Award Recognizes Andrea and Perficient’s Efforts to Advance STEM Education and Career Opportunities

Andrea Lampert, vice president of people, Perficient, was one of 10 HR professionals honored with a 2022 HR Award, recognizing the important work individuals, companies, and organizations perform in the field of human resources to make businesses successful. The annual awards ceremony was held Thursday, May 19, in conjunction with the 2022 Best Places to Work Awards where Perficient was also recognized as a finalist in the “Big Company” category.  

Andrea was the sole recipient of the 2022 HR Innovation Award, celebrating her efforts in guiding Perficient’s programming to advance STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented constituencies and communities.  

“I am honored and so pleased to be recognized by the St Louis Business Journal with the Innovation in HR Award, and I’m humbled to join past recipients who I have respected and admired,” said Andrea. “This award is representative of the journey we’re on at Perficient to be as innovative within our organization as we are with our clients. The Innovation in HR extends beyond our people team to our senior leaders and colleagues who have embraced putting our people in the center of all we do. So truly, this award is for everyone at Perficient and is a celebration of the meaningful achievements we’ve made as a people-centric organization.” 

READ MORE: Perficient Promises to Challenge, Champion, and Celebrate Our People 

At Perficient, we believe innovation is best achieved when every perspective is considered, and that diversity and inclusion are constant pursuits. As an industry leader, we recognize that the responsibility to drive equity throughout the broader technology industry falls on us. Under Andrea’s leadership, we’re bringing the same mindset to the communities where we live and work. 

READ MORE: How Perficient is Making Meaningful Change in Our Global Communities 

A prime example of that commitment is Perficient Bright Paths, an education and career advancement program bringing more insights and skillsets into the conversation to drive true innovation forward. Created in late 2020, the Perficient Bright Paths Program is designed to advance STEM education and career opportunities while helping to close the employment gaps that exist in the technology industry, especially among women and minorities.  

We’ve partnered with Strayer University to create relevant learning experiences that prepare students for the IT field. Students attend a 16-week, customized training bootcamp where they learn the foundational concepts of software engineering, study in-demand programs, receive an inside look at what it’s like to work in the consulting business, connect with mentors, and even have the opportunity to engineer their own innovative applications.  

Perficient fully funds the Bright Paths training programs to provide opportunities to ambitious, deserving, and committed candidates who otherwise might be unable to pursue them. By the end of each Bright Paths Program, our goal is to extend qualified graduates employment offers in the software engineering and development field where they will work with many of the world’s largest enterprises and biggest brands.  

To date, the Bright Paths Program has featured three cohorts of diverse students with 67 graduates, many women and minorities, joining Perficient. Two additional cohorts in Detroit and Minneapolis are set to begin in June.  

READ MORE: Bright Paths Graduates Share Their Experience in the Program 

“It’s so exciting to have the Bright Paths program recognized through this award, as it’s truly an incredible offering,” said Andrea. “There are so many benefits to programming like Bright Paths: expanding opportunities for diverse populations, increasing talent pools in technology, and most importantly changing lives and delivering dreams. Our people strategy at Perficient is to enable our people to do their best work. The Bright Paths program creates opportunities for students to learn new skills, begin a new career, and be surrounded with support, encouragement, and mentorship to focus on their strengths.”

2022 Detroit and Lafayette Bright Paths Graduates

In addition to the Perficient Bright Paths Program, Andrea has influenced the development of Perficient’s company-wide Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Namely, she serves as the executive sponsor of Perficient’s Women in Tech ERG, which aims to promote education and career growth for women of Perficient, and to facilitate networking and connection for women, peers, and allies.  

Another community-based initiative is Perficient’s collaboration with the Mark Cuban Foundation AI Bootcamps in Dallas, which is paving the way for the future of high schoolers who have an interest in AI technology and now have an opportunity to pursue that interest. Perficient and Perficient colleagues can also support organizations like Girls Who Code and FIRST Inspires through our charitable match program.   

Due in part to Andrea’s efforts, Perficient and our colleagues are making meaningful change in our global communities, and we’re honored to be recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal for those efforts. 

Congratulations to Andrea and to the other 2022 recipients!  

Jeff Davis, a 1995 Professional Master of Business Administration (PMBA) graduate and Perficient Chairman and CEO, was one of four esteemed alumni honored with the Washington University Olin Business School 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award. The annual awards ceremony held Friday, April 22, honored alumni who have attained distinction in their careers and become leaders in their communities. The recipients are exceptional individuals who are fulfilling Olin’s mission to produce world-class business leaders who have a strong value system and think on a global scale. 

“It’s my honor to be recognized as a 2022 Distinguished Alumni Awards recipient,” said Jeff. “My time at Washington University and Olin helped influence me as a person and a leader in a number of ways, but I think the most important was the confidence it gave me to move out of my comfort zone and take on something completely different. I’m humbled to be recognized alongside this year’s honorees and to join a growing list of respected previous recipients.” 

