business performance

Cognos acquires Applix for $339M

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 06:59:59 -0400

With vendors like Oracle and Microsoft making inroads into the massive $6.25 billion business performance and analytics software market, smaller vendors are doing all they can to remain competitive. In the latest move, Cognos this week said it would acquire Applix for $339 million in cash. "What's interesting about the deal is it gives Cognos the potential to really focus on finance professionals, making their offering that much more complete and therefore more differentiated from standard budgeting, planning and performance-management tools out there," Rob Kugel, senior vice president at San Mateo, Calif. based Ventana Research, told internetNews. Cognos controls 10 percent of marketshare and ranks third behind Business Objects and SAS in total share of the business intelligence market.

For all the details on the acquisition:
- read the article in Internetnews.com
- and see this press release

Welcome to the new FierceCIO

Mon, 28 May 2007 20:01:40 -0400

Publisher's Note:

As you might recall, we recently asked you for your thoughts on how we could improve FierceCIO to better suit your needs. Well, you told us what you wanted and we listened. Today, I'm proud to introduce several key changes to FierceCIO. First, I am thrilled to introduce our new editor. Patricia Brown, formerly executive editor of Optimize, brings more than 20 years of experience to the table along with an intimate knowledge of what CIOs need to know. I'm confident that you'll like her.

Second, FierceCIO will now publish twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, delivering all of the week's news in two easy-to-read issues. The "Technology Toolbox" section in the Thursday issue will focus on a particular topic or theme, allowing you to explore various topics in depth, while gaining a broader perspective on trends and technologies in the marketplace. Finally, we will orient more of our content toward the needs of CIOs in small and medium-sized organizations, not just the Fortune 500 folks. I hope you enjoy these changes and find them useful. As always, feel free to contact me with any feedback. --Jeff Giesea - Publisher, FierceCIO

Welcome to the new FierceCIO
Hello, FierceCIO readers. My name is Patricia Brown and I'm happy to be taking over the FierceCIO newsletter. In the twenty years that I have covered the business of technology and the expanding role of CIOs, I have never seen a time of greater opportunity for technologists to have a more robust impact both in their specific organizations and in the general economy. This shift toward greater responsibility is changing the language of IT. As organizations stop simply talking about business alignment and start implementing initiatives that directly advance critical corporate objectives, CIOs are finding that it is no longer good enough to just manage IT metrics. They are focusing instead on business performance and the customer--both internal and external. In FierceCIO, we will provide you with news analysis and links to resources that will help you navigate the latest developments in technology and enable cutting edge business strategies. If you ever have any suggestions, please feel free to drop me a line and let me know how we can do better. -Patricia Brown

Succeeding as CIO

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Improving business operations and business performance together are perhaps a CIO's most difficult challenges. Getting the business to look at technology as a an enabler instead of just infrastructure is extremely difficult. It's all about communicating the benefits of what IT can do for the business, how it can improve operations, save money, add numbers to the bottom line, improve customer service and impact top-line growth. The master key is finding the areas that IT can have a positive impact on revenues. It's also important to adopt a proactive approach to improving IT's visibility, impact and credibility in executives' minds. That requires being a salesman; the CIO has to sell the fact that technology will in fact contribute to business strategy and understand the business strategy to make that work. That's where CIOs most often fail. But if you can do this, you will find yourself among an elite and growing group of CIOs who are beginning to realize the 'C' in CIO means more than just a mastery of technology.

Learn more about succeeding as CIO:
- read the article at CIO Update

ALSO:
- read this on how strategy and flexibility are the keys to success as a CIO
- and this on achieving your goals as CIO

Report: CIOs stretched too thin

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

According to a recently released report from Gartner, CIOs say that they are pulled in two directions by the need to meet new enterprise requirements and other increasing demands on their time. The report identified several time-consuming tasks CIOs engage in that reduce value, and noted that if CIOs and IT leaders stopped doing them, they would gain more time in which to improve their performance. First, stop being the budget-priority police and stop spending so much time rationalizing the requests of individual business units for tools and services. Second, stop using enterprise architecture as a design specification instead of a strategy. Third, focus on business performance and stop communicating using IT metrics. Show on a continuous basis how the IT organization is contributing to business value. Stop defining services in technical rather than business terms. Stop the proliferation of applications, infrastructure and IT governance committees, which can be a resource drain. Stop adding new complexity and instead focus on rationalizing the established infrastructure, and stop apologizing for past problems. Choose the work items that deliver the most benefit to CIOs.

Learn more about what not to do as CIO:
- read the article at eWeek

BPM: A step toward innovation

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Business Process Management (BPM) has enough to recommend it on its own, but it can also play an important role in ensuring that the organization is on the cutting edge. Because it forces executives to be more aware of the processes within the company, it drives discipline, a necessary precursor to innovation. In fact, many BPM projects are undertaken to make businesses more innovative and agile, a change from just a few years ago when they were cost-motivated. BPM can also help SOA gain traction, because BPM builds services-oriented business applications that bind together many services into a process. But BPM is only as good as the people running it. With intelligent and insightful people at the helm, you'll get more intelligence and process out of your systems.

For more about BPM:
- read this Optimize article

Related Articles:
BPM can drive innovation. Report
Use BPM to address neglected areas. Report
BPM is a window into business performance. Report
Why IT must lead the BPM charge. Report
A roadmap for putting BPM to work. Report

Outsourcing is about value, says IBM

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:01:38 -0400

When outsourcing is mentioned, the next phase typically heard is cost efficiencies. But, as IBM's chief of outsourcing for the Asia Pacific segment explains, outsourcing today has a much broader benefit in providing greater business performance and what he calls "process innovation." Automation, says Randy Walker, is the key element today in helping companies produce and the focus isn't on going cheap, but providing IBM clients greater value.

For more on IBM's outsourcing approach:
- check out this article at BusinessWeek