Dave Flanagan, CIO Lionbridge Technologies

How long at current company: Four years, five months

Career accomplishment I'm most proud of: Creating a stable and cost-efficient IT infrastructure here at Lionbridge. When I joined the company, I found an infrastructure that was unstable, with a decentralized approach to infrastructure management. We centralized all services into a single data center, implemented strict change control, put in a dynamic VPN for a cost- effective WAN, and had a central team managing this new infrastructure.

Decision I wish I could do over: When Lionbridge purchased Bowne Global Solutions, both had home-grown business applications. We ended up with a hybrid solution and made major modifications to one of the core applications. The implementation, and the support, has been difficult and cumbersome. We ended up with applications that weren't designed to be integrated in the first place and with different groups maintaining different portions. Next time--no hybrid option!

The next big thing for my business will be ... in the translation business, it's increasingly about community and how we can bridge geographic differences. Related to this, it will be all about Web 2.0 and how to bring the "transaction" to the community.

Best advice for future CIOs: It is important to create a network of CIOs, which I did through the Society for Information Management. Make decisions! You may regret some, but it's important to make them and then stay focused. And it's important to hire strong, compassionate, and dedicated people

IT budget: $10 million

Size of IT team: 85 employees

Top three initiatives:

• Continue to implement further stages of unified communications to both increase productivity and decrease cost.
• Start the replacement of our current set of business applications using an off-the-shelf solution.
• Develop a translation management system to automate production tasks.

How I measure IT effectiveness: Our most tangible measure of ROI is in telecom costs. For example, we implemented Microsoft's Office Communications Server to cut telecom costs by $500,000. By the end of 2007, we had a run rate of savings well over a million dollars.

Colleges/degrees: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, BS, business management

Leisure activity: Jogging

Last vacation: Spring break, Universal Studios

Best book read recently: Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer

If I weren't a CIO, I'd be No idea. I enjoy this profession and I've never thought of anything else.