research analysts

Forrester predicts tech 'populism'

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:59:58 -0500

A new Forrester study says there will soon be a proliferation of "technology populism." That means that IT professionals will be rethinking how they currently evaluate, provide and support collective and collaborative software and services. Forrester says this change will increase the pressure to throw out the traditional methods by which technology is deployed. "Technology Populism is driven by people's needs to interact," said Forrester Research Principal Analyst Matthew Brown. "For many employees, the telephone and email are being replaced by text messaging, instant messaging, and mobile devices, such as iPhones and BlackBerrys, and Social Computing tools like Facebook and Wikipedia," Brown said. Is this true at your workplace? Let us know what is happening and what you think of this new trend in the comments.

For more on this trend:
- See this Fox Business article

Get ready for a tough New Year

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 07:00:00 -0500

CIOs must get ready for 2008. The seas are shifting, and what was hot in 2007 might be cooling off in 2008. There are plenty of challenges ahead for the New Year, starting with the demand to integrate IT into every business decision and do it with speed, not taking the time to ponder action versus inaction. "Businesses are calling for more flexible responses, and an IT infrastructure that will allow IT to respond more quickly to changing business requirements and needs," said Andrew Bartels, a research analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. "Businesses need to be able to be more nimble and react more quickly, and CIOs will be looking for technologies that allow IT to do that."

It is a challenging time amid predictions that the IT market may be cooling, and CIOs, as well as other IT executives, will be asked to do more with less money. But stay alert. There are plenty of tools to help you out, and lots of ways to bring home the bacon using your savvy and IT smarts. Bartels says that CIOs must pay attention to the foundation technologies that bring adaptability to their company and lead the way for the next generation of technology. Some new processes--like service oriented architecture--are already in place to help CIOs get keep up-to-speed.

"People don't even talk SOA anymore because they're doing it," said Kavin Moody, executive director of the Center for Information Management Studies at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. Remember that collaborative technologies save money, too. And keep in mind that there is no reason to keep a legacy system running parallel to a new technology unless you absolutely have to. There's an old saying that fits right into this. A penny saved is a penny earned. Or more to the point, technology reevaluated and revalued can help you maintain a bottom line in the black. Happy New Year. -Judi

FierceCIO will not be publishing next week, in observance of the holidays. We'll return on Thursday, January 3rd. Happy Holidays!

Outsourcing on its way home

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:59:59 -0500

There are plenty of good things to say about outsourcing and plenty of bad things, too. A new trend is beginning to emerge as some companies are losing faith in the value of sending work overseas. U.S. companies are feeling the impact of rising prices from India as the value of the Indian Rupee grows and the value of the U.S. Dollar declines.

"While it is less expensive than operating solely in the U.S., the cost of doing business in India has become more onerous because the demand for talent there is so high now that workers want more money and staff turnover has increased," says Mindy Blodgett, research analyst at Yankee Group. "It is also better [public relations] for a U.S. company to be able to say, 'We are outsourcing, but not offshoring.'" U.S. companies and their CIOs must find a balance between costs and delivery of what they need when they need it. It is a struggle that is likely to continue for quite a while, according to experts.

For example, security appliance maker WatchGuard decided to end its offshore contract in India after experiencing staff attrition and complaints from customers about service. "The attrition there was uncontrollable, and we also had issues with the quality of staff available to us. Add onto that customer complaints and language barriers and the situation becomes a time and resources drain," he said. What is an IT executive to do to make things better? Do careful research about what you will get with offshore contracts and be ready with a fall-back position if it does not work out. Remember, there is no point in saving money if you lose customers in the process.

For more on the problems with outsourcing:
- See this CIO-Insight Article

Protect your system with archiving software

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:59:58 -0500

There's a growing demand for archiving software among CIOs who want to protect their systems from incidents involving disaster recovery and business continuity, according to market research firm IDC, which last week published its Quarterly Storage Software Tracker report. The data tells it all. Worldwide revenues from storage software license and maintenance fees were up nearly $3 billion during the third quarter of 2007, an increase of nearly 10 percent from the same period in 2006.

"Overall market growth was driven by strong performance in both the archiving and data protection and recovery markets," according to Michael Margossian, research analyst, Storage Software at IDC. "Customer demand for storage replication seems to be cooling off, while the need for archiving appears to be picking up." There were plenty of reasons for the growth of the archiving market, including regulatory compliance, overall storage needs and eDiscovery. Check out the top five vendors worldwide and their share of this growing market in this IDG article on the IDC survey.

For more on this market trend:
- See this IDG Article

How to painlessly reduce costs

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:01:36 -0500

Despite recent reports that IT spend is expected to increase, companies are still going to expect some serious cost reductions and improvements in efficiency. As one IT research analyst explains, it doesn't necessarily have to be a painful process and taking certain actions will not only save money but can boost productivity and results. Creating a project management office is one example of how it can be done, says Tina Nunno, a Gartner research director. And she outlines several more techniques that could prove worthwhile.

For more on good cost-reduction strategies:
- read the Q&A at Optimize

Related Article: Making IT leaner and stronger. Article

IT is all about being young

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:01:35 -0400

Tech industry research analysts says that the next generation of IT professionals will be "versatilists," and that IT enterprises will need to attract some young, savvy tech minds in order to stay competitive. For the mid-level tech manager, that could pose some career hurdles, says Gartner Research, as companies are demanding that tech leaders be on top of emerging Web-based and interactive technologies. The trend toward "young" is also pushing more than a few CIOs out of a job, as CEOs are demanding that IT contribute to growth and not just be focused on cost-cutting.

For more on the "young" trend in IT:
-read the story at Computerworld

A four-step plan for communicating IT's value

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 20:01:36 -0400

If you're looking to communicate your IT department's true impact to the business, a good strategy may be a four-prong approach mapped out by a tech research firm. Cutter Consortium says the biggest issue most tech leaders typically face in illustrating their teams' effectiveness is not using the right methodology and presenting the impact in business terms. The research analysts say the first step is presenting IT's costs in application services, user services, management and project services. Then it's time to assess each of those in service-to-business terms. The third step is mapping out what it actually costs to provide tech services in the five portfolio areas mapped out initially, and then offer up the charge-out in terms of use of the services. By doing this IT leaders can effectively show how IT is impacting the business in the proper terms.

For more on translating IT impact:
-read the article at Tekrati.

No need to buy Gigabit speed, says analyst

Wed, 24 May 2006 20:01:37 -0400

If you're looking to purchase Gigabit Ethernet LAN equipment one analyst firm believes your IT budget monies would be better spent on supporting today's distributed workforces. Gartner Research analyst Mark Fabbi says spending money to speed up networks isn't necessary or needed. Both IT funds, and today's network managers, should be focused on security, the upper network layer and application optimization instead of just buying up more bandwidth.

For more on where to spend network funds:
- read this NetworkWorld article

SPOTLIGHT: First step in identity management protection

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 19:01:33 -0500

If all the news about protecting user and customer identity has you checking out the new products and services flooding the market, one analyst is warning that you need to take a deep breath, and a big step back, before pulling in new tools or solutions. The first step should be making sure you take the right infrastructure foundation approach to laying down ID protection and management. Research analyst Neil Macehiter, a partner in the IT analyst firm Macehiter Ward-Dutton, advises taking a "comprehensive understanding of ID-dependent business requirements" for making the correct solutions choices. Article