Software Council of Southern California

Many firms are now using offshore as part of their solution set, but not all are successfully meeting their objectives. Companies that outsource seek high-performance relationships and often lower costs, but this is harder than it first appears for software development which is complex, requiring significant interactions with teams during requirement gathering, design, testing, and implementation.

What project management skills do you need to succeed in such an environment? What steps are required for your firm to obtain the promised benefits?

Our panel of distinguished experts will provide an opportunity to learn about effective offshore outsourcing practices from several perspectives, as well as how to deal with the "hot topics" of today.

The panel will discuss effective management practices for offshore IT initiatives -high-level governance, as well as share hands-on lessons learned from a start-up perspective:

· The basis for a decision to outsource offshore -- when an offshore model really makes sense
· Vendor selection considerations
· Project management tasks, effective techniques, and skills needed for success
· The critical role of communication
· Contract administration tasks and effective techniques.

We will also discuss how to deal with today's hot political issues - intellectual property, security and privacy concerns, government regulations, and employee backlash.

This is the first joint meeting in 2004 between AITP-LA and SCSC. We hope you will join us for this special event!

Panelists:

Richard A. Hopfer, Jr., Senior Vice President - Information Technology, Sony Pictures
Rick Hopfer became Senior Vice President of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Information Technology Department in July 2002. As Senior Vice President of Information Technology, his day-to-day operating responsibilities include overseeing the Divisional Chief Information Officers (DCIO) organization's business lines (Production, Television, Motion Picture, Home Entertainment and Corporate), insure priorities are aligned with business, resources properly allocated, monitor maintenance, support and project activities, manage executive relationships, sponsor and support enterprise initiatives.

Prior to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Rick was Vice President, Chief Information Officer for Homestore.com. His responsibilities included technology infrastructure and operations, developing and delivering web based consumer and professional products, back office development and assisting in the creation of unparalleled home-buying experiences for customers on a global basis.
As an experienced information technology industry leader, Rick brings over 25 years of experience in fast-paced and innovative information technology enabled companies. Previously, as an executive at Simon & Schuster, he was responsible for application development. In this role he helped transform the systems and capabilities of one of the world's largest international publishers, and developed an expertise in the internet and transaction processing platform issues of mixed media online. Prior to Simon & Schuster, Rick led many advanced technology and applications development initiatives as Vice President and Senior Architect for Bankers Trust Company in New York, and as Vice President of Research and Development for Aetna Life and Casualty in Hartford, Connecticut.

Rick is a graduate from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems. He is a frequent industry speaker and acted as an advisory member to the New School in New York, with their inaugural Information Technology and Multimedia program.

Frank P. Reynolds, Principal, FPR Consulting
Frank Reynolds is an independent management consultant implementing project management processes and development methodologies since 1985. He has nearly 30 years of hands-on experience in project managing software and information systems applications development in a variety of industries, including banking, finance, manufacturing and retail organizations. He has consulted for all phases of systems development and has conducted formal assessments of project management environments in order to identify specific actions necessary to improve organizations' process improvement efforts.

Thrifty Drugstore, Connecticut Mutual, Security Pacific and Pacific Mutual Life have all benefited from his leadership of project management infrastructure reengineering. He has taught Project Management courses for the University of California, Irvine Extension and designed and developed project management programs for EuroMaTech, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Cyberway-United (China), McDonnell-Douglas, and Candle Corporation. Reynolds has established and operated project management offices for Pacific Mutual Life, CVS, and Connecticut Mutual. He has also served as product manager for the deployment of a major project management software support package operating in a mainframe environment.

His certifications include the PMP (Project Management Professional) designation from Project Management Institute, CDP/CCP (Certificate in Data Processing), the Fellow with distinction, Life Management Institute (FLMI) awarded by the Life Office Management Association (LOMA) in two specialties.
He is also a founding board member of PMI (Project Management Institute), Orange County, and founder and former president of the Southern California IBM Office Systems User Group.

Frank graduated from California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) with a Master of Science degree in Business Administration, as well as earning a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honor from CSULA. He holds two State of California Lifetime Teaching Credentials in: Business Administration and Information Processing.

Erik Laykin, President, OnlineSecurity
OnlineSecurity*, established in 1997, is a global leader in the investigation of information technology fraud, Internet crime, the preservation of digital evidence through computer forensic techniques and providing for the protection of corporate and governmental digital assets. The company's services include expert witness and analysis for complex litigation, digital evidence discovery, the implementation of network security systems, investigating Internet based thefts and frauds, and in providing high-technology systems penetration testing audits.
The company pioneered the specialty of 'Internet Investigations,' and has a 'total solution' of 'first responders' within its investigative and forensic practice that are trained in the protection and preservation of digital and online assets. OnlineSecurity's executive staff is active in numerous groundbreaking information technology risk organizations including the FBI Infragard Program, The US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force and the California Judicial Committee on Electronic Evidence. Clients include international law firms, health care facilities, government agencies, major corporations and information technology companies.