IT Action Heroes Replace Chaos With Calm

Published: January 7, 2008

by Dan Burger

Not everyone finds their action heroes on the big screen. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme take a seat. You guys are pretty tough when it comes to fiction and fantasy, but could you come up big in a real-life data center where fighting chaos requires a budget and a schedule to save the day?

It's time for the IT Action Heroes to bask in some glory.

Meet Iain Williamson, senior IT manager with Scotiabank. He was instrumental in establishing and executing Scotiabank's change management strategy that brought automation, structure, and repeatability to a geographically distributed team of application developers. He's the top IT Action Hero chosen by Aldon, the application lifecycle management (ALM) specialists with more than 1,300 companies using its software.

Williamson and his team automated IT Service Management (ITSM) processes using Aldon Community Manager, implemented a multitiered approval process that establishes consistent documentation of changes and their associated risk, and created processes to help individuals, teams, and managers work more efficiently.

The Aldon IT Action Hero of the Year contest was created to recognize Aldon ALM customers for their innovation, hard work, and outstanding achievements in development, project management, and/or services in the use of application change management. Selections were based on the overall effectiveness of a specific application development project, commitment to best practices in the application lifecycle, implementation of processes and automation, and effective use of technology for compliance.

Others who achieved IT Action Hero status were Baras Marie-France, Herie Estomata, and Tina Bremson.

Marie-France is the CIO at ALD Automotive. She led a project that centralized the automotive finance company's IT environment that includes .NET and Java applications running on Linux and iSeries platforms. She and her IT development and production teams improved the application production process and automated each stage of the application lifecycle.

Estomata, who works as an application lead at Merck & Co., was recognized for attaining performance gains using version control functions, managing multiple versions of many complex and customized applications across five System i computers, and streamlining Sarbanes-Oxley and FDA audit requirements by leveraging the reporting and security functions.

Bremson, an application manager with Ethan Allen, and her IT development group were noted for increasing efficiency using issue-management tracking, elevated reporting processes, and meeting stringent compliance requirements.

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