CIO Blog

Hi Peter, This is excellent post. I'm IT dir...

2012-02-06T07:45:16.322Z

Hi Peter,

This is excellent post.

I'm IT director in comparably small organization (80 people) and even smaller IT team of 5.

I've been contemplating questions you asked for some time as well, however, answer still avoids me. :)

I think the main area that I'm concerned the most about is how to "control of chaos" as you put it.

This has proven tricky even having central IT team with lot of outsourcing (i.e. buying skills as needed) managed by us but without central oversight I'm afraid that might go really wild each part doing things in their own way.

Chief Process Officer could help mitigate this but question I'd like to put up for discussion is why do we need one if it is already part of job of current IT director/CIO, etc.?

Great post. I agree that the label Social Media ...

2012-01-25T15:17:39.967Z

Great post.
I agree that the label Social Media is a hurdle but I think the ground swell is so huge that the revolution is here now.
I think that the perception we have to overcome is based on a lack of understanding of the benefits as much as the term itself. Educating the doubters is the key.

I think the issue is not methodology but bureaucra...

2011-08-10T21:18:28.109+01:00

I think the issue is not methodology but bureaucracy. It's been my experience that adherence to a methodology (producing defined deliverables) blinds people to the actual purpose of their endeavor -- the creation of functioning, usable software systems. I have seen too many projects where all the deliverables were produced but in the end the software system was cumbersome, slow, user unfriendly, or didn't work at all.

Good question Peter. For me the most important asp...

2011-07-21T12:40:28.643+01:00

Good question Peter. For me the most important aspect of succession planning is knowledge sharing. Single points of knowledge at whatever level, whether in-house or with suppliers, can be dangerous and potentially very expensive to an organisation. A key responsibility of the CIO must be to mitigate this risk for IT and, through systems, help the wider organisation to manage this issue more effectively. The 90s mantra "knowledge is power" has no place within professional IT organisations - trust, integrity and teamwork are key to effective succession plans and these can be easily undermined by protectionism.

A methodology is a tool. It's true, it's a...

2011-06-21T05:09:03.394+01:00

A methodology is a tool. It's true, it's a collection of best practices, but it remains a tool. And you know the saying 'A fool with a tool is still a fool'.

A lot of companies think that a method can be implemented on the fly. They send their consultants to a training and believe that after it these consultants are subject matter experts. But that's were it starts to go wrong, following a training doesn't make a person a SME. The mistake they made by adopting the method is that they believe that a method has to be implemented to the letter. This is not the case however. Every method must be adapted to the environment. That why Prince2 created the famous Tailoring principle.

Even if the method is adopted correctly that doesn't mean that every project will become a success. Even being an expert in a methodology doesn't make a person a good project manager. A good project manager has also to develop his/her interpersonal skills like leadership, communication and so on.

Tom, Its not methodology that is the problem but w...

2011-06-19T19:29:01.337+01:00

Tom, Its not methodology that is the problem but which one you use, how you adapt it and how it is applied. After all what are modern work frameworks that you mention other than another name for methodology. A method is a process and even in Agile you have to have some form of process.
Dont blame methodologies as there are Agile and modern projects that have failed. It is human error that is mainly at fault.
Peter

Methodologies are what got us into trouble in the ...

2011-06-16T16:08:52.399+01:00

Methodologies are what got us into trouble in the first place. 50 years of a myriad of project failures attest to the fact that methodologies have had little positive influence in the IT industry.

Modern work frameworks with latitudes and flexibility are a much better approach. These approaches are supported by "just enough process" and projects use self-organized and self-directed work teams that are supported by modern knowledge worker-based and servant-style leadership, not the command and control project management.

Most methodologies are intended and designed to support the "defined process control" (i.e. waterfall) approach to projects, not the more modern and increasingly adopted "empirical process control" approach. Many very innovative and excellent companies do high quality work using the empirical inspect and adapt approach and shun a heavy-weight, prescriptive methodology.

So, companies ought to do themselves a favor and consider the minimalist approach to the methodology game. They will come out ahead.

Hi Peter, interesting predictions -particularly th...

2010-12-21T17:16:59.940Z

Hi Peter, interesting predictions -particularly the one around Cloud. Still feel that 2011 will be a pivotal time for the implementation of Cloud computing, however. Please find more at my blog here: http://bit.ly/dV13QU

Very interesting and clear platform. To sum it br...

2010-12-08T06:16:01.391Z

Very interesting and clear platform.
To sum it briefly, you should define your audience, locate your potential customers, build a social relationship with them and promote your brand and website. What you choose to do on these sites depends on what your business needs.

Valuable collection for every individual! I was re...

2010-10-19T07:21:41.129+01:00

Valuable collection for every individual! I was really inspired by your words.. keep up the good work!

Technical Architect Job Description

Your post makes a very critical point for CIO'...

2010-10-04T21:22:03.490+01:00

Your post makes a very critical point for CIO's who want to be seen as more than technologists who deliver what others want. It is important to view their role as not simply a technology deliverer but as a critical contributor to the business strategy and execution. As you suggest, start with the strategies and objectives and then educate and suggest to the other senior leaders how they can provide the means to enhance the business both from a top line as well as a bottom line perspective. Starting with the imperatives of the business and recognizing that things will change rapidly means designing and adapting systems that may not be perfect or eloquent but which deliver what the business needs now. In today,s environment agile businesses can not afford nor wait for the "perfect" solution.CIO's need to play a strong role as past of the strategic business planning process.

A bit late to this party (and forgive the plug), b...

2010-10-01T15:36:38.164+01:00

A bit late to this party (and forgive the plug), but my company offers a product called FeedWatch that provides integration between any source of RSS data (Twitter, Google News, corporate feeds etc) and the LexisNexis InterAction CRM platform - providing that link between social networking and CRM.

