Virtual Roundtable Specs

Setting – Microsoft Teams

Title – Breaking the IT/OT Decision Making Impasse

Date – May 19th, 2021

Time – 2:00 p.m. EST

Duration – 40 min

Utility Attendees – 10-15

Type – Virtual Discussion

Design – Business Development

SUMMARY

Many of the Utilities that attended SUS and SWS reported their IT and OT departments have lost the essential operational rhythm of identifying, defining, and resolving problems. In other words, and without much exaggeration, IT and OT can no longer agree on the color of an orange. 

The goal of this session is to break the impasse. Consensus building is a teachable skill most of us have not had the chance to formally study. With your help gathering your colleagues, we will use the topic of securing remote access to equipment to bring your IT and OT teams together, then provide a compact and repeatable structure through which they can efficiently define the problem, define the solution, test implementations, and deploy.

 

Agenda:

• Welcome & Introductions (7 min)
• Define the Problem (7 min)
• Water Utility Story (10 min)
• Discussion (15 min)
• Closing (5 min)

 

Ian Schmertzler

By profession, Ian is the President of Dispel. By training he is an industrial engineer. Outside of Dispel, Ian is the highest-ranking commercial board member of the National Defense Industry Association's New York- Connecticut Chapter - a region that represented roughly $28 billion of DoD spending last year. Ian holds a Masters in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech, and a BA from Yale.