Where The Gloves Come Off

Before the committee was established, project planning was an ad hoc exercise, and it was difficult to prioritize requests coming from the business units, according to Zempel. "The executive vice presidents of each division are vying for attention of their respective problems," he says. "Now you have people who are looking at the entire enterprise and making decisions. They don't have a territorial agenda."

The IT steering committee meets two or more times a week, and IT staffers rotate in and out periodically. This group analyzes the IT priorities expressed by the executive committee and recommends point technologies and broader platform changes based on those priorities.

"The IT committee will say, this is the infrastructure we already have in place. Looking at the priorities of this year, should we move to a hub and spoke architecture, should we use a Microsoft platform, and so on," Zempel says.

The idea for the committees sprung from an evaluation in late 2001. Zempel's peers asked him for a clearer explanation of how technology ties into their business agendas. "It was a very strong sentiment," he says.The committee meetings are, by design, boxing matches. "We put the gloves on in there," Zempel says. If someone from the network operations team wants to suggest a better way for the telecom people to handle a process, he or she is invited to make the idea known. Zempel, whose work experience leans more toward sales and gym operations than technology, uses the open-mike sessions to form his own opinions about where the IT organization should go.

Says Zempel, "The whole thing is an educational process for me."

Now, let's meet some of the Players.

• At Work: Leads corporate strategy and runs day-to-day operations.

• At Home: 41 years old. Single, one daughter. Hobbies include running, biking and piloting jets

• Alma Mater:: University of Colorado, BS in electrical engineering.

• How He Got Here:

1990 to 1992: Started his first fitness club in Brooklyn Park, Minn.
1989 to 1990: Executive vice president, U.S. Swim and Fitness
1982 to 1989: Salesman for and later part owner of Nautilus Fitness Center, which would become U.S. Swim and Fitness and be sold to Bally Fitness Group

• Mouthing Off:

Why selling MMS to other gym operators makes sense: "If we share MMS with the other top health-club companies, they might be able to create some addition to what we gave them that is better than what we do, and then we can use that."• At Work: Runs Life Time's IT organization.

• At Home: 37 years old. Married, three children. Hobbies include golf and motocross

• Alma Mater:: Still pursuing college degree; says he "should be finished by 2015."

• How He Got Here:

1995 to 1996: General management (Life Time Fitness)
1988 to 1995: Independent sales and management consultant
1986 to 1995: Self-employed photographer

1984 to 1987: Personal trainer, club manager and salesperson• Mouthing Off:

MMS' greatest business challenge: "Developing the business case and ROI supporting the conversion from the legacy system."

Toughest moment during development: "Convincing an all-Microsoft shop that we were going to be converting, developing, implementing and maintaining our core system using unfamiliar technologies."

MMS is important to Life Time Fitness because: "The system's flexibility, scalability and ease of use allow us a variety of options when developing new strategies, whereas the old system dictated what we could and couldn't do. MMS also gives us a quicker, much more accurate, real-time look into our business conditions."

If only I had a bigger IT budget, I would: "Invest in R&D, technical and communications training and more time off for the team."I work at Life Time Fitness because: "It's an extremely aggressive multibusiness company that is focused on changing people's lives in a positive manner."

• At Work: Establishes software methodology and framework that aligns with business needs. Directs software development projects, systems integration and system acquisition. Manages four direct reports, 20 indirect reports and a $3 million annual budget

• At Home: 30 years old. Married, 2 daughters. Hobbies include spending time with family and church activities. Fluent in Italian

• Alma Mater:: Carlson School of Business, University of Minnesota, MBA; Brigham Young University, BA in humanities; two semesters at the University of Minnesota School of Law

• Certs: Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and Microsoft Certified Trainer• How He Got Here: Software developer consultant (clients included Old Republic National Title Insurance Company and Life Time Fitness); technical trainer (clients included Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Gateway and Target); helpdesk IT support (University of Minnesota School of Law)

• Mouthing Off:

MMS' greatest technical challenge: "Dealing with the constraints of the Web browser, especially for complex user-interface work and hardware access."

Toughest moment during MMS development: "Talking down the critics outside of Life Time Fitness who predicted failure."

MMS is important to Life Time Fitness because: "It facilitates the business strategy of high growth and product diversification and satisfies the need for an adaptive framework that accommodates change."I like it when the network operations people: "Work together with the software development unit to create solutions and solve problems."

I dislike it when the network operations people: "Forget to communicate at a nontechnical level with the business users."

If I could change one thing in the IT organization, it would be: "To have better project-tracking software that would be relevant and useful to all functions within the IT organization."

I work at Life Time Fitness because: "It's an exciting, high-energy company leading its industry in quality and because it hires carefully and then encourages employees to take risks."