As Chairman and CEO, Jeff leads the development and execution of Perficient’s global growth strategy and initiatives and has played a central role in the company’s dramatic growth, managing organic expansion and leading Perficient’s M&A program, including the integration and assimilation of acquired businesses. Perficient consistently delivers operating metrics among the industry’s best and has grown into a leading consulting firm across many industries. During Jeff’s tenure, Perficient has grown to a more than $900 million annual revenue company with more than 6,500 global colleagues across four continents and 10 countries.  

Outside of Perficient, Jeff is an active member of the board of directors of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of St. Louis, is a member of the University of Missouri Trulaske College of Business advisory board, and sits on the board for St. Luke’s Hospital. 

READ MORE: Jeff Davis Talks About Appointment to St. Luke’s Hospital Board of Directors

Jeff was honored as a 2022 award recipient alongside these other distinguished alumni: 

• Chuck Cohn, founder, chairman and CEO of Nerdy 
• Jill Ackerman Jones, former executive vice president and former president of North America of Brown-Forman Corporation 
• Marie Winters, senior vice president and co-head of corporate fixed income research with Northern Trust Asset Management 

Pam Kendall-Rijos, managing director at Goldman Sachs, was also recognized as the 2022 Dean’s Medal Honoree during the ceremony. The 2022 recipients join an esteemed list of Olin Business School graduates who have also been recognized as Distinguished Alumni, including:  

• Dave Moellenhoff, cofounder of Salesforce  
• Nina Leigh Krueger, president of Nestlé Purina U.S. 
• Anne (Cook) Anderson, vice president, Aviation of Shell International Petroleum Company 
• Robert W. Beck, chief operating officer – US Retail Bank, Citigroup Inc. 
• Donald Imholz, executive vice president of operations and (retired) chief information officer of Centene Corporation 
• Lori (Mason) Lee, senior executive vice president and global marketing officer of AT&T 

Those who are honored with the Olin Distinguished Alumni Award share the qualities not only of leadership, but of progressive thinking, high standards, uncompromising integrity, commitment, courage, and confidence. Honorees have achieved success as executives who have driven innovation and delivered superior value to their organizations. They are shaping the future of their industries and the world. Because of this, they serve as a model for all Washington University students and alumni. 

Congratulations to Jeff and to the other 2022 recipients! 

Following his recent appointment to the board of directors of St. Luke’s Hospital, a faith-based, nonprofit healthcare provider headquartered in St. Louis, I chatted with Jeff Davis, Perficient Chairman and CEO, about the distinction and his goals for working with the healthcare provider.

Jeff, thanks for the time. A Board of Directors appointment is an honor. What is your reaction to your appointment with St. Luke’s hospital?

Thanks for the interest, Connor. It really is an exciting development that has been in the works for a while now, and I’m humbled that the board has extended me this opportunity. I’m looking forward to bringing my experience both as chairman of Perficient’s own Board of Directors and my time serving in similar capacities to help guide St. Luke’s Hospital going forward.

This isn’t your first experience serving on a board of directors outside of Perficient. Can you share more about other organizations in which you are involved?

I’m also a member of the board of directors for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of St. Louis and a member of the University of Missouri Trulaske College of Business advisory board. I’ve really enjoyed my time on both and seeing how each organization has strategically evolved over the years to meet the needs of their constituents.

These are just a few examples of how I’ve been able to give back to the community in ways that are personal to me, and that’s something that’s true across Perficient. Our colleagues are incredibly active in giving back to their communities in meaningful ways that are personal to them. It’s one aspect of our company that I take most pride in – our highly philanthropic culture.

We’re big believers in giving back to the communities in which we operate, and healthcare tends to be where we invest much of our time and energy from a charitable perspective. We’re heavily involved with Autism Speaks, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and several children’s hospitals on a local level across the country. Healthcare also happens to be our largest industry vertical, giving us experience on both an enterprise level and through community engagement efforts.

Read more about Perficient’s community engagement efforts at the Life at Perficient blog. 

Could you talk a little more about our work in the healthcare industry?

We have a lot of exposure to the biggest names in the space, including nine of the 10 largest healthcare providers and the five largest health insurance plans. Those relationships have given us several opportunities to do meaningful, cutting-edge work to help them reduce healthcare costs, engage health consumers, and deliver enhanced quality of care.

This deep expertise combined with our ability to deliver quality solutions has routinely earned us recognition by technology partners and industry organizations with high-profile growth and performance awards. Just this year, Perficient was named the sixth-largest healthcare IT consulting firms by Modern Healthcare and received a Microsoft Health Innovation Award for enabling personalized care for one of the largest U.S. healthcare systems.

