service delivery

CIO complaint: hard to deliver great service

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:59:59 -0500

A survey called "Great vs. Good IT" found that nearly 80 percent of CIOs and senior IT directors feel that their lack of a voice at the board level had an impact on their ability to deliver great--not just good--IT services. The survey was conducted by Omniboss, a division of Vanson Bourne. "Without a doubt, the time has come when 'good' simply isn't good enough in terms of IT service delivery. 'Good' may keep users happy, but it leaves the CIO reduced to somebody who spends their whole day just putting out fires," said Graham Ridgway, CEO of Touchpaper, which underwrote the survey.

For more on the quality of IT services:
- See this Networkworld article

Worldwide shortage of IT workers

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:59:59 -0500

Here's something you either already knew or suspected: nearly 60 percent of CEOs, CIOs and other C-level executives continue to report that there is a shortage of fully qualified IT staff worldwide. A survey, by the IT Governance Institution, conducted between July and October 2007, reported that 93 percent of 749 executives surveyed said that IT is very important to their overall corporate strategy. Nearly half of those polled said IT service delivery problems are the second most common ones they have experienced with IT in the past 12 months.

"We are seeing an increased demand for qualified information technology professionals throughout the industry," said Lynn Lawton, international president of ITGI, in a statement. "Without a well-trained, fully-staffed IT department, the bottom line is that many organizations around the world are needlessly sacrificing money, productivity and competitive advantage."

For more on IT staff shortages:
- See this Network World article

Up-and-coming IT jobs

Tue, 08 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Your IT department probably has a host of application developers, IT managers and programmers, but does it have an information steward? How about a mobile application developer? The IT department of the future will have both of these, and more. The information steward will determine who has read, write and copy access to information and will be in charge of how information is secured, backed up and archived. The service delivery manger will deliver all components of a company's technology to a business unit or group of users as a service. The service delivery manager is part project manager, part application developer and part contracting specialist. The technology-business relationship manager helps the CIO understand the business perspective and serve business customers better while explaining technology capabilities to business executives. The outsourcing relationship manager is responsible for holding outsourcing vendors to their agreements and fixing problems when they arise. The mobile application developer pulls together the latest technologies to support traveling executives, telecommuters and other virtual workers.

Learn more about the IT jobs of the future:
- read the article at ComputerWorld Malaysia

Strategic benchmarking

Sun, 06 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Benchmarking--the process of comparing relevant information relating the scope of services, volumes, prices and service levels against those of successful endeavors to better your business processes--is a good idea on every project, but it's perhaps most important when it comes to outsourcing arrangements. However, benchmarking is often not employed strategically to the best effect. The purpose of benchmarking is to confirm that users are paying a fair price and getting reasonable service, yet many companies tend to resist benchmarking provisions because they believe they have all relevant data. Companies that want to use benchmarking only as a mechanism to drive down price or improve service delivery will find it a costly and frustrating process. Benchmarking is expensive and time-consuming even with a cooperative supplier, let alone with an uncooperative one. To ensure that benchmarking works as intended, take a big-picture view of the process and make sure that the benchmarks are comparing the user with its true peers.

Learn more about effective benchmarking:
- read the article at Computer Weekly

ALSO: read this on the value of benchmarks when outsourcing

SPOTLIGHT: Cutting costs while expanding customer satisfaction

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:01:34 -0400

The ability to transform service delivery and boost customer service, while saving millions at the same time is no easy feat. As one tech leader at a large credit union organization explains, the key is to focus, focus, focus. Article

SPOTLIGHT: Slow and steady a good Web services approach

Thu, 09 Mar 2006 19:01:32 -0500

Before you deploy any type of Web services system, you have to ask yourself two big questions: Do you actually need Web services to get what you want, and if the answer is yes, what's the true expectation in terms of service delivery you hope to gain? There has been a lot of hype about Web services. While there are more success stories emerging, experts advise making sure you understand what's available, the alternatives that could prove useful and why you can't rush in and expect to benefit from a service-oriented architecture. Article