Recent Posts Tagged With 'information technology'

• Kevin Mitnick Speaks About IT Security

  Posted on Wednesday April 29th, 2009 at 05:59 in business, Motorola, Security, computer security, it, hacking, hacker, cio, information technology, Dumpster Diving, social engineering, kevin mitnick

  I had an opportunity to attend a very large IT health care show up in Chicago awhile back and I was surprised to discover that Kevin Mitnick, the somewhat infamous computer hacker, was scheduled to give a speech. Now even though I don’t move in...

• What Can HP Teach You About How To Run Your IT Department?

  Posted on Monday April 27th, 2009 at 05:59 in business, leadership, it, cio, information technology, hp, portfolio management, hewlett-packard, enterprise data warehouse, global data center consolidation, it workforce effectiveness, randy mott

  When I say “HP” what is the first thing that pops into your mind? In my case it’s a flashback to the HP 12C calculator that became welded to my hand while I was working on my MBA. These days, HP does a lot more and we all probably h...

• The Problem With Apple: Product Or Platform?

  Posted on Wednesday April 22nd, 2009 at 05:59 in apple, Technologies, business, Microsoft, ipod, iphone, Product, mac, it, information technology, platform, newton

  In the world of IT we deal with lots of different questions: what project to take on, how best to align with the business, how to improve processes. One thing that we don’t really spend much time thinking about is if our applications should run...

• Why Don’t IT Alliances Work Out?

  Posted on Monday April 20th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, success, business opportunity, Failure, process, it, business opportunities, information technology, knowledge, alliance, flexibility, partner

  You would think that the more alliances that your company / IT department makes with other firms, then the better that they would become at making them. After all, practice makes perfect - doesn’t it? It turns out that this is not always the ca...

• Health Care Changes: Is IT Enough?

  Posted on Wednesday April 15th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, training, it, cio, information technology, electronic health records, ehr, corporate training, work flow, obama administration, effectivness, organization change

  So here’s the $19B question for you: if you were the CIO in charge of the Obama administration’s big health care initiative, do you think that the “secret sauce” that will make it all work out will be better / more IT? Just in...

• What CIOs Need To Know About Performance Management

  Posted on Monday April 13th, 2009 at 06:59 in Software, budget, business, finance, ceo, it, cio, business intelligence, performance management, information technology, strategic planning, business software

  Unless you’ve been asleep for the past couple of years, you’ve probably had a chance to read about the Business Intelligence (BI) fad that seem to have taken over the IT market. The basic idea is pretty simple: use an application to crunc...

• Hey IT - Forget ITIL, Say Hello To BDIM!

  Posted on Wednesday April 8th, 2009 at 06:59 in Management, it, information technology, itil, sla, business information, business process, alignment, it governance, qos, it infrastructure library, quality of service

  The world of IT is changing once again, are you ready? We have evolved a great deal in the last thirty years and it looks like we’re getting ready to make another great leap forward. This time aro...

• Forgotten IT Skills: How To Ask Questions

  Posted on Monday April 6th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, information, questions, products, Services, new products, it, question, information technology, hotel rooms, harrah's, new services

  It’s easy to get caught up in all of the servers, routers, applications, and firewalls that make up a modern IT environment. After a while we tend to start thinking that the path to our next great IT insight must lie somewhere in this j...

• When Giving IT Information, More Is Better

  Posted on Wednesday April 1st, 2009 at 06:59 in business, innovation, information, business opportunity, it, business opportunities, information technology, knowledge, reports, metadata, business information, it strategy

  So just what is the job of an IT department once you get past the keeping the network up and applications running stuff? I think that we can all agree that it must have something to do with the company’s data, but exactly what does that ...

• Do You Have An IT Dictionary?

  Posted on Monday March 30th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, Marketing, vocabulary, it, cio, information technology, business information, alignment, coordination, business it alignment, business alignment, it alignment

  In IT we often get accused of willy-nilly making up new acronyms on the fly. In all honesty, yes we do do this sometimes. However, there is a more subtle word problem that has been creeping around the edges of IT for a long time that nobody...

