Former Fort Wayne IT chief starts consulting company

Clarke start by Doug LeDuc
dougl@fwbusiness.com

Fort Wayne has gained a reputation within public administration circles for its use of information technology and quality-improvement programs that optimize its delivery of services.

A major force behind that achievement was Clifford Clarke, the city’s former chief information officer/chief technology officer. With a new administration in office, his expertise has become available to the private sector. Clarke has turned his attention to helping area businesses through an IT adviser/partner position with OnCall PSN and through the founding of his own consulting and project management company, C2 (C-squared) Information Technology Advisors.

"The city has seen some huge gains in the way we did information technology. We didn’t get all the way there — a large organization does take some time to get there — but we made some huge strides," Clark said of his time with the city. During his tenure, the city brought a lot of projects to closure, such as its constituent relationship management "One Call to City Hall" system reachable by dialing 311, and the design and implementation of all of the information technology at the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana. It also improved governance, optimized communication channels, developed a workable approach to IT standards and put in place best-in-class business practices proven to cut costs and improve efficiency.

Clarke said there is a lot of opportunity in the area to reduce the cost of information technology while improving its performance. Many northeast Indiana businesses are operating with a mix of equipment and software that doesn’t work together as well as it could. Improving standardization, particularly with an organization’s networking infrastructure, can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of maintenance and troubleshooting as well as overall IT performance.

Clarke said he expects his new company to be doing everything from strategic IT planning and governance to enterprise-wide projects such as the review and design of a company’s IT security. Some businesses will turn to C2 for transitional chief information officer services, and some may call on it "for something as simple as, ‘I’m going to be talking to these vendors; could I get somebody to help me with that,'" he said. There also is a need in the area for IT innovation advisory services, Clarke said.

"Entities need to figure out ways to do things differently. They cannot be locked down by the way they’ve done things before without investigating if they can be improved. "You can’t not make adjustments and changes and expect to keep your market share and keep customers happy."

At OnCallPSN, Clarke will be the primary IT authority, handling much of the work previously shouldered by the company’s president, Rob Drummond, who was IT director for the former Central Soya. "Clifford is an outstanding addition to our experienced team of advisers," Drummond said. "I’ve known Clifford for almost two decades and he brings a high caliber of technology expertise our clients expect."