Special Report – Don’t Solve It, Skip It

It soon became clear to Ed that if he and all his current employees would be able to communicate and collaborate more effectively, they would not only not have to hire a lot of new people to service all their clients, but they might actually be able to trim and consolidate their staff a bit….

Special Report – Don’t Solve It, Skip It

While many emerging countries have a problem of no infrastructure, America’s problem is the opposite: it has tons of infrastructure. Generators like the Allis-Chalmers behemoths are gigantic, inefficient, costly to run, costly to maintain, and gradually breaking down. The problem is, they still work. So what do we do, dismantle them all? It’s the same…

Special Report – Don’t Solve It, Skip It

In most organizations, the CIO and IT department are mired in problems, from network security to thin budgets to keeping up with fast technological changes. No matter what type of problems face your department right now, I want you to do a quick problem-solving exercise. Close your eyes for a moment and ask yourself: In…

Special Report – IBM 2011 CIO Study Unenlightening

Anxious to read IBM’s 2011 biannual CIO study The Essential CIO? If you are, I can save you a lot time. At 72 pages, I found the report a slog overall. Although there’s lots of white space and diagrams that make the read a bit easier, the first 85% of the report was a trudge,…

Special Report – IBM 2011 CIO Study Unenlightening

The Meat IBM did serve up some meat with their marketing sizzle, however. In the last section, “Excelling in your mandate,” I was finally rewarded for my slog through obviousville. Beginning on page 63, IBM delivers. They challenge CIOs to lead. And not just lead IT, but lead the business. Hurray for IBM! While I…

Special Report – Technology Fueled Transformation is Just Getting Underway

For many people, change is difficult and transformation even more so. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “change” means “to make something different,” while “transform” means “to make a thorough or dramatic change.” It is a difference of degree, I admit, but that degree is so extreme that it becomes a qualitative difference. Changing…

Special Report – Technology Fueled Transformation is Just Getting Underway

The hottest new breakthrough technologies do not necessarily replace older ones. Instead they often coexist with them, side by side. Why? Because the old technology has its own unique profile of functional strengths, which the new technology never fully replaces. In the case of paper, it’s inexpensive, portable, foldable, you can erase on it. Best…

Special Report – Seeing the Tech-Tsunami Before the Impact, Part II

The next big technological shift affecting all three accelerators is the photonics revolution: using lasers and crystal holography to store information — think Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. We’ve already been rummaging around in the foothills of this particular mountain of change. Magnetic drives give way to optical drives, and copper cable is joined by fiber…

Special Report – Seeing the Tech-Tsunami Before the Impact, Part II

In Part I of this two-part report, Seeing the Tech-Tsunami Before the Impact Futurist and CIOUpdate columnist Dan Burrus explored the eight streams within the technological wave — the hard trends of technological advancement: Dematerialization; Virtualization; Mobility; Product intelligence; Networking; Interactivity; Globalization; and Convergence. In Part II, Dan explains the drivers behind those trends and…