Hi. I’m Susan Scrupski a.k.a. “ITSinsider.” I started my career tracking the IT services market for about 20 years focusing primarily on the large-scale systems integration market which morphed into the outsourcing market in the early 90s. I enjoyed my share of fame and was particularly interested in the megadeal market for large, billion dollar ITO deals and the cast of characters that made the market move. When the Internet moved into the IT services sector, it got my attention because staid industry leadership were suddenly acting like hormone-driven teenagers and jumping into pre-IPO startups like Scient, Viant, and iXL, and trying to reposition old client/server integrators like Lante. It was an exciting time (1999), and I abandoned the outsourcing market to follow the trend. I published some first-mover research on the sector, eventually sold my company, and joined a startup myself. When my company went the way of most of the dotcoms, I sentenced myself to self-exile in suburbia– intent on serving a term of no less than 10 years. They let me out in five– politely citing “time served” and for doing far too much community service. So, in 2006, I re-emerged and restarted ITSA, the advisory firm I launched in 1999. I tried getting interested in outsourcing again, but was once again drawn to the Internet. Lucky for me, the enterprise 2.0 “movement” was just starting up and I started tracking it in the blogosphere.

The reason I operate under the name “ITSinsider” is because (in 1999) I published a web site which was really a rudimentary early blog. Having evolved my industry newsletter writing to the web, I had a fairly wide following which included financial analysts, industry executives, and general industry insiders. The site was private at the time because I was breaking a lot of news on the web and didn’t want day-traders trading on my reporting. Throughout the 90s I was widely quoted in the mainstream media (MSM). You can see some vintage quotes by clicking through to these links: New York Times, Businessweek1, Businessweek2. The most prestigious quotes were on the Wall Street Journal (front page, top of the fold– don’t get any better than that), but Rupert Murdoch does not allow links to old content.   It’s amusing to me how I was sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but never, never in doubt. Oh, and here is an oldie, but goodie CNBC segment on how I helped prevent a takeover of CSC by CA. At the time, it seemed like the honorable thing to do. (Remind me never to cut my hair again?)

Fast forward to 2006. In this 2.0 phase of my career, I was graciously invited to join the Enterprise Irregulars bloggers group, I participated in the inaugural Office 2.0 conference, and the following year, Ismael Ghalimi asked me to help organize the Enterprise 2.0 track for the Office 2.0 2007 conference. He then asked me help plan the 2008 conference as well. I am a member of the blogging team at Technically Women, and I am on the advisory board for the Enterprise 2.0 conference held each year in Boston in June and Santa Clara in November.   Probably the most interesting move I’ve made in the e20 space is launching The 2.0 Adoption Council.  This was a great idea whose time had come in June/July ’09.   I jumped on it and have not looked back since.  The Council members are happy, and it’s creating a lot of value in the sector by publishing early findings and case study data the entire industry can learn from.  The Council was acquired in April 2010 by the Dachis Group.  This was especially pleasing to me, considering I had watched the ascent of Jeff Dachis in the late 90s (as referenced in the opening graf), and now have the privilege of working for him directly, along with a team of exceptionally talented individuals.  Around the same time as the acquisition,  I was named by Fast Company as one of the “Most Influential Women in Technology.”  This recognition is especially pleasing to me, as I had no idea what I was going to do when I returned to the workforce in January 2006.  The archive of those early posts and indecision is on the pages of this blog.

This blog covers the Enterprise 2.0 sector of the next generation web. ITSinsider, the blog, is where I cover industry developments and trends. I dedicate a lot of time to discussing products in the Enterprise 2.0 sector and ongoing work we’re doing in the Council.  As the Enterprise 2.0 sector morphs and expands its reach outside of the virtual walls of the organization, you’ll see me talking more about Social Business and how the whole enterprise is re-shaping to accommodate the enormous changes the social web has in store for the future of business.  The blog is meant to be a community clearinghouse where friends, fans, and other observers can keep the conversation going.

I have a personal blog I maintain as well. Feel free to visit there as well.

If you want to reach me directly, email me at my gmail address: susan.scrupski. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and GTalk, too. I’m also ITSinsider on most social networks and web 2.0 communities.

Thanks for stopping by.

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