Category Archives: Being a CIO

5 Technologies that CEOs intend to invest in next year

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Amid all the CIO and vendor hype about where the next round ou IT investment should be focussed, it was hugely refreshing to read on Silicon.com the 5 technologies that CEOs will invest in next year. Not a mention of cloud computing, virtualization, web 2.0 > enterprise 2.0 and all that jazz, just some very basic fundamentals that will driver their businesses forward

  • Better data collection and retrieval systems… to directly drive business growth and find more savings as well as new business opportunities’.”
  • Home and remote working… to get more performance from their existing workforce whilst reducing travel overheads at a time when unemployment is on the rise.
  • Mobile commerce… CEO’s are starting to believe that, after 10yrs of hype, this might just be ready for prime time
  • Business intelligence… track and responding to customer behaviour – if you’re not doing it then you competitors sure are and implied customer loyalty is long gone.
  • E-discovery systems …. “In difficult economic times, legal challenges tend to increase” … so how good are your retrieval and analytical systems ?

Now clearly I’m not saying that cloud computing, virtualization, web 2.0 > enterprise 2.0 et al don’t have a part to play in many of these priorities but shouldn’t we be focussing on the problems – as articulated by our most important customers – rather than the technologies and their somewhat abstract labels

JMHO

The power of Apples brand ??

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One-fifth of buyers interested in Apple’s unseen tablet.

According to AppleInsider –  in a survey of more than 3000 people (presumably all Apple owners ??), over a fifth said they were interested in Apple’s long-rumored tablet device. That’s more than the 9 percent that said they were interested in the original iPhone back in April 2007.

The survey also assumed that the product would be priced between $500 and $700 for its question.

So something no-one has seen, with dimensions and functionality that no one can describe, is wanted by over 20% of potential buyers !! I bow to the friend how told me that great marketing trumps great technology every time – he was so right

In the land of the blind ….

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…. the one eyed man is king

So goes the famous saying and its particularly appropriate when it comes to IT outsourcing.

According to a report from Warwick Business School for IT Services firm Cognizant, the majority of CIO’s AND CFO’ s interviewed claimed that they lacked the tools and methods to effectively measure business value and the return on investment (RoI) from outsourcing activities despite spending between $5m and $100m (£3m and £61m) each year on such initiatives.

The old adages of “never outsource simply for cost”, “never outsource a problem” and “never outsource something you cant manage and measure yourself” have never been more true and ignoring these fundementals has lead to a well trodden path of outsourcing disasters. With that in mind, the finding from this report must raise surely some eyebrows. Our industry has been at this for almost a decade now  so shouldn’t we be alarmed that this report concludes that management and measurement disciplines remains so vague ?.

One thing is certain, the outsourcers know how to make money and how to measure ROI on their side so a customer has to line up comparable (or better)  skills and expertise on their side if they are going to see the business benefits and make the relationship work.

As usual, JMHO so all comments welcome

Windows XP – the OS that refuses to die

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This one might have slipped by a few folks – I missed it originally – but it seems that XP is set to remain the OS that just wont die

Microsoft announced yesterday that it would contnue to offer the option to downgrade from Vista or Windows 7 (…. though I’m not really sure why anyone would want do that ) for either the first 18 months after Windows 7 is launched or until its first service pack is released

As reported in trustedreivews.com ….. “Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate customers will have the option to downgrade to Windows XP Professional from PCs that ship within 18 months following the general availability of Windows 7 or until the release of a Windows 7 service pack, whichever is sooner, and if a service pack is developed,” confirmed a Microsoft company spokesperson to ComputerWorld.

So, who’s gonna be the first netbook manufacture to ditch XP in favour of Windows 7 and start the funeral procession ? Anyone ?? No ???

The pink paper to fold …

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I wonder how many of my ex colleagues at the FT saw this headline and did a double take.

No its not the Financial Times that’s shutting down its print operations but the gay communities own national newspaper The Pink Paper. Despite the reportedly under exploited gay advertising market, the publication has become the latest victim of the economic downturn and decline in newspaper readership according to the “Old Pinkun”, the FT itself.

Tris Reid-Smith, Pink Paper editor, said the downturn – particularly in recruitment and housing advertising, as well as display adverts – had hit the paper. “We probably didn’t diversify our advertising base enough and we didn’t diversify our income streams away from advertising enough.

The Pink Paper title will remain in its online form

No Kindle required – Google to sell eBooks

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According to the New York Times, ” Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers…. through Google”.

This was the big news at this years BookExpo convention in New York and seems to have been warmly received by publishers who have been concerned by Amazons pricing and revenue share policies. Google have said that they will leave pricing to the publishers in as much as the publishers will be able to set a list price for a publication, however Google will set the price paid by consumers through the e-Book program.

Now to be fair, we’ve heard this stuff before from Google however Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, used the phrase: “This time we mean it.”

More importantly, this is apparently going to be a device agnostic initiative as Google’s program would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones, rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle. “We don’t believe that having a silo or a proprietary system is the way that e-books will go,” continued Mr Turvey.

This could get intertesting – watch this space