PLYMOUTH ? AMI Strategies and Altair on June 1 will begin using Altair’s HIQube data analysis software to analyze corporate telecom and utility invoices against contracts and purchase orders, looking for overcharges and other places where money is wasted.
The new software tool was displayed May 22 at the Michigan Technology Leaders conference, which attracted about 200 chief information offers to St. John?s Conference Center in Plymouth. The two companies met and started negotiations at last year?s event.
The white paper caught the eye of Adriana Karaboutis, vice president and CIO of Dell Inc., the computer maker. Who said during her presentation at the event that AMI could have a shot a landing Dell, a $60 billion company. So perhaps more on this at next year?s MTL.
Karaboutis, who worked in the IT departments at both General Motors and Ford Motor Company before getting recruited by Dell, discussed in her topic what it meant to be a successful CIO. She listed several rules:
Create value versus digitizing processes.
It?s all about user experience, not just delivering systems.
Business acumen is the differentiator.
Deliver more to the bottom line than adding customers.
Increase customer satisfaction.
Increase employee productivity.
Create value through innovation, efficiency and agility.
But most importantly, get the user experience right, Karaboutis said.
Also speaking at the conference was Michigan state government CIO David Behen who said Michigan is using IT to grow more jobs, boost personal income, increase home sales and prices and resume population growth, which went positive last year for the first time in a decade.
He is using IT to take services to customers, rather than asking state residents to come to government buildings. But an aging state computer system, with some 450 legacy systems trying to work together, prompted the state legislature in 2012 to allocate $47 million this fiscal year and next to replace all this old equipment. Eighteen major projects are currently under way, including replacing the state?s 19-year-old primary IT system.
Behen said a Request for Proposal to do just that should go public in October. Also slated for replacement is the state sales and withholding tax computer system that brings in more than $13 billion a year.
The state also participated in opening the Michigan Cyber Range, an IT security training and testing center, in partnership with Ann Arbor-based Merit Network Inc., the connectivity provider for Michigan universities, schools, government and other nonprofits.
Looking forward, Behen said he?s planning on adding more services on mobile devices.
?Mobility and social media are in my opinion going to fundamentally change how we provide services to the citizens of the state of Michigan,? Behen said.
To reflect the growing preference among state employees, Michigan is adopting a Bring Your Own Device strategy for customers and employees.
?We?re all talking here about recruiting talent ? young talent, senior talent,? Behen said. ?Let me tell you, the talent wants to come in with their own devices, and they don?t want you or me telling them what they can and can?t use.?
