Risk Management In IT: How Do You Do It Correctly?

The financial melt-down of 2008 had at its core one simple mistake that a whole bunch of companies made at the same time: they did a lousy job of risk management. They made investments in things that were very risky without realizing just how risky they really were. IT departments face the same challenges: at … Read more

No Bubble Here: IT Spending Going Up Next Year!

As the rest of the world seems to be going through some sort of complete meltdown, the IT industry is in the  process of holding its breath. 2001 was not all that long ago and we can remember what happened back then all too well: days of unlimited spending, lots of travel, and lavish celebrations … Read more

Cha-Cha Change Coming To IT In The Form Of Outsourcing?

I just happened to run across an interesting article in Baseline magazine awhile back that pointed out a very interesting trend in IT that just might impact all of us. The good folks over at Royal Dutch Shell (the world’s 3rd biggest oil company) have just announced a massive outsourcing deal with EDS/HP. They appear … Read more

Wicked Ways Of Managing Wicked IT Problems

Wicked IT problems can frustrate even the best of us – by their very nature, wicked IT problems have no solution (that’s why we call them “wicked” and not just “hard”). As we talked about last time, although you may not have the tools to solve these types of problems, you do have the tools … Read more

Managing Wicked IT Problems

So we’ve chatted about Wicked IT Strategy problems – these are the ones that you really can’t solve. Given that, you’ve got a couple of different things that you can do. The easiest is to throw your arms up in the air, say “this can’t be solved”, and then work very hard at getting promoted … Read more

Wicked, Wicked IT Strategy Problems

Some problems just can’t be solved. As an IT guy with an engineering background, I find this hard to believe – it goes against my grain. I mean, back in school I encountered lots of problems that at first blush appeared to be impossible to solve. However, once I had gotten a little deeper into … Read more

Stall Alert! How An IT Department Can Help

We’ve talked about how companies can get blindsided by entering an economic stall that they never saw coming. Now let’s wrap this discussion up with a quick overview of some steps that an IT department can take in order to help prevent the company from coming to grief. We’ll be talking about four different strategies … Read more