The iRise Newsletter - February 2010

Ralph Szygenda Joins iRise!
CIO Hall of Fame member to drive market adoption of enterprise visualization

Ralph Szygenda, former global CIO for General Motors, Bell Atlantic and Texas Instruments, has joined iRise as a strategic consultant and member of the iRise Advisory Board . Mr. Szygenda will be heading up the creation of an exclusive CIO advisory council for iRise that will focus on transformation, business and IT communication and closing the gap between sellers and buyers. In addition, Mr. Szygenda will be leading content direction and speaker recruitment, as well as moderating selected events in the iRise executive roundtable series, a world-class platform for CIO networking and information sharing.

"iRise is revolutionary and the world needs to understand the power it brings to organizations that want to close the gap between business and IT," stated Mr. Szygenda. "The introduction of enterprise visualization is forever changing the process and stakeholder experience of software design and development."

Mr. Szygenda is known as a "transformation CIO" for business process change and global sourcing with multiple systems integrators. This experience is critically relevant as iRise drives the people, process and technology transformation for companies that build business software. Read More

Interview: Retired GM CIO Ralph Szygenda on Joining iRise

"Question: Why did you join iRise and what do you hope to accomplish there?
Szygenda: I've been retired since the end of last year, and I've been looking for another discontinuity. Something that would be different, and something that would be important for the industry and customers over the next five years. I wasn't just looking for a job. I was looking for something that would really drive a change. Read More

	General Motors Ex-CIO Predicts Return To Growth
"The IT agenda for the past year has been dominated by cost cutting. Ralph Szygenda thinks it has dominated IT strategy for a lot longer than that. More importantly, Szygenda thinks that's on the verge of change, a change that will shift the focus toward growth. Read More

iRise Web Seminar

Reusability in iRise - Approach & Best Practices in Creating Reusable Asset Libraries

Eleanor Eng, Manager, iRise Professional Services
Thursday, March 4th at 10:00am PDT/ 1:00pm EST

Now that you've committed to using visualization on your projects with iRise, how do you leverage reusability to drive best practices and consistency in your organization? Reusable asset libraries are a proven strategy to drive customer experience best practices, enforce branding guidelines and promote good design across a broad range of projects. This web seminar will focus on understanding the approach to developing reusable visualization content, including how to identify reusable components, setting up reusable asset libraries and taking advantage of iRise capabilities to make this a smooth process. To find out more and register: Click Here

Leveraging Requirements Visualization - A Biotechnology Company's Agile Case Study

Susanna Goldenstein, Analyst,Leading Biotechnology Company
Tuesday, March 16th at 10:00am PDT/ 1:00pm EST

Susanna Goldenstein has been with leading biotechnology company for many years in both business analyst and user experience roles. In this presentation, she shares her experience working with visualization to improve the usability of a physician's portal. By leveraging visualization with iRise, Susanna was able to bring together a diverse set of stakeholders to gain valuable clinician feedback in short bursts of review time enabling the team to launch this project on time and on budget. To find out more and register: Click Here

Press Coverage

Callidus Software Leverages Visualization Technology from iRise

Callidus Software, the leader in Sales Performance Management (SPM), has chosen iRise to empower its vertical solutions delivery team to quickly demonstrate the value of its industry-leading SPM solutions to customers early in the sales process. Visual interactive demonstrations of Callidus Software's solutions help customers understand and interact with proposed solutions and configurations, which will help accelerate the sales and delivery process. Visualizations will also be used as a rapid, effective way to test new product features and concepts directly with customers, improving solution adoption.

