I have been fortunate in my career as an IT professional to have progressed through several different technical roles, as well as spending time on the business side and as an organizational IT consultant. Early in my career, I had the opportunity to manage IT in various capacities. First, it was large projects, then the info center, followed by a team of developers, eventually leading to an executive IT position. Looking back, the best training I received during that time was entry level education as a new hire. While in management, I attended seminars and executive level courses on leadership; however, there was not much available in an affordable way to prepare and develop the next regime of IT leaders. That has now changed.
In 2003, as the Director of Staff Resource Management at BCBSSC, I began working with Ken Abernethy from the Rushing Institute at FurmanUniversity on the development of what is now called the IMIT (Institute for the Management of Information Technology). Ken and I had received clear direction from the CIO of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Steve Wiggins, that we needed to create a unique experience that could enhance the readiness of future IT leaders. In addition, we needed to provide value to current IT executives by delivering effective educational modules inside a decision-making framework that could be applied to any IT organization.
Over the last eight years, BCBSSC has sent nearly 450 IT employees through the IMIT program, all of whom are now better IT managers and decision-makers because of this education and framework. Two years ago, we piloted the program for delivery to IT managers from other companies, and this year IT-oLogy partners, Furman and BCBSSC, have scheduled to offer the first four-day IMIT program from September 17-20. This IT management education will be held in Columbia at IT-oLogy@Innovista, located in downtown Columbia at 1301 Gervais Street.
Since I now serve as the Executive Director of IT-oLogy, this opportunity to address a major IT professional requirement is the another great example of our “GROW IT” initiative. Registration materials will be made available to IT-oLogy business partners and general information will be available on the website at www.it-ology.org. What a great way to ensure the successful growth of business in the Carolinas by providing professional development to the future leaders in IT.
Are you interested in IMIT? Contact Karl McCollester ([email protected]) for more information.