http://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2013-01-14T09:30:00ZEngagement is the big marketing buzzword for 2013, says Geoffrey Moore, the king of chasm crossing. How will CMOs do it?http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/strategy/2013-the-year-of-engagement/240146136?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_Geoffrey Moore, that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm">chasm</a> hopping, escape velocity <a href="http://www.geoffreyamoore.com/">author</a> has proclaimed that the big marketing buzzword for 2013 is (drumroll please): engagement. <P> As he <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121211105523-110300724-big-idea-2013-engagement">blogged</a> recently, "In this context I propose the next big thing will be -- indeed, arguably, already is -- <em>engagement.</em> The explosion of digital infrastructure has torn down the barriers to access -- <em>reach</em> has been dramatically extended -- but as a result, people have disengaged, if for no other reason than self-preservation. That has dramatic and immediate consequences for consumer retailing and brand marketing, and long-term implications for education, healthcare, citizen participation and workforce involvement." <P> I respect Moore as a forward thinker and I think he is right that in this era of multiple ways of engaging via digital social networks, older email, instant messages, voice over IP and even -- imagine this -- face to face conversation, developing a way to engage with customers and potential customers is a very big deal in 2013. The issue for chief marketing officers, as I see it, is how to create customer engagement in an era when it is simple for a customer to disengage. <P> Think of the example of a customer at a large physical retailer (Walmart and Target come to mind) walking around the store looking at products and using their smartphone to check for a lower price at Amazon. This digital grazing has sparked a <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/business/amazon-retailers-do-combat-shoppers-caught-middle-1C6563235">battle for the consumer dollar</a> that shows no signs of receding. There is a message here also for B2B marketers. The rise of BYOD policies and business software offered as a subscription service (think Box, Salesforce.com) has given rise to business grazing where employees, not employers, chose the devices and services they use to conduct business. And they can disengage from their choices simply by deleting an account and switching to a new subscription service. The days of the CEO going out for golf and steak with the vendor CEO and coming back to work saying, "We will only use vendor X in our company," are gone. <P> So, how does a CMO build customer loyalty -- engagement -- in an era of digital grazing? Moore offers a couple of suggestions. But first, I thought it would make sense to ask a CMO friend how he views the rise of engagement as the business priority. <P> "Engagement is participation, successful engagement draws people to take an action. It is more than clicks or likes, engagement shows a user cares enough to share," said Allen Bonde. <a href="http://www.allenbonde.com/">Bonde</a> is the CMO at The Pulse Network and has also been a consultant with McKinsey and The Yankee Group. "In engagement, context and content become very important, you need to wire up your campaigns to track not only views and traffic but also shares, which may be the ultimate metric," says Bonde. The rise of mobile devices means that more of that content and context will take the form of video consumption, contends Bonde. "Rich media and video can cut through the clutter," he says. <P> The increased importance of video was also echoed by Moore. In his LinkedIn blog, Moore contends, "We're seeing a marked shift toward 'video snippets' displacing static display ads as the fundamental unit of consumer communication, with pinpoint-accurate engagement metrics coming from companies like <a href="http://www.visiblemeasures.com/">Visible Measures</a>." <P> Moore sees the change towards engagement as also fundamentally altering the role of corporate technology. "There has been a massive shift in enterprise spending priorities from 'old IT' Systems of Record to 'new IT' Systems of Engagement, both for B2B collaboration and B2C experiences." <P> So, are we in the engagement era? I'd agree with a few caveats. Engaged customers have always been a goal of business marketing. Customers that feel they are part of a company's success are a company's best advocates. While the emergence of social networks has made that engagement easier on some levels, the networks also present obstacles for business marketers. Consider: <P> -- Engagement has left the building. The most important conversations about your company and your competitors now take place outside the corporate walls. