corporate strategy

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

Why global outsourcing deals fail

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

The weakest link in global outsourcing is often a lack of good governance. An effective governance structure keeps global initiatives aligned with overall corporate strategy and lets the organization manage expectations and communications between its internal constituents and the service provider or its own global operations. Avoid value leakage, and manage complexity and risk by developing governance structures that span strategic and tactical elements of the company's objectives. A best-in-class structure starts with establishing a governance body across three layers: organizational, functional, and operational. The CIO must be involved at the organizational level, while process owners are involved at the functional layer. At the operational level, the key participants are project managers and team leads. Success also requires an internal life-cycle commitment, timely decision-making, appropriate staffing and role definitions, investment of time and effort by senior management, and appropriate budgets.

Learn more about effective global outsourcing:
- read the article at Optimize

ALSO:
- read this on why alignment is the key to outsourcing success
- and this on how outsourcing changes the CIO's role

Welcome to the joined-up enterprise

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Thanks to the fast proliferation of broadband, mobile devices and collaboration tools in the enterprise, the promise of the joined-up enterprise--the idea that organizations can share data and information across different departments and systems--is fast becoming a reality. Major technologies allowing that to happen include broadband, mobile devices, Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and SharePoint-type applications. But along with benefits come some challenges. In addition to security, the biggest challenge is identifying and delivering access to useful data in legacy systems across the enterprise. Other challenges include information overload and effective management. Managing the joined-up enterprise involves developing a clear corporate strategy around information. Without it, islands of automation will occur, creating silos of information lacking a connection to anything else.

Read more about the joined-up enterprise:
- read the article at Silicon.com

Survey: Corporate boards aren't walking the walk when it comes to IT

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Corporate board members talk a good game when it comes to taking actions to align IT with corporate strategy, but they aren't supporting efforts to make it happen, according to a new survey from Deloitte Consulting. And doing so is important--the survey noted a significant correlation between the attention paid to IT and corporate performance. Even with this awareness, there is a real gap between the emphasis the board appears to place on IT and the steps they are taking to address it in many companies. Some boards are falling down on supporting IT in other ways. For example, 10 percent of boards relegate IT matters to a board committee, only 11 percent discuss IT at every meeting, and only 14 percent are fully involved in IT strategy. The survey also found that even though 22 percent of the respondents blame various aspects of IT strategy for their companies' inability to achieve its goals, 52 percent say their board will be spending no more time on IT over the next three years than it does now.

Read more about the survey:
- read the press release at PRNewswire

ALSO NOTED: Enterprise 2.0 might not be ready for prime time; Mobile data presents security risks;

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

> Enterprise 2.0 not ready for prime time, some believe. Article

> Mobile data presents a security risk to the enterprise. Article

> Teleworkers are the newest target for hackers. Article

> The new SLA standard will give companies a way to demand better performance from suppliers. Article

> Survey says that most federal IT managers need 99.999% uptime. Article

> In the wake of the TJX security breach, Massachusetts lawmakers are considering harsher penalties on retailers and merchants. Article

And finally... CIO's job description changes to focus more on corporate strategy. Article

Sun slashing jobs, costs

Wed, 31 May 2006 20:01:37 -0400

The expected changes at Sun are taking place with the vendor mapping out a six-month cost savings effort that includes laying off 5,000 staffers and reducing expenses by nearly $600 million. In a statement, Sun's top chief related that it's all about realigning expenses with the vendor's core business strategy. The vendor is closing two offices, one on each coast, and has tasked CTO Greg Papadopoulos to review and assess current research and development projects to make sure they're in line with the new corporate strategy.

For more on Sun's cost cutting plan:
- read this article at InformationWeek