The CIO’s Growing Role: IT and Innovation

As 2011 gets into high-gear, we are seeing the predicted IT spending increases come to pass; with companies often shifting their focus from cost-cutting initiatives to growth and innovation projects. Accompanying this spending increase is a shift in the role of the CIO towards an architect for business innovation. This increased, highly visible responsibility creates…

Who Knows More About Tech?

Small business, big profits If they are technically innovative, the small business will likely see a huge payout either in a dramatic jump in profits or in an outright buyout. Indeed, small business CIOs and CTOs have proven themselves savvier in more than a handful of cases than they big firm brethren. One need only…

Who Knows More About Tech?

It seems like such an easy question: Who needs more hands-on tech skill and experience — the CIO of a small business, a medium sized company, or a huge enterprise? But alas, like all things tech, the answer is as clear as the bottle of Pepto that all CIOs end up gulping at some point…

The CIO’s Survival Guide to M&A, Part 1: The Merger

The M&A volume is expected to rise by 30 percent or more in 2011, and may increase even more in 2012 as the financial and lending environment returns to something resembling its pre-downturn state. This “merger mania” is fueled in part by a heady combination of available capital and a target rich environment comprised of…

The Most Mismanaged IT Asset of All – the CIO

Pretend for a moment that you are a CEO, and you learn that an asset that costs your company a cool quarter of a million dollars a year is chronically underutilized. Wouldn’t you want to do something about it? Well, with the average CIO commanding $250,000 or more annually in salary and benefits, it would…

4 Career-Ending Mistakes when Moving Your Data Center

Moving a data center is a major undertaking for most organizations. And a successful move is a nice resume builder for any IT professional. A successful move will showcase skills in large-scale project planning, project management, technology integration and interpersonal communications. The process provides a chance for exposure across the company, as virtually every department…