Sanford Loobins said...

Amen Brother Dehlin. Efficiency and being best-of-breed are important in the industry but far more important to an organization trying to do the absolute most with its IT expenditures. Your thoughts on IT governance?

December 18, 2006 5:52 am #

Michael Davidson said...

I’ve enjoyed the blog and look forward to your future posts.

My reaction to this post is that I agree with your goal for more reasons than those you discuss. I am not privy to the direction you get in running your department, but it seems to me that your department will play an ever increasing role in the Church’s efforts to accomplish our three missions. While the resources you bring to bear are provided by tithing contributions, and should be treated as sacred, the work you are doing is sacred as well. To the extent that you support the temples, family history, the missionary program, local units, and even the Church’s public face on the web and in other places, your people affect the manner and the quality of the introduction many receive to the gospel and provide strength and nourishment to those already within the fold. I appreciate it that those I know who work on North Temple seem to understand this. (Well, most of them.)

December 18, 2006 8:37 am #

Nathan Philpot said...

Good post. I was pointed to your site by NorthTemple. And enjoy this new community of LDS digital professionals.

The “best” I think will be hard to define and measure for you and your team. Especially because it is measured in saving souls, not dollars.

December 18, 2006 12:09 pm #

Lincoln Cannon said...

I enjoyed reading (and heartily agree with) your perspective on the importance of the Church IT department.

Relatedly, to what extent should the Church IT department be innovative, and what forms should the innovation take? Should Church IT be involved in research for or development of new technologies, or only implementation of existing technologies? Should Church IT direct any effort toward consideration of questions such as “What kind of technology will we need to enable the Millennial work?”, or uniquely focus on present needs? I am interested in reading your thoughts on the kind and magnitude of future you would try to create for the Church IT department.

December 18, 2006 1:33 pm #

Lincoln Cannon said...

. . . just noticed Michael’s comments and would like to express agreement.

December 18, 2006 1:35 pm #

Clifton said...

Very well written. I share your perspectives on the Church’s IT caliber.

I would full-heartedly support the use of my tithing funds to make a wholesale switch to Macs for all departments within the Church.

December 18, 2006 8:07 pm #

Michael Davidson said...

I’m not naming names. (:>) Nobody from your organization, though.

December 18, 2006 10:34 pm #

Naiah Earhart said...

When you think about it, lines of digital information flow through every building and, therefore, almost all aspects of the church: clerks’ offices, temples, mission offices, not to mention the desks of the countless offices in the various headquarters. It’s a little like the circulatory system, but instead of carrying oxygen, it carries information.

To keep the chruch healthy as an organization-ism and able to function such that it can meet its threefold mission in a world of ever increasing realtime information needs, that infrastructure must be maintained at a ‘world-class’ level, and I’m glad to know that you see that.

December 19, 2006 8:40 am #

Rolf Tollerud said...

So I have to say that I agree whole-heartedly with your efforts to create a world class IT organization and I also like all the “fluffy” comments that are posted here. I was wondering how you were going to handle the issue of accountability?

IT has historically been viewed as a result of a need and not a planned strategic goal. How are you addressing this with the church and the use of sacred funds?

December 19, 2006 10:01 am #

Michelle said...

I love to hear about this vision, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I do think it will be difficult to measure, though, especially given what someone said above with the unique mission of the Church. I’d also think it might be hard to get everyone to catch the vision, since there are varying levels of excitement about the use of technology within the Church at large, and, I would imagine, within the organization(-ism). I’m one of our ward website administrators and I wish somehow we could get more people to catch the vision of how technology can help us in our callings and in the work in general if we just learn to use it effectively (or use it at all!) If you ever have some questions for those of us in the trenches, I’m a willing brainstormer!

As a side-note, is it out of line to ask what your predecessor is up to now? (If it is, just ignore me…. I had the opportunity to learn from and work with him while in grad school and I have been interested to know what he is up to.)

December 20, 2006 1:57 am #

Michelle said...

How do we create solutions applicable to both types of individuals?

How, indeed! What a fun challenge you have with this work!

I also wanted to repeat a question someone asked above, “to what extent should the Church IT department be innovative, and what forms should the innovation take? Should Church IT be involved in research for or development of new technologies, or only implementation of existing technologies?” I think this is a really interesting question…one you may not be able to answer here, but one that is fun to wonder about nonetheless.

