Doug Theis - Leave your comfort zone.

CIO Strategy / IT Strategy / Uncategorized — Comments Off
17
Jun 16

IT Business Edge – Leadership Lessons for IT Professionals from an Iraq War Hero

A lot of IT professionals find themselves in positions they never really envisioned themselves being in: leadership positions. They had always felt fulfilled career-wise by meeting technology challenges, and never really aspired to be leaders of anyone. And yet here they are, with responsibilities involving the professional well-being of other people. To whom should they turn for advice?

I’d start with Justin Constantine. He knows what it’s like to be in a position he didn’t expect to be in.

On October 18, 2006, Constantine, a U.S. Marine Corps officer deployed to Iraq, was on patrol when a shot rang out from an enemy sniper. In that split second, Constantine’s life changed forever. The bullet entered his head behind his left ear, and exploded out of his mouth. That he survived is attributable to the miraculous efforts of a brave Navy corpsman on the scene. Today, he can’t see out of his left eye, and part of his tongue is missing. But he can speak, following multiple surgeries to rebuild his jaw with bones from other parts of his body. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress and a traumatic brain injury.

More of the IT Business Edge article from Don Tennant

CIO Strategy / Cloud Computing / Get Better / IT Strategy — Comments Off
16
Jun 16

CIOInsight – Why IT Must Pursue an Information Governance Plan

Most organizations can benefit from outside help on governance. Call me if you’re looking for resources.

The majority of IT executives said their organization is either implementing a formal information governance (IG) program or is planning to do so, according to a recent survey from Veritas. The resulting “State of Information Governance” report defines IG as “the activities and technologies that organizations employ to maximize the value of their information while minimizing associated risks and costs.” To support this, the research reveals that most companies are issuing formal data use policies and requiring employees to identify data that is confidential. They’re also training staffers on data storage and archiving. In addition, findings break down organizations into those which are “high performing” on IG, and those which are not. While overall adoption rates among both are strong, high performers are more likely to deploy email and file archiving, while issuing formal use policies. “Information is both the lifeblood and the bane of any business, no matter its size, industry or location,” according to the report. “Enterprises collect and analyze data from a myriad of internal and external sources to improve business efficiencies and decision-making processes.

More of the CIOInsight slideshow from Dennis McCafferty

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15
Jun 16

HBR – The Dirty Little Secret About Digitally Transforming Operations

Earlier this year, we walked the halls of the Hannover Messe, one of Europe’s largest events for industrial manufacturers. The newest robots, 3-D printing systems, and data-mining hardware and services were all there along with a host of people hyping Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT), Digital Manufacturing, and big data and advanced analytics. It seemed as though everybody from the best-known software giants to basic industrial parts providers was marketing a “latest technological breakthrough” — even if it amounted to little more than a new sensor attached to an old piece of equipment.

Amazing dreams were being sold: A black box that could be installed in your plant and would improve your competitiveness — all by itself; big data servers and algorithms that would tell you how to improve your process — with no additional engineering investment; virtual-reality glasses that would make your workforce more productive — just by putting them on.

It was all reminiscent of 19th century advertisements for cure-all patent medicines.

More of the Harvard Business Review article from Markus Hammer, Malte Hippe, Christoph Schmitz, Richard Sellschop and Ken Somers

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13
May 16

CIO Insight – How Security Laws Inhibit Information Sharing

Third-party vendors could provide compliance services to companies and ISAOs, a likely market solution given that they already have expertise and can spread the cost among many clients.

A new report finds that although there is a need for actionable threat intelligence and information-sharing worldwide, significant obstacles exist because of data privacy and protection and national security laws. The result is a chilling effect on cross-border cooperation that must be addressed. In that spirit, the report, “Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations: Putting Theory into Practice,” by Price Waterhouse Cooper, analyzes global legal hurdles to information-sharing and offers potential solutions.

More of the CIO Insight article from Karen Frenkel

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12
May 16

HBR – https://hbr.org/2016/05/the-impact-of-the-blockchain-goes-beyond-financial-services

The technology most likely to change the next decade of business is not the social web, big data, the cloud, robotics, or even artificial intelligence. It’s the blockchain, the technology behind digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Blockchain technology is complex, but the idea is simple. At its most basic, blockchain is a vast, global distributed ledger or database running on millions of devices and open to anyone, where not just information but anything of value – money, titles, deeds, music, art, scientific discoveries, intellectual property, and even votes – can be moved and stored securely and privately. On the blockchain, trust is established, not by powerful intermediaries like banks, governments and technology companies, but through mass collaboration and clever code. Blockchains ensure integrity and trust between strangers. They make it difficult to cheat.

In other words, it’s the first native digital medium for value, just as the internet was the first native digital medium for information. And this has big implications for business and the corporation.

Much of the hype around blockchains has focused on their potential to fundamentally change the financial services industry – by dropping the cost and complexity of financial transactions, making the world’s unbanked a viable new market, and improving transparency and regulation. Indeed, it is already having a big impact on that sector. However, our two-year research project, involving hundreds of interviews with blockchain experts, provides strong evidence that the blockchain could transform business, government, and society in perhaps even more profound ways.