• At Work: Supports the CIO in aligning IT initiatives with business objectives. Manages IT operations, including telecom, internetworking (WAN), network operations and the technical assistance center. Manages four direct reports and 18 indirect reports• At Home: 33 years old. Married, two daughters. Hobbies include church activities, hockey, golf and reading

• Alma Mater:: University of WisconsinMadison, BA in consumer science

• Certs: Microsoft Certified Engineer, Cisco Certified Network Architect, Avaya--Difinity Administration, CompTIA Network+

• How He Got Here:

1998 to 2000: Technical consultant, Architects Inc.
1998 to 2000: Technical trainer, Benchmark Computer Learning
1992 to 1997: Professional hockey player for teams in various German cities
1991 to 1992: Defenseman, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Newmarket Saints and St. John's Maple Leafs farm teams
1990 to 1991: Defenseman, Washington Capitals and the Baltimore Skipjacks farm team• Mouthing Off:

MMS' greatest business challenge: "In gathering the business requirements, we found that the business process had to be either created or modified."

Toughest moment during development: "We thought we were going to lose the funding for our consultants."

MMS is important to Life Time Fitness because: "It is the core of our member data."

Why Web services isn't what most people think: "Widely accepted standards are not solidified. Web services can help businesses internally link disparate data systems to the same extent that Web services are touted for external business connections."If only I had a bigger IT budget, I would: "Hire more people."

The chief difference between Life Time's IT organization and your average IT organization: "The culture, the team, the skill level and the team-oriented attitude. All this has led to a remarkably low attrition rate of approximately four people in the past four years--all of whom did not leave voluntarily."

If I could change one thing in Life Time's IT organization, it would be: "Aligning business objectives with IT initiatives. The business should prioritize business projects for IT."

I work at Life Time Fitness because: "Of the culture and team in IT that Brent Zempel has created and fostered."

• At Work: Oversees database design and systems architecture• At Home: 38 years old. Single, two cats. Hobbies include inline skating, hiking, weight training and music

• Alma Mater:: University of Minnesota Institute of Technology, BS in computer science

• How He Got Here:

1996 to 2000: N-tier software developer and database architect (Renaissance Worldwide Consulting)
1982 to 1996: Client-server architect on 2200 mainframe OS, Unix and NT Clearpath servers (Unisys)

• Mouthing Off:MMS' greatest technical challenge: "Creating and testing the code to convert the legacy data. The old system didn't have many data integrity checks so the data was a real mess."

Toughest moment during development: "When one of the lead developers, a consultant, quit a month and a half before the go-live date. It turned out that he hadn't done any of the coding he claimed to have done."

The next big challenge for MMS: "Enterprise application integration using Web services with all of our other back-end systems."

Why Web services isn't what most people think: "The concept of universally compatible software services has been around for years, in the guise of CORBA, COM and so on but never has fully materialized. This time, it has a much better chance because of the reach of XML, but the goals of UDDI are so unrealistic that the hype will most likely never become total reality."

MMS is important to Life Time Fitness because: "It gives us the ability to manage and monitor the members to a degree we never dreamed possible."I like the network operations people when: "We are really in a crunch and they bend over backward to help us."

I hate the network operations people when: "They forget about communication. I'm sure they say the same thing about us."

The chief difference between Life Time's IT organization and your average IT organization: "Our development and network/telecom operations teams actually get along with each other and try to function as one team."

I work at Life Time Fitness because: "These are great people, and they give me an opportunity to work with the technologies of today and tomorrow."

• At Work: Supports the director of IT operations in aligning IT operations with business objectives. Manages network operations, as well as system administrators, engineers and field technicians. Provides strategic vision and is responsible for organizational structure of network operations group. Supervises six direct reports and seven indirect reports.• At Home: 34 years old. Married. Hobbies include golf.

• Alma Mater:: Kansas State University

• Mouthing Off:

MMS' greatest technical challege: "The data conversion from the legacy system and the adaptation to the complexities of n-tiered application support."

MMS is important to Life Time Fitness because: "Operationally, we've gained huge ground in understanding how to introduce large initiatives to our working environments effectively. MMS also has depicted the strategic value that good data can present as a competitive advantage."Toughest moments during the development of MMS: "When the technical lead/ lead developer decided to leave us without notice, and when we discovered we would have to establish SQL replication for the sake of reporting."

I like the software development people when: "The chips are down and it's like magic around here. Everyone pulls together to solve the issue at hand without taking the time to play the ever-fun finger-pointing game."

I hate the software development people when: "Communication breaks down, which is seldom these days."

If only I had a bigger IT budget, I would: "Have a true hot site allowing us to better support disaster recovery."

I work at Life Time Fitness because: In the IT department, "we've had the unique opportunity here to build out the infrastructure relatively unfettered by upper management."With MMS, Life Time Fitness' IT group has made a strong start toward enabling growth, but can it follow through?

MMS Road Map: How successful will the IT group be in building full Web services functionality into its flagship business application?

CRM Go-Live: They chose Siebel. Now can they make it work with MMS?

Quality assurance: Life Time's Testworld lets network operations test MMS and other apps before they go live. Can the IT group keep up with the pace of change happening in the production systems?

More With Less: Can IT maintain its buff image while doing more work and meeting higher expectations, all with fewer resources?