Thanks for letting me know about Eric. Tell him hello from a former student (one who helped with a process paper he and Lee did). The class I took from Eric actually played an important role in the shaping of my future, as I ended up working as a business process consultant and have kept my toe in that puddle even as a SAHM.

December 20, 2006 12:43 pm #

Joseph Scott said...

Another difficulty is creating technology for a global Church. I know of a ward in California where the Bishopric meets every week with their wireless computers and manage the entire ward. There are many wards where the bishopric don’t even own computers. How do we create solutions applicable to both types of individuals?

This is an interesting question. I served as Executive Secretary to the previous Bishop of our ward and he didn’t do email. Our current Bishop has been working with computers for many years and does email quite a bit. Both men are/were great Bishops, so this question has made me stop and think more about the challenges that the church IT is facing. Traditionally IT can more or less assume that their audience is technical (to varying degrees).

Just last Sunday I had a brief conversation about how the stake could use a technology secretary. In that case it was about keeping the expanding family history computers and network going, but I could see how it would also be helpful to stake and ward leaders who aren’t familiar with the web and the church resources online.

Measuring “the best” in IT, like many other fields, is pretty challenging. That doesn’t mean it isn’t important to strive for, but still hard to pin down. Expectations is an important part of that though.

I’m curious though, do the IT groups start meetings with prayer? Being able to ask for revelation as a group would be a powerful way to find solutions to IT problems.

I’ve really been enjoying the church IT tech blogs, ldswebguy.com (the post Why Use The Internet was particularly good), northtemple and now here. Keep it up.

December 20, 2006 3:40 pm #

Lincoln Cannon said...

Joel, you asked how we create solutions for both individuals with and without computers. The answer is that the latter need computers. What can the Church do to provide more computers, particularly to leaders? There are several initiatives from various players in the IT industry to provide low-cost portable computers. Can the Church participate in such initiatives?

. . . you know, so that we may each one day receive a white computer, secured by a new name that is the key word.

December 20, 2006 4:32 pm #

Alan Jones said...

Your are certainly right that the church needs to improve it’s IT and it will be ever more important BUT I tend to grimace when someone users those fluff and nearly meaningless words like “World Class” since there is no standard nor single definition as to what means and there is no such certification. So any one can declare they are World Class no matter what shape their IT is in. So “World Class” is meaningless to all that have business experience.

December 20, 2006 4:49 pm #

Michael Ross said...

I would like to mention some IT suggestions I would like to see the Church implement.

Better video on demand of Church broadcasts. I know we have clips of general conference that we can watch, but what about leadership training broadcasts? Can’t there be some kind of authentication mechanism so leaders can watch leadership training broadcasts on their PC? It would also be nice to be able to save video clips to a laptop and take them to meetings and show to the attendees (like stake leadership training meetings or Saturday evening stake conferences).

I have not been able to get my user ID to log into my ward website working, and I was even the membership clerk. I tried calling someone, there in Salt Lake, but I didn’t have time for much runaround, so I gave up on that. I am still unable to log into my ward’s web site. From time to time, my ward leaders tell us about something on the ward web site, at which point I say to myself, “Well I guess that is something I won’t be able to look into, not because I don’t know how to use the Internet or enter a user ID and password, but because there is some funky combination they are looking for that I am not going to try and hack into and figure out.”

I would like to see general authorities send e-mails to the general church membership. That would be invigorating.

Can you not release the Ward Membership and Financial system (I’m talking about the system, not the data) to the open source community, to let them refine, manipulate, and improve it for free? What about the Church’s web sites (lds.org, mormon.org)? Can you open them up somehow to the open source community and give us in the hinderlands service opportunities besides helping people move and cleaning the church?

December 20, 2006 6:31 pm #

Roger Cass said...

Spending IT dollars is a tricky business. In my business, we spend money on a few individuals who really know what they are doing, AND who can mentor the next generation of decision makers, innovators, producers, and oeprators. We set high standards, then do all we can to meet them. That doesn’t always require money.

Admintedly, we have small, intimate team and nowhere near the magnitude of systems and services. However, our company culture is that high quality leads to success, even at the expense of speed, or revenue in our case.