Read more: Modern Healthcare Ranks Perficient Among Top Ten Largest Healthcare Management Consulting Firms

Read more: Perficient Named a 2020 Microsoft Health Innovation Award Winner

How do you expect that expertise to influence your tenure with St. Luke’s Hospital? Conversely, how will your time on the Board of Directors influence Perficient’s healthcare expertise?

From Perficient’s perspective, I think it goes back to exposure. St. Luke’s Hospital is a premiere healthcare provider in the St. Louis area, and working hand-in-hand with them in this capacity will help expand our knowledge about the needs of the entire healthcare system, spanning from providers to patients.

I’m looking forward to bringing a digital technology perspective to the board of directors. Healthcare organizations face constant pressure to conform to healthcare consumer expectations in a way that matches their experiences in the evolving consumer markets space. This, all the while meeting stringent regulatory demand. Healthcare organizations need to combine data, strategy, technology, and design to build strategies that meet these demands. I think having that strategic, digital outlook will only help St. Luke’s Hospital continue to grow and evolve.

Thanks again for the time today. Is there anything else you would like to add before we wrap up?

Thank you. Again, I’m really honored and humbled to have received this opportunity, and I’m excited to begin working with other board members and the executive leadership at St. Luke’s Hospital to benefit their stakeholders.    

Being a paramedic during the formative years of my working life, I’ve been surprised at how many of the lessons that I learned on the job have translated to the business world.

Watching EMS on TV and movies, especially when it’s fictional, is always entertaining. Everything goes smoothly, there’s very little blood (or anything else), and saving people is easy and always successful. Reality is something quite different. Life is messy, but it’s also beautiful. As a paramedic, I had the honor and duty of assisting as people took their first and last breaths.

Each process was hard in its own way, and ultimately provided insights into life that I would have gotten nowhere else.

Each of these times is so important for the person, but also for those who are present, whether a loved one or a bystander. When an infant is born, there are many things that can go wrong that we have to watch out for. Ultimately, though, if it has to be done in the field with a paramedic, we still try to make the experience as focused on mother and child as possible.

When someone is dying and a paramedic is called, we know it’s not going to be easy for anyone. Working an arrest/impending arrest (the term we use in the field) is the ultimate test of the skills and knowledge that we have gained as paramedics. It’s where we use most of the medications we carry, our EKG and physical assessment skills, airway management skills, and do it while also managing physically demanding work like CPR.

It’s a lot to do on a physical level, and it takes its toll emotionally as well, never mind for any family that may be there. We’re also trained to make the process of death as dignified as we can, despite what we have to do and how we have to do it. We talk to our patients and to the family. We provide what cover we can, and we help families begin the grieving process if we can as well.

So, what does this have to do with business? The transitions we have as employees, whether starting or leaving a job, are substantial life events with stress impacts of their own. Using the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory as a means to quantify stressful events on a 0-100 scale, we see that while losing a close family member scores a 63, being fired is still a substantial stressor at 47, retirement a 45, business readjustment 39, changes in financial state 38, and changing lines of work 36[1].

This scale is useful in predicting the likelihood of near-future illnesses, with scores of 150-299 predicting a 50% rate of illness, and over 300 producing an 80% risk[2]. Clearly job transitions create stress for us, even if they are positive moves.

In retrospect, my move into consulting had several associated stressors. When the scores are combined, it created a stress score over 100 – more stressful than the death of a spouse[3]. When we view these transitions in this context, we begin to see the need to ensure that the transition is designed to reduce stress as much as possible.

When brought into a new job at a new company, there is almost always some kind of orientation or onboarding process.

When surveyed, companies report that the basics are delivered: administrative items (88%), an introduction to the business as a whole (86%), legalities and procedures – the policy manual (85%)[4]. But what other efforts are provided to ensure that the transition from one position to another?

When performing research on the transition of newly hired executives of VP or above, just over half of companies actively work to ensure that a newly hired leader has her/his expectations aligned with new teams and bosses[5]. One-third organize introductions between new executive and stakeholders he or she will be interacting with, and fewer still work to familiarize them with the culture[6]. This leads to most new executives in an organization feeling like they don’t understand the basic norms of how their new company works, and that nearly 2/3 are not a fit with the culture they hired into[7].

One could argue that if this “sink or swim” approach is taken with VPs, things are probably worse for new rank-and-file employees. This may be part of why 40% of employees voluntarily leave their jobs within six months of hire, and 56% within a year[8]. Culture and opportunity are a large part of this trend[9].

As I wrote about in last week’s blog, bringing new employees on is an investment, and like any investment, there should be a positive return for the business. If a substantial portion of hired employees depart within the first 6 months to year, there is considerable cost to the business. Too often, leadership fixates on short-term costs of investing in employees, but we repeatedly find that those investments have substantial returns.

