About UsToolKitCafe provides tools, tips and training to help you become the best IT manager you can be! All of the products presented on this site are created by a variety of top IT trainers and consultants from around the world. Our internal staff selects only those toolkits which are designed to provide immediate positive impact to your IT operation and your company. All toolkits on this site are:
Editor in Chief |
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Jeff Davis, Editor in Chief: IT Project Manager and Compliance Consultant Jeff Davis has been an IT professional for over 20 years, with experience working and consulting for law firms, hospitals, and financial institutions. He was an editor-in-chief for The Cobb Group, the world’s leading publisher of software-specific “how-to” journals. He wrote “Stump Jeff” for ZDNet’s Help Channel and was editor-in-chief of the Support and Training Republics for the original TechRepublic.com. Jeff moonlights as a stand-up comedian and is the reigning fastest typist in Kentucky. |
Toolkit Contributors |
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Mike Sisco IT Management Trainer, Consultant and President of MDE Enterprise, Inc. Prior to starting MDE in 2000 Mike Sisco was a successful IT manager and CIO for over 20 years. His management responsibilities gave him a unique opportunity to work with hundreds of IT managers and their organizations plus he has led the IT due diligence and assimilation of more than 40 company acquisitions.Mike’s company has a single mission of, “helping IT managers of the world achieve more success”. To accomplish this he has written 14 books and over 500 articles on IT management, published an IT Manager Toolkit and the 20 Minute IT Manager eLearning program, and delivers classroom and online training for IT managers around the world. Thousands of IT managers use Mike’s practical IT manager resources. In 2005 he combined forces with Belmont University to create the IT Business Manager Certification (ITBMC), the first certification for IT managers to focus on the importance for the IT organization to deliver business value. Learn more at http://itmanagerstore.com. |
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Ali Sareea Six Sigma Blackbelt and IT Consultant Ali Sareea has 15 years of progressive IT management experience at multiple Fortune 10 companies in senior executive level positions. His background includes leading large cross functional technology initiatives with multi-million dollar impact and managing teams of over 100 people. Ali’s expertise is in the areas of Applications Development/Software Engineering, Business Intelligence, IT Service Management, and Six Sigma. He is a certified Black Belt and has won accolades for his work on application of Six Sigma techniques for software and systems development. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Bellarmine University, MS in Computer Science from the University of Louisville and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. |
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Brian Oldham IT Consultant Brian has 20 years of progressive IT management experience from small companies to Fortune 50 companies at the executive level. Brian’s experience ranges from leading project teams to develop applications to managing an IT organization of over 200 people. Brian has managed budgets ranging from $50,000 to over $50 million. Brian has had a successful track record of improving the effectiveness of every organization he has led. Brian has implemented IT Service Management, Six Sigma and several operational and management techniques to improve the performance of the organization. In 2005, Brian was recognized for his leadership by being awarded Louisville’s CIO of the year award. Brian holds a B.S. in Management from Purdue University. |
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Shannon Kalvar IT Governance and Compliance Consultant Shannon Kalvar has fifteen years of experience in IT. His career has included stints as a developer, system engineer, enterprise architect, project manager and program manager with detours into being a writer and process designer. Over the last few years his attention has shifted from deploying servers to implementing what we now call IT Governance and realizing ITIL processes for organizations. Shannon occasionally blogs and has been known to write articles for TechRepublic. Although formerly certified as a developer, system engineer, and total cost of ownership analyst, he only maintains his PRINCE2 Practitioner and ITIL certifications. |
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Chad Fowler Member, Board of Advisors Chad Fowler is an internationally known software developer, trainer, manager, speaker, and musician. Over the past decade he has worked with some of the world’s largest companies and most admired software developers. He loves to program computers and, as part of his role as CTO of InfoEther, Inc., spends much of his time solving hard problems for customers in the Ruby language. He is co-organizer of RubyConf, RailsConf, and RailsConf Europe and author or co-author of a number of popular software books, including the recently released “The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development”. |
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Michael Fountain Technical Consultant Michael Fountain has over a decade of experience in software development and business management. He has designed, developed, and managed the development of several production class applications for gotPHP, Inc., where he is currently the founder and technical consultant, DNZOOM, Inc., ModernGigabyte, LLC, and Amazon.com. Prior to gotPHP, Inc., Fountain was a co-founder and CTO of DNZOOM, Inc., where he designed the dnZoom application and managed the development team. DNZOOM was acquired by Bido, LLC in 2008. Prior to DNZOOM, Fountain was a co-founder and CTO of ModernGigabyte, LLC, where he designed and developed the original ModernBill application and managed its growth to accommodate 15,000+ diverse businesses in over 100 countries. Parallels, Inc. acquired ModernGigabyte, LLC in 2008. |
Management |
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Jon Pyles President Jon has worked in the publishing industry for over 29 years, 25 of those years in management and the most recent 15 years in executive management. Over those years he has participated in 5 startup publishing businesses including the most recent two online. His latest venture was the co-founding and product marketing management of ITBusinessEdge.com which sold in 2011 to QuinStreet, a publicly held media company. Prior to that, Jon served as Vice President of Membership for TechRepublic.com which was purchased by CNET.com in 2001 and is now a property of CBS Interactive. Additional roles in his past include VP of Circulation for The Cobb Group which was acquired by Ziff Davis Publishing during his tenure and Director of Circulation for the San Diego Business Journal in the mid 1980′s. Jon’s diverse skill set includes audience development, online product management, revenue modeling, both print and email direct marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, people management and executive management. |
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Mark Crane Co-Founder Mark is a winner of the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award — the most prestigious business award given to entrepreneurs in the U.S. Since the day Mark purchased a TI994/A Home Computer while attending Purdue University, he was hooked. He fell in love with the personal computer–and with the tools that allowed technology enthusiasts and professionals to maximize their impact. Upon graduating with an Engineering Degree, Mark returned to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky and joined the IT Department at PNC Bank where his team deployed and managed one of the country’s first distributed computing networks. The following year, Mark met entrepreneur Doug Cobb and joined The Cobb Group‚ a tech startup offering the IT industry books, newsletters, and other products. Over the next 11 years, Mark worked closely with Doug to grow that company into a publishing giant–they became the world’s largest publisher of monthly tips, techniques, and tools for IT professionals. In his roles as Editor-in-Chief, VP of Marketing, and ultimately Publisher, Mark developed a large and diverse network of people in IT ranging from product experts that write contributing articles to Product Managers at virtually all major software publishers, including Microsoft, Sun, and Apple. Mark continues to work‚ hands on with his products, and he enjoys talking with customers to learn both how he can improve existing tools as well as which new products his customers want. |
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Vik Chadha Co-Founder Vik is the co-founder of a number of high-tech companies such as Backupify, a leading backup provider for cloud-based data , GlowTouch Technologies, a two-time Inc. 500 software and services company with 900+ employees, and Scalable Ventures, a technology startup investment firm. He is presently serving as the Executive Vice President of Venture Development for Nucleus – Kentucky’s Life Science and Innovation Center, where he is leading a number of commercialization initiatives for the University of Louisville Foundation. From 2001 to 2010, he was a Managing Director of the Enterprise Corp in Louisville, where he managed a portfolio of over 100 client companies and helped them raise $120 million. Prior to the Enterprise Corp, he worked as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at bCatalyst, an early-stage business incubator. He started his career working as a consultant for GE Appliances where he was a founding member of their Internet team. Vik holds a B.S. degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology and an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering (major in Computer Engineering) from Virginia Tech. |