We constantly ask ourselves if our designs and purchases contribute to our company goals and values, to our architectural principles, and to our ethical standards for “the best”.

Often we make decisions on limited information, but that is why we prepare for so long beforehand–to ensure our decisions are likely good ones. The metaphor of faith may not apply so well in a strictly business environment with a decidedly worldly purpose, but I think it still holds.

December 20, 2006 7:19 pm #

Michelle said...

Joel,
If you ever need a process consultant, I know a couple.

Alan,
I wouldn’t say it’s a completely meaningless term, although I know what you mean. It seems to me, though, that Joel is sharing some of the elements of what they think “world class” means.

Perhaps aiming for “world-class” is more of use internally for motivational purposes, rather than for external (comparative, relative) purposes. Is it meaningless if it gets people to think beyond where they are now? Fluff can have a place, IMO, if it can get people fired up to make things happen in non-fluffy ways.

I think striving for “world class” also communicates to those of us who are reading the commitment to something beyond the status quo. Even though I don’t have a specific standard in mind when I hear that this is what the Church is aiming for, it’s gratifying to me to hear that they have a desire to not sit on their laurels.

December 20, 2006 11:05 pm #

Kenneth said...

How do we create solutions applicable to both types of individuals?

I must admit I smiled at this question because it just shows the magnitude of the church and the challenge Br. Dehlin has when having to decide on what to do next.
We are many IT pro’s who can see the huge benefits of using IT but it is no good to go all the way with it when so many people in the world still dont see the benefit of them.
I like the example of the Californian Bishopric because I too created and used a system where my counsellors and I could run the branch on our computers but a few years later I received new counsellors and the comment “I didnt get those email updates” became too frequent and so it was back to drawing board to find another way that would fit my new counsellors better. They served so well and got much done. They just weren’t uptodate with computers even though they tried hard.
In work life you will have to demonstrate IT skills if the job requires it or you wont keep the job but in the church the requirements for membership and serving in callings are (thankfully) different and for that reason I can imagine Br. Dehlin’s task to be so much more complicated.
I do enjoy reading the blog and also the many comments as we can all learn so much more no matter how much we already know.

December 25, 2006 11:01 am #

John Lynn said...

Excellent blog. I look forward to reading all about your adventures as CIO of the church.

My only comment on this post is that some things don’t require world class dollars. I wish you the best of luck in managing accountability for IT spending.

December 25, 2006 8:38 pm #

Larry Richman said...

Michael, regarding your request for video clips of more than just conference:

The Church is digitizing more video and establishing standards and getting intellectual property clearances so we can post more on Church sites. You’ll see a lot more video over the next few months.

Later this year, we hope to have authentication in place so we can provide more video to specific audiences, like leadership training broadcasts.

January 2, 2007 11:22 am #

Eric L. Denna said...

After some typical arm twisting by Joel, and not that anyone is terribly interested (except for one exceptionally bright former student - Michelle), I thought I would answer Michelle’s question - “Whatever happened to Eric?” Pardon a typically longwinded answer, but I think it will help everyone understand how fortunate the Church is to have Joel in the CIO position.

I have now created the CIO in three very different organizations - Times Mirror, BYU, and the Church. When I was asked to be the CIO at the Church I suggested that this ought to be about a five year tour of duty. Part of my thinking was to make sure the Church got some new blood on a regular basis, and part was selfish - I did not want to retire at headquarters and had delusions of returning to the classroom some day to terrorize more students like Michelle or mercifully doing something else entirely different.

About three years ago Joel was hired at headquarters to build and lead a product management group. Within weeks it was obvious that Joel had much more to offer. Within a few months I had asked him to join me in the CIO office and help build a world class IT organization. During this time I had a son that was at the end of a life-long, 23 year, battle with heart disease. Joel was a literal godsend as I spent as much time as I could with my son and family during a six month period working remotely from home.

After Benjamin’s passing (May 2005) I found myself thinking a lot about the future. Working with Joel was an absolute joy. I have never worked with anyone with whom I had more fun, worked harder, had better debates (and thereby made better decisions), and trusted more in every sense of the word. Joel’s capacity and heart are simply exemplary. But, the passing of a loved one makes one think about what is really important and what you really want to do going forward. Staring at your 49th birthday also is a little sobering.