When companies invest in onboarding employees – spending up to a year on helping them leverage the skills and experience that they were hired for and integrating them into the culture and organization – profits are measurably increased[10]. Reduced costs and increased profits along with improvements in engagement, productivity, and talent attraction[11]? Win-win.

That, on average, 17% of new employees leave within the first three months is a difficult statistic for a company to manage, especially with the associated costs[12]. However, we all recognize that employment is necessarily a temporary agreement, whether it will last for weeks, years, or decades.

The end of that relationship should be treated with care and dignity. The loss of an employee and/or leader, especially one who has been with the company for an extended period can have significant impact on the business and must be managed effectively.

Perhaps the most feared loss with a long-term employee is the institutional knowledge that goes with the individual. Trying to capture all of that information after an employee has given notice can present a formidable set of challenges. Ideally, leadership will be looking across the organization and identifying where those single points-of-failure are, and having that information formally documented, backups delegated, jobs shadowed, etc., long before notice is given so that when that employee finally leaves the transition is much more positive.

It’s dangerous to assume that the person in that role will, or even can, document what they do and how they do it, and that they can do so in a typical job departure window. Leadership should be evaluating its workforce with what I call the “Powerball” test: think about each employee, one at a time, and decide how bad the impact would be were that employee to call on a Monday morning and say “I won $500 million in the Powerball, and I won’t be coming back to work.”

If any of these scenarios causes leadership to break out in a cold sweat, it is time to start distributing and preserving knowledge[13].

In my personal experience, one of the most forgotten and underutilized tools is the exit interview, if it is even conducted at all. Two-thirds of exit interviews are talk-based with no effective follow-up[14]. There certainly is cause for discounting the word of departing employees for fear of overvaluing the word of the disgruntled.

However, there is value in asking how and why that employee became disgruntled. We hire people to be excited and optimistic about the work they are doing, and we hope to bring them to a place where they will fit in and join our culture and be successful. If that didn’t happen, or if something changed and an employee that has served well for years suddenly departs, it is worth investigating what the root cause is, in case a problem that cost one employee grows to cost much more. Identification of ineffective or dangerous policies, toxic management, or similar situations can be difficult.

We know that high turnover and low performance go hand-in-hand, so if performing effective exit interviews can reduce turnover, there can be a positive return on investment[15].

Even for employees that are involuntarily departing, maintaining dignity throughout the situation also provides substantial benefits. By providing the departing employee with a departure that allows for that person to leave with a positive experience – yes, this is possible – can yield numerous benefits for the company in the long term[16].

While, obviously there are some instances in which a terminated employee must be shown out immediately, many terminations can be handled differently. Employees who are to be terminated can be given a departure plan that allows for job hunting and a departure to a new position rather than a period of unemployment will obviously leave with preserved dignity, but also a better reputation and have an easier time finding work[17].

That tends to ensure that the relationship with that employee is intact, if not improved[18]. With as small as some circles can be within industries, that preserved relationship can mean the difference between earned or lost business. The business also benefits with reduced risk of legal exposure resulting from the termination, an easier shift of duties to the newly responsible, and a better relationship between leadership and employees[19].

Ultimately, the entire lifecycle of employment is worth investing in as an overall strategy for the business. Investment in the company’s people, as well as product, customers, and sales, provides a net positive return for long-term success and growth.

[1] https://www.dartmouth.edu/~eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf

[2] ibid

[3] ibid

[4] https://hbr.org/2017/05/onboarding-isnt-enough

[5] ibid

[6] ibid

[7] ibid

[8] https://www.inc.com/adam-vaccaro/voluntary-turnover-six-months.html

[9] ibid

[10] https://hbr.org/2017/06/your-new-hires-wont-succeed-unless-you-onboard-them-properly

[11] https://tallyfy.com/benefits-of-onboarding-new-employees/

[12] https://hbr.org/2017/06/your-new-hires-wont-succeed-unless-you-onboard-them-properly

[13] https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-right-way-to-off-board-a-departing-employee

[14] https://hbr.org/2016/04/making-exit-interviews-count

[15] ibid

[16] https://hbr.org/2018/08/a-more-humane-approach-to-firing-people

[17] Ibid

[18] ibid

[19] Ibid

Conversations with our clients have shed light on what’s taking place in their organizations and how they’re approaching their need to become more profitable. It’s evident that, for many, transformation initiatives are in development or already in place. These initiatives are not short-term plans, but rather ones that span many months or even years. Without a doubt, some companies are going for quick wins – initiatives that can be carried out quickly, achieve efficiency immediately, and have a positive effect on the balance sheet. At the end of the day, any boost in revenue or reduction in expenses creates improved shareholder value.

These transformation initiatives enable companies to become more efficient and profitable. Streamlined operations foster an environment in which employees can focus on building stronger relationships with their customers, placing effort where it’s needed most. It’s a strategy that will help reduce financial and regulatory risk. It’s a strategy that benefits customers and shareholders equally. It’s a strategy for success and the long-term.

