CIO Spotlight: How to Prevent Downtime with Gap Analysis

When it comes to downtime, IT departments appear to be their own worst enemy. A number of recent reports from IDC, Gartner and others have found that human error is the single largest cause of IT downtime.

Niel Nickolaisen, CIO and VP of Strategic Planning at Headwaters, Inc., faced this same issue at his own organization. Through his own research and analysis, Nickolaisen found that there are some very simple and straight-forward IT processes and procedures that IT managers can put in place to ensure continuous business operations.

Drawing from his own first-hand experience, Nickolaisen will provide attendees with his techniques for:

• Conducting a gap analysis of your current IT processes
• Identifying weaknesses that can lead to downtime
• Simplifying IT processes so that your entire staff can understand and follow them

Following Nickolaisen's discussion of the people and processes needed to ensure continuous business operations, Michael Bilancieri, Sr. Director of Products at Marathon, will discuss Marathon’s technology options and approach to tiered availability.

About Niel Nickolaisen

Nickolaisen has more than 25 years of experience in the rapid/adaptive selection, implementation, and deployment of enterprise business applications, analysis tools, and systems. He is also the author of the new book Stand Up and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility, and co-founder of the Institute for Collaborative Leadership.

**All attendees will be entered for a chance to win one of 10 copies of Nickolaisen's new book Stand Up and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility** Date: October 8, 2009 Time: 11:30 am EDT Speakers: Niel Nickolaisen, CIO and VP of Strategic Planning at Headwaters, Inc., and Michael Bilancieri, Senior Director of Products, Marathon Technologies