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  • Untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 available for download

    Absinthe 2.0, the jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1, is ready and available for download, the Jailbreak Dream Team announced at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam.

    Written by Loek Essers • 25 May 12 14:56

  • Unthethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 available for download

    Absinthe 2.0, the jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1, is ready and available for download, the Jailbreak Dream Team announced at the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam on Friday.

    Written by Loek Essers • 25 May 12 13:53

  • About 4.5 million Catholic school students to get Office 365

    About 4.5 million Catholic school students will get access to Microsoft's Office 365 cloud e-mail and collaboration suite as part of a 3-year deal the software vendor struck with the Catholic International Education Office (OIEC).

    Written by Juan Carlos Perez • 24 May 12 18:55

  • McAfee reports big spike in malware

    PC malware had its "busiest quarter in recent history," according to McAfee's quarterly security report released Wednesday.

    Written by Cameron Scott • 23 May 12 20:08

  • How to free your company from organizational-chart tyranny

    A myth lies at the heart of most corporate organizational charts that the boss is surrounded by a group of senior leaders who form the company's decision-making team. These top executives, as the myth goes, have the freedom to express their opinions at meetings that result in decisions that cover the spectrum from where to hold the annual corporate picnic to major acquisitions to staff reductions.

    Written by Nancy Weil • 25 Feb. 12 04:47

  • Adopting ITIL, COBIT is not always the best practice

    IT governance has always been a challenge for corporate technology organizations and best practice frameworks such as the process-focused COBIT or service level-oriented ITIL can deliver much-needed operational rigor.

    Written by Stephanie Overby • 22 Feb. 12 01:37

  • Accurate sales forecasts and other CRM fantasies

    Some companies are in the enviable position of having a sales backlog, and in many parts of the economy demand is starting to heat up. But prosperity has its own problems, including inventory shortages, guessing wrong on what the hot items will be, and excess work in progress that makes Wall Street cranky.

    Written by David Taber • 17 Feb. 12 01:44

  • How IT Helps Nissan Beat Chevy in the Electric Car Game

    The all-electric Nissan Leaf had the potential to woo eco-conscious shoppers away from the Chevy Volt when it was launched last December. But from a customer service and sales perspective, the Japanese automaker was at a distinct disadvantage. Chevrolet consistently scored four stars on J.D. Power's five-star customer service and sales experience scales; Nissan earned just two.

    Written by Stephanie Overby • 01 Nov. 11 09:39
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    IT managers weigh in on the digital education revolution

    The digital education revolution of 2007 has posed management challenges, but has had an overall positive impact on schools, two IT managers have claimed.

    Written by Lisa Banks • 24 Jan. 11 16:01

  • Bankwest cites project management as key to capped rate home loan success

    Bankwest has praised the use of project managers after revealing one of its key projects relied heavily on project management skills.

    Written by Lisa Banks • 18 Jan. 11 12:05

  • How to avoid the trouble with continuous multi-tasking

    Picture the following scenario: You have gone into a “quiet room” such as your office or den to write a long-term program or project plan that you have been meaning to get to for several weeks. The plan requires your full concentration, and it has taken you say three plus weeks to get to because of short-term issues and urgent requests from others that have continually taken priority.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 18 Jan. 11 10:35

  • Communication risks within and around a virtual team

    In recent years, the way that projects take shape has evolved at or near the same pace as the information and communications technology we use in our business and personal lives. Not long ago, a project team was either co-located (all team members in the same close proximity) or connected together via express couriers and air travel (regular travel to meet face–to-face was reasonable, prudent, the best method, and acceptable in cost). Then came the email revolution.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 13 Dec. 10 13:00
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    Rescuing troubled projects

    You are not impervious to having troubled projects in your portfolio. Any project can fail. Even the most seasoned and skilled project manager may, at one time or another, find themselves at the helm of a troubled project. Having a project in trouble does not necessarily signal the project manager is doing a poor job. Projects can go off course for a variety of reasons; some reasons are outside the span of control of the project manager. What are some of the common causes for projects to fall into troubled waters and what are some prudent steps to get the project back on course?

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Jeff Hodgkinson and Gareth Byatt with Brian Munroe • 06 Dec. 10 16:36

  • Project management and disaster relief

    These days, it seems we can’t go more than a couple of months before facing yet another catastrophe somewhere in the world. In order for these countries to effectively manage the situation, it is critical that disaster relief coordinators understand and implement essential project management skills and employ project managers with a background in successful post-disaster reconstruction, and who have been involved in both managing project portfolios and overall project programs.

    Written by Anwar Benjamin • 02 Dec. 10 16:44
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    CRM: Four dirty little secrets of marketing automation

    In the heat of a sales cycle, marketing automation vendors tell you all the great news about how their systems will increase conversion rates, improve sales effectiveness, and save time. When used properly, marketing automation systems do all that. What the sales reps don't tell you is...

    Written by David Taber • 02 Dec. 10 06:37

  • The CRM reality distortion field

    Full disclosure: I was a card-carrying marketing guy for 20 years. So when I see the effects of reality distortion in my clients' purchase decisions, I know whereof I speak.

    Written by David Taber • 23 Nov. 10 06:44

  • Customer demand priority

    Program, portfolio and PMO managers understand the ‘benefits to value’ of a project and can use return on investment (ROI), internal rate of return (IRR), or other financial metrics, as well as non-financial criteria (‘intrinsic value’ criteria) to evaluate projects at the start of and during their full lifecycle into ‘operations mode’. Selecting which projects to charter within your organisation have long-term implications both for you individually and your organisation. Conducting in-depth pro-forma ROI, IRR of other financial analysis can be costly and time consuming. What about an alternative method that is relatively quick and easy to undertake and can provide you with an objective ‘weighting’ criteria for your stakeholders and program/project team to consider? If you manage a PMO, Portfolio or Program of work (in any discipline – finance, manufacturing, IT, etc), the customer demand priority (CDP) tool we put forward below may be helpful to you at the front-end decision-making process of project prioritisation. It is a simple method that is similar to a risk matrix table to evaluate and score projects on a scale from 2 to 11 where 2 are the lowest challenge and 11 is the most intensive.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 22 Nov. 10 09:52

  • How to manage a virtual project team

    Let’s face it; virtual teams (where we work with colleagues in remote locations, be they close by or in different countries) are now a reality in the workplace. If this trend in the workplace environment continues, virtual working will increasingly influence the way we operate, and the ‘effective virtual team worker’ will be a valued asset.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 18 Nov. 10 11:06

  • Minimising bias of subject matter experts through effective project management

    The use of SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) is commonplace throughout the lifecycle of a project. The “experts”, as we will generally refer to them, are typically functional experts in their respective roles that the project manager relies on for making delivery estimations and identifying potential risks to a project. Depending on the dynamics of your particular organisation, such experts may come from the same functional team that will be responsible for the execution of the tasks for which the experts are providing input, or they may be in a specialist division that deals with project set-up. In either case, there are a several risks which the project manager needs to look out for to avoid being given an impossible or very difficult delivery task.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 15 Nov. 10 14:55

  • What makes an effective executive?

    The debate on whether program managers would make effective senior executives is one that has gained attention in recent years. However, for this article we thought we would pose this question and contrast it with the muses of a well respected Management Guru, Peter Drucker. Drucker, who is often referred to the as the “father of modern management”, signaled out eight characteristics of effective executives “What Makes an Effective Executive?, Peter F Drucker, Harvard Business Review, June 2004.

    Written by Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt and Jeff Hodgkinson • 09 Nov. 10 12:35
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