By the end of 2005 I knew it was time to make a change. I felt that I was holding back both the Church and Joel by being the CIO. Joel had more experience in instilling the product discipline, which was something I felt was incredibly important to the Church, and had quickly gotten his arms around the job and the organization.

In January 2006 the Presiding Bishopric asked me to take on a special assignment looking at the global bishopric operation and opportunities for improvement. That assignment ended in May 2006 and they asked me to resume my role as CIO (Joel had been acting CIO during this period and was doing terrific). By this time I felt it was time to resign and pursue some other career options and let Joel take the Church CIO job to the next level. I had finalized an agreement to join VitalSmarts (www.vitalsmarts.com) which is an organization I have grown to respect and believe is doing enormous good in the world. I was excited to be part of their team. So, I tendered my resignation to the presiding bishop.

A few days later I was asked to consider filling the role of Managing Director of the Priesthood Department for the Church. Frankly, you could have knocked me over with a feather. That was the last thing I would have thought of doing. The Brethren were very careful in making sure I understood this was not a calling and that they would support whatever decision I made. After a nice walk up Provo canyon with my wife Lyn, it was clear what we were to do.

I often get the question now, “What is the Priesthood Department?” I will save that for another day as I have probably bored everyone to death as it is and have used up whatever disk space Joel would allocate to me. One note of possible interest is the Priesthood Department is responsible for a few websites such as Serving in the Church, Home and Family, and Local Unit Website. We are in the process of hiring a product management group to help us rethink these sites and I would welcome any feedback or ideas on the sites. Maybe Joel will let me share some thoughts on his blog in the next few months about where we are headed and get some more good feedback from everyone. Bottom line is, we know there is a lot of work to do to make the sites truly useful to a global church.

One of the best parts of my new job is I get to continue to work with Joel. However, I do not miss worrying about whether the network is up, whether the conference broadcast is OK, whether lds.org is up Sunday morning for the lesson prep rush, whether all the projects are on time, on budget, and meeting specifications…I don’t rub that in to Joel very often I also get to be one of Joel’s most endearing customers - which he absolutely loves!

I was told a long time ago when I first was given an executive position that the real mark of success as an executive is whether you have groomed your replacement. There are several things I would have done differently in my career, and many more that others would likely point out as well, but hiring Joel as my right hand is the best decision I ever made professionally. I think all of you are seeing how good the decision was.

I continue to be involved somewhat in the profession. I am on the board of directors of Neumont University (www.neumont.edu) which allows me to stay somewhat involved in technology education - this is the most innovative technology education effort I know of. Dave Duffield (PeopleSoft founder) asked me to help in an advisory role for a new company he has started named Workday (www.workday.com), and I do some work as a research fellow with The Research Board (www.researchboard.com). The local chapter of SIM (Society for Information Management - http://www.simutah.org) is kind enough to let me attend a few events ocassionally as well.

Other than that I am a has been CIO that is trying to learn a whole new role. And I am having the time of my life. Lyn and I now have five grandchildren and are busily trying to spoil every one of them.

And that’s all I have to say about that…

PS - if anyone is interested in continuing the conversation offline you can reach me at dennael@ldschurch.org or eric@byu.net or eric.denna@gmail.com.

January 4, 2007 11:29 am #

Neal Konneker said...

I used to brag on the Church when they had the good sense to keep their old 386/486 computers running a DOS based system which did exactly what it needed to, efficiently and economically. During the same period many corporations spent thousands of dollars per year per computer with the vain hope that it would somehow magically improve productivity without any specific idea of what they hoped to accomplish with their PCs. When as a Ward Clerk several years ago I was asked for feedback on the then future MIS/FIS update I replied that whatever they did, don’t go to a bloated Windows OS since it would necessitate a major, expensive hardware upgrade yet would be no faster than the existing 486s running DOS. If new hardware was going to be purchased it seemed to me it would have made more sense to run the old DOS based software at the faster speeds. I feel vindicated. The new Windows based MIS/FIS is similar to many software “upgrade” products, flashier but with no significant improvement (except perhaps for the multi-tasking capability).

I also agree with previous comments that I would like to see more open source software from the Church. I am confident that there are competent programmers who would gladly, voluntarily compile PAF to run on linux (for example) if given access to the code.

January 9, 2007 7:49 pm #