Midmarket CIO

When should an SMB draw the line with ITIL best practices?

Where does ITIL fit in with SMBs? It seems more organizations are following ITIL best practices in their overall IT operations and service delivery -- creating some form of a service catalog, practicing change management strategies and focusing on service design -- but not following ITIL frameworks...

Mixing and matching Scrum and Waterfall for agile project development

I talked to a few CIOs recently who were using Scrum and Waterfall for agile project development. One was using a combination of the two to develop a portal and services for...

New England GiveCamp: One NERD and multiple IT project success stories

A lot of projects fail. If business requirements aren't clear or gathered effectively, or if the scope of the project is inaccurate, failure happens. But this past weekend, at New England GiveCamp (a Microsoft-sponsored volunteer weekend held at

IT talent is in high demand, so focus on employee retention strategies

If employee retention strategies haven't been a priority for you as of late, now may be a good time to refresh your staff priorities, because IT talent is in high demand. According to the June Dice report, 71% of technology recruiters and hiring managers expect to add more staff in the second...

Why using social media is like sex

"Social [media] is like sex -- fun to read about, fun to look at, but to really understand it, you have to do it." How's that for an attention getter? That's how Nigel Fenwick, principal analyst at Forrester Research, ended his session on social media for the CIO at last week's Forrester IT...

USB memory sticks spark concern — but still prove hard to pass up

"Is this safe?" seemed to be the first question out of everyone's mouth when a colleague of mine was handing out USB memory sticks at the recent MIT Sloan CIO Symposium. The tiny memory sticks did not contain malicious material -- only tips and information on

Why using Microsoft Excel in SMB IT makes sense

It's no surprise that many organizations are using Microsoft Excel. Evolving from more than just a simple spreadsheet application, Excel is used for everything from simple project management to

Is Square the midmarket mobile payment solution?

The Square credit card swiper and mobile application could help small to midsized companies seal the deal for sales made while on the go. But it's up to IT managers and CIOs to balance the ease-of-use business benefits with any security concerns.

Companies...

Cross-browser compatibility empowers users, business

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) market share has gone down again. The once-king of Web browsers now accounts for less than 60% of the market, and users are opting for

Don’t let IT problems creep up on you — take control with strong IT leadership

Terry Childs, former network admin for the city of San Francisco, was recently found guilty of one felony count of denying computer services. In 2008, Childs refused to hand over