Strategy for CIOs

The challenge of managing risk when IT budgets tighten

I see an interesting sea change when it comes to risk: Thanks to the recession, as IT risk management is constrained by tightening IT budgets, the risk of doing business goes up.

As part of my security, compliance and disaster recovery coverage this year, I’ve listened to a lot of experts talk about the how-tos of risk management, such as, how CIOs need to stop taking a checklist approach to regulatory mandates and forge a risk-based strategy for compliance. Or how security officers still taking a buy-another-gadget approach to security will lose their jobs if they don’t focus on risk management. All this sounds good, as it implies that a rational scrutiny of risk can save companies money by focusing the available dollars on the most likely scenarios. But the reality is much worse. Continued »

Why cybersecurity awareness is everyone’s responsibility

October is national Cyber Security Awareness month! The campaign, sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance, a partnership that works with the government as well as corporate sponsors, encourages online safety and best practices to protect high-value information online.

And what better time to raise awareness than on the heels of the Gmail/Hotmail/email phishing scam that compromised thousands of accounts. On Oct. 6, news broke that at least 10,000 Hotmail addresses and passwords had been leaked online. The next day, it was revealed that 20,000 addresses and passwords for email accounts from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, EarthLink and Comcast had also shown up on the Web.

Continued »

What Google Wave means for IT: Collaboration in IT management tools

The rush for Google Wave has begun. The much-anticipated release of Google’s collaboration tool has generated media hype, exclusive invites to try the beta and even eBay bidding wars for the opportunity to try it first. And this step in collaboration technology is a big one, as it works to combine email, wikis, blogs, instant messaging and social networking capabilities to allow integrated communication in real time. The use cases for the Wave technology could be endless as developers work on extensions to further enhance it.

For IT, I have to wonder how Google Wave will also change the face of project management, business process management and IT service management. Why? Most of the major concerns I hear regarding these types of tools are their lack of functional, easy-to-use, real-time collaboration and monitoring features.

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Social networking, real-time data feeds — where does that leave IT?

The District of Columbia has won the 2009 Innovations in American Government Award in Urban Policy for its Data Feeds: Democratization of Government Data project, the first initiative in the country that makes almost all current government operational data available to the public in real-time, raw form. Using social networking capabilities and aimed at increasing civic participation, transparency and accountability, the program has relieved some of the burden on the city’s infrastructure.

Midmarket CIOs can possibly learn from D.C.’s success — strategically opening up data access can mean more grass-roots employee innovation and, for a real ROI, fewer internal and external support calls. So how can IT provide an efficient service to the organization, track its performance and free up time to work on other projects?

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Multitasking in IT: Sought-after skill or burnout bedlam?

In a world of information overload, many of us have turned multitasking into a way of life (I have done so with the help of RedBull). But are our efforts actually making us more efficient?

Earlier this week I spoke to the CIO and vice president of New Hanover Healthcare Network, Avery Cloud, about integrating project and portfolio management and IT service management to provide a better view of the resources, projects and service requests within IT. Cloud said that without a single view into what his staff members were working on, some employees were being stretched too thin across multiple tasks — without his knowledge. Continued »

With PPM software, don’t always throw in the kitchen sink

Project and portfolio management (PPM) software is definitely not overlooked in the midmarket. According to a recent SearchCIO-Midmarket.com survey, 17% use some form of PPM software. But how many of those organizations are actually using all of what they paid for?

Time and time again, I hear the stories of the initial implementation process: Company purchases software, company implements relevant parts of the software in stages, company stops the process once it has implemented what it needs.

I once bought a 160-piece kitchen set. Out of the 160 “useful” kitchen tools, I use about 10 of them — the rest sit in my cabinets, waiting for the day I decide to make eight individual servings of crème brûlée or require a tool for removing my strawberry stem. At the time, I had big plans for my cooking skills and thought the new tools would inspire me to learn a bit more in the kitchen — maybe I really will try my hand at beef Wellington, I thought.

Nope.
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Don’t be like GM: How a BPM strategy can help you avoid bankruptcy

Midmarket CIOs who think of a business process management (BPM) strategy in its basic form as a tool for putting processes around purchase orders, claims or employee onboarding and offboarding should re-consider the role it plays in business sustainability during a recession, according to one analyst.

“You look at all the businesses that didn’t survive the recession – some of them were in a bad market segment, OK, but some of them just couldn’t scale down fast enough,” said Clay Richardson, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “Look at GM, for example. That’s really the GM issue — they couldn’t scale down fast enough.”

Although a BPM strategy and scalability might seem like minor factors among the financial obstacles GM is facing, the expansive company has been unable to respond quickly enough to decreases in demand — GM has lost about $88 billion since 2005 — and as a result, was forced to file for bankruptcy protection.

As more and more businesses suffer the same fate (Chrysler, Circuit City, Linens ’n Things) how helpful can a BPM strategy be for companies in a rocky economic climate? Continued »

Open source cloud computing: The future midmarket sweet spot?

What happens when open source and cloud computing collide? Cost savings, flexibility and (at least one open source vendor hopes) midmarket CIOs checking it out.

Open source CRM provider SugarCRM has launched an on-demand version of its software that is included free with an on-premise license.