More of the Harvard Business Review article from Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott

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11
May 16

CIO Dashboard – 3 Strategies to Decrease IT Costs and Increase Business Impact

Guest post by Suheb Siddiqui and Chetan Shetty

A veteran CIO recently said, “The last few months felt like I time traveled back to the 1980s. Business stakeholders are demanding the applications they want, designed the way they like, and at a speed dictated by their priorities.” He wasn’t talking about an AS400 based Cobol program; he was talking about custom apps written on industry standard platforms, provided by numerous Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers such as Salesforce, Oracle and ServiceNow.

Our industry has undergone numerous transitions. In the 1980s and part of the 1990s, business users were in control. They could pick their favorite “best of breed” applications, and design and customize them how they wanted. Integration and governance was expensive and difficult. Then, Y2K fueled the growth of Megasuite ERPs. Starting in the late 1990s, IT started controlling the agenda and strong governance led to cost efficiencies, albeit at the expense of user satisfaction.

Fast forward to 2016, Software as a Service (SaaS) and PaaS solutions are empowering users to be in control again. As a result, we are witnessing a growing gap between the total IT spend of an organization, which is increasing as users buy their own SaaS solutions, and the IT budget controlled by the CIO, which is under constant cost pressure. Successful CIOs have to find new strategies to bridge this growing “Digital Divide.”

IT Business Edge – Setting the Right Tone for Risk Management

Without one person in an organization responsible for managing third-party risk, companies face a serious barrier to achieving effective third-party risk management, according to a new study. The study, “Tone at the Top and Third-Party Risk,” was conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Shared Assessments, a member-driven, industry-standard body specializing in third-party risk assurance. “Tone at the Top” describes an organization’s environment, as established by its board of directors, audit committee and senior management. It is set by all levels of management and trickles down to all employees. “If management is committed to a culture and environment that embraces honesty, integrity and ethics, employees are more likely to uphold those same values,” according to the report. ”

More of the IT Business Edge post by Karen Frenkel

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09
May 16

Continuity Central – Expanded NIST disaster and failure data repository aims to improve resilience

NIST has announced that data from the February 27th 2010 Chile earthquake has now been added to the NIST Disaster and Failure Studies Data Repository, providing a great deal of useful information for regional and global resilience planning.

The repository was established in 2011 to provide a place where data collected during and after a major disaster or structural failure, as well as data generated from related research, could be organized and maintained to facilitate study, analysis and comparison with future events. Eventually, NIST hopes that the repository will serve as a national archival database where other organizations can store the research, findings and outcomes of their disaster and failure studies.

Initially, the NIST Disaster and Failure Studies Data Repository was established to house data from the agency’s six-year investigation of the collapses of three buildings at New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC 1, 2 and 7) as a result of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. With the addition of the 2010 Chile earthquake dataset, NIST is broadening the scope of the repository to begin making it a larger collection of information on hazard events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms, community-scale fires in the wildland urban interface, storm surges and man-made disasters (accidental, criminal or terrorist).

IT Business Edge – IT Pros Say Wearables Their Greatest IoT Security Threat

Are we on the edge of an explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT)? It appears so, and it seems like organizations are serious about securing the IoT, according to new Gartner research. According to ZDNet, Gartner predicts that:

global spending on security for the Internet of Things (IoT) will reach $348 million this year, a 23.7 percent increase from last year’s $281.5 million spend.

As the IoT gains momentum, Gartner expects the 2017 worldwide spend to fall just shy of $434 million, whilst the 2018 predicted spend is $547 million.

It sounds like a lot of money, but Gartner says that this is a drop in the bucket when you compare it to overall security spending. The analyst group also predicts that in the next four years, a quarter of all attacks will target the IoT, well out-gaining the percentage of security dollars budgeted for IoT security.

Where will the bulk of enterprise IoT security threats be? According to new research from Spiceworks, expect that threat to be coming primarily from wearable technologies. The majority of IT professionals said their greatest IoT security concern is wearables, followed by video equipment.

More of the IT Business Edge article from Sue Marquette Poremba

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05
May 16

CustomerThink – Should Your CIO Drive CX?

What every CIO must know to bridge the customer experience technology gap…
A couple of weeks ago, we published a white paper titled “What Every CIO Must Know to Bridge the Customer Experience Technology Gap.” Unsurprisingly, we reached out to our database and others to let people know we’d done so. Surprisingly, we appear to have stepped on the toes of a few sacred cows. Who knew such a simple question could spark such passion?

Apparently even suggesting that IT bear responsibility for customer experience was enough to inflame some recipients. Here’s the thing. Customer experience is the responsibility of everyone. And, technology continues to become even more central to customer experience and competitive advantage.

While not every IT organization is looked at as leading on CX, the fact is that CIOs are increasingly drawn into the core of customer experience. After all, the end-to-end experience continues to rely heavily on the platforms, networks, and technologies most often controlled by IT.

At the same time, we recognize that customer experience is most often thought of as the domain of the marketing, sales, operations, or support organization—parts of the business that either set the agenda with, maintain relationships directly with, collect payment and deliver product, or provide problem resolution for customers.

More of the CustomerThink post from Michael Hinshaw

Doug Theis Leave your comfort zone.