Dan Petlon, 2014 Honoree

- Title
- CIO at large
- Employer
- Formerly CIO at Enterasys Networks
- Location
- Salem, N.H.
- Skills you'll hire for this year:
- Salesforce.com, particularly Force.com development. We will probably train from inside due to the high demand for these people in the job market.
- Coolest current project:
- Implementation of a new community portal (Get Satisfaction). We have a very loyal customer base that is eager to participate when our community is launched.
- How do you evaluate emerging technologies?
- We do a lot of pilots. I deploy things to IT first whenever possible, and often I'm the first user. Then I get the technology quickly into the hands of those who can get the most value from it.
- To what extent do you embed IT workers in business units?
- We often embed IT resources for the duration of a project into the sponsoring business function. We also require the business owners to participate in the project meeting to make sure all parties are in sync.