Keeping Tabs on IT Delivery
The era of corporate quantification has finally come of age. OKRs and KPIs are now the operational oxygen we breathe. Yet as we seemingly live and die by metrics, I routinely find myself asking an incredibly simple question: is the IT organization really moving the needle? Moving the needle Moving the needle means producing products […]
5 Processes CIOs Should Immediately Automate
The anatomy of automation Automation comes in many forms. From reengineering poor processes to adopting state of the art tooling and any combination thereof. Yet there are still numerous enterprise processes which remain manual today, and as a result, drain employee productivity. Here are five pain processes we should kill via automation once and for […]
Managing IT Budget Cuts
The spookiest of seasons The Halloween season is once again upon us. As haunted houses and horror films strike fear into the hearts of thrill seekers, it’s the slashing of IT budgets that keeps the IT professional up at night. Yet every monster has a weakness; an angle by which he may be defeated by […]
3 CIO Pathways to Business Partnership
Decoding IT business partnership Ask any CIO or IT leader how they aim to be perceived by the business, and the term “business partner” quickly emerges. Decoding this somewhat buzzwordy phrase reveals a rather simple objective: function as a proactive business enabler versus a reactive order taker. Yet despite all the fanfare around IT / […]
Curing the Pain of Annual Planning
A time to laugh, a time to cry For many, autumn signals a time of relaxation. As the year enters the twilight of its final quarter, we prepare for cooler weather, a string of holidays, and some well-deserved relaxation with family members. Yet for enterprise leaders, autumn promises the pain of bitterly agonizing processes associated […]
The True Cost of Customization
Our tendency to customize As an IT and engineering consultant, I spend the majority of my time aligning technology with business objectives. As I watch companies grow, I notice more and more software is acquired and uniquely differentiating processes are introduced. As a consequence, traditional off-the-shelf software with its “standard functionality” intended for the masses […]
Don’t Fear the Cloud Lift and Shift
The stigma of cloud lift-and-shift The “lift and shift” is one of many approaches for migrating workloads to a cloud service provider such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure. Specifically, the lift and shift moves the legacy workload and data to the cloud in a relatively unchanged fashion. In other words, the original service […]
When to Decentralize IT Teams
The team decentralization dilemma Today, practically every business unit has a significant technology footprint. From HR to finance, a mountain of technology must be managed and enhanced over time. Consequently, IT leaders are often confronted with the dilemma of consolidating technical functions, or instead, decentralizing said functions. Each approach has its respective tradeoffs, and keeping […]
5 Essential CIO Metrics
Running an IT department is like running a business. CIOs need key performance indicators and a process for measuring them. Here are five key metrics every CIO should possess. Five CIO metrics 1. Business capability heat map CIOs long for their IT organization to be viewed as a business partner. That is to say, a strategic […]
Gone Are the Days of Centralized Data Teams
Centralized data management teams focus on managing reusable corporate ESBs, centralized iPaaS solutions, and corporate APIs across the organization. While these teams may not be going away overnight, the paradoxical question of centralization remains: have our our attempts to reduce redundancy and centralize expertise become an intolerable bottleneck for expanding organizations?