Relationship Management

Do You Have a Succession Plan in Place?

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:01:36 -0400

Rather than looking outside of the organization, more CIOs are turning to their own teams to find their successors. Cultivating CIO talent is an important part of the job these days. Two years ago, when Chubb Corp., a $14 billion insurance agency, could not fill its CIO opening, it convinced June Drewry, a former CIO with 20 years of experience, to come out of retirement to groom its next CIO. Drewry had some revealing things to say in a recent interview with CIO Insight magazine. She reiterates the fact that the CIO's role has changed and so have the skills necessary to take on the job. Leadership, business acumen and relationship management are all necessary skills for tomorrow's CIOs. When asked whether the IT department is the only department from which to attract future CIOs, she responds: "IT can be pretty snobby at times, and not have a lot of respect for people who didn't come up through its ranks." Still, she notes that "because of the integration of IT and business and operations, there is more of a willingness to open up to someone from within the business operations side."

Learn more about succession plans in the full interview:
- see this CIO Insight article

Mobile Apps expected to grow to $9 billion by 2011

Wed, 30 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

In the quest for innovation and the push toward the next frontier for applications, many companies are looking to mobile phones as a platform of opportunity. According to consulting and analytics firm Compass Intelligence, mobile apps are a good bet. The U.S. mobile applications market will grow to $9 billion by 2011, the company predicts, forecasting that U.S. businesses will spend about $3.8 billion on mobile applications this year alone. That includes custom-coded wireless packages, productivity tools, enterprise resource planning tools, email, and security applications. Compass predicts U.S. annual growth rates in the market to be between 20 and 37 percent from 2006 through 2011. Applications will provide SMS/text messaging, content relationship management programs, project management software, and file-sharing, InformationWeek reports.

See the full survey data:
- read this InformationWeek article

IT: Splitting the "I" from the "T"

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

For people in the IT field, it may be more beneficial to think in terms of whether you are more "I" or more "T", because the two are diverging into separate career paths. Traditionally, the best IT professionals have had the perfect blend of the two components: understanding the needs and goals of the business side (I), while still having a good handle on the bits and bytes of technology (T). But as IT workers take on more management responsibility, it is not unusual to start losing some "T" while growing stronger in the "I". That's because increasing management responsibilities take IT staff away from the hands-on aspect of technology and forces them to maintain their "T" through reading, not doing. Experts say that soon, IT professionals will need to "I" and "T". Those who choose "T" had better be extremely competent, because much of that type of work is being offshored or given to employees who will work for less. Those who focus on "I" (information design and management, process design and management, and relationship management) will have it much easier.

For more about the diverging paths of "I" versus "T":
- read the blog at TechRepublic