Subscribers can switch back and forth between the local server and the cloud version, called Open Cloud. They can make one version a hot backup for disaster recovery, or use one version for testing and the other in production if they like. “There’s no one asking you if you want on-demand or on-site; you get both,” said Martin Schneider, director of product marketing at SugarCRM Inc.

Jay Lyman, an open source analyst at The 451 Group, said the number of startups emerging pairing open source with cloud computing is a clear indication of a growing trend. “Open source is a good fit for cloud computing because of the interoperability and the portability,” he said. “We’re going to see rapid experimentation, testing and vendors using this as an opportunity to learn customer pain points and match the right apps in with the clouds.”

In many cases, small and midsized businesses will investigate cloud computing the same way they checked out open source – by experimenting with and investigating minimal fees. “[CIOs] can’t revamp their entire systems in the down economy, but they can look into trying new things while still leveraging their existing applications with open source cloud offerings,” Lyman said.

March Madness 2009: What network slowdown?

March Madness has officially started. Offices are buzzing with pick-to-win pools, friendly competition amongst peers and co-workers — and the network slowdown caused by streaming live videos of the game. Is your network up to snuff and prepared to handle the rush of the game as March Madness progresses?

The NCAA will be streaming live video of every game, from the round to the last – including a new high-quality option (requiring a Microsoft Silverlight download). CBS will also be providing the live games online, something it has been providing for free for the past four years. Just to provide some scope for how many people will be streaming this game online this year: In 2008, the online audience for the NCAA men’s tournament grew 165% over 2007 with 4.8 million viewers (way up from the 2006 number of 1.3 million people).

Streaming video, as opposed to another productivity buster like online shopping, affects the entire network. According to one calculation on the effect streaming video can have on the network, in a company of 10,000 employees, if 75 of them (on a 100-megabit network) were streaming video at the same time (on decent-quality video streams with other Internet apps going on), the network could be slowed down to a stop.

One company I talked to experienced a 2x increase in bandwidth utilization on Thursday; its normal average of 15MB increased to 30MB. This IT director told me there wasn’t a noticeable slowdown because the company is able to burst to 45MB, but if usage increased further, he was going to lower the priority of CBS SportsLine on the firewall to make the user experience poor and give more important applications better performance.

So that’s one approach to handling NCAA enthusiasts. What else can you do before or during non-work events likely to cause a network slowdown?

Strategically plan for the event with public viewing areas. Set up televisions within the office so employees can keep up with the live footage during breaks. The workplace can only go so far in accommodating employee interests during the day, but for some public interest events like the inauguration or national disaster updates, providing the televisions can help separate work from other things.

Limit the access with policies. Block video during the workday, providing only a limited window of opportunity for streaming or downloading (8-10 a.m. or 1-2 p.m., etc.). This may be away to provide a positive work experience while safeguarding the company from loss of productivity and network overload.

Block it. For many the hassles and risks are just not worth it, and blocking video on the network is a quick fix. The flip side of this? Some employees may try to access the video through less reputable sites, posing a security/virus risk.

The good news is, if you’re thinking about how to handle network slowdowns before it becomes a problem, you’re already strategically planning. Monitoring, preparing and understanding the risks are important when it comes to staying on top of your IT game.

Obama chooses a federal CIO: The next generation of CIOs?

President Obama selected Vivek Kundra as his first federal CIO. Kundra, formerly chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, has been recognized among the top 25 CTOs in the country and as the 2008 IT Executive of the Year.

Is he an example of the next generation of CIOs?

Kundra, who refers to citizens as “co-creators,” has received a lot of attention in his 19 months of service with D.C. mayor Adrian M. Fenty – adopting the latest computing trends and introducing popular social media tools into his bureaucratic processes.

Keeping up with the ever-changing beat of technology, engaging citizens, lowering the cost of government operations and spearheading innovative projects are some of the many things that make Kundra stand out.

Young and change-oriented, Kundra uses YouTube to post the bidding process for city contracts and Twitter in the office, and he wants to let drivers pay parking tickets on Facebook. Imagine that: Accept a new friend request and pay your fine, all in one login.

For midcareer CIOs who don’t use social media and may not be making innovation and big change a priority, especially in this economy, Kundra and others like him may feel like a threat. CIOs get replaced because they become too comfortable in the way things are and are unable to see new opportunities for change and transformation, or are unable to make it happen.

Granted, Kundra’s big ideas and plans may be so forward thinking as to be naive, given his resources and the potential four-year shelf life of his position as federal CIO. But there is something to be said about a big-dreamer with fresh ideas who is able look beyond the tried and true. Kundra launched a contest in October called Apps for Democracy and got developers to submit 47 Web applications to provide residents with city data. According to The Washington Post, Kundra said he spent $50,000 for the contest, including prize money, but he estimates saving $2.6 million by not hiring contract developers.

Willing to take risks and able to visualize new ideas and situations, Kundra was able to engage citizens, save money and come up with a series of applications for the people in his last job. As he demonstrates similar gusto as the federal CIO, do you applaud his youthful energy and ideas as a welcome reprieve from everyday government, or foresee him having to learn hard lessons about change, resources and the politics of IT, as many of you have in the trenches of corporate America?