Mark Withington

Current

• Founder at PLMresearch (Sole Proprietorship)

Past

• Research Director eBusiness at The Aberdeen Group
• eCommerce Senior Consultant at Siemens Business Services LLC
• Manager of Internet Development at Datel, Inc.

• International Distribution Manager at Datel, Inc.

see less...

1 more...

Education

• Northeastern University
• University of New Hampshire

Recommended

4 people have recommended Mark

Connections

167 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

• My Company

Mark Withington’s Summary

Open Source Software (OSS) is one of the "Ten Flattening Forces" cited within Thomas Friedman's best selling book, "The World is Flat" and has played a strategic role at companies like Google™, Sun™, Novell™, and IBM™. In fact, nearly every company today (whether they realize it or not) is leveraging OSS - be it the Apache web server driving their website, or the Firefox browser on the desktop or some PHP/Python/PERL Cron scripts running within their IT departments in preparation for the following business day. OSS is in the enterprise.

Much as Taylor’s division of labor paved the way for Ford’s assembly line – driving massive productivity growth during the Industrial Revolution - OSS and its related concepts is poised to impact the Information Age with similar consequence. From demand-pull, to the efficient allocation of development resources, to increased stability/security of mission critical applications, we have only scratched the surface of open source.

I specialize in open source community development and business impact, and have practical experience in the deployment of OSS as a “productized services” platform – marrying OSS projects with key business drivers (processes) wrapped within a recurring fractional payment business model.

Founder of the Boston PHP user group (www.BostonPHP.org); Organizer of Boston PHP Meetup (php.meetup.com/29); Chairman of the Town of Plymouth Charter Review Commission (www.FullOpenReview.org)

Mark Withington’s Specialties:

I have technical domain knowledge/experience with procedural and object oriented design patterns, user interface, database and distributed business application design. Specific technical background: HTML, HTTP, XHTML, XML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Document Object Model (DOM), Dynamic HTML (DHTML), JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, Concurrent Versioning System (CVS), Subversion, Apache, FreeBSD, osCommerce, phpMyAdmin, DADABIK, Joomla!, Mambo, and a host of other open source projects.

Mark Withington’s Experience

• Founder

  PLMresearch (Sole Proprietorship)

  (Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  January 2001 — Present (7 years 8 months)

  PLMresearch helps clients understand how open source technology can leverage their current IT/business investments. The company is a strong advocate of the open source movement evangelizing open source via locally founded communities (www.BostonPHP.org), national conferences and other public and private affiliations
  
  * Defining and deploying eBusiness architectures;
  * Selecting and configuring cost effective development environments;
  * Designing and deploying Rapid Application Development methodologies;
  * Configuring Project Management Offices;
  * Providing tactical project management of captive and non-captive development resources throughout the Software Development Lifecycle;
  * Conducting Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Business Case Analysis (BCA) studies

• Research Director eBusiness

  The Aberdeen Group

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  July 2000 — February 2001 (8 months)

  Primary areas of responsibilities included researching, analyzing and tracking industry trends and providing consulting and market strategy services to technology vendors and emerging marketplaces that leverage e-Business technologies to redefine core business processes. Areas of focus included: supply chain management; vertical and horizontal marketplaces; one-to-one marketing and sales; customer service, billing, presentment and payments, and employee self-service. Client engagements ranged from process improvement/integration to business model validation/positioning, often resulting in in-depth reports (white papers) that articulated the client’s value proposition. Particular emphasis was placed upon the inter-value chain communication that e-Business offers and its role within horizontally distributed “outsourced” models as e-Business evolves into the logical extension of enterprises legacy system (MRP, ERP, DRP, etc.) investments of the past decade.

• eCommerce Senior Consultant

  Siemens Business Services LLC

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  October 1999 — July 2000 (10 months)

  Analyzed customer's business environment. Developed B2B eCommerce strategies. Reviewed and analyzed existing customer processes and systems. Conducted extensive discussions regarding the buying process as it relates to new online strategies. Developed functional design of existing processes, mapped functional areas into an eCommerce presence. Identified systems architecture to include eCommerce development platforms, development tools, and necessary links to payment and legacy systems. Designed conceptual eCommerce applications for client approval. Oversaw the development of the application from a functional as well as a managerial prospective. Developed/integrated catalog databases. Tested systems against original specification. Implemented/deployed systems into production. Worked with client to coordinate web site rollout both externally (promotion) and internal (integration into existing control systems).

• Manager of Internet Development

  Datel, Inc.

  (Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

  May 1998 — October 1999 (1 year 6 months)

  Responsible for the formulation and implementation of DATEL's long-range Internet strategy. Articulated and presented strategy to sales and marketing business unit personnel and senior management. Evaluated, negotiated, and selected Internet suppliers (ISP's, eCommerce development platform, portal optimization software, webmetrics platform) that would best suit strategic plan. Developed product databases for use in 4-tier web application. Created and managed DATEL's eCommerce storefronts and corporate Extranet sites. Coordinated graphic and content generation. Generated JavaScript and PERL CGI scripts. Coordinated online payment systems. Established internal control systems to integrate eCommerce into DATEL's legacy systems. Trained DATEL sales and marketing personnel and worked with business unit managers to facilitate the integration of DATEL's Internet strategy. Continuously monitored sites listing within general and industry specific Internet portals.

• International Distribution Manager

  Datel, Inc.

  (Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

  April 1995 — May 1998 (3 years 2 months)

  Responsible for the management of DATEL's twenty-three distribution partners throughout the world. Formulated and implemented mutually agreed upon sales and marketing objectives within each territory. Continuously reviewed distributors against objectives and developed new strategies and/or selected new partners to maximize market penetration. Developed alternative channels that could efficiently serve additional market segments. Maintained relationships and facilitated dialog at all levels of management within DATEL's entire international distribution network. Provided training, technical and commercial support via phone/fax and frequent local visits. Worked directly with major OEM accounts selling customized and standard product (design-in through to account maintenance). Negotiated distribution and customer contracts. Consistently met or exceeded sales target.

Mark Withington’s Education

• Northeastern University

  MBA, January 1989 — June 1990

• University of New Hampshire

  BSEE, Engineering, 1979 — 1982

Additional Information

Mark Withington’s Websites:

• My Company

Mark Withington’s Interests:

golf, ice hockey, cycling, running, skiing, snowboarding, tennis, economics, wood working

Mark Withington’s Groups:

President of BostonPHP.org, Group coordinator BostonPHP meetup, Local government representative

•    Northeastern University Executive MBA (EMBA) Alumni Network

Mark Withington’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch