News

• Study links IT spending to profits

  By Mitch Betts | 15 May, 2012 06:35

  Earlier academic studies didn't find a connection between IT spending and profits, but new research has a more upbeat conclusion: Investments in IT can have a positive effect on profitability--one even more pronounced than comparable spending on advertising.

• Can a new analyst firm take down Gartner?

  By Rob Enderle | 12 May, 2012 02:42

  Gartner is a major power in the IT advisory firm space. There is constant contention between Gartner and the vendors who think, right or wrong, that the company charges them way too much—sometimes upwards of $100 million—for positive reviews. IT buyers often complain that Gartner, like any large company serving lots of people, doesn't get down to their unique needs and often sends them analysts who are inexperienced. Furthermore, there has always been a concern with every vendor-funded firm in the segment that the difference between reviews and marketing collateral is negligible. With Gartner, the issue generally isn't corruption but, rather, timeliness and relevance.

• Winners of CIO Magazine's Ones to Watch Awards

  By Lauren Brousell | 02 May, 2012 00:35

  Gareth Burton: IT Director for Europe, Africa, Russia and the CaspianBakerHughes

• Is it so bad for the CIO to report to the CFO?

  By Kim S. Nash | 01 May, 2012 09:33

  The hierarchy inside a company reflects its values and priorities. It can be a sensitive topic for CIOs. Who your boss is -- CEO, CFO, COO, someone else -- can color the way other executives view you and your staff.

• Busting CIO myths

  By Martha Heller | 01 May, 2012 07:29

  Welcome to IT MythBusters, where we take your most cherished beliefs about IT and rake them over the coals. In this edition, we feature Jeanne Ross, director of MIT's Center for Information Systems Research and co-author of books on enterprise architecture, governance and IT value. Enjoy.

• How IT creates lasting health benefits

  By CIO Executive Council | 01 May, 2012 07:27

  An interview with Tom Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Health Systems, and Darren Dworkin, CIO.

• What will it take to get more women execs in IT?

  By Michael Friedenberg | 01 May, 2012 05:57

  As the father of two young girls, I often think ahead to what fields my children might pursue in their professional careers. Since my own career is devoted to high-tech media, I naturally think about the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and wonder if it's a path I would recommend to my daughters.

• Strategic guide to IT talent management

  By CIO Staff | 30 April, 2012 23:48

  There's an IT "talent war" going on. You're competing with cloud providers, IT vendors, Google and Facebook -- not to mention other corporate IT shops--for great IT talent. On top of that, there's a shortage of people with skills in the hottest technologies of our times: data analytics, mobile apps and cloud computing.

• How the Cloud democratises and complicates disaster recovery

  By Jeff Vance | 12 April, 2012 10:56

  Cloud computing is slowly upending the disaster recovery market. Only a few years ago, disaster recovery meant one of two things: For large organisations, it necessitated huge capital investments; for the mid-market on down, it meant backing up only the most important data to tape and shuffling it off to a secure location.

• Q&A: Westpac Group CIO, Clive Whincup

  By Hamish Barwick | 11 April, 2012 15:26

  Westpac Group chief information officer, Clive Whincup, took over from former CIO, Bob McKinnon, in December last year and has forged ahead with the bank’s 15 IT strategic investment priorities (SIPs). He is currently working on Westpac’s online banking transformation.

• What went wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope (and what managers can learn from it)

  By Rohan Pearce | 29 March, 2012 14:35

  There's nothing unusual about having a bad day at the office. But some people have worse days than others, and in his time Charles (Charlie) Pellerin has had a few notable ones. Not many people find themselves having to explain why an organisation has invested a decade and half and in the vicinity of $3 billion on a project that has failed.

• How CIOs can help facilitate systems of engagement

  By Michael Friedenberg | 29 March, 2012 02:28

  As the U.S. economy begins to brighten, it's reassuring to see spending in the manufacturing, retail, financial and healthcare sectors starting to respond. Conversations within the IT leadership community also seem to be lightening up, as IT priorities are rebalanced to include strategies for revenue growth and customer engagement.

• Steel buildings manufacturer integrates its engineering flow

  By CIO Executive Council | 29 March, 2012 02:27

  Norm Chambers All our products rely on nonresidential new construction, and that market in this country is more than 45 percent below average right now. We've had three consecutive years of decline, and in 2009, we were at risk of bankruptcy. The question was: What are we going to do to survive? And we answered that by asking: What are we going to do with technology?

• J.C Penney slashes CIO role

  By John Dodge | 22 March, 2012 06:51

  On Jan. 18, JCP named Kristen E. Blum as Chief Technology Officer and executive vice president. Her appointment resulted in the elimination of the CIO position held by Ed Robben, who left the company this month. The elimination of the CIO position was revealed in a memo sent out by Blum to the JCP IT staff.

• Monday Grok: Mobile ads, Facebook and the reluctant consumer

  By Andrew Birmingham | 05 March, 2012 11:45

  In just 15 short years, the Web hived off huge slabs of audience from print, but left most of the money behind. Now, in just a fraction of that time, mobile platforms may be visiting the self-same acrimony upon their desktop antecedents, and once again there's no real evidence that the money will come along for the ride.