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Ticked Off at Tick the Box Mentality 04 February, 2008 13:01:15
Does your executive search firm know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients?Does your executive search firm know its MIS managers from its elbow? Does it even know the difference between an MIS manager and a CIO, and if it does, can it explain that difference to its corporate clients? - +
What Price Innovation? 05 November, 2007 13:44:31
CIOs say they want more than the traditional “your mess for less” relationship with their outsourcing providers. And the providers want to market themselves as partners in innovation. So why isn’t it happening?CIOs say they want more than the traditional "your mess for less" relationship with their outsourcing providers. And the providers want to market themselves as partners in innovation. So why isn't it happening?
Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. The CIO Executive Council Guide to Success
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Revolutionising Back-up and Recovery
Growth Strategies in Uncertain Times: Building & Maintaining Good Client Relationships in Professional Services Organisations
Extending Business Solutions across the Organisation
How to Beef Up Your Sales Pipeline
Enterprise Wireless WLAN Security
Radicati Market Quadrant 2008 on Corporate Web Security
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I will gladly send you money; just give me the service I want when I want it. My website is registered at Yahoo but hosted on a different server so the redirecting to get to that server goes through Yahoo. Two weeks ago the redirecting stopped working; the address www.MichaelHugos.com now goes to the sign on page for Yahoo Small Business instead (but, if you type only MichaelHugos.com, then it does redirect correctly, but how many people would think to do that?). So, basically, people (as in customers and prospects) can't find me, and I look pretty bush league because my website appears to be down for so long.
Yahoo and lots of other companies have destroyed their markets and their profits and at the same time they have failed to serve their customers because they assume that low prices (also known as "cheap") are all that customers want. I pay less than US$25 a month for the website and email package that Yahoo offers to small businesses and this is indeed cheap. It's so cheap that Yahoo has to strip this package of all meaningful customer and technical support and take other drastic measures to reduce their operating expenses so they can make money at these low prices. Because of this, both Yahoo's shareholders and its customers are being short changed.
I Only Want Cheap If You Offer Me Nothing Else
Selling commodity products to a mass market is never much more than a break even proposition. Yahoo could easily make more money and increase its stock price by offering me (and its 500,000 or so other small business subscribers) more services - not less. Offer me real customer service and technical support and web design assistance; give me a number to call where someone who knows what they are talking about will answer the phone and speak to me. Respond quickly to my needs; help me get things done and I will gladly pay two or three times as much as I pay now; and as my company grows, I'll pay even more. Cheap stuff does me no good at all. I'm trying to run a business. I need to make money, not save a few dollars.
I focus on the activities my customers pay me for and outsource the rest (like accounting, legal, maintenance and web design and hosting). I don't have time to spend on those activities but they are all important so I need to have people doing them that I trust. I want a good price but I also understand you can't get something for nothing. So give me good service - and I will pay for it.
Over the last two weeks I've written emails and waited on the phone for hours to get my chance to talk to somebody at Yahoo customer support. When I do get through they verify that there is a problem with Yahoo's service and then announce they will send it on up to technical support, but they tell me I can't talk to anyone in tech support myself and someone in tech support will contact me in 3 - 5 days. Then what I get are emails like this:
Hello Michael,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail Customer Care.
We understand that your Yahoo! Mail Personal Address domain is still not redirecting perfectly to the designated site and apologize for it. [Editorial Comment: Is the use of the word "perfectly" meant to subtly imply I am being an unreasonable perfectionist in my desire to have the redirecting work correctly? At present, not only does it not work perfectly, it doesn't work at all.]
We'd like to reassure you that The Yahoo! Mail Engineering Team is still investigating the issue you originally reported.
We appreciate your patience and understanding on this matter. [Editorial Comment: Why do people say things like this? We all know I'm neither patient nor understanding about Yahoo's inability to fix this simple little problem. How hard could it be; why don't they just fix it already?]
Be sure to check the Official Yahoo! Mail Blog for more information about our Yahoo! Mail product updates, new releases and bug fixes.
- http://ymailupdates.com/blog/
Regards,
Carl
What would you think if an employee in your company sent you emails like this after you told them you had a serious problem? Would this give you much confidence that your problem was going to be fixed any time soon?
2008 CIO Summit
19th August, 2008 Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney Developed in partnership with CIO Magazine, IDC, INTEP and the CIO Executive Council.
