2006 to provide information to members on how to develop and manage critical data within their respective organizations. The two driving forces behind the program are the need for executives to make decisions based on real-time data from across the enterprise and improve data synchronization with business partners. The Council hosted a Webinar, conducted a member survey and held a focus group during last year’s Fall Conference.

The fourth element of the Internal Data Management (IDM) initiative is the development and publishing of a white paper on best practices for starting and maintaining a successful IDM program. The paper includes an overview and definition of IDM, why aftermarket suppliers should consider IDM, obstacles to implementing IDM, benefits, MIS Council survey results and anecdotal information from members.

The E-commerce Matrix is quickly becoming a reality. Pricedex has built a powerful, yet simple application that will enable MIS Council members to quickly identify the e-commerce standards and technologies required by customers and/or prospects. Ian McNabb, Pricedex, demonstrated the application and described the features and reporting capabilities that will be part of the tool, which will be released by the end of the year.

Capabilities and features include:

• Ability for suppliers to select and view requirements of any customer/prospect
• Ability for data receivers to view, enter and edit their respective requirements
• Aggregated information on how many customers require a specific field, certain standards or versions and other information that will help push forward standards adoption in the aftermarket
• Security to ensure only members have access to the customers they select
• Customer contact information for each standard

Datanational Corporation specializes in the implementation of automotive aftermarket IT initiatives through deployment of new system technologies integrated with traditional information systems. It “implements evolution with the new technologies instead of creating a revolution with existing systems.”

The firm’s solutions accommodate customers, trading partners, sales representatives and employees in today’s 24/7 marketplace through its Customer Service solutions, which include On-line Order Monitoring with detailed shipment tracking links for all shipped orders, including those received via EDI.

According to Datanational, “We provide industrial-strength integration between systems for projects such as Internet Parts Ordering (IPO). We deliver AAIA standards-compliant solutions that integrate suppliers’ systems with customers' business systems. These integrated solutions provide opportunities for increased revenue by allowing orders from customers’ systems to flow directly into the supplier’s system, 24/7. These solutions reduce customers’ administrative costs while increasing sales. It is a win/win proposition.”

Datanational's rapid deployment approach is based on industry-standard eBusiness development tools and infrastructure, such as Java, PHP, IBM WebSphere, Tomcat and open-source portals.

It provides complete 24/7 System Management and System Hosting services including support for full ERP, MES and eBusiness solutions. Its offering includes world-class fiber optic connectivity to one of the world’s most advanced and reliable IP-optimized networks.

The rapid deployment of integrated eBusiness solutions and their requirement for High Availability has created the need for on-demand communications bandwidth. It is not just the planned average bandwidth that is at issue but the unpredictability of the peak bandwidth requirement. On-demand bandwidth is provisioned as a standard offering with the company's Hosted eBusiness and High Availability solutions.

Datanational provisions redundant co-location capacity for High Availability and provide all of the related system management services to be successful in the global 24/7 IT environment. Through strategic partnerships, Datanational provides world-class IT sites throughout North America and Europe to mitigate risk across multiple geographies.

Contact: Nelson Turnage – Datanational Corporation, 248-426-0200 ext 303, Nturnage@Datanat.com

Much of the content of the recent Fall Conference focused on how IT can support, collaborate with and strategically plan with business units and corporate executives. Robert Hertzberg, in a recent article in Baseline titled “The CIO and CEO, In Sync,” outlines 10 best practices to help IT executives ensure a collaborative environment within their organizations.

1. Emphasize the governance function
2. Establish an IT steering committee
3. Know how (and when) to do a business case
4. Measure the right things
5. Create a shared pool of bonus money tied to the success of projects
6. Install a high-level IT liaison in every business unit
7. Distribute a list of ongoing projects to business as well as IT
8. Network in a non-technical way
9. Create multi-disciplinary teams for high-priority projects
10. Think beyond mere “alignment” and think of IT and business people as the same

CIO Worry List

• 51% - Attract, develop and retain IT professionals
• 42% - Align IT and business
• 40% - Build business skills in IT
• 29% - Reduce the cost of doing business
• 28% - Improve IT quality
• 27% - Security and privacy
• 26% - Manage change
• 25% - IT strategic planning
• 24% - Make better use of information
• 19% - The evolving CIO role

Source: Society for Information Management survey of 130 CIOs and senior IT executives

Security Trends

Following are the top trends in information security trends:

• The Evernet: Billions of devices are always on and connected.
• Virtual business: Complex outsourcing relationships extend trust boundaries beyond recognition.
• Rules of government: Regulations multiply as lawmakers react to losses that enrage constituents.
• Wild, wild West: International criminals exploit lack of cooperation among foreign countries and conflicting laws.
• No more secrets: Privacy concerns will continue to compete with convenience and the desire for features.
• Haste makes waste: Time-to-market increases pressure on companies to sacrifice security and quality of software.
• Talent wars: Lack of security skills will compound weaknesses of delivered solutions
• Yours, mine and ours: Identifying intellectual property and information ownership will become key areas of debate.

Source: Howard Schmidt of Patrolling Cyberspace