Strategies and Trends for Information Technology Leaders
By Chris Preimesberger DEL MAR, Calif. — Nobody likes to talk about the danger of their jobs evolving into something they do not like, least of all highly compensated enterprise C-suite executives. But a group of Fortune 500 CIOs did just that several days ago. The occasion was the second, and possibly annual, The Wall…
“It’s really incumbent upon CIOs to step it up a notch,” Gelsinger told the audience of fellow and former CIOs at the summit. “They really have to. IT systems are morphing into new entities that involve CMOs, in addition to CIOs and CTOs. The democratization of IT, thanks to the cloud and mobile devices, is…
CEOs and CFOs are concerned with moving business-critical applications into virtual or cloud environments due to challenges including reliability, security, availability and performance. This according to Symantec Corp.’s cloud survey, 2011 Virtualization and Evolution to the Cloud Survey, which examined how organizations plan to move business-critical initiatives to virtual and hybrid cloud computing environments. The…
There has been a longstanding tradition in most IT departments to want to own the technology they deploy. Changes in both the economy and technology in recent years, however, are putting pressure on this tradition. CFOs, in particular, want to shift more of the costs associated with IT from the capital expenditure (capex) budget to…
Business income gets generated in two basic flavors: higher sales or lower costs. This year, sales growth is clearly the focus as customer wallets start to open a bit wider. And to support growth across the business, most IT leaders now face a conundrum: how to meet higher user demands with budgets still very tightly…
The CFO is becoming the top IT decision maker in many organizations, according to a joint survey conducted by Gartner and Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF). According to the annual study, 2010 Gartner FEI Technology Study: The CFO as Technology Influencer,more IT organizations report to the CFO than the CEO or any other executive. Forty-two…
They stand on a high and precarious perch that is visible to all but dangerous to just one: the CIO. To survive and prosper in this harsh new environment, a CIO must boldly make his mark and daringly place her bets. It is not a position for the fearful, the weak or the bashful techie….
These are extraordinary times given what businesses have dealt with the last couple of years and most CFOs still wear a look of anxiety on their faces. The good news is about two-thirds of the CFOs I talk to believe business prospects are better now than last quarter. To be effective in 2010, CIOs should…
Cost pressure is nothing new for IT. In this economic climate you are getting even more pressure than usual, so why not make the CFO your best friend. If the thought of this seems odd or impossible, take a minute to step back and consider the benefits: less angst and more money. It’s not impossible….
If there’s a fundamental mistake made by CIOs in dealing with CFOs it’s going into meetings talking CIO talk—clouds, SaaS, virtualization—and not getting that the CFO may not understand and, critically, may not care at all. A CFO’s primarily workplace deliverable is not staying on top of tech trends, it’s keeping the business solvent and…