service model

Customer-centric IT

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Instead of thinking of IT as a support for the rest of the enterprise, more and more CIOs are turning their IT shops into mini-businesses of their own, treating internal customers as if they were external customers. By doing so, IT departments become more effective and efficient, able to deliver real value to the company and its users. But moving to an "IT as a service" model is complicated. Some base the move on the tenets of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), adopting best practices for managing service requests, changes and IT assets--but ITIL is only one part of the puzzle. If you can navigate the change--including getting the support of your prospective customers by showing them the benefits--customer-centric IT department can increase productivity, improve project success rates and create a higher profile for technology within an organization.

Read more about how some companies have rolled out IT as a service:
- read the article at BPM Today

ALSO:
- read this about IT as an independent function
- and this on the ROI of ITIL

Succeeding with project management

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Succeeding with project management means developing an effective project management office and using the right tools. To make a project management office work, start by having clear objectives and a reliable way of measuring ROI. The payoff includes money saved from eliminating the development of redundant applications and time saved on completing projects more quickly, due to better oversight and coordination. Picking the right project management tools is also important. One option is using tools delivered through a software-as-a-service model, available from vendors like eProject, 37signal, Vertabase and Intuit. Another option is traditional project management software, from vendors like Planview, Primavera and Microsoft.

Learn more about effective project management:
- read the article at Baseline

Integrating Service-Oriented IT and Infrastructure as a Service

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Now that applications developers and IT operations have embraced service-oriented delivery, the next IT area ripe for a service-orientated overhaul is infrastructure, including equipment, facilities and management systems. Traditionally, integration between these elements has been limited, as the form factor for computing has remained mostly static. But if IT infrastructure elements could be integrated and the functions of those elements could be delivered over a network connection, the result would be enterprise IT functions that are more responsive, cost-effective, manageable, reliable, secure and compliant. This is possible today because of the maturation of virtualization technology, integrated functional management systems and best practices architectures and frameworks. The IT infrastructure as a service model presents a compelling alternative to conventional approaches such as "do-it-yourself," which often requires high up-front capital expenditures and long lead times, and traditional outsourcing, which can be difficult to manage and scale.

Learn more about infrastructure as a service:
- read the column at CIO

Google predicts IT crisis

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

The complexity of today's technology is forcing companies to spend the majority of their IT budgets on maintaining existing systems instead of investing in more innovative systems, a Google executive said recently. What's more, the rash of regulations that organizations must comply with is a drain on resources, as is the impending retirement of many older IT officials. To help reign in these issues, he proposes going to the software-as-a-service model, outsourcing non-critical IT tasks in order to focus on the most important business processes.

Read more about the IT crisis:
- read the article at IT World Canada