As we learn about the inner workings of these transformation initiatives, it becomes clear that they are either driven from the very top or, at the very least, have strong support from executives across departments. Management is being held accountable for achieving their goals of improved performance and profitability. They are not being judged by the effort put into these initiatives, but rather by the results.

In our newest thought leadership piece, The Executive’s Guide to Driving Efficiency in Financial Services, we explore:

• How can organizations drive efficiency?
• What initiatives do companies have in place?
• What have been the results of these programs thus far?

Click here to download it.

DCM (DataPower Configuration Manager) is an open source tool published by IBM for automating and simplifying the configuration and management of IBM DataPower appliances (with the exception of the XC10).  It can be used standalone OR within IBM UrbanCode Deploy platform.  Business partners, clients or anyone else for that matter can contribute enhancement or fixes to the tool.

DCM uses DataPower’s XML Management Interface (XMI) to interact and manipulate appliance’s management tasks in automated fashion. DCM uses ANT scripting to fully automate the build, deployment and release process of DataPower configuration and management.

One does need to be familiar with ANT to effectively use DCM. A simple ANT build file, deploy.ant.xml, included with the DCM distribution serves several simple purposes:

• Common deployment tasks at domain level and some at device level.
• DCM provided ANT based task and targets for custom deployment builds.

Some of the common deployment tasks provided in deploy.ant.xml include create, delete, backup (export), restore (import), reset, restart, quiesce, unquiesce, and save domains. Additional task are delete/restore/save checkpoints, Upload files or directories, valcred creation, create/delete/modify objects, and create/remove host aliases.

Deploy.ant.xml build file relies on certain ANT properties such as host, domain, uid, pwd, port, and some of the file location for backup, import, export, and upload files in addition to upload-to and upload-from directory locations. One very important property is the dcm.dir that points to the directory where DCM is installed. These properties could be provided in a <filename>.properties file and included within the custom build script or provided within an ANT call, such as following:

Ant –f deploy.ant.xml –propertyfile <filename>.properties check-access

Where check-access is a target defined within ANT script to checks access to DataPower device using the provided host, user id, and password.

Once installed and properly functioning, Using DCM effectively requires a little planning such as how to structure property files and the DCM definition files to best fit your needs. Thus little exploration of DCM directory and included files would be beneficial.

Step by step instructions and files :

Download the DCM zip file here.

Prerequisites:

1)    JDK 1.6 or later

2)    Apache Ant 1.8.1 or later (DCM is packaged with 1.9.4 and UCD plugin)

3)    Xalan-J for Oracle/SUN JDK version (comes included with IBM JDK)

I have downloaded xalan-j 2.7.1-src-2jars for stability.

Installation:

1. Ensure JDK is installed and is included in the PATH
2. Ensure Ant 1.8.1 is installed and is included in the PATH
3. Include following five Xalan JAR files in the CLASSPATH
   1. xalan.jar
   2. serializer.jar
   3. xml-apis.jar
   4. xercesImpl.jar
   5. xsltc.jar
4. Ensure DataPower device’s XML Management Interface (XMI) is enabled
5. Test if DCM is properly working using the following command

ant -f deploy.ant.xml -Ddcm.dir=<path of dcm directory> -Dhost=<IP/hostname of the DP device> -Duid=<user ID> -Dpwd=<user Password> check-access

*use -Dport=<port #> if XML Management Interface is enabled on a port other than the default (5550)

*if -Dpwd=<user Password> is omitted in the above command then user will be prompted for password

Further test with other tasks:

Create or delete a domain by introducing the following in the above command instead of check-access

-Ddomain=<domain name> domain-create save

-Ddomain=<domain name> domain-delete save

Create a <fileName>.properties file that contains these ANT variables.

# DP credentials 

dcm.dir=<path of dcm directory>

host=<IP/hostName of the DP device>

uid=<user ID>

pwd=<user Password> (this could be omitted for security reason. Omitting it will prompt the user for password)

Use the following command to create a domain and save the configurations.

ant -f deploy.ant.xml -propertyfile <fileName>.properties domain-create save

While domain-create is a target within deploy.ant.xml, it utilizes the task of createDomain to serve the purpose.

DCM provides a number of tasks that can be utilized in customized build files. These tasks are defined in dcm\dcm-distros\dcm_1.0.1\src\dcm-taskdefs.ant file

Overtime, I’ve written about keeping your TM1 model design “architecturally pure”. What this means is that you should strive to keep a models “areas of functionality” distinct within your design.

Common Components

I believe that all TM1 applications, for example, are made of only 4 distinct “areas of functionality”. They are absorption (of key information from external data sources), configuration (of assumptions about the absorbed data), calculation (where the specific “magic” happens; i.e. business logic is applied to the source data using the set assumptions) and consumption (of the information processed by the application and is ready to be reported on).