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ all present platforms for customer engagement. Marketing departments are just now installing the listening and conversation tools to measure and take part in that engagement. <P> -- Engagement and content are intertwined. Engagement is a conversation. The more you can create content that addresses that particular customer, the more successful you will be in continuing the conversation. In my experience, most corporate content is disjointed without a thematic flow from white papers, through blogs, through product information, through corporate press releases and statements. <P> -- Video is a stronger medium for engagement than words. Tough to say for someone who has spent most of his time in this industry creating word-driven content. But video has all the elements of strong engagement, including visual look and feel, personal expression, and connections that just can't be made through most corporate content. <P> Moore contends that investments in engagement systems will show big returns for chief marketing officers. He makes an engaging argument. <P> <i>Attend <a href="http://www.onlinemarketingsummit.com/sandiego?_mc=WETW01">Online Marketing Summit San Diego</a>, Feb. 11-13, and gather the insights and strategies you need to make the right online marketing choices to deliver the most value for your business. OMS San Diego offers three days of inspiration, connections, and practical learning. Register by Jan. 11 with code WETW01 and save up to $600 on All Access or Conference passes. </i>2013-01-08T09:07:00ZLove your carrier -- and your huge monthly bill? Then read no further. But if you'd jump at a better deal, Ubuntu might just fit the bill.http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/5-reasons-i-want-an-ubuntu-phone/240145684?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_Lots of folks think Ubuntu is nuts for coming out with one more phone operating system. The writers at <em>Techcrunch</em> say <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/02/the-ubuntu-phone-os-doesnt-stand-a-chance/">it doesn't stand a chance</a>. <em>The Verge</em> says Ubuntu and its parent company <a href="http://www.canonical.com/">Canonical</a> are <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/3/3831012/the-ubuntu-phone-has-a-speed-problem-and-im-not-talking-about-lag">"tracking a terminal trajectory into irrelevance.</a>" Our own Tom Claburn was at least willing to give Ubuntu the benefit of the doubt as a late starter with the possibility of being a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/development/mobility/canonicals-ubuntu-linux-goes-mobile/240145528?queryText=ubuntu">server to mobile platform</a> for the enterprise. <P> While reading the Ubuntu phone trashing, I got to wondering whatever happened to that ancient Intel Centrino-based IBM ThinkPad (designed for Windows XP!) I had hanging around my basement. Rather than doing my work, naturally I headed downstairs to my electronics junk heap, and there it was: that old T42. <P> I dug up the power supply, and after about an hour of fiddling it was running the latest version of Ubuntu -- complete with all the apps I use on my other Ubuntu installs, plus networking and access to the Ubuntu cloud. My faithful disk utility screeched about an imminent catastrophic disk failure, a warning I never take seriously. The laptop might run a bit slow by today's standards, but if I really want to get ambitious I could throw in some RAM and a solid state disk and chug along equal to just about anything out there. <P> <strong>[ Not every gadget showcased at CES is a winner. Here are a few duds: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/10-epic-ces-fails/240145520?itc=edit_in_body_cross">10 Epic CES Fails</a>. ]</strong> <P> The point of my trip to the basement was to show the value of Ubuntu's model: moving forward while not abandoning the past (and how many vendors can say that?). That's the first of five reasons I believe the Ubuntu naysayers may be wrong. The idea of an operating system extending from the server to the desktop to the television to the mobile phone has been around for a while, but nobody has offered it yet. <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu">Ubuntu</a> makes that full-sweep promise at the right price: Free. It's not like Ubuntu is that far behind the curve. <P> Reason Two: My -- and probably your -- monthly mobile carrier bill. Page after page of inscrutable details and charges (regulatory cost recovery charge, anyone?) that adds up to at least twice what you were expecting to pay. <P> Will the Ubuntu phone eliminate that morass? Not if it's simply part of a carrier plan. Someday, U.S. mobile service will resemble the European model, where you buy a phone and select <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2069318,00.asp">whichever carrier best fits</a> your needs. You can switch carriers when your needs change rather than being locked into endless multi-year contracts. <P> Of course, this is not going to happen anytime soon. Will one of the big device manufacturers be willing to offer an unlocked Ubuntu phone? Samsung is rumored to be ready to offer a <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57561316-94/samsung-to-sell-first-tizen-smartphone-next-year-report-says/">Tizen-based