Archive for May, 2008

Gartner Reveals Top 10 Technologies

Friday, May 30th, 2008

Gartner Top 10 Technologies For 2008
The good folks over at the Gartner Group have revealed the top 10 technologies that they believe will change the world over the next four years:

  1. Multicore and hybrid processors
  2. Virtualization and fabric computing
  3. Social networks and social software
  4. Cloud computing and cloud/Web platforms
  5. Web mashups
  6. User Interface
  7. Ubiquitous computing
  8. Contextual computing
  9. Augmented reality
  10. Semantics

What caught my attention were items 1-4. I think that Gartner got it right this time around. Muticore servers and virtualization will mean that firms will need fewer boxes and apps can be easily moved from box to box (and right out the door to an outsourced data center). Workplace social networks and cloud computing means that the need for a centralized IT department will go away. Firms will no longer need to own/maintain the boxes that they use to run their firm’s apps. With no need to touch a box, there will be no need to have the IT staff co-located with the boxes. Oh, oh — can you hear your job going away?

What does this all mean, and more importantly what should a successful IT staffer (or CIO) do today? The key to your future success is to understand how IT is going to change and what you need to do to change with it. IT is going to become much more about information and how it can be used to help the business grow and prosper. This IT function is going to leave the IT department as we know it today and will migrate into the business unit itself. What this means to you is that you need to know what your firm does, and even more importantly, how it does it. The next question will be what information is needed by the business units to improve how they do their work. This is what tomorrow’s IT staff will provide. Thanks Gartner for the peek into the future!

Posted in cloud computing, gartner, job security, technologies, top 10 | 25 Comments »

Do We Really Need CIOs Any More?

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

CIOs Need To Focus On Business Tasks
There was an interesting article in an issue of CIO Insight that talked about the changing role of CIOs. The basic point of the story was that since today’s CIOs are spending so much time (and $$$) on keeping their firms systems up and running, that they are losing their position at the strategy table. The thinking is that if a CIO doesn’t have the time to spend on thinking about where the company needs to go and how it’s going to get there, then he/she doesn’t need to take up space at the table where the firm’s long term direction is being decided.

The article went on to point out that CIOs are being relegated to reporting to the CFO. This basically reinforces the view of the IT department as simply being a cost center. Of course there is a plus side to having a good CIO/CFO relationship; however, I think that losing access to the CEO has got to be a bad thing for both the CIO and his IT team.

With the arrival of grid (aka “utility” computing), it sure looks like the CIO who is only in charge of managing existing equipment and systems will soon be no longer needed. That also means that the DBAs and other support personnel may also be at risk. Talk about change happening!

So what’s a CIO (and for that matter an IT department) to do? Clearly what a CIO used to do and may be doing today is not going to cut it going forward. So what is a CIO to do? Well, most CIOs already split their time between operations and strategy. The problem is that too many of them spend their time on the operations issues because that is what they know best — it’s where they come from. Additionally, just like every IT worker out there, CIO fear having their technical skills grow dull. Where CIOs need to be spending their time is on learning where the business is going and then making sure that the IT systems are going to be there to support the firm.

We get back to that issue of alignment, but its even more than that. CIOs need to create a way for the operations side of their job to run on autopilot — no problems, but also not requiring any time. Sounds easy, but it never is.

Posted in business strategy, CIO, downsize, operations, utility computing | 9 Comments »

Let’s Talk About IT Trade Shows

Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

Plan Ahead To Maximize Trade Show ValueBy Dr. Jim Anderson

I’m motivated to talk about trade shows this time around because I currently find myself out in Las Vegas attending the EMC World 2008 trade show. When it comes to IT trade shows, this is it — it’s by, about, and for IT professionals who live, eat, and breath storage for a living.

I’ve worked a countless number of trade shows during my career, and unfortunately I’d have to say that most of them were a waste of time (& money!). I first came to realize this when I was working for Siemens and in preparing for THE major industry trade show. During the planning for the show the CEO said it right out loud: “This is a waste of our time, I wish that we didn’t have to go. However, since we’ve gone once, we have to keep going or otherwise everyone will think that we’ve gone out of business.” Ouch! He was right — we went, we stood around and greeted folks as they walked by our booth for three days and then we went home and the world was not changed.