Some Advantages

Keeping functional areas distinct has many advantages:

• Reduces complexity and increases sustainability within components
• Reduces the possibility of one component negativity effecting another
• Enables the probability of reuse of the particular (distinct) components
• Promotes a technology independent design; meaning components can be built using the technology that best fits their particular objective
• Allows components to be designed, developed and supported by independent groups
• Diminishes duplication of code, logic, data, etc.
• Etc.

Resist the Urge

There is always a tendency to “jump in” and “do it all” using a single tool or technology or, in the case of Cognos TM1, a few enormous cubes and today, with every release of software, there are new “package connectors” that allow you to directly connect (even external) system components. In addition, you may “understand the mechanics” of how a certain technology works which will allow you to “build” something, but without comprehensive knowledge of architectural concepts, you may end up with something that does not scale, has unacceptable performance or is costly to sustain.

Final Thoughts

Some final thoughts:

• Try white boarding the functional areas before writing any code
• Once you have your “like areas” defined, search for already existing components that may meet your requirements
• If you do decide to “build new”, try to find other potential users for the new functionality. Could you partner and co-produce (and thus share the costs) a component that you both can use?
• Before building a new component, “try out” different technologies. Which best serves the need of these components objectives? (A rule of thumb, if you can find more than 3 other technologies or tools that better fit your requirements than the technology you planned to use, you’re in trouble!).

And finally:

Always remember, just because you “can” doesn’t mean you “should”.

Vision

Most organizations today have had successes implementing technology and they are happy to tell you about it. From a tactical perspective, they understand how to install, configure and use whatever software you are interested in. They are “practitioners”. But, how may can bring a “strategic vision” to a project or to your organization in general?

An “enterprise” or “strategic” vision is based upon an “evolutionary roadmap” that starts with the initial “evaluation and implementation” (of a technology or tool), continues with “building and using” and finally (hopefully) to the organization, optimization and management of all of the earned knowledge (with the tool or technology). You should expect that whoever you partner with can explain what their practice vision or mythology is or, at least talk to the “phases” of the evolution process:

Evaluation and Implementation

The discovery and evaluation that takes place with any new tool or technology is the first phase of a practices evolution. A practice should be able to explain how testing is accomplished and what it covers How was it that they determined if the tool/technology to be used will meet or exceed your organization’s needs? Once a decision is made, are they practiced at the installation, configuration and everything that may be involved in deploying the new tool or technology for use?

Build, Use, Repeat

Once deployed, and “building and using” components with that tool or technology begin, the efficiency at which these components are developed as well as the level of quality of those developed components will depend upon the level of experience (with the technology) that a practice possess. Typically, “building and using” is repeated with each successful “build” so how many times has the practice successfully used this technology? By human nature, once a solution is “built” and seems correct and valuable, it will be saved and used again. Hopefully, this solution would have been shared as a “knowledge object” across the practice. Although most may actually reach this phase, it is not uncommon to find:

• Objects with similar or duplicate functionality (they reinvented the wheel over and over).
• Poor naming and filing of objects (no one but the creator knows it exists or perhaps what it does)
• Objects not shared (objects visible only to specific groups or individuals, not the entire practice)
• Objects that are obsolete or do not work properly or optimally are being used.
• Etc.

Manage & Optimization

At some point, usually while (or after a certain number of) solutions have been developed, a practice will “mature its development or delivery process” to the point that it will begin investing time and perhaps dedicate resources to organize, manage and optimize its developed components (i.e. “organizational knowledge management”, sometimes known as IP or intellectual property).

You should expect a practice to have a recognized practice leader and a “governing committee” to help identify and manage knowledge developed by the practice and:

• inventory and evaluate all known (and future) knowledge objects
• establish appropriate naming standards and styles
• establishing appropriate development and delivery standards
• create, implement and enforce a formal testing strategy
• continually develop “the vision” for the practice (and perhaps the industry)

More

As I’ve mentioned, a practice needs to take a strategic or enterprise approach to how it develops and delivers and to do this it must develop its “vision”. A vision will ensure that the practice is leveraging its resources (and methodologies) to achieve the highest rate of success today and over time. This is not simply “administrating the environment” or “managing the projects” but involves structured thought, best practices and continued commitment to evolved improvement. What is your vision?

The OpenPages GRC platform includes 5 main “operational modules”. These modules are each designed to address specific organizational needs around Governance, Risk, and Compliance.

Operational Risk Management module “ORM”

The Operational Risk Management module is a document and process management tool which includes a monitoring and decision support system enabling an organization to analyze, manage, and mitigate risk simply and efficiently. The module automates the process of identifying, measuring, and monitoring operational risk by combining all risk data (such as risk and control self-assessments, loss events, scenario analysis, external losses, and key risk indicators (KRI)), into a single place.