phone</a>, so an Ubuntu device isn't that crazy. And I expect the Ubuntu crowd to start figuring out how to take all those old phones floating around, wipe them clean and install Ubuntu -- much as I upgraded that old laptop of mine. <P> The frustration of having only two carriers to choose from -- both of which are similar in price -- leads me to Reason Three: The rise of competitive carriers. In the U.S., the carrier world is mostly split into AT&T, Verizon and everyone else. But there's evidence that this is changing. <P> The biggest change will be if Softbank's acquisition of Sprint takes place. Softbank grew up learning how to compete with the likes of <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/16/softbank_buys_sprint_japanese_wireless_carry_buys_ailing_american_company.html">Japan's NTT</a>. Also, look at the rise of non-contract phone companies running on other carrier networks. <a href="http://www.republicwireless.com/">Republic Wireless</a>, for example, uses Wi-Fi wherever possible to offer an appealing no-contract phone, messaging and data plan for $20/month. The catch? It is limited to only one phone: the Motorola Defy XT. <P> Reason Four: An answer to the IT headache. The mobile enterprise and the rise of BYOD continue to pose a difficult management task for enterprise IT professionals. It may be an ultimate irony that a Linux-based device (Ubuntu is a Debian-derived Linux distribution) is easier to manage and secure than the iPhone or Windows phone. Appeal to the enterprise IT organization was an important part of <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/static/u/files/section/devices/Ubuntu-phone-FAQ.pdf">Ubuntu's phone announcement</a>: "It meets the demands of two key segments particularly well: those who want a beautiful but easy to use basic smartphone and those who want enterprise-grade thin client and desktop capability in a secure smartphone that can be managed using enterprise tools." <P> Reason Five: The opportunity to be a fast follower. Sometimes we forget just how young the mobile phone market is, and how quickly new models are introduced. Apple, for all intents and purposes, created the market in 2007 (feel free to email me, RIM, Moto, Symbian and IBM Simon fans). The issues surrounding proprietary frameworks, native apps, Web apps and form factors are absolutely in flux. <P> Eric Zeman offers <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/ces-2013-new-smartphones-on-deck/240145460">a rundown of the phones</a> being introduced at CES. While some markets are stagnant or at least predictable, the smartphone business is both evolving and expanding at an incredible rate. The speed with which users buy and abandon phones in search of the next great mobile device suggests that a new OS can find a home in this business, even if it's not a market leader. <P> Now I want to see how well an Ubuntu phones plays with my ancient ThinkPad.2013-01-04T13:28:00ZCIO Brett Goldstein says Chicago's 30,000 civil servants will migrate from their current email and desktop applications to Microsoft 365.http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/software/chicago-picks-microsoft-cloud-for-email/240145567?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/software/8-cloud-tools-for-road-warriors/240142591"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/914/01_Clouds_tn.jpg" alt="8 Cloud Tools For Road Warriors" title="8 Cloud Tools For Road Warriors" class="img175" /></a><br /><div class="storyImageTitle">8 Cloud Tools For Road Warriors</div><span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE -->Six months ago, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked CIO Brett Goldstein to bring the Windy City into the digital age. The most visible example of Goldstein's digital sprint came in the first week of January with an announcement that the city was shifting its 30,000 employees to cloud-based email and desktop applications based on the Microsoft 365 office cloud. <P> Cloud computing, which often seems too much hype and too little reality, is starting to capture real customers. And government organizations, cities in particular, are paying attention and starting to sign up for cloud services. Chicago, a city not known for being trendy for trend's sake, is the latest to make a big cloud commitment. <P> Chicago officials said they are migrating the city's 30,000 civil servants from their current email and desktop applications to Microsoft 365. The win is important for Microsoft, which is locked in competition with Google and Amazon over signing customers into their cloud-based environments. <P> <strong>[ Chicago is only the latest to choose Microsoft for cloud services. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/government/cloud-saas/epa-chooses-cloud-for-email/240012710?itc=edit_in_body_cross">EPA Chooses Cloud For Email.