Press Coverage

Lifeware Tek Speeds Development 60% with iRise Visualization

Lifeware Tek, the premier developer of interactive, online business solutions for the foodservice and culinary arenas, has leveraged iRise to accelerate the delivery of i-COOK Professionalâ�¢, a core business solution by 60%. "Our business thrives on speed and innovation," stated Steve Kent, CEO of Lifeware Tek. "With our old methods of design and development we were ending up with crippling confusion and delays. iRise empowers us to fully experience the final result early in the process, which eliminates the questions and allows us to focus on our business. "iRise is a perfect fit for Agile," continued Mr. Kent."

iRise Product Support

New iRise Knowledgebase Now Available

The new iRise Knowledgebase contains answers to common questions, software configuration and troubleshooting information, and best practices. The iRise support team is continuously adding articles to help make sure you get the most out of iRise. Check back often for the most up to date information, and if you don't find the answer you're looking for please don't hesitate to contact iRise support at: support@irise.com

To visit the iRise Knowledgebase: Click Here

iRise Press

Visualization Platform Gives Stakeholders Sneak Peek of New Applications

Last spring, one state agency found a solution that could cut down rework time and, in turn, save money: a tool developed by visualization software provider iRise that allows business analysts, programmers and citizens to get a sneak peek of an application and give feedback before it goes live.

The Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) leveraged iRise on a $20 million project to modernize the state tax system for unemployment insurance. The result, set to launch in April, will replace a legacy mainframe system with a Web-based application that will help employers, accountants and payroll firms manage tax accounts and also will simplify the unemployment insurance tax system for internal IWD employees. Read More

iRise Product Training

New iRise Training Course Dates Announced

iRise training classes are designed to empower stakeholders and users with the knowledge and experience to quickly become proficient with iRise products. Below is the upcoming training schedule. Youâ��ll receive your iRise Experienced Certificate upon completion.

DATE	CLASS	LOCATION	COST
3/16 - 317	iRise Experienced	Washington, DC	$995
3/24 - 3/26	iRise Experienced	Atlanta	$595
4/4 - 4/6	iRise Experienced	Virtual	$995
4/13 - 4/14	iRise Experienced	Los Angeles	$995
4/22 - 4/23	iRise Experienced	San Francisco	$995

Discounts available. To get more about iRise training classes: Click Here

iRise for Project Stakeholders
Do you provide your LOB stakeholders with direct review access to your simulations? Does your development team use iRise simulations as part of their process? These groups may benefit from knowing how to get the most out of using iRise Reader to provide feedback to the project team. iRise for Project Stakeholders is a twenty-minute eLearning course designed around best practices for providing feedback in iRise. Please visit the eLearning training page to learn more!

February Newsletter Contest Details

CONTEST QUESTIONS:

1. Ralph Szygenda was previously the CIO of what automaker?

2. According to the top headline, Ralph Szygenda will "drive _________". (fill in the blank)

3. The sub-headline of this Global CIO article is "Can IT teams kick it out of ________." (fill in the blank)?

4. How many new iRise product training classes were announced in this article? (hint: look at the section above this one)

CLICK HERE to submit your answers (sends email to dci@irise.com). One reader who answers all four questions correctly will be chosen at random as the winner. Answers must be submitted by March 14th. Winner will be notified by March 24th. Good luck!

To celebrate the re-launch of the iRise newsletter, we're giving away an 8gb iPod Touch this month to one lucky reader. All you have to do is send us the answers to the four questions listed at the bottom of the newsletter. The answers can be found in this edition of Visualize, and the associated links.

Scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter to find the questions. Your answers must be submitted by March 14th. One entry per person. Good luck!


	The iRise Download Center is your one stop shop for iRise related videos. They include webcasts, product walk throughs, customer testimonials, event highlight reels, funny YouTube clips and more. Using Visualization as a Tool for Organizational Change Click image to view video Aleisha Djuricic is a usability expert at Northwestern Mutual. In this case study Aleisha shares her views on focusing on quick win projects to gain support for visualization as a strategy to promote better designed software that is adopted faster and with less cost by customers and business partners.


	FLOATING NAVIGATION With iRise the possibilities are endless. Our good friends over at id8 have some particularly cool examples, including Floating Navigation. This example is both creative and useful. Watch the video.