Financial Controls Management module “FCM”

The Financial Controls Management module reduces time and resource costs associated with compliance for financial reporting regulations. This module combines document and process management with awesome interactive reporting capabilities in a flexible, adaptable easy-to-use environment, enabling users to easily perform all the necessary activities for complying with financial reporting regulations.

Policy and Compliance Management module “PCM”

The Policy and Compliance Management module is an enterprise-level compliance management solution that reduces the cost and complexity of compliance with multiple regulatory mandates and corporate policies. This model enables companies to manage and monitor compliance activities through a full set of integrated functionality:

• Regulatory Libraries & Change Management
• Risk & Control Assessments
• Policy Management, including Policy Creation, Review & Approval and Policy Awareness
• Control Testing & Issue Remediation
• Regulator Interaction Management
• Incident Tracking
• Key Performance Indicators
• Reporting, monitoring, and analytics

IBM OpenPages IT Governance module “ITG”

This module aligns IT services, risks, and policies with corporate business initiatives, strategies, and operational standards. Allowing the management of internal IT control and risk according to the business processes they support. In addition, this module unites “silos” of IT risk and compliance delivering visibility, better decision support, and ultimately enhanced performance.

IBM OpenPages Internal Audit Management module “IAM”

This module provides internal auditors with a view into an organizations governance, risk, and compliance, affording the chance to supplement and coexist with broader risk and compliance management activities throughout the organization.

One Solution

The IBM OpenPages GRC Platform Modules Object Model (“ORM”, “FCM”, “PCM”, “ITG” an “IAM”) interactively deliver a superior solution for Governance, Risk, and Compliance. More to come!

When preparing to deploy the OpenPages platform, you’ll need to follow these steps:

1. Determine which server environment you will deploy to – Windows or AIX.
2. Determine your topology – how many servers will you include as part of the environment? Multiple application servers? 1 or more reporting servers?
3. Perform the installation of the OpenPages prerequisite software for the chosen environment -and for each server’s designed purpose (database, application or reporting).
4. Perform the OpenPages installation, being conscious of the software that is installed as part of that process.

Topology

Depending upon your needs, you may find that you’ll want to use separate servers for your application, database and reporting servers. In addition, you may want to add additional application or reporting servers to your topology.

After the topology is determined you can use the following information to prepare your environment. I recommend clean installs (meaning starting with fresh or new machines and VM’s are just fine (“The VMWare performance on a virtualized system is comparable to native hardware. You can use the OpenPages hardware requirements for sizing VM environments” – IBM).

(Note – this is if you’ve chosen to go Oracle rather than DB2):

MS Windows Severs

All servers that will be part of the OpenPages environment must have the following installed before proceeding:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and later Service Packs (64-bit operating system)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (or 8.0 in Compatibility View mode)
• A file compression utility, such as WinZip
• A PDF reader (such as Adobe Acrobat)

The Database Server

In addition to the above “all servers” software, your database server will require the following software:

• Oracle 11gR2 (11.2.0.1) and any higher Patch Set – the minimum requirement is Oracle 11.2.0.1 October 2010 Critical Patch Update.

Application Server(s)

Again, in addition to the above “all servers” software, the server that hosts the OpenPages application modules should have the following software installed:

• JDK 1.6 or greater, 64-bit Note: This is a prerequisite only if your OpenPages product does not include WebLogic Server.
• Application Server Software (one of the following two options)

o   IBM Websphere Application Server ND 7.0.0.13 and any higher Fix Pack Note: Minimum requirement is Websphere 7.0.0.13.

o   Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.2 and any higher Patch Set Note: Minimum requirement is Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.2. This is a prerequisite only if your OpenPages product does not include Oracle WebLogic Server.

• Oracle Database Client 11gR2 (11.2.0.1) and any higher Patch Set

Reporting Server(s)

The server that you intend to host the OpenPages CommandCenter must have the following software installed (in addition to the above “all servers” software):

• Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 or Apache HTTP Server 2.2.14 or greater
• Oracle Database Client 11g R2 (11.2.0.1) and any higher Patch Set

During the OpenPages Installation Process

As part of the OpenPages installation, the following is installed automatically:

For Oracle WebLogic Server & IBM WebSphere Application Server environments:

• The OpenPages application
• Fujitsu Interstage Business Process Manager (BPM) 10.1
• IBM Cognos 10.2
• OpenPages CommandCenter
• JRE 1.6 or greater

If your OpenPages product includes the Oracle WebLogic Server:

• Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.2

If your OpenPages product includes the Oracle Database:

• Oracle Database Server Oracle 11G Release 2 (11.2.0.1) Standard Edition with October 2010 CPU Patch (on a database server system)
• Oracle Database Client 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.1) with October 2010 CPU Patch applied 64-bit (on an application server system)
• Oracle Database Client 11g Release 2 (11.2.0.1) with October 2010 CPU Patch applied 32-bit (on a reporting server system)

 Thanks!

