internal customers

The Hiring Game

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:59:56 -0400

Overseeing 400 employees within her department, Katherine (Kathy) Tamer, vice president and CIO of NASA contractor United Space Alliance (USA), has some serious experience with hiring. Tamer recently shared some of her experiences hiring qualified team members with CIO Magazine. Her principal rule: consider the team dynamics. She notes that while there may be capable candidates for a position, unless candidates are in-sync with existing team members, she will probably not pursue the hire.

When hiring senior level managers, Tamer invites a panel of three people (generally made up of internal customers for whom the candidate will provide services) to interview the prospects. "Last year, when one of my direct reports retired and I needed to hire a replacement, I had two of my key customers-the vice president for safety, quality and mission assurance and the deputy program manager for ground operations out of Florida-as members of my three-person hiring team," she said. Typically these three panelists make the final selection.

In terms of mistakes, Tamer says that her biggest mistakes have occurred when she did not go with her gut instinct when making a hiring decision. "As a result, I got someone who looked excellent on paper. The person had the skills and experience and could do the job but not take it to the next level. The person maintained the status quo."

Like many CIOs, Tamer faces an aging workforce and is focused on building and growing her team of the future. In addition to science fairs and mentoring math and science students, her organization partners with an organization called GenesysWorks, a nonprofit in Houston that works with high school students from economically disadvantaged environments. She has supported 29 GenesysWorks students over the last five years. Of those 29, 28 have gone to college. It's likely that her group will then hire these students when they graduate.

For more on hiring trends:
- see the article in CIO

Ensuring project success

Sun, 06 May 2007 20:01:36 -0400

IT projects have a better chance of succeeding if the company has dedicated a project manager to coordinating them. The project manager is charged with making sure expenses don't run amok, that time spent on the project is within reasonable limits, and that the delivered product meets customers' quality expectations. Other responsibilities include risk and change management and contingency planning. A successful project manager is adept at leadership, communication, negotiation and planning. To choose the right person for this critical job, make sure internal customers have a say.

Read more about the importance of project management:
- read the article at ComputerWeekly

ALSO: read this on the value of project management

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

IT as an independent function

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:01:39 -0500

Forward-thinking CIOs are turning their IT departments into independent business units that function much like a separate business. Delivering IT as a service--and that means treating internal customers like external customers--is more efficient and effective, but not always that easy to pull off. It involves project portfolio management, re-engineering of workflows and process improvement. Companies approach this transformation in different ways, including ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) and application lifecycle management. But the most important route to success involves getting buy-ins from your prospective customers by showing them that the benefits outweigh the hassles.

Read about four companies doing it right:
- read the article at InfoWorld

ALSO: more on ITIL