Opinions
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Order Takers to Innovators 02 October, 2007 15:20:08
How four CIOs energized their staffs to take risks with new technology and generate fresh value for their businessesWhen David Behen became IT director for Washtenaw County, Michigan, the department was little more than an order-taker. And not a very good one. It was kind of like the waiter who makes you wait, then brings the entree with the mains and brings you a bottle of Grange when you asked for a carafe of the house red - +
When Egos Dare 05 June, 2007 10:17:02
For some observers and practitioners, the federated model brings the best elements of centralization and decentralization to the IT table. Others aren’t so sure . . .The monarch was dead. Demoralized and shaken, the organization spent time mourning for a popular and high-profile CIO who had reigned for many years. Then, with time starting to dull the pain, the young princes began sharpening their knives, sensing their best opportunity in years to seize power - +
No Comparisons 03 April, 2007 14:14:02
Benchmarking your outsourcer’s prices against the market is the best lever you have to save money. Too bad your outsourcer may be trying to stop youWhen Darius Jackson became ING's head of IT infrastructure support and service delivery in January 2005, his job was to clean up a mess. two years earlier, the financial services company had outsourced its IT infrastructure (hardware, software, help desk and so on) to a major service provider in a seven-year, $US600 million deal. But now the business leaders of the company are worried that they aren't getting the value they want out of the relationship. - +
It's Critical to Be Political 06 March, 2007 12:00:10
Navigating the choppy waters of organizational politics is a daily challenge for CIOs; some play shark and engage with other political creatures, but there are still plenty of CIOs acting like krill"Carefully." That was the one-word response from a high-profile CIO about how to chart and survive the political waters of a large enterprise. He did not want to elaborate, even anonymously. - +
How to Get Real About Strategic Planning 04 February, 2008 12:50:59
Everyone agrees that having a strategic plan for IT is a good thing but most CIOs approach the process with fear and loathing. In fact, the majority of CIOs (and the enterprises they work for) are faking it when it comes to strategic planning. Isn't it time we all got real?Oh, it must be nice to be the CIO of a FedEx or a GE or a Credit Suisse. Places where IT and the business are so tightly aligned you can barely tell the two apart. Where corporate leaders understand that IT is a strategic asset and support it as such
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Adobe launches hosted services, adds Flash to Acrobat 03 June, 2008 09:02:44
Adobe to launch Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storageAdobe this week is set to unveil the next version of its Adobe Acrobat software, which adds support for the company's Flash multimedia technology. The company also plans to launch a new Web site offering users free hosted services for document creation, sharing and storage. - +
10 things we hate about laptops 16 November, 2007 12:40:09
Sure, laptops have revolutionized the way we compute. That doesn't mean they don't drive IT bonkers.Damaged. Lost. Stolen. Too big, too small. Insecure and unreliable. And just plain annoying. If you're in IT, there's just not much to like about laptops. - +
12 quick IT productivity wins 02 March, 2007 16:14:47
Quick tips to boost your productivityStop us if this story sounds familiar. You've been asked to a) keep your infrastructure humming and b) come up with innovative ways to use technology to boost the bottom line. Meanwhile, your resources are stretched tighter than a US$2 string on a banjo and you spend so much time putting out fires you should be wearing a helmet and carrying a hose.
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On September 7, 1974 my second son was born. I'd wanted two children, so that particular project had been brought in on time and on budget. Now it was time to cement my 21-year strategic plan. Over the next month I bought every toy, bit of sports gear, musical instrument, book, record (yes, they were still records then), movie ticket, piece of clothing, shoes, socks and underwear they would ever need. I enrolled them in every school and university they would attend. I signed them up for yearly summer camp, boy scouts, soccer, and all their music and swimming lessons. I then selected their friends from toddler to teen.
On October 12, I proudly declared that I had aligned mum with the children.
Well, of course I didn't.
Trying to predict and purchase what a child needs or wants a mere six months down the road is nigh on impossible. The idea of doing it at birth for their entire childhood is ludicrous. Children grow, embrace the new, insist you buy it and then cast it aside, change their minds about what they want to do and in general drive you crazy.
