Jeff Tyler, Chief Information Officer,
Collective Technologies, was responsible for building the infrastructure and
business processes needed to successfully manage a rapidly growing systems
management consulting firm. The strength of Collective Technologies is the ability for its consultants
to communicate and share information with each other anywhere around the world
in order to collectively solve a client's systems management problems.
Tyler was presented with the challenge of ensuring that all Collective
Technologies team members, across the globe, have real-time access to all of
Collective Technologies' resources. In response to this challenge, Tyler created
a custom Perl/CGI program with a web interface, running on an Oracle back end,
providing the needed infrastructure that allows Collective Technologies team
members to stay in constant communication with one another; which is essential
to Collective Technologies' success.
Joining Collective Technologies in 1994 as a systems manager, Tyler
has served as the company's Regional Director for the New England area as well
as Director of Information Technology. Tyler now serves as Collective
Technologies Chief Information Officer, bringing over twenty-five years of
systems management experience to the company. Tyler leads a team of 15
Information Technology team members responsible for supporting the needs of over
450 consultants, sales staff and management teams across the globe.
Tyler is responsible for training, motivating and leading his team;
giving them the opportunities to develop new skill sets and grow their careers.
Tyler has built a virtual IT department that relies on teamwork and the sharing
of ideas. Although Tyler is the individual nominated for this award, he would be
the first to say that it is truly through the accomplishments and achievements
of the entire IT department that Collective Technologies now has the tools,
systems and business processes needed to compete and succeed in the systems
management market place.
Blue Ribbon Selection Committee
Faced Difficult Choices
The independent selection committee for determining the final
nominees, as well as the final award winners, was an outstanding representation
of five recognized technology leaders. The panel of judges for this years awards
included Steve Madere, Founder, Deja.com, and Past CTO of the Year winner, and
Laura Kilcrease, Founder, Austin Technology Incubator.
"We are very pleased to be able to single out these deserving executives,"
said AITP President Russ Finney. "They are in very good company with last year's
winners, Dell CIO, Jerry Gregoire (1998 IT Executive of the Year), and Deja.com
CTO, Steve Madere (1998 Information Technologist of the Year). Our call for
nominations produced a significant number of deserving candidates. Our judges
really had their work cut out for them."
Vignette's Neil Webber: Austin Information Technologist of the Year
Neil Webber, the founder and CTO of Vignette, has lead the
conception, design and delivery of all of Vignette's internet software products,
which have won over 10 awards since their introduction in 1997, including Red
Herring Magazine's 1998 Best Product of the Year. Vignette's products have in
turn been selected by over 150 Fortune 2000 companies who are responsible for
the Web's most successful e-commerce and publishing ventures, including Ziff
Davis, CNET, National Semiconductor, American Airlines, and Bank One.
Most recently, Neil has championed the ICE initiative, and industry
wide group of over 80 companies including Vignette, Microsoft, Sun, and Adobe,
who have developed a groundbreaking new internet specification for content
syndication services using XML-based technology. This ICE specification has
begun to serve as the basis for a whole new category of internet-based software
products and content services that will allow businesses to connect together and
create online distribution chains for their content and services through other
companies Web sites. Neil was instrumental in both the technical design of the
specification as well as providing the executive leadership in bringing such a
large group from concept to completion of the specification in less than 10
months.
In addition to his executive duties as cofounder and CTO of Vignette,
Neil regularly provides group focused and 1:1 leadership to a team of over 100
engineers who collectively represent one of the strongest software teams in
Austin. Neil is saught after for his unparalleled technical perspectives as well
as his soft, metered style which makes even the most junior engineer comfortable
in seeking advice from him.