• How IT Can Help Uncover New Products

  Posted on Monday March 23rd, 2009 at 06:59 in business, innovation, new products, it, cio, data, information technology, harrah's, alignment, royal bank of canada, business it alignment, business alignment

  “Alignment”, “Innovation” - arrgh! Who in the world of IT is not sick of hearing these two words used over and over again? Yes we’d like to be able to help out the rest of the business, but our IT budgets are bei...

• Is Allstate’s IT Department In Good Hands?

  Posted on Wednesday March 18th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, Strategy, leadership, it, information technology, prioritizing, business process, allstate, dependencies, catherine brune, ilmi

  Awhile ago over at the Wall Street Journal they had a chance to sit down and have a talk with Catherine Brune who is the CIO over at the big insurance company Allstate. Catherine had some interesting things to say about how she is adapting All...

• Alignment 101: How To Do It

  Posted on Monday March 16th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, growth, it, cio, information technology, knowledge, effective, effectiveness, costs, align, business process, alignment

  Achieving alignment between the business side of the house and IT is one of those things that everyone likes to talk about when they are putting together the goals for the upcoming year, and then nothing ever seems to get done about it. A surv...

• Just What Is This “Alignment” Thing?

  Posted on Wednesday March 11th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, growth, it, cio, information technology, knowledge, effective, effectiveness, costs, align, business process, alignment

  Once upon a time the Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart said that pornography is hard to define, but “I know it when I see it.” In the world of IT it would appear as though alignment with the business side of the house is a lot l...

• Is IT Alignment Sooo 2008?

  Posted on Monday March 9th, 2009 at 06:59 in business, growth, it, cio, information technology, knowledge, effective, effectiveness, costs, align, business process, alignment

  Is it possible that the holy grail of IT, getting our act together with the rest of the business, is no longer what we should be working on? A survey that was done by the consulting firm Bain & Co. sure seems to be saying this. Before any...

• Secrets Revealed: How To Get The Most From Your IT $$$

  Posted on Wednesday March 4th, 2009 at 05:59 in budget, business, it, information technology, return on investment, knowledge, competitive advantage, alignment

  Every firm spends loads of money on IT, why do only some (Walmart, FedEx) get a clear advantage from the money that they spend? A team of researchers lead by Dr. Gautam Ray talked with 104 insurance firms in order to get to the bottom of this...

• Secrets Revealed: Where Is All Of That IT $$$ Going?

  Posted on Monday March 2nd, 2009 at 05:59 in budget, business, it, information technology, return on investment, knowledge, competitive advantage, alignment

  Where’s the money going? Everyone knows that spending on IT departments and projects has been going through the roof for the last 10 years or so. Umm, does anyone know if the company has been getting any benefit from all of this increase...

• Where Is Your Next CIO Coming From?

  Posted on Wednesday February 25th, 2009 at 05:59 in business, leadership, it, cio, sarbanes-oxley, information technology, corporate governance, internal, external, succession planning

  So here’s the scenario: a previously unknown meteor comes streaking down to earth and somehow lands squarely on top of your CIO squashing him/her instantly. What do you do next? Where would your replacement CIO come from and do you know ...

• Who Gets To Make Decisions In Your IT Shop?

  Posted on Monday February 23rd, 2009 at 05:59 in business, outsourcing, it, cio, information technology, responsibility, decision making, decisions, it governance, cost center, profit center

  A recent study of 89 senior IT executives in a wide range of industries was done in order to get the answer to a seemingly simple question: who’s in charge here? In these days of reigned in IT spending, decisions about how much to spend ...

• Getting & Keeping IT Top Management’s Attention

  Posted on Wednesday February 18th, 2009 at 09:03 in business, project, leadership, ceo, it, cio, information technology, Projects, decision making, involvement, business alignment

  In my humble opinion, one of the key contributors to why so many IT projects fail is because of simple neglect. I guess the best analogy is if you were starting to drive down a highway road. When you started driving, you’d keep your hand...

• How Can You Make Your IT Department Strategic?

