Greetings. In case you weren't yet sure, I'm Michael Dortch. And if you have questions about how best to drive business benefits with information technology (IT), I have answers (and opinions, skills, and experience) that can help you.

I've spent more than three decades in various roles related to information technology (IT), translating technological things and events into language non-technical people can understand and advice they can use. After opining about these and related issues almost exclusively for others, I've decided to claim a bit of cyberspace for myself. So watch this space (a work in near-constant progress), enjoy, send comments, and tell all of your friends and colleagues!

A few of my favorite things, the links attached to which will take you to separate pages or tabs, with more details, and links to other things I've written or think you should see:

• Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud Computing, and all that other "on-demand" stuff (including opinions about leading vendors, as in the recent Akamai-OpSource alliance, what I said to bMighty.com Oracle buying Sun might mean to the SaaS market, and this recent Internet News article, and advice for users, as in this recent SearchSAP.com/TechTarget Webcast)
  
• Business Intelligence (and, ultimately, hopefully, "The Intelligent Business," empowered by efforts such as Master Data Management (MDM), as I discuss in a recent ebizQ blog about IBM buying Exeros, and a recent SearchSAP.com/TechTarget column, and aided by supply chain visibility and process mastery, as I discuss in a recent Search ManufacturingERP.com/TechTarget column - WHEW!)
• Collaboration Technologies (such as Facebook, about which I am quoted in a different recent Internet News article, and novel approaches to converged social networking access, such as MobileTribe)
  
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) (and related/descendant sensor-based, intelligence-generating technologies, and their use in real-world industries such as IT manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, and their integration with other important technologies, such as IT asset management) (Whew!)
  
• The Information Technology (IT) Industry (especially the analysts and media covering it, and their effects upon it and, at least tangentially at least sometimes, "The Real World," as in the need for "digital literacy" explored by me and others in James Gaskin's fine Network World column, "Digital Literacy: Buzzword or Job Requirement?")
• Almost Everything Else (including, for example, why I think economist and politician Tom Campbell is wrong when he says things like green energy won't stimulate the economy, and RealGov.com, a project seeking content contributors, ideas for more accessible, responsive, and transparent government -- and funds!)
  

Who I Am -- and How I Can Help You!

I am a deeply and broadly experienced "information entrepreneur" and "explainer of things technological." I am a proven, effective industry analyst, writer, editor, speaker, advisor and evangelist focused on almost every aspect of IT, especially in the business world.

I have analyzed, spoken about, been quoted about, and written about nearly every major business technology, from mainframes and data centers through local-area networks (LANs) and client-server systems, to software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing, and social networking. I am conversant in “bits and bytes” and “speeds and feeds,” but my focus is always on how technologies can best enable business and user benefit, for buyers and sellers of those technologies.

I am actively seeking  my next full-time employment adventure, as well as interesting consulting projects. My current resume appears here. You can also find a complete version of my professional profile, along with endorsements from current and former colleagues and clients, at the LinkedIn and Plaxo Web sites. If you've got challenges related to IT and your business (or non-profit), check out "How I Can Help," or just drop me a line at medortch@dortchonit.com, and let's see if it makes sense to "Get Dortch ON IT!" (And of course, initial discussions are free!)