So if we can all agree that it’s easy to do a trade show incorrectly, then how should an IT trade show be handled? As always, these reasons seem to travel in groups of three and so here are my top three suggestions for how to get the most out of an IT trade show:

  1. Have a reason for going: going to just “show the flag” is never a good idea. Instead, make sure that you have something that you are excited about that you’d like to tell the world. This might take 6 months of pre-planning in order to have a product release cycle crank out a product just before a trade show. Make sure that this “big thing” is discussed in a press release, etc. Generate your own excitement!
  2. Schedule Customer Drop Bys: A trade show can provide a unique opportunity for your customers (or potential customers) to meet and talk with your IT product experts such as developers or product managers. This can be an invaluable opportunity to boost a customer’s sense of comfort in regards to your product. Just hoping that a potential customer will drop by your booth is a gamble that not even Las Vegas would take.
  3. Follow up, Follow up, Follow up: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked for a company that collected customer info during the trade show and then ended up sitting on it for months after the show until it no longer had any real value. Collecting customer info these days is all done electronically and so there is no excuse for any delay in contacting the customer after the show. In fact you should plan on how you are going to contact them BEFORE you go to the show. This way you’ll just have to drop the names into your system and the follow up packages will be all ready to go after you get back home.

Even in the 21st Century, trade shows play an important role in connecting industry players, customers, and partners. Plus they always generate really good stories that start “… I was at this trade show once and…” IT products are often complicated and can be hard to show off at a trade show so following these three suggestions can help make your participation in the next trade show an activity that really does change the world.

Posted in follow up, main reason, prepare, trade show | No Comments »

Alignment Sounds Like Something You Do To A Car

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Alignment Is The Key To Long Term IT Success
Ok, so everyone’s been trying to fix IT departments almost since the first computers were put to work on business problems. So how come nobody has gotten it right yet? I believe that one reason that we keep missing the mark is because we really have no idea what a really good IT department looks like. We think that we know, but we really don’t.

So let’s figure this one out — I mean, how hard could it be? I will be the first to confess that I’ve spent way too much of my career viewing the IT department as something separate from the rest of the business. This comes from my belief that I knew more about how IT worked than anyone on the “business” side of the house. Give me some requirements and then go away. I’ll create the best solution and will deliver it to you later on and you can thank me when you get it. I’m not sure if this ever worked, but I sure seem to think that it did a long time ago.

No matter, it sure does not work today. Instead, I believe that the role of IT has been transformed to SERVE the rest of the business. In order for this to happen, the managers in the IT department are going to have to learn to do the following four things:

  1. Connect their employees’ actions to the mission of the firm (sorry, I had to use the “M” word because it really is a good description). This will turn intentions into real actions.
  2. Link IT and business teams and business processes together in order to truly meet the changing needs of customers.
  3. Don’t leave your business strategy on the shelf. Instead, constantly shape it with real-time information that you are constantly receiving from your customers.
  4. Create an internal culture in which all of these elements all work together — seamlessly.

Arrgh, that list looks so foreign to the way most IT firms are doing things right now that you might be tempted to say that it’s impossible. Don’t you dare: you are going to have to do all four of these tasks and much more in order to make sure that your firm can survive in the 21st Century.

Posted in business processes, business strategy, culture, mission | No Comments »

Time To Think About IT In A New Way

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

How To Align IT With The Business
In the past, the IT department was left alone and was only noticed if something stopped working (like email!) However, in the 21st Century IT has become a critical part of how business competes. The problem is that very few firms have figured out how to evolve from treating IT as a simple cost center to using it as a competitive advantage.

If you are looking for a quick and easy solution, sorry — it just doesn’t exist. However, there are some very specific, concrete things that innovative IT departments are doing that can dramatically change how a business thinks about IT. The key is to align what the IT department and its staff do with what the rest of the business does in order to create a more powerful firm. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Well it’s not. But now you’ve found this blog and we can spend some time talking about how to make what seems impossible to happen.

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Posted in alignment, business, IT, success | 3 Comments »