Rising Tech Stars

The Rising Stars Award honors IT professionals that are on the fast track to becoming the future technology leaders in the Greater Cincinnati region.

In the technology projects that I run, I have to constantly shift focus to the people and the process changes that it causes. In the telehealth arena, there is an unwritten “85/15” rule that implies that 15 percent of implementing a technology change is the capability itself and about 85 percent adopt technology change, i.e., staffing for IT, embracing the change, ensuring a net benefit, learning for the next technology change, etc. Standing up the technology is easy; adoption is always the greater challenge.

Paycor has given me so much flexibility and support, both in exploring different processes and ideas at work and in my efforts outside of my job. Since moving here two years ago, I’ve been co-organizing the Cincinnati User Enjoyment group, which Paycor has frequently sponsored and hosted. I’m also excited to co-chair the committee organizing the 2017 Midwest UX conference that will be held in Over-the-Rhine in October.

By 2020, an additional 3 billion people will be connected to the internet. My hope is that technology will become a commodity that will be used to enhance and change people’s lives for the better. Just as social media has helped connect more of us, next generation platforms and Internet of Things (IoT) devices will address opportunities in agriculture, medicine and education.

Technology is taking an interesting turn as it tends to do every few years. This is not a trend, however, this is where technology is going. With the cloud, the “IoT” and “Everything as a service,” the internet has never been easier to reach. It will continue to grow and be able to serve entire networks and IT departments.

Strategic internet marketing has become the most important initiative for lead generation and conversion in the marketplace of today. Organizations will continue to re-appropriate dollars to online marketing efforts and bolstering of their web presence. These efforts will be focused around getting prospects’ eyes on their organization by delivering to Google key ranking signals to become best placed on the world’s largest search engine.

The IOT is rapidly becoming a technology trend that no company, large or small, can ignore. It is changing how business is done and products are built. Executive teams everywhere need to understand what their strategy is to take advantage of IoT. This trend is being exacerbated by the combination of cloud computing with edge computing. This hybrid-computing layer means enterprise IT groups must evolve to deliver much-needed data-driven IOT applications.

As a cloud services provider, we’re excited about the advancement of software-defined networking and stack products like CloudStack and OpenStack. We’re leveraging these technologies to break down the barriers of cloud adoption, making it easier for business leaders to shift their technology infrastructure to the cloud and reap the benefits of agility, security, performance and predictable costs.

Business applications are rapidly transitioning into products that provide instant insights and actions to consumers. Persona-based development and user centricity are becoming key design concepts. We are evolving towards smart applications that can anticipate the needs of the user and offer one-click actions to finish atomic tasks. The creativity is in building intelligence to remove the mundane and intuitively do what truly matters.

We are going to start to see new, creative applications of artificial intelligence to improve how businesses operate and perform daily routine tasks. 

There is a big push to utilize cloud, but that isn’t a technology that will or should replace on-premise (local infrastructure) solutions entirely. Once the hype has worn off cloud solutions, I believe organizations will be using both cloud and on-premise solutions to fit their IT needs. The blend of cloud and on-premise solutions will change depending on performance, security, availability and cost requirements. 

Cloud services and software-as-a-service is driving businesses to implement leaner systems. Many smaller businesses can run on less hardware and utilize cloud services. They become easily scalable, decrease data responsibility and increase mobility.

The cloud has more companies reaching out to the internet for services and more employees connecting with company data through mobile devices. Security is the highest priority and a trusted technology partnership is an asset for many businesses today.

Technology and how we communicate with our customers, suppliers and vendors is changing faster than ever before. Mid- to large-size organizations will begin to fully realize the scalability of cloud services provided by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and the like. These organizations will look at ways to more easily access these services while keeping their network secure. With that in mind, I see tremendous growth in the areas of SD-WAN (Cisco Software) and cyber security in the next two years.

I’ve noticed that technology advancements within senior living communities are taking off. The ideas of sensors, wearables, etc., have become reality and allow more of the elderly community to age in place while providing better overall care. Since these devices utilize Wi-Fi or Bluetooth standards, physicians, nurses and aides are all able to receive real-time alerts (via short message service, email or phone) when a sensor detects a change in the patient’s health.

An overlooked irony of big data is how analysts have abdicated critical thinking to the “big black box.” My father jokes that I am not a legitimate engineer because I cannot read a slide rule, but his larger point that a calculator alters your mindset from thinking about how a problem is solved to “plugging and chugging” an answer is well taken. In a similar sense, we in business intelligence have a responsibility to coach/mentor analysts that understanding how data is converted into information matters more than the resulting numbers.

I view the Industrial Internet as the next wave of technology. With this concept, airplanes, for example, generate data that can be turned into practical uses like predictive maintenance. Have you ever been on a flight that was canceled due to the captain saying the airplane needed maintenance? By using the power of cloud-based technology and data science, we are accurately predicting and avoiding these situations. It saves money for the airlines and makes travelers happy.

At First Transit, our technology focus is on creating robust, secure cloud-based applications to enhance business process for mobility services. Operating in an environment where our worldwide customers have different systems and platforms, it’s important that we provide timely data and access for our employees and partners to keep our passengers moving.

I see access to real-time data and automation as an important trend. The ability to access data on varying devices and react quickly provides a competitive edge to manufacturers. Automated systems that help manage quality assurance and maximize process efficiency also provide an advantage. The technology in both of these areas is only getting better.

I find that agile software development will continue to grow and become more relevant for all types of IT projects. My team also focuses on the integration of our project management system with our IT service management tool and works to improve collaboration with that tool. I continue to focus on hiring project managers who are highly emotionally intelligent; that has become key to our success. These three trends will move us forward into 2017 and beyond. 

One of the most exciting trends I’m seeing are simplified, device-agnostic collaboration tools. We’ve had access to proprietary, one-trick ponies for some time. However, seamlessly mating the different brand-named technologies in the past has been an enigma. Recent offerings have shown participating in a video conference or screen share can be accomplished with the download of a mobile application or browser extension. If the solution is complicated or unreliable, then end users will not adopt it. Collaboration without borders is a strategic advantage for all companies.

The acceptance of technology in sports entertainment is rapidly growing and continuing to have a positive impact, from the use of data analytics to having mobile devices providing near real-time data at managers’ and coaches’ fingertips. The continued innovation, utilization and optimization of our technological resources will not only help players to get better, but it will continue to bring new and exciting experiences to the fans.