crewchat - niice! crewnet, niice - about me section, facebook for the crew interest, shows your interest, your career, skills, pictures of your family.. niiiiice! 
Thanks @Kim!! 

Thanks for coming, @jwallace!

Vanguard is now at the top of my list. even if it is a little bias due to this IE Radio session.
Thanks IE!! John! Mitch! Kim! Alison!

@Mitch lol!! 'make everything right.' 

2000 communities with 3.5 million files. wow. 
My final question is can Companies today measure lag/bottleneck time throught company network? 

@jwallace - That assumes your phone has an RFID reader, and the object has an RFID tag. 

And Giant Billboards make everything right. 

UNLESS it's on a GIANT billboard. QR Code @Mtch

QR codes, having to take a pic is what takes away from usability. why not just wave your phone and pick up the rfid? 

practical innovation, business value from almost day 1. <-- I like!! IT'S ALL GOING TO APPS. e.g., Windows 8 app.  

@jwallace - I'm afraid I'm a bit of a QR Code skeptic. 

Kim Davis - I would say anything that we would prefer not to do but must do is work. But not everything -- going to the doctor, for example. 

2010- QR Codes.. what ever happened to Microsoft TAG? 

Are we confusing "work" with something we just don't happen to like doing?

collaboration and unified communication, byod in 2009? whoa.. whoaa. that is ahead of the curve.

vision and hallucination. 

distributed innovation group!!
@Mitch I almost agree with you. so someone who tips the ball rolling for industry change who doesn't get credit nor payment for it worked alot then, huh?

Watching TWILIGHT movies is something I would definitely classify as work. 

@jwallace - What does Spotify cal it then? I would say it most definitely is work if you don't get paid for it. Taking out the trash, volunteer work, etc.

"It's not work if you don't get paid for it."  Word!

wow. WOW!! didn't know Vanguard is private. 
@Mitch, Ameriie and the Buchanans tweeted something about that.. about loving your work. It's not work if you don't get paid for it. 
Spotify doesn't call their work work. 

If you want something done give it to a busy person. 

John Marcante - Its not work if you enjoy it!

@Mitch, We fully expect our DIG team members to get their regular work done but we find that they are able to do both when they are engaged in technologies that they are passionate about.  We are also flexible in the timeframe of the DIG projects. 

Yes, it sounds like a great place to work, John. Thanks for sharing your time with us today.

@jwallace - I love the Grumpy Cat. I think he's my superhero identity. 

I know John has only a few minutes more -- he has a hard stop at 3 pm ET. Any final questions or comments for him?

@Mitch, this is a bit offtopic but the only people who don't shop on Cyber Monday are people who can't afford to and the Grumpy Cat. 

@John - thanks for taking the time to talk with us.  I am jealous of Vanguard employees, because they get ideated, and they can volunteer to push technology.   

P.S.  Thanks for sharing "ideation" -- a new word for me.  

Yes, the best practices working at home and on the road sounds interesting. 

I'd guess not, Mitch, judging from the number of people who volunteer to participate.

@John Marcante - and the DIG teams are extracurricular, outside of normal work responsibilities? Do you get any pushback on that from people saying their normal work already fills their day?

@JohnMarcante "We've created our own community around E2.0, and best practicies on working on the road, best practices on working at home and how to SHARE information" -

who all has access to that? I'm not sure if there are exempt and non exempt employees at Vanguard but is it role based?

That's impressive, John!

@Mitch, We now have a dedicated innovation team of 6 crew. In the last two years we have had over 150 volunteers who participated on various DIG teams.

Kim, but they, too, would enjoy the benefits of better, faster devices on which to count their beans. 

While we were talking about BYOD on the audio chat, I got to thinking about Cyber Monday -- supposedly a big Internet shopping day after thanksgiving I first heard it called that in the late 90s -- theory is that people the waited on their shopping until they could access the Web from the better, faster work connections. The work connection is no longer better and faster but the concept of Cyber Monday continues. 

I like Google's idea - make the device you want your employees to use so attractive that your employees would rather use your device.  BYOD goes out the door then.  Employees are happy and feel special. 

I can't imagine anyone being against this.  Except the pesky bean counters.

They really are, @JWallace.

@Kim, Yes we have security considerations for cloud technologies.  We have an internal process for security assessment and we review each opportunity on a case by case basis.

I like John Marcante. his answers are so satisfying. 

I like Google's idea - make the device you want your employees to use so attractive that your employees would rather use your device.  BYOD goes out the door then.  Employees are happy and feel special.  

I presume not @Alison, especially with OEM's making it much easier such as Windows 8 - from mobile to desktop.

@John Marcante - Is the innovation effort still volunteer-driven?

Surely BYOD doesn't mean the Wild West?

@au007 sounds good and safe to me. 

@jwallace - It may not just be internal. I got that impression but I may be wrong. 

@Jwallace-Internal Governance does'nt work a good number of times,coz ppl are just lazy.

@jwallace: this is why you need policies.

John, do you still use a lot of volunteer effort for innovation within IT?

@jwallace-Good points! How about everyone uses a Tool which requires no Downloadable clients?

@Mitch No but I was thinking overall governance. particularly if you're spearheading industry change. didn't know it was just internal. ;-/

how to connect video conferencing from home. BYOD headache? if employee 1 is wanting to use Gotomeeting while employee B wants to use skype, and employee c,d and e wants to use tinychat. <-- only jest :) buty why not?!