</a> ]</strong> <P> The decision to use a cloud service and the selection of Microsoft started last June and culminated in the January announcement. The selection process "took much longer than I would have liked," said Goldstein, who started in his position last June following a career that included stints both with the Chicago police department and in private industry as the director of IT at OpenTable Inc. <P> Although it might seem like a remarkable achievement to make in just six months a decision that would affect every city employee and citizen coming into contact with the city, "CIOs have to recognize that things have changed," said Goldstein, and challenging the status quo of aging infrastructures is part of that change. <P> "When I embarked on this journey, one of the things I came in with was I did not accept the 'this is good enough for government work' concept," said Goldstein. His mandate as developed by Mayor Emanuel was to modernize the IT infrastructure and offer the city's business and citizens the best digital services. Other digital initiatives on Goldstein's agenda include widespread broadband access, big data initiatives around more effective policing, mobile-based transportation alerts, and easier citizen access to government information and processes. <P> Although the city employees were already using Microsoft's applications, that was not the deciding factor in going with Office 365, said Goldstein. The user interface, the application development environment and, perhaps most importantly, security services were all part of the decision process, he said. Goldstein said he used a security expert to thoroughly review the cloud offering to make sure it would meet privacy and compliance concerns. <P> The choices governments make in computing environments provides a window into the vendor selection process often not available in private industry. Transparency regulations, for example, can shed light on pricing that private industry is not required to provide. The Chicago selection of the Microsoft cloud will see the city consolidating three previously disparate email systems into one Office 365 environment. That consolidation is expected to provide more than $1.3 million in cost savings over the next four years, which represents an 80% decrease in cost per employee, according to a blog by Michael Donlan, VP of U.S. state and local government at Microsoft. That savings estimate was echoed by Mayor Emanuel, who claimed the move to the cloud represented a $400,000-per-year savings for Chicago taxpayers. <P> "It is not just the cost of the software, it is the reduction in the total IT operations costs" that make the cloud option attractive to governmental organizations, said Donlan in an interview. For many smaller cities that do not have large technology staffs, cloud computing provides enterprise capabilities without the infrastructure investment, said Donlan. When asked which other cities had signed up for the Microsoft services, Donlan cited San Francisco, Minneapolis, Newark, N.J. and Plano, Texas. The ability to offer security, privacy, document retention and meeting compliance requirements are major Microsoft advantages over the competition, he contended. <P> A city CIO's decision to stay with current services or move to a cloud environment really depends on the costs and use case, said Asheville, N.C., director of IT service and <em>InformationWeek</em> contributing editor Jonathan Feldman. <P> "We sit down and do the math. If it makes sense we go with the new service," said Feldman. He cited a move to video services from New Jersey-based Vidyo as an example of service that offered "dramatic savings" over other competitors. <P> Government organizations seem confident that their future includes cloud computing, according to an IDC study. In a <a href="http://www.idc-gi.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23637312">report</a> issued last summer, 90% of the respondents anticipated cloud computing would have an impact on their infrastructure.2013-01-04T11:06:00ZConsumer Electronics Shows have launched great technologies like VCRs and HDTVs, but many product reveals turn out to be duds. Here are some of the worst.http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/handheld/10-epic-ces-fails/240145520?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_What was the biggest fail in the history of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)? The Microsoft watch? Larry Page's call for universal power adapters? The netbook? Tough to say. While CES may be a launching pad for great new products (VCRs, Pong at home, HDTV), it is also the place for one-trick, hype-filled wonders that fade away before the last weary CES showgoer has departed from Las Vegas' McCarran airport. Here are 10 that fit that latter description. <P> <strong>1. <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2003/jan03/01-08ces2003overallpr.aspx">Microsoft Watch</a>:</strong> I list this one first, because I interviewed Bill Gates when he was wearing one and even he seemed a bit embarrassed by the clunkiness. The year was 2003 and in Gates' CES keynote, the SPOT (Smart Personal Objects Technology) watch was the star. FM barrier bands, geolocation and changing your TV's channel were going to be available from your wrist. Gates missed the point of watches: They are fashion statements, and wearing a brick on your wrist is a statement few want to make. By the way, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-177917/Dick-Tracy-phone-reality.html">Dick Tracy watch</a> idea is returning again. <P> <strong>2. Netbooks:</strong> It was 2009. Netbooks were everywhere. They're cheap! They're so tiny you can't type! They're slower than any laptop yet invented! Why didn't everyone want one? The iPad chewed up and spit out the netbook business. Netbooks were a terrible idea, and the last netbook stalwarts are <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/long-netbook-asus-acer-axe-article-1.1231506">finally bailing out</a>. <P> <strong>[ Even with its consumer focus, CES 2013 offers plenty to spark IT leaders' thoughts. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/10-ces-trends-that-matter-to-business/240145408?itc=edit_in_body_cross">10 CES Trends That Matter To Business</a>. ]</strong> <P> <strong>3. 3-D TV:</strong> Maybe someday all us sports fans will be gathered around a 3-D TV to watch the Super Bowl. Not yet and maybe not ever. The 3-D TV was the <a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/01/state-of-3-d-technology">big news at CES</a> 2010, 2011 and 2012. Time to put 3-D to rest and let us HDTV watchers drink beer and eat pizza while watching the Patriots win the Super Bowl this year. <P> <strong>4. Universal Power Supply:</strong> I bring this up because Google's Larry Page making a speech at CES is a rare event, probably never to be repeated. I was sitting in the CES 2006 audience as his (up to that point) interesting speech about robot cars veered seriously off the cliff. He didn't like all the various power supplies in use then (and still in use now). Okay, I agree all those power supply incompatibilities are a pain, but should they be the subject of a keynote from one of the great tech movers and shakers? Off message and off the cliff. Don't just believe me: <a href="http://www.google.com/press/podium/ces2006.html">read the transcript</a>. <P> <strong>5. End Of That "Other Show" During CES:</strong> After looking at the 125th smartphone, CES attendees in years past might have been tempted to head over to the Hard Rock for an education-only tour of the <a href="http://www.adultentertainmentexpo.com/">Adult Entertainment Expo</a>. Alas, no more. AEP and CES are no longer in congruence, and your only choice will be to look at yet one more smartphone. <P> <strong>6. <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f8/media2go-devices-40023.html">Media2Go</a>:</strong> This was highlighted in the same 2003 keynote when Bill Gates showed the Microsoft watch. If the watch was a brick, Microsoft's Media2Go was a concrete block, and about that attractive and portable. <P> <strong>7. <a href="http://betanews.com/2008/12/29/hp-premieres-its-600-home-server-before-ces/">HP Home Server</a>:</strong> This one is still around, sort of a zombie server. The idea was, you were going to have a server next to your furnace to run all your media. In these days of Netflix, Dropbox, iTunes and Amazon, the idea that you were going to keep your media in the home instead of the cloud seems absurd. But in Vegas, the absurd can seem quite logical after a couple discount drinks at happy hour. <P> <strong>8. <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3062611/palm-webos-hp-inside-story-pre-postmortem">Palm and WebOS</a>:</strong> At CES 2009, Palm was going to change computing as we know it, etc., etc. Wrong, wrong, wrong. <P> <strong>9. <a href="http://bgr.com/2011/01/24/over-100-tablets-were-unveiled-at-ces-2011-heres-a-list-of-all-of-them/">100 Tablets Introduced At CES 2009</a>:</strong> The odds were 100 to 1 against Apple. Guess who won? In all fairness, the Android team is still in the race. <P> <strong>10. Lots Of Stuff At 2010 CES:</strong> My old cohort Jim Louderback can be counted on to scout up the goofiest, dumbest CES products. I think his high point of the dumb hunt was in 2010. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-louderback/7-weirdest-wackiest-and-d_b_417425.html">Here's video</a> -- check out the nano-toilet, TV hat and USB cigarette.2013-01-04T09:06:00ZThe looming issue in big data isn't technology but the privacy and ethics decisions associated with how, when and if results should be provided. http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/why-youll-need-a-big-data-ethics-expert/240145500?