The world of the CIO is extremely complex and diverse. Multiple priorities demand attention and decisions are needed instantly. Individual teams need to be driven towards common goals, and businesses strive to become more mobile, agile and responsive. For CIOs, the challenge never ends.
Every year the CIO Summit identifies what is top of mind for CIOs across Australia and New Zealand, and offers insight for CIO benchmarking and vendor strategic planning alike.
Recent IDC research shows that over 59% of CIO's believe that 'to achieve their business strategies, technology should be used more aggressively than today.'
Join us on August 19th to discover how this is possible with the latest technologies including Virtualisation, Web 2.0, IP Surveillance and Software as a Service (Saas).
Click here for more information.
Please email Denyse_Robertson@idg.com.au for further information.
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CIO Live Podcast #79: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires Part II 05 October, 2007 06:00:00
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #78: Brent D Taylor, author of The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires 28 September, 2007 17:34:25
For his new book, The Outsider's Edge: The Making of Self-Made Billionaires, social researcher Brent D Taylor spent four years of intensive research investigating the psychological make-up and backgrounds of some of the world's richest men and women, including IT luminaries Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs. Taylor discovered that, despite working in different industries and coming from different upbringings, they all have one thing in common -- they are all outsiders. - +
CIO Live Podcast #77: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part III 21 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part three in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #76: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part II 14 September, 2007 07:00:00
Part two in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance. - +
CIO Live Podcast #75: Panasonic Speeds Up Trans-Pacific File Transfers, Part I 07 September, 2007 07:00:05
Part one in our three-part special report from CIO's sister publication Network World in the US, as Paul Desmond reports from the Network World IT Roadmap Conference in Santa Clara, California. With development teams in the US and Japan, Panasonic needed a more efficient way to move very large files between the two locations. Iben Rodriguez, IT consultant for Panasonic Research and Development, explains how a storage-area network and virtual server technology helped speed up WAN performance.
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Information security governance: Centralized vs. distributed 05 September, 2008 10:15:00
Should security policies, procedures and processes be managed within a central body, or distributed at an individual level? You need to find the middle ground.The management of information risk has become a significant topic for all organizations, small and large alike. But for the large, multi-divisional organization, it poses the additional challenge of determining how to deploy an information security governance program among what are often disparate business units. Should the policies, procedures, and processes that define the program be developed and managed within a central, corporate body? Or perhaps responsibility would be better placed at the individual unit level? Is there a workable middle-ground? - +
DNS error brings Sophos antivirus updates to a halt 05 September, 2008 13:40:00
Optus, Internode and Equinix affected among others.A sporadic Domain Name Server (DNS) error has blocked Sophos anti-virus updates around the world. - +
Ouch! Security pros' worst mistakes 04 September, 2008 08:05:00
We've all done regrettable things on the job, but does any valuable wisdom come of it? Four security pros candidly explain their biggest blunders and what they learned in the processIt was a mistake so bad the person who made it asked that his name and company not be mentioned here. Let's call him Frank. - +
Security ROI: Fact or Fiction? 03 September, 2008 08:32:00
Bruce Schneier says ROI is a big deal in business, but it's a misnomer in security. Make sure your financial calculations are based on good data and sound methodologies.Return on investment, or ROI, is a big deal in business. Any business venture needs to demonstrate a positive return on investment, and a good one at that, in order to be viable. - +
Information Security and the Importance of Context 01 September, 2008 10:00:00
Those entrusted with information security must raise their contextual awarenessWhen the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was first created, it created a sudden need for tens of thousands of screeners. Getting a job as an airport screener was a pretty easy process. It seemed as though if you had a pulse, you were in. Jump forward to 2008 and becoming a screener is a bit harder as the TSA has instituted background checks, has upped the educational requirement to include a high school diploma or GED, and added other significant requirements.
Viva la Verticals! Key to Vendor Growth is Through Vertical Market Opportunities, Says IDC 05 September, 2008 11:05:00
F-Secure delivers fastest protection in the online world 04 September, 2008 16:50:00
Rogue security apps dominate Fortinet's Aug 2008 IT threat report 04 September, 2008 16:00:00
IntraPower Signs Deal with Australia’s Largest Service Station and Convenience Store Network 04 September, 2008 10:07:00
TANDBERG Begins Desktop Videoconferencing Roll-Out at New England Credit Union 03 September, 2008 16:01:00
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