  Posted on Monday February 16th, 2009 at 05:59 in business, Strategy, goals, it, customer, information technology, goal, alignment, balanced scorecard, strategy map

  Isn’t that the goal of every IT department - to move from being viewed as a support organization to somehow becoming part of the company’s strategic core? Although we all know that this is what we want, for some reason it sure seem...

• 3 Ways To Fix An IT Department (Suggestions From Europe)

  Posted on Wednesday February 11th, 2009 at 09:04 in business, Strategy, support, european, leadership, Wiki, consulting, it, information technology, business process, alignment, grc

  Kuppinger Cole + Partner (KCP) is a European consulting firm that specializes in identity management. So it goes without saying that they spend their time in and out of multiple IT departments on a daily basis. They know all of our dirty littl...

• Welcome To 2009: Does IT Matter This Year?

  Posted on Monday February 9th, 2009 at 06:30 in business, innovation, investment, it, information technology, nicholas carr, does it matter, it alignment, business advantage

  I’m not sure if you remember, but way back in 2003 Nicholas Carr wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review called “IT Doesn’t Matter“. Man o Man did this set off a firestorm in the IT community - it was sorta like ...

• Can We Make IT Any More Complex Than It Is?

  Posted on Thursday February 5th, 2009 at 06:30 in business, outsourcing, consolidation, it, cio, information technology, complexity, standardization, business alignment

  One of the reasons that the rest of the company doesn’t seem to really like those of us in the IT department is because we seem to make everything so much more complex when we get involved. First it was our networking issues (Frame Relay...

• Does IHOP Have Tasty Lessons To Serve Up For IT?

  Posted on Monday February 2nd, 2009 at 06:30 in business, Strategy, ceo, it, cio, sarbanes-oxley, information technology, it strategy, ihop, applebee's, general computing controls

  I don’t know about you, but I’m always open to having breakfast no matter what time of day it is. This might explain why so much of my life has been spent sitting in IHOP restaurants eating mountains of pancakes. When I stumbled a...

• What Can IT Become When It Grows Up?

  Posted on Thursday January 29th, 2009 at 06:30 in search, blog, business, blogging, Strategy, it, cio, business intelligence, information technology, it strategy, middleware, deduplication

  So I love IT, and you love IT. We love the applications, the servers, the networks and, of course, the Internet. Whether it’s because we are closet control freaks or because we are fascinated by how all of the pieces fit together, we jus...

• Can’t We All Just Get Along (In IT)?

  Posted on Monday January 26th, 2009 at 06:30 in business, Strategy, project, Economy, it, cio, information technology, Projects, business plan, sunoco, strategic planning, sim

  So there you are, manning the laptop, doing your utmost best to guide your IT department and, of course, your company on to greater glories. Do you really need to network with your colleagues at other firms? For that matter, do they really hav...

• Creative Abrasion: How To Build Innovation Into IT

  Posted on Thursday January 22nd, 2009 at 06:30 in business, innovation, Strategy, leadership, it, cio, information technology, creative abrasion, unstructure

  While trolling the Internet over the holidays, I came across a write-up of the Unstructure Event held that was held Orlando, Florida, USA on 17 Nov & 18 Nov 2008. Unstructure is basically a platform for open discussions on a wide range of ...

• IT vs Sales: The YouTube Version

  Posted on Monday January 19th, 2009 at 06:30 in Software, small business, business, video, Marketing, Strategy, CRM, leadership, profit, ceo, opportunity, consulting

  Yeah, so I’m really impressed with how I write. But this time around I’m more than willing to admit that I’ve been out classed by a video that’s up on YouTube: “The Great Office War”. This video is very appro...

• 3 Secrets That Oil Companies Use To Run A Great IT Department

  Posted on Thursday January 15th, 2009 at 06:30 in business, Strategy, project, Economy, it, cio, information technology, Projects, business plan, sunoco, strategic planning, sim

  If you had to guess as to what the secret of running a great IT department is, what would you say? Peter Whatnell over at Sunoco has some thoughts on this subject. Peter breaks it down to three key items: knowing how your company makes money, ...