In the beginning…

OpenPages was a company “born” in Massachusetts, providing Governance, Risk, and Compliancesoftware and services to customers. Founded in 1996, OpenPages had more than 200 customers worldwide including Barclays, Duke Energy, and TIAA-CREF. On October 21, 2010, OpenPages was officially acquired by IBM:

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32808.wss

What is it?

OpenPages provides a technology driven way of understanding the full scope of risk an organization faces. In most cases, there is extreme fragmentation of a company’s risk information – like data collected and maintained in numerous disparate spreadsheets – making aggregation of the risks faced by a company extremely difficult and unmanageable.

Key Features

IBM’s OpenPages GRC Platform can help by providing many capabilities to simplify and centralize compliance and risk management activities. The key features include:

• Provides a shared content repository that can (logically) present the processes, risks and controls in many-to-many and shared relationships.
• Supports the import of corporate data and maintains an audit trail ensuring consistent regulatory enforcement and monitoring across multiple regulations.
• Supports dynamic decision making with its CommandCenter interface, which provides interactive, real-time executive dashboards and reports with drill-down.
• Is simple to configure and localize with detailed user-specific tasks and actions accessible from a personal browser based home page.
• Provides for Automation of Workflow for management assessment, process design reviews, control testing, issue remediation and sign-offs and certifications.
• Utilizes Web Services for Integration. OpenPages utilizes OpenAccess API Interoperate with leading third-party applications to enhance policies and procedures with actual business data.
  

Understanding the Topology

The OpenPages GRC Platform consists of the following 3 components:

• 1 database server
• 1 or more application servers
• 1 or more reporting servers

Database Server

The database is the centralized repository for metadata, (versions of) application data, and access control. OpenPages requires a set of database users and a tablespace (referred to as the “OpenPages database schema”). These database components install automatically during the OpenPages application installation, configuring all of the required elements. You can use either Oracle or DB2 for your OpenPages GRC Platform repository.

 Application Server(s)

The application server is required to host the OpenPages applications. The application server runs the application modules, and includes the definition and administration of business metadata, UI views, user profiles, and user authorization.

 Reporting Server

The OpenPages CommandCenter is installed on the same computer as IBM Cognos BI and acts as the reporting server.

Next Steps

An excellent next step would be to visit the ibm site and review the available slides and whitepapers. After that, keep tuned to this blog!

Recently I completed upgrading a client’s IBM Cognos environment – both TM1 and BI. It was a “jump” from Cognos 8 to version 10.2, and TM1 9.5 to version 10.2.2. In this environment, we had multiple virtual servers (Cognos lives on one, TM1 on one and the third is the gateway/webserver).

Once the software was all installed and configured (using IBM Cognos Configuration and, yes, you still need to edit the TM1 configuration cfg file), we started the services and (it appeared) everything looked good. I spin through the desktop applications (Perspectives, Architect, etc.) and then go the Web browser, first to test TM1Web:

http:// stingryweb:9510/tm1web/

The familiar page loads:

But when I enter my credentials, I get the following:

Go to Goggle

Since an installation and configuration is not something you do every day, goggle reports that there are evidentially 2 files that the installation placed on the web server that belong on the Cognos BI server. These files need to be located, edited and then copied to the correct location for TM1Web to use IBM Cognos authentication security.

What files?

There are 2 files; an XML file (variables_TM1.xml.sample) and an HTML file (tm1web.html). These can be found on the server that you installed TM1Web – or can they? Turns out, they are not found individually but are included in zip files:

Tm1web_app.zip (that is where you’ll find the xml file) and tm1web_gateway.zip (and that is where you will find tm1web.html):

I found mine in:

Program Files\ibm\cognos\tm1_64\webapps\tm1web\bi_files

Make them your own

Once you unzip (the files) you need to rename the xml file (to drop the “.sample”) and place it onto the Cognos BI server in:

Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\templates\ps\portal.

Next, edit the file (even though it’s an XML file, its small so you can use notepad). What you need to do is modify the URL’s (the “localhost” string should be replaced with the name of the server running TM1Web.) within the <urls> tags. You’ll find three (one for TM1WebLogin.aspx, one for TM1WebLoginHandler.aspx and one for TM1WebMain.aspx).

Now, copy your tm1web.html file to (on the Cognos BI server)

Program Files\ibm\cognos\c10_64\webcontent\tm1\web and edit it (again, you can use notepad). One more thing, the folder “tm1” may need to be manually created.

The html file update is straight forward (you need to point to where Cognos TM1 Web is running) and there is only a single line in the file. You change:

var tm1webServices = [“http://localhost:8080”];

To:

var tm1webServices = [“http:// stingryweb:9510”];

Now, after stopping and starting the servers web services:

The above steps are simple; you just need to be aware of these extra, very manual steps….