Six things I learned at the Premier 100 Conference

Every year IT executives at some of the biggest and smartest businesses in the world gather at Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders conference to exchange stories and talk strategy. With snow seemingly falling everywhere except the J.W Marriott conference center Orlando and Wall Street continuing its meltdown under a blanket of fresh snow, this year's event on the Florida peninsula had a somewhat surreal feel to it. But these C-level execs were all business. Here are just a few things of the more interesting things I learned this week.

1. It's a very good time to hire consultants.

One third (33%) of IT execs at the show said they are cutting budgets. Another 16% have laid off IT staff. But contractors, consultants and outsourcers are taking the brunt of the cutbacks. They're hurting as IT executives delay more and more projects to cut costs as the economy continues to contract. One consultant who works for a large global consultancy told me that his business is off by about 50%.

So what's good about that? A down market is the best time to buy. Before you put off that project, run the numbers one more time with some of those consultants who are hungry for work. You just might strike a bargain that changes the ROI equation and puts the project back in your lineup for this year.

2. Innovate with your customers or they will go around you.

Several IT executives talked about keeping ahead of customers with regard to things like the adoption of iPhones in the enterprise and cloud computing projects pursued by individual departments and business units. But it took two rogue marketing staffers from Best Buy to bring the point home. When they first approached IT with their idea for a social network to break down communication barriers between some 1,900 store managers and employees with 500 corporate HQ staff, the IT response stopped them cold. "Honestly the response was, OK $50K to scope it before we even touch code. That wasn't viable."

So, after registering a domain name using a charge card, the duo built Blue Shirt Nation on their own. Once the effort caught on and began to scale, IT reengaged to make sure the site was secure and properly integrated - an effort that the builders said was both needed and appreciated. It's not enough to get in front of such skunkworks projects and erect a $50,000 hurdle. Enterprising users will go around it. IT needs to innovate with them to get these projects safely off the ground.

2. The economy is not bad everywhere. Some businesses are thriving.

Like Amazon.com, online pharmaceuticals and beauty products vendor Drugstore.com is thriving in the current market. "The last quarter has been one of the toughest in the history of American business but I'm happy to report that we had our best quarter ever, said Dawn Lepore, CEO and Chairman. Lepore is also a rare example of a CIO who rose to the top spot.

3. Even in a down economy, some people are still buying crazy stuff.

What economic meltdown? "People literally spend $500 to buy a treadmill for their pet," says Lepore of the PetZen DogTread Motorized Exercise treadmill sold through drugstore.com.

4. New Privacy law may protect PHRs

One thing holding back electronic personal health records is the fact that HIPAA privacy regulations don't apply once you give the records to a third party. According to speaker Jay Srini, Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a new law extends privacy protections to personal health records. I didn't get a chance to clarify that with Srini, but in a tweet from health care attorney Amy Fehn, who attended the conference, I learned that the new federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus bill may extend those protections to PHRs. "PHRs will have to protect information and report breaches, it will be enforced by the FTC though instead of HHS," she says. I'm no lawyer, but so far I haven't found the passage in question in searching the PDF document. Can you?

5. SaaS integration a leading cause of IT headaches

As it was with ERP, integration is the bane of Software as a Service (Saas) projects. "Integration in any large system is going to be in a pain. Guess what? It's a pain in the SaaS world," says Manjit Singh, vice president and CIO at Chiquita Brands International. Singh deployed Workday HR software. His biggest integration problem? Small benefits providers who refused to work with or share data with his SaaS provider. Workday and Chiquita have resolved in the U.S. with some back and forth, but Singh expects it to continue to be a challenge as he extends the system globally - especially in countries like Latin America, where he must work with multiple small, regional benefits providers.

6. Most still insecure about cloud computing

In a live survey, attendees said that the biggest concerns that have about cloud computing are 1. Security and privacy (57%), 2. Integration (17%) and 3. Reliability and uptime (13%).