First-person insights on the value of MES for CIOs, vendors and more from Advisory Board member John Regula.
“I am able to take solutions that are prudent and germane for my size business and evaluate them over two or three days in a very concise and deliberate manner,” says John Regula.
The vice president and chief information officer with Allied Services in northeastern Pennsylvania has been going to the Midsize Enterprise Summit for the past six years. MES offers IT decision makers exclusive access to more than 80 top vendors, seasoned Gartner analysts and an elite group of peers. As an advisory board member, Regula understands the value it offers CIOs and vendors.
“MES provides me a wonderful opportunity to both efficiently and effectively look at vendors in a setting that is reasonable to my size enterprise,” says Regula.
He doesn’t want to waste his time vetting vendors that are ultimately after partners with millions of dollars to spend on an individual contract. As a medium-sized enterprise, Allied can’t afford that.
Regula’s background helps him understand these money constraints as well as staffing challenges. He got his start as a programmer with a local hospital, after receiving a degree in computer science.
Data As A Resource vs. Programming Tool
“Being involved in human resources, I was able to understand business processes in hospitals and staffing levels. It allowed me to focus my career on information management rather than on the technology of programming,” he says. That experience forced Regula to look at data as a resource for business process improvement rather than a tool to program or a technology to deliver.
That issue remains a hot-button one for Regula.
“The overarching theme these days is the use of data to drive business decisions, business intelligence and getting access to the information. How do you do it in the most efficient manner?” asks Regula, who emphasizes it’s really the CIO’s role to provide the infrastructure to pull data together in a way that allows operations to make sound business decisions.
MES Makes Masterful CIOs
And MES is giving CIOs the experience and contacts to provide this infrastructure.
“What I’m happy to see is CIOs attending MES, where they get exposure to new and emerging technologies that may not be in their peripheral vision. Because we can bring myriad vendors under one roof, they can get exposed to different ideas, thoughts and concepts that make them better in their job and make them succeed by knowing what’s out there in the industry,” says Regula.
A Victory For Vendors at MES
Vendors can also gain from the MES experience.
“If you’re a vendor, I encourage you to consider adding MES to your marketing budget. This opportunity places you in front and alongside decision-makers,” says Regula.
“The MES conference does not simply count heads; they make sure the heads count.”
Registration for this spring’s MES is closed. You can sign up for this fall’s Midsize Enterprise Summit — September 17 to 19 in San Antonio, TX.
