Appearing on theCUBE at IBM’s recent Information on Demand 2013 summit in Las Vegas, Tom DeClerck, an industry veteran with over 15 years of experience in leading IT projects, got down to the nitty-gritty of managing infrastructure for a midsize company.

DeClerck is the CIO of Superior Group, a privately-held staffing agency based in Buffalo, New York. Founded in 1957, the firm offers recruitment and payroll solutions as well as project outsourcing and managed services.

Superior Group deployed SAP ERP in July 2010 and started rolling out IBM Connections and IBM Cognos last year. The company is currently beta testing an SAP report pack that enables joint customers to manage all of their data using Big Blue’s software, DeClerck details, functionality that has not been available since the acquisition of Cognos in 2007.

Asked about his decision to implement Connections, IBM’s enterprise collaboration solution, DeClerck says that his company adopted the platform to increase organizational communications and improve corporate imaging.

“There are several areas in the field that brought value,” DeClerck elaborates. “One is that it’s a platform that can be accessed anywhere, so you don’t have to be on our internal network to be able to access and collaborate and communicate. That was a huge value added for our organization, it allows us to connect and stay together, and empower our users to be able to contribute openly,” he says. “From an IT standpoint we see a reduction in emails … and the time-to-market for solutions has definitely [been] reduced.”

On the BI side, Superior Group is leveraging Cognos to power its payroll service and deliver interactive reports to customers. DeClerck says that he’s working with a local partner called LPA Systems to provide custom worker compensation reports for clients that use SAP software.

Check out the clip below for the full interview.