IT Confidential: Adapt Or Die: My Sentiments Exactly

Does "exploring strategic options" mean what I think it means? Because that's what Divine Inc. is doing, according to a statement by the company last week. Divine, which describes itself as "a provider of solutions for the extended enterprise," is the brainchild of Andrew "Flip" Filipowski, the fiery software mogul who cashed in big time when he sold his database software company, Platinum Technology, to Computer Associates in 1999 for $3.5 billion. Divine started life as Divine InterVentures, an Internet incubator Filipowski launched partly with his CA money. After the dot-com bust, Filipowski tried to re-establish Divine as an integration-software vendor, built largely on a string of acquisitions. Divine has tapped Broadview International to help with the messy details and "is currently involved in active discussions regarding the potential sale of several businesses or strategic assets."

Today's business and political conditions make public-sector tech experience a valuable commodity. DigitalNet Government Solutions tapped Debra Stouffer to head its strategic consulting practice, "as the company continues to focus on providing managed network service to the U.S. government," the company said in a statement. Stouffer most recently served as CIO of the Environmental Protection Agency, and before that she worked in the Office of Management and Budget on the Federal Enterprise Architecture project. Last week, Jim Flyzik, former Treasury CIO, vice chairman of the federal CIO Council, and a former senior adviser to Homeland Security czar Tom Ridge, was named chairman of the Information Technology Association of America's homeland-security task group, which deals with issues such as risk sharing and security-clearance requirements for homeland-security contractors.

Speaking of public-sector migrations, John Reece has left his post as CIO of the Internal Revenue Service. Reece shepherded the agency's IT modernization effort for the past two years. Before that, Reece was Time Warner's first-ever CIO, and before that he created the corporate CIO role at Alexander & Alexander, a global insurance broker. No word on where Reece is headed.

Timogen Systems this week will announce Bob Betts as its new president. Betts comes to Timogen from SAP, where he headed up the enterprise software vendor's supply-chain effort. Timogen is an up-and-comer in the "extended supply-chain" space, which touts the benefits of real-time adaptive supply-chain technology. Betts is something of a supply-chain guru and recently published an influential book on future strategies called Adapt Or Die (John Wiley & Sons, December 2002).

Hey, that's the name of my (unfinished) book! Except mine's a marital-advice book-based on personal experience. If you have any advice, or an industry tip, send it to [email protected] or phone 516-562-5326. If you want to talk software consolidation, tech-talent migration, or supply-chain strategies, meet me at InformationWeek.com's Listening Post: informationweek.com/forum/johnsoat.

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