Careful selection of content sources can go a long way towards significantly raising the signal to noise ratio, and we're working on some filtering/approvals mechanisms to be included in the product. There are also an increasing number of web services that will provide this kind of filtering for you, so you can just plug into their filtered content.

Dear Peter: I happy to come across your blog www....

2010-09-14T09:03:42.935+01:00

Dear Peter:

I happy to come across your blog www.cioblog.co.uk and found to be interesting. Good points are there. My appreciations to you.

Ragava Prasad
Director
PROV International, Inc.
ragava.prasad@provintl.com

While most businesses view information technology ...

2010-09-09T06:54:05.316+01:00

While most businesses view information technology as a cost center and a "keep the lights on" function, IT is truly a strategic asset that can help businesses generate significant profitability.

Many institutions limit access to their online inf...

2010-08-03T11:13:27.811+01:00

Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.

College Research Paper

Excellent ! Just the "C" is missing... ...

2010-07-30T03:21:56.515+01:00

Excellent !

Just the "C" is missing...
I propose Chief Cloud Officer

For the "S" we have in our company a Chief Security Officer

:-)

There are platforms available to large organizatio...

2010-07-21T08:55:59.338+01:00

There are platforms available to large organizations to harness the power of social media and keep it "in house" (not public) like IBM's Lotus notes -http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/

harnessing the power of social media, opening the lines of communication and engagement within the corporation is a fantastic idea.

(i do not work for IBM)

I believe the CIO role will be relevant in 2015, b...

2010-01-24T22:46:07.128Z

I believe the CIO role will be relevant in 2015, but that assumes the CIO's have transformed the focus of the role to bridge the gap between business and technology (http://mjdmanagementgroup.com/blog1/2010/01/23/bridging-gap-business-technology/). Further the key is to transform the CIO role from both the viewpoint and the perceived value or utility of IT in the organization into an asset from an expense. The CIO will be viewed as the business that leads technology.

The CIO will have embed IT components into the overall business strategy, as well as the strategies of their various business functions and focus on business value generated by IT spend and ROI. The CIO role will be more business level strategy and financially focused than it ever has been. The other aspect that I believe will change, will be the face of the IT infrastructure as the movement will be out of the glass house and towards the cloud.

Peter, Your interesting post is evidence of the g...

2010-01-10T14:43:27.695Z

Peter,
Your interesting post is evidence of the growing recognition in the “C-Suite” of the opportunities and risks associated with the Social CRM phenomenon. In the US, three-quarters of online adults now use social technologies in some form. Enterprises are responding rapidly to this change in customer behavior. In my recent survey of 286 companies, I found that 21% have customer community interaction sites, and an astonishing additional 42% are piloting or are interested in implementing customer communities.
Social technologies are proliferating rapidly, but senior executives are still challenged to understand their business value. They have to make hard decisions about the level of investment they should make in Social Computing technologies like blogs, wikis, forums, customer feedback tools, social networking sites, and customer community platforms. And they want to know how these new capabilities should be, and can be, integrated with their transactional CRM systems.
In this new world, traditional CRM solutions will continue to aggregate customer data, analyze that data, and automate workflows to optimize business processes. But senior executives must explore new solutions to engage with emerging social consumers, enrich the customer experience through community-based interactions, and architect solutions that are flexible and foster strong intra-organization and customer collaboration.
I think this means organizations have to move rapidly to initiate social CRM experiments to gain practical experience and foster innovation. Define a near-term opportunity to apply social CRM ideas to a customer-facing challenge at your company. Build the hands-on knowledge that will break out of your of old mindsets. Refine your strategies later as new insights emerge.
William Band, Forrester Research

Excellent food for thought Peter. At some point t...

2009-12-16T12:09:58.722Z

Excellent food for thought Peter. At some point the human filter will always be needed to select and add the most relevant information more permanently within the CRM system. But as you seeking, keeping this manageable and cost effective!!

The prinicple of subsidiarity should probably be applied wherever possible - i.e. delegating to a local competent authority - or as I prefer to think, the person most likely to feel the benefit of having the right information in place (or suffer from having out of date information).

Just to complicate life there is the increase I have observed in preventing access to social media in work time (not to mention Theo Paphitis and his publicised approach to Facebook). This tension will be a policymaker's nightmare (or dream in some cases.....).

It was certainly interesting for me to read this b...

2009-11-20T20:12:04.314Z

It was certainly interesting for me to read this blog. Thanks for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to this matter. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.

It was rather interesting for me to read the blog....

2009-11-20T05:42:09.677Z

It was rather interesting for me to read the blog. Thanx for it. I like such topics and anything connected to them. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.

Peter: agree that until vendors integrate these ca...

2009-11-12T12:48:29.434Z

Peter: agree that until vendors integrate these capabilities into their core platforms, we're going to need to try to find ways to link this highly unstructured information with the more structured data in our CRM systems - no small task given how quickly the market is moving.

Salesforce.com (and others, no doubt) have already started creating some of these linkages:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2009/03/salesforce-com-integrates-twitter.php.

Nice post. Whilst I agree with you that it could b...

2009-11-12T10:55:49.933Z

Nice post. Whilst I agree with you that it could be beneficial to get in early, only if you do it well. To do it well you need good products and good customer service. If you have neither, then you will probably end up getting your fingers burnt. I think it is probably more important to get your house in order before engaging. And when you engage remember the three things you must do first:
1. Listen
2. Listen
3. Listen

Fantastic post Peter, our customers are Primary Sc...

2009-11-10T13:50:23.993Z

Fantastic post Peter, our customers are Primary Schools so they expect the best.

Looking at new tech and IT hardware that will help and benefit customers is paramount.