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_Big data is a big deal for <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/166/9298/Professional+Development+and+Salary+Data/research-2013-analytics-info-management-trends.html">companies in 2013</a>. The prospect of outdistancing your competition by leveraging your company's data with huge data sources such as NASA, the government, video and demographic services is compelling. But there's evidence that technology is advancing faster than companies and governments can manage it. Along with big data technology developers, your company should be thinking about adding a "big data ethicist." <P> The need for big data technologists is well covered in the media. At the annual Gartner IT Symposium, I reported on <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/gartner-2013-tech-spending-to-hit-37-tri/240009565">a looming gap</a> between big data needs and technologists to fill those needs: <P> "The Gartner analysts predicted that by 2015, 4.4 million IT jobs globally will be created to support big data, with 1.9 million of those jobs in the United States. That employment projection carries further weight when, as the Gartner analysts pointed out, each of those jobs will create employment for three more people outside of IT. <P> "However, while the jobs will be created, there is no assurance that there will be employees to fill those positions. Sondergaard provided the dour prediction that only one-third of the jobs will be filled due to a lack of skilled big data applicants. One of the biggest tasks for CIOs is to rethink how to hire and train a workforce able to meet this demand for big data talent." <P> As <em>InformationWeek</em> executive editor Doug Henschen explained in an <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/recruiting/big-data-talent-war-7-ways-to-win/240012658">article on the big data talent war</a>, technology executives need to engage a seven-point hiring and training plan for big data professionals. <P> So the need for technology talent in the big data segment is clear. But recent tragic events also show how big data extends far beyond a company's technology or marketing departments. <P> <strong>[ What trends do you expect to see in big data this year? Read <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/news/big-data-analytics/5-big-data-predictions-for-2013/240145192?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Big Data Predictions For 2013</a>. ]</strong> <P> Recently, the <em>Journal News</em>, a newspaper based in White Plains New York, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/100345021">touched off a furor</a> when it published a Google map showing the location for 44,000 registered handgun owners in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York State. The registration information obtained under the Federal Freedom of Information Act is a vivid example of, as the <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/1226/Sharp-criticism-after-New-York-newspaper-publishes-names-of-local-gun-owners"><em>Christian Science Monitor</em> reported</a>, the disputes that can arise when constitutional rights -- in this case, the First and Second Amendments -- clash. <P> The tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School was the catalyst for the <em>Journal News'</em> decision to publish the gun owner information. The ease with which the paper published information obtained from the Freedom of Information Act and Google Maps shows how data is becoming more accessible in the big data era. While Putnam County officials have <ahref="http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/02/3164596/putnam-county-ny-wont-give-gun.html">so far resisted providing the newspaper</a> with gun ownership information, it appears they are unlikely to block access going forward. <P> Marc Parrish continues the discussion of big data's role in Second Amendment rights in <em>The Atlantic</em>. In <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/how-big-data-can-solve-americas-gun-problem/266633/#">his article</a> he states, "Big data might have stopped the massacres in Newtown, Aurora, and <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/08/breaking-shooting-at-temple-in-oak-creek-wis-/1#.UOWocnfheSo">Oak Creek</a>. But it didn't, because there is no national database of gun owners, and no national record-keeping of firearm and ammunition purchases. Most states <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_the_United_States_by_state">don't even require a license</a> to buy or keep a gun. <P> "That's a tragedy, because combining simple math and the power of crowds could give us the tools we need to red flag potential killers even without new restrictions on the guns anyone can buy. Privacy advocates may hate the idea, but an open national database of ammunition and gun purchases may be what America needs if we're ever going to get our mass shooting problem under control." <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> While it is beyond the editorial mission of business publications like this one to take a side on the Second Amendment controversy, one technology-related aspect of Parrish's article is undeniably correct: The task of developing a database of 300 million guns and their owners is now so trivial it hardly falls into the big data category. <P> The looming issue in big data isn't technology but the decisions associated with how, when and if results should be provided. Widespread access to public information, interfaces that make it easy to combine big data sources, and the ability to publish information to the Internet is going to yield some difficult decisions for the big data community. <P> And those decisions are only going to become more