canada

China overtakes U.S. for total broadband subscribers

Paul Mah — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:51:23 -0400

After growing by 28 percent last year, China finished 2007 with 71.6 million broadband subscribers, placing it ahead of the United States by more than 1.4 million subscriber. These figures, by market research firm Dittberner Associates, effectively peg China as the largest fixed broadband market in the world. What's more, with just a mere household penetration of just 20 percent among other factors such as double-digit growths in the number of PC households, China is poised to not only maintain the lead, but to pull away from the United States.

In comparison, there are 355 million fixed broadband subscribers globally at the close of the first quarter 2008. The other top 10 subscriber bases are in the countries of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Korea, Italy, Canada and Spain.

For more on broadband penetration:
- check out this Network World article

'Hyperconnected' users growing

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:58 -0400

A new wave of information workers are using multiple devices and applications, meaning that CIOs must begin making plans to accommodate this next-generation workforce. A worldwide study done for Nortel by IDC, covering nearly 2,400 working adults in 17 countries, found that 16 percent were "hyperconnected" users--those using at least seven devices and nine applications. This included use of gadgets ranging from phones to laptops to PDAs and even car-based systems.

Vito Mabrucco, senior vice president at IDC Canada, said the increasing demand for connectivity and applications, as well as the blurring of personal and business use of technology, is expected to tax telecommunications networks, broadband networks, and high-speed networks.

For more on this new kind of workplace:
- see this infoworld.com article

For more tech articles from the FierceCIO network:
> Gates: Windows 7 will be more efficient. Article
> Office for Mac achieves record sales. Article
> The search for the best 3G network. Article

The CIO's first 100 days

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

Just like a new President moving into the White House, a new CIO has 100 days to get it right. The new CIO must figure out quickly what steps to take immediately in order to get consensus early. There is little time to waste. Here are some tips from Maurice Chenier, the former CIO for public works and government services in Canada. His guidance transcends borders, certainly applies to the private IT sector and is important for every CIO to remember:

Develop an agenda
Ensure that current assumptions are clear and valid
Prepare a draft CIO/IT budget

He's got plenty of other tips, but the most important ones center on having a plan, not flying by the seat of one's pants and being sure that colleagues are involved.

For more on the CIO's start:
- See this CIO.co.uk article

Plan for power outages

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 06:59:59 -0500

Most of us forget that computer systems are only as good as the electrical power that keeps them up and running. So it is especially alarming to hear that most business continuity plans could not withstand a regional outage lasting more than 7 days. A new Gartner poll found that organizations must grow their business continuity and disaster recovery strategies to make sure that they can handle a power outage lasting at least a month. Gartner surveyed 349 IT professionals from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. It found that nearly 60 percent had business continuity plans for outages that lasted only 7 days, and that most companies focused on internal IT disruptions, not regional ones.

"If you start looking at some of the events we've [experienced] over the last few years, companies must plan for events that actually take much longer to recover from," said Gartner analyst Roberta Witty said. "This is an issue [businesses] have to deal with -- it's in front of everyone's face right now."

The survey found that continuity plans were spotty. Only half the companies are prepared to deal with terrorism-related IT outages while two thirds have plans to deal with outages caused by fire. The survey suggests companies must be prepared for quicker responses and should install incident management techniques that work. "That's what [business continuity] is about. If you don't have people to manage it, a data center is useless," Witty said.

For more on getting ready for power outages:
- See this ComputerWeek article

Outsourcing in a more connected world

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:00:00 -0400

In today's issue, we highlight a couple of stories on outsourcing. It's been interesting to watch the market evolve over the last few years. I remember interviewing a Silicon Valley CEO a couple of years ago who made the case that while salaries for engineers were much lower in India than in the Valley, it wouldn't last forever. It now appears that salaries are beginning to rise in India and outsourcers are beginning to look for talent elsewhere--many are turning to China, Canada and even back to the United States. It's clear that India's value will have to expand beyond delivering just cost advantages if it is to continue to attract the demand it has so effectively and aggressively garnered over the past 5 years or so. Indeed, the global outsourcing market is poised for change in the next year or so and that the action will no longer be the exclusive domain of India. We'll see a lot more companies find partners in China and many will begin setting up shop in the U.S or Canada--just as Wipro announced it would do this week and as Microsoft reported a few weeks ago. To further prove the new trend, Francisco Partners, a technology investment firm, has said that it would invest $48 million in private equity into DarwinSuzsoft, a Chinese IT outsourcing firm. Please feel free to bring me up to date on your offshore outsourcing plans...I'd like to provide as full a picture as possible about the evolving outsourcing patterns. Enjoy the issue. -Patty

Best Buy CIO spends his day focused on customers

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:01:36 -0400

Robert Willett, CIO of Best Buy, says that he spends 80 percent of his time focused on external customer issues, an area that more and more CIOs are choosing to focus on these days. "We've got to look at everything through the lens of customers both internally and externally, and help them get where they need to go with the aid of technology," Willitts writes. CIOs who are not aware of the customer's pain points will only be able to incrementally improve the customer experience. In the article, Willetts discusses how he plans to use technologies like RFID and WiMAX. He also discusses how his focus on the customer will enable Best Buy to grow globally. The company currently operates in the U.S., China, Canada and Europe and plans to expand into Mexico and Turkey in the next 12 to 18 months.

For more from Willitts:
- see this CIO article

Soft issues gaining importance in networking decisions

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:01:38 -0500

When it comes to evaluating network viability and network providers, flexibility, Quality of Service (QoS), customer/partner relationship management, speed and ease of use are increasingly important decision-making factors for CIOs, in addition to traditionally important factors such as cost, reliability, security and bandwidth. CIOs are also putting more stock in good support, especially for companies with multiple locations and are concerned that network availability is falling below what's stipulated in service level agreements (SLAs). To make sure you get the right networking technology and provider, consider your network and company's reach, density (how many sites it connects to) and criticality.

Learn more about the importance of soft issues in networking:
- read the article at ITWorld Canada

Effective CIOs are good marketers

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:01:39 -0500

You might be doing a bang-up job for your company, but if you don't market your successes and those of your company, your efforts will go unnoticed. Speaking up for your company's IT-related successes is the only way to disavow people of the idea that IT is more than just a support group, but an enabler of business strategy. One way to do this is by explaining the business value of IT's deliverables in terms of a tangible return on investment (ROI). Other suggestions include finding ways to break down the walls between IT and business by collaborating and communicating effectively.

Learn more about marketing IT successes:
- read the article at ITWorld Canada

Don't discount older IT workers

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:01:36 -0500

Youth may have its advantages, but experience sometimes outweighs youth. While they might not have grown up in the Internet age or might not have as much energy as their younger counterparts, older workers tend to have more patience and knowledge. They might work more slowly, but their work is often more thorough.

Learn more about the benefits of hiring older IT workers:
- read the article at ITWorld Canada

Spearheading innovation through IT

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

Innovation is something of a holy grail at many companies, but survey after survey shows that internal labs just aren't cutting it. This fact presents an opportunity for CIOs to use IT as the glue for a new, more distributed, integrated process that supports innovation. That means that instead of the COO and chief R&D officer driving the innovation strategy, the CIO should play a bigger part in developing the strategy as well as executing it. To do that, figure out how IT can enable many groups to communicate and collaborate without creating management problems. In the process, CIOs just might create a new role for themselves--one that takes charge of key processes like operational efficiency.

To get more about IT innovation:
- read the article at ITWorld Canada