VLCM’s Technology Leadership University is a monthly, 30-minute webinar series led by Niel Nickolaisen that helps IT leaders prioritize competing initiatives, reduce complexity, and make stronger technology decisions.
Imagine this scenario: you’re evaluating a new technology investment. Demos are done, conversations have been had, and every option seems to have potential. Every vendor has its own strong case.
When it comes time to make your decision, the tradeoffs come into focus. Cost, risk, performance, and speed are all competing to be the priority. And it isn’t clear which of these factors aligns most closely with what the business needs.
The biggest challenge here is making a decision that withstands scrutiny from stakeholders who each define success differently. The more the organizational environment expands across data and tools, the more the pressure intensifies. This is where many IT leaders get stuck. They have the necessary capabilities but lack clarity about what really matters. This is a result of how IT leadership has been structured traditionally and why this foundation has begun to break down.
The problem with the traditional model of IT leadership is that it assumes a level of stability that no longer exists today. Evaluating, implementing, and optimizing technology in a vacuum fails to account for constant change and evolving business demands.
The reality of IT today includes:
Without a clear framework for prioritization, IT leaders risk amplifying complexity instead of driving measurable, business-aligned outcomes.
Together, these four shifts help IT leaders move from reactive execution to intentional strategy.
Niel Nickolaisen, Field Chief Information Officer (CIO) at VLCM, is ready to show IT leaders how to shift from leading in a reactive to a proactive stance. Niel has spent over two decades in CIO and CTO roles. He’s cut his teeth in enterprise technology transformation leadership, making decisions that directly impact growth, risk, and operational performance.
In organizations such as OC Tanner, Western Governors University, and Sorenson Communications, he has led initiatives that many IT teams are still trying to stabilize. These efforts include consolidating fragmented environments, modernizing legacy systems, accelerating cloud adoption, and embedding analytics into core business operations.
At Sorenson, Niel’s work included modernizing infrastructure, business systems, and processes; supporting cloud migration; and using data to improve customer and operational outcomes. His broader leadership experience also includes consolidation, compliance, modernization, and enterprise technology transformation.
As Field CIO Niel’s focus has shifted, but he sees technology leaders facing similar problems. He works directly with them to evaluate emerging technologies and make sound decisions that hold up under scrutiny. The core challenge his clients face is knowing what is worth acting on and how to operate effectively under pressure.
That’s why VLCM is introducing its Technology Leadership University, led by Niel Nickolaisen. This series distills his decades of IT leadership experience into a set of disciplines designed to drive results across the most complex environments.
At the center of the program, you’ll find a clear point of view: successful technology leadership comes down to six key areas:
These six areas create a disciplined, repeatable approach that IT leaders can use to succeed.
Each Technology Leadership University session is designed for leaders responsible for decisions that affect cost, risk, performance, and business outcomes. VLCM keeps each session to 30 minutes, with topics tied to the priorities IT leaders are already weighing.
The format gives leaders a faster way to examine how they make decisions, where complexity is slowing the business down, and what needs to change in how IT evaluates priorities.
Explore The Six Things That Technology Leaders Should Master on the second Wednesday of each month, June - November, and register at www.vlcm.com/university.
You can also learn more about Niel Nickolaisen and his approach to IT leadership.