@Mitch, We began with our innovation trek with a developmental model with volunteer IT groups.  The crew were passionate about working with new technologies.  The ideas focused on demonstrating business value and then we slowly added dedicated crew based on the return.

Point is, start slow.  Demonstrate value. Build from there.

Someone asked earlier about security.  Does that put major constraints on technology at Vanguard?  Are there cloud solutions you just can't use for security reasons?

@jwallace - McAfee doesn't work fo Vanguard, or does he?

senior governance commitee for E20. Is Andrew McAfee on that committee? 

@John - That makes a lot of sense, especially when you're dealing with people's investments and retirements. And, as you say, with 90% of business coming through the Internet you're already dealing with an obviously web-savvy market.

Regular crew ideation sounds like a great idea.  Requires bold and brave company leadership.

Kim, me too. I got the impression that the technology problem for big-data might not be as big for Vanguard as it would be for an Internet consumer company like Faecbook. 

When I worked at a two-person office (I was the sole f/t employee), we brainstormed when my boss took me out to lunch. Inexpensive (unless he was feeling extremely generous!), enjoyable, and we came up with some pretty good long and short-term ideas for the magazine.

@Alison, Given we are a virtual company it is extremely important to demonstrate our technology saviness especially when it comes to provide convenient, secure, and easy to use applications.

I may have misunderstood, but it didn't sound like analytics were a key tool.  That surprises me for an investment company.

Love that word: "ideation."

That makes sense: you're looking to cut costs but also add new services which are more profitable (I'd think).

How can timestrapped organizations free up resources to pursue innovation? Kim mentioned that early in the chat wrt to SMBs.

Ideation sounds like thinking outside the box.

Innovation is a necessity especially in financial services.  It is a highly technology competive space.  Our goal is to have a mix of top down and bottom up ideation.  Our business and technology leaders provide insight into practical solutions and business needs and we periodically run crew  (employee) ideation to find day to day ideas to serve clients better.

Aum007, scrolling to the beginning of this conversation, sounds like you're an innovation skeptic. 

Has it been that way since you've been at Vanguard, John, or is this a culture that's evolved?

Yes, it really sounds thoroughly immersive.

I'm impressed that the whole business gets involved in IT innovation. It's not a case of IT doing something without consulting and then throwing innovation over the wall ... or alternately business going around IT to implement innovation. 

How important is it to Vanguard's public image - with prospective and existing customers - to be seen as a leader in technology adoption and innovation?

John: although you have an Innovations Group, it sounds like the focus is much more on technology with direct, short-term business benefits.  Is there hostility to thinking outside the box?

The finanical industry is highly regulated.  We get legal, compliance, and information security  involved upfront in the innovation process to help us identify the guard rails we work within.  We have had a lot of success with this approach early on in the innovation cycle.

@John, do you see spending time on innovation as a luxury or a necessity? How formal should this be: It sounds as though Vanguard has real structure and follow-through vs. informal brainstorming.

Hello, @jwallace!

I caught the last 7 minutes. replaying the archive. but from my first IE experience on PST, I'm endorsing..  
Hi Mitch!!

Good question, lin!

Hello, everyone!

@John - it sounds like you are constantly trying to take advantage of the latest technologies.   As a financial company, aren't you always running into the wall, due to governmental regulations?

wow!

Surprised that big data doesn't seem to be a key part of the puzzle.

"E2.0 not only a business but corporatea initiative how do you get the word out?"

thinking on that.. on the social!

No, I don't think so. There are some that have longer term plans and goals, too.

@Allison-Duh!!! Most SMBs just want to keep their head above water today!

A lot resting on best practices

Interesting career path - a nice mix of biz and IT

1.  Understanding technology.  2.  Business acumen.  3. Leadership.

Avast behind!

Google's aim is to provide employees with devices which are better than their own personal devices.

That's true, @aum007, but don't you think it's also important that SMBs also have some time to consider where their businesses are heading longer-term and some of the tools and techs they can use to differentiate themselves rather than simply do what they're doing now? (Not that keeping business running smoothly, efficiently, and affordably isn't super important. It is!)

IT managers would like to have more time to develop the business rather than patch stuff.

@Kim-Why is it sad?Most SMBs just want to do Business.

I believe one of our contributors mentioned a German bank that is using similar technology, too.

That's a pretty cool use of biometrics.

I'd like to hear about some of the security tools Vanguard uses. They're dealing with people's money and SSNs so I know it must be pretty darn tight!

Well that's far-sighted.

I thought, from Mitch's blog, they also do five-year plans.

I think a lot of organizations debate this: Native vs. HTML5

It sounds like Vanguard is at one end of the R&D spectrum: looking at immediately useable technologies.

Here, though, like in so many companies, the Internet is such an integral part of what they do and how they make money that it's imperative to look into new ways to do business and new tools to use.

That has to be a great part of the participants' job, I'd think.

For many SMBs, innovation is something the IT manager does two hours per month.  Sadly.

An innovation group.  That tells me they have plenty of IT capacity.

Hello all.

Hi everyone.

That's a tough number to get my mind around. $2 trillion.

Hello.

I would rather have a CIO who focusses on Keeping Costs down aggressively and of course making sure every employee in the Company does the job better than their main rivals. 

I dunno why I feel that Innovation as a commodity is heavily over-rated today.