Tim Ferguson, CIO at Northern Kentucky University

What’s the state of business technology in greater Cincinnati region? How do we compare to other cities nationally or globally?

“Getting the talent pipeline where it needs to be is a supply and demand problem. It is getting kids to think about technology as a career path all the way back in fourth, fifth or sixth grade, maybe even earlier, and then once they are in college, keeping them interested. We have had a lot of success reaching into the middle and high schools through programs like INTERalliance. That’s one of the reasons the College of Informatics has seen steadily increasing enrollment. Those students have interaction with start-up companies, employment on campus, and in the Center for Applied Informatics, which I started in 2005, we hire up to one hundred students each year to work with companies like P&G and Kroger on creative technology projects, which give them experiences with analytics, mobile technologies, healthcare and more.

The CIO’s in the business community who I talk to not only want students with the tech expertise, but they also want students who can be analytical, solve problems and think outside the box. NKU has realized that and in the College of Informatics a student gets the latest programming language and a set of tools, but they also develop their business and social skills and are really well-rounded. Most of the students will have jobs six months before they graduate, and many of them go to work here in small and mid-tier companies that have less than corporate environments. In fact I think we now see corporate adjusting for that.

NKU is working to be a part of that ecosystem, exposing our students to that, getting more students to come here, producing more talent and moving them into that space. Getting them to stay and live in Cincinnati is about opportunity, and that may be where the businesses need to step up. It’s not just the six-figure salary that lures some to the west coast. If you ask them about it, money is a second or third tier concern, but they will tell you that they want to be challenged and doing something creative, or they want to be learning and growing. So business has to adapt to that. And students who are graduating now don’t envision staying in one place very long. Instead they may be thinking two or three years here, two or three years there, because they are looking for the experience. Business will have to adjust for that too – a great talent may not be a long-timer, but that’s not the end of the world.”