IT IS UNUSUAL to find a one-man IT department, and rarer still to find a lone technologist who is the CTO.

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But Tony Roberts, CTO of WorkSpace International (WSI) in Kennesaw, Ga., has that distinction. "When I came on board at WSI," Roberts says, "there wasn't even a technology department -- so I was it."

WSI manufactures, distributes, and imports furniture. In the fall of 2000 one of the vice presidents at WSI realized it was time to bring some technology expertise in house. "WSI was one of my customers," explains Roberts, who became acquainted with the company through his consulting business. What WSI needed was someone to help move the company's technology forward about 20 years. "They [WSI] were still using Wyse [Wyse Technology in San Jose, Calif.]: 60 dumb terminals with character-based, green screens," he says.

The primary application on this arcane infrastructure was a financial application called Facts from Software Solutions in Duluth, Ga. "Software Solutions provided us with conversion programs for the upgrade," Roberts says. "Most of the work involved coordinating the hardware replacement."

Roberts got his start in technology with the U.S. Navy, troubleshooting the repair of auto-flight-control systems. He left the navy to begin a 13-year career with IBM, which ended in 1991.

"My career there just wasn't headed where I wanted to go," Roberts says. But all that time at IBM turned out to be a good investment. The Computer Task Group (CTG), a business software and services company, had purchased IBM's DMAS (Distributed Management Accounting System), a product that Roberts knew well. "They [CTG] hunted me down," Roberts says. "I found that flattering."

In January 1995, Software Solutions bought DMAS from CTG. "They also bought the support staff," Roberts says, "so I came along with the deal."

At Software Solutions, Roberts added Unix and Windows expertise to his résumé -- a résumé that was already well-padded with most of IBM's non-Unix operating systems.

By March 2000, Roberts was ready to start his own consulting company, Dr. Roberts, Inc. "In my first six months, I did $40,000 worth of business,"he says.

Later that year, Roberts also took on the CTO role at WSI. "So far I have been able to manage things here by myself," he says. But he also knows that could soon change.

In June, Safco, a marketer of office products in Minneapolis, bought WSI. Safco is part of an even bigger company, Liberty Diversified. WSI's current systems were designed for a midsize, stand-alone company, and Roberts says they will have to go.

Analyst Harry Tse at the Yankee Group in Boston, says it won't be easy. "It is especially hard to integrate financial systems," Tse says. "This is because of the large amount and scope of the information involved."

Tse adds that working with a relatively unknown system such as Facts makes the job even tougher. "Most enterprise application integration products come with predefined connectors or adapters for integrating and moving data," he explains. "But these are pretty much confined to the top three or four players."

Roberts agrees that integrating his systems with the new parent organization will be his biggest challenge to date as CTO. "I am not sure how they plan to organize the various IT departments. I may have to hire some more people," he says.

But he thinks one thing will not change. "So far they have said I can keep the CTO title."