- IT’s creative new order
26 Nov 08 | Journal Article
Bruno Laquet, CIO of Corus Group, describes a new democratic social structure in which the job of IT is to offer the users choices – which requires a new breed of IT person who is creative, entrepreneurial, democratic and free-thinking.
- Before transforming your business, transform IT
26 Nov 08 | Journal Article
John Suffolk, UK Government CIO and Head of Government IT Profession, highlights the challenge of transforming IT to adopt new models such as shared services and open source.
- Virtual travel and its impact on the travel, hospitality and related industries
26 Nov 08 | Journal Article
Barry Shuler, Former Senior VP IT Strategy and CTO of Marriott International, Inc, takes a look at how video and networking technologies really do deliver virtual travel – something that he believes will radically change travel patterns for both business and pleasure, with far-reaching implications for the travel industry. This article does not represent the views of Marriott International or its affiliates.
- IT may not be Green but it certainly is organic
26 Nov 08 | Journal Article
Gavin Keeley, CTO of Hollard Insurance Pty Ltd, shows how many of IT’s current problems are due to its organic development. He uses the language of Evolution – including the threat of ‘Adaption or Extinction’ – to argue that despite the inherited obstacles and deterrents, corporate IT must move towards new solutions such as cloud computing and SaaS.
- New life to the professional agenda?
14 Dec 06 | Journal Article
At the heart of the drive for sustained competitive performance through IT sits the classic mantra of ‘people, process, technology’. In a recent LEF report I sought to give fresh attention to the people contribution. This resonates with the current business interest in talent management. If we are all now in the knowledge business, our ability to compete globally hangs on our access to, and our ability to hold, motivate and develop,talent. But talent also needs refining, and that refining process lies at the heart of developing professionalism through education and applied experience – professionalism as disciplined talent.
- Relationship management: The new IT core competency?
14 Dec 06 | Journal Article
“Where good relationships were built over time they made a 20-40% difference in specific results achieved compared to those organizations that did not build good relationships,and where in an individual contract relationships moved from poor to good,performances also significantly improved (10-40%) on a continuous basis.”
- Getting value from your collaboration technologies by making explicit choices
14 Dec 06 | Journal Article
In 1999 we published our first Use and Misuse of Collaborative Technologies handbook. It was done in the style of a Victorian etiquette guide with tabs along the bottom so that clients could go directly to pithy and practical advice on subjects such as email, discussion spaces and video conferencing. Now we’ve updated it,not just to cover new technologies, but also to help readers get more value from collaboration by answering specific questions before they start.
- Rethinking the IT skills 'shortage'
14 Dec 06 | Journal Article
Too often,the debate about the future of the IT profession centres too quickly on the relatively narrow issues of whether enough students are studying computer science,and whether the high wages of Western IT workers can be maintained in the face of the challenge from low-cost nations such as India. But important as these two issues are,they are only a small part of the overall IT human resources picture. When we look at IT skills within the context of both the ongoing changes in the world of work and the changes in the IT industry itself,we get a different and much more positive perspective.
- Having strategic conversations
14 Dec 06 | Journal Article
IT people often find it hard to have meaningful strategic conversations with business executives. Used to thinking about technology and IT solutions,they have difficulty engaging business leaders in discussions about the business,its issues and direction. The author has over 20 years of experience consulting at the interface between IT and the business. This article describes some simple techniques that he has used many times with success.
- Reskilling the IT function
14 Dec 06 | Journal Article
It is widely accepted in the world of IT that there is a growing skills shortage. Most of what is written about this shortage tends to concentrate on the dearth of technical skills. The premise of this article is that there is a wider and perhaps more serious issue which is only just surfacing: the lack of strategic thinking about the future role and organizational structure of the IT function,and the skills and competencies it will need in the future to deliver real value within the business.