Hey, doesn't that sound just like the business? Which conveniently leads me to my topic du jour: IT-business alignment. I've recently compiled the results of this year's State of the CIO survey, and once again IT-business alignment tops the charts of CIO challenges. It's also the perennial victim of finger-pointing by observers, who seem to feel that its continued appearance is one of the indicators that CIOs are marginalized because they still don't get it.
Well, of course they get it.
CIOs get that you can't go out today and just buy in one fell swoop everything the business needs to function two, five, 10 years down the road. They get that business is dynamic, and that they must respond to its changing nature. Just like I couldn't predict my children's life preferences at birth.
If you're a CIO reading this, then I'm pretty much preaching to the choir which isn't my intention. This message here isn't aimed at you; it's meant for the IT department's detractors who regularly point to the "aligning IT to the business challenge" as an indicator of IT's lack of engagement with the business. The ongoing challenge of aligning IT to the business is in fact an indicator that the CIO and IT department are in fact the most agile and adaptable BU in an organization. They have to be quick-thinking and fleet of foot to keep up with the dynamics of business growth and its demands.
It's time to stop viewing the challenge of IT-business alignment through a glass darkly. The IT-business alignment glass is not half empty, it just needs regular topping up.
After all, in 1974 I would put together a record collection with selections from Jim Croce, Gordon Lightfoot and Harry Chapin. I never would have predicted Kurt Cobain, who was only seven.
And I can guarantee that when they were 15 my children would have put themselves up for adoption if they'd been saddled with my 1974 record collection.
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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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How to not have your Web site hacked like Sony's 07 July, 2008 08:23:22
A SQL injection attack was used to plant malicious code on pages of two popular Sony Playstation games - SingStar Pop and God of War, reports security company Sophos. Hundreds of Web pages from other businesses have also been compromised.The US Sony Playstation Web site is the latest high-profile victim of a hacker attack on business sites that's spreading malware at breakneck pace, says a security vendor. - +
AG launches review into national e-security 07 July, 2008 11:07:49
Howard's security agenda dragged over coals.A review of Australia's top e-security projects lead by the Attorney-General's Department has been launched to scrutinise the Howard's government's $73 million E-Security National Agenda. - +
Selling zero-day exploits has a down side 07 July, 2008 10:16:36
There is an ongoing argument about the ethics of selling 0-day exploits on the open market: It helps if you don't sell exploits targeting the company you work for.Information Security can sometimes be a funny field to work in. Some days it seems as if anybody with their hands on unpublished exploit code can sell it for all they're worth, and others it seems that they are set to become the target of law enforcement and the companies the code affects. It does help if you don't work for one of the companies that is set to be affected by the exploits you are trying to sell and aren't trying to bootstrap a competing company in the process. - +
'I have a lost laptop horror story for you' 30 June, 2008 10:08:14
The devil of identity theft is in the details that follow...The devil of identity theft is in the details that follow: Russ Jones tells a tale of woe that isn't particularly dramatic -- or rare -- and yet it's exactly the kind of story that worries me enough to ignore my better judgment and buy identity-theft protection from my insurance provider. - +
SQL attacks lobs onto pro tennis site 02 July, 2008 11:52:19
Wimbledon perfect time for crook's criminal racket.Visitors to the Association of Tennis Professionals Web site have potentially been infected with spyware after apparent lax security allowed a malicious script to be injected across its pages.
Logica Launches HotScan Plus to Address Risk of Terrorist Fund Transfer 07 July, 2008 09:43:00
Rittal Launches Computer Room Air Conditioning System for Low and Medium Density Envrionments 07 July, 2008 08:50:00
Ballarat Grammar Improves Student Access to Computer Based Learning with HP ProCurve 04 July, 2008 16:49:00
Media release: 40 Per Cent of Australian Businesses Do Not Validate Their Data 04 July, 2008 10:29:00
Kaseya helps turbo charge BlueFire’s service delivery model 03 July, 2008 17:23:00
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