intense. A substantial amount of data by government organizations, for example, is still locked up in paper format. However, companies such as <a href="http://captricity.com/">Captricity</a> have developed innovative ways to turn massive amounts of paper-based data into digital form. Companies such as <a href="http://panjiva.com/about-panjiva/intelligence-platform">Panjiva</a> are using big data and business intelligence to meld buyer and seller data in multiple public and private databases to create a unique global commerce engine. <P> In the enthusiasm around big data, there has been little discussion about what that data might uncover. Privacy issues will surface as data analytics becomes able to reveal identities by combining what was previously considered anonymous data with location and purchasing information. Alistair Croll, at O'Reilly Media, put it succinctly in an article entitled <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/08/big-data-is-our-generations-civil-rights-issue-and-we-dont-know-it.html">"Big Data Is Our Generation's Civil Rights Issue, and We Don't Know It"</a>: "Time for you to plan for not just how your big data strategy will be implemented, but what are the implications of the data your company will be creating and publishing." <P> <i>Cloud computing, virtualization and the mobile explosion create computing demands that today&#8217;s servers may not meet. Join Dell executives to get an in-depth look at how next-generation servers meet the evolving demands of enterprise computing, while adapting to the next wave of IT challenges. <a href="https://www.techwebonlineevents.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=1005372&K=EOA">Register for this Dell-sponsored webcast now</a>.</i>2013-01-03T09:06:00ZEven with its consumer focus, the Consumer Electronics Show 2013 has plenty of food for thought for IT leaders.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/10-ces-trends-that-matter-to-business/240145408?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_The <a href="http://www.cesweb.org/About-CES.aspx">Consumer Electronics Show</a>, scheduled to run January 8-11 in Las Vegas, is about consumer electronics, of course. But the consumerization (terrible word, by the way) of IT has been much of what the business press has focused on over the past year, what with BYOD, cloud computing, social networks and such. So CES, which has managed to do quite well without Apple, and will again this year without a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/windows/operating-systems/microsofts-last-ces-keynote/232400011">Microsoft keynote</a>, has a lot to show the business community what is coming next for the business-to-business world. <P> Here are 10 CES 2013 trends and products that will have a business impact. <P> <strong>1. The Hub:</strong> Samsung is due (as near as I can tell) to re-introduce its <a href="http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=35283">entertainment hub</a>. LG has already spilled the beans on <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-ces-lg-google-tv-20121224,0,6682424.story">its Google TV entrant</a>. These multi-screen-within-a-screen displays, featuring video on demand, photos and Internet videos, point to where business hubs are headed. <P> How much time do you spend juggling between your business apps, social networks, video feeds and personal stuff? The rise of the mobile corporation has been fun to write about, but few companies have figured out a way to manage their mobile workforce, engage with customers and make a few bucks. The goal of the CIO and network administrator has long been the "single pane of glass" which collects all the network status information in one place. That single-pane-of-glass metaphor is headed for the business world, and the business hub will be the view into your business. <P> <strong>[ Technology is great, except when it's not. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/windows/reviews/top-10-tech-fails-of-2012/240145329?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Top 10 Tech Fails Of 2012</a>. ]</strong> <P> <strong>2. eHealth:</strong> I know you can put an "e" in front of about anything and indicate you are rebuilding your previous analog world into a digital experience. I've written about how the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/health-it-bubble-is-no-bubble-at-all/240144251">healthcare market is about to be transformed</a> as consumers begin to measure and monitor their own health status. The rise of ehealth could well be the big news of CES. The <a href="http://digitalhealthsummit.com/">Digital Health Summit</a>, held at CES and run by Robin Raskin, has developed into a premier event where healthcare thought leaders and vendors analyze, debate and advance the consumerization of health. <P> <strong>3. Automotive Tech:</strong> The eHealth trend may be the best example of consumer electronics products moving from things you buy to things you wear, drive and do, and things that spend a lot of time hooked to some cloud-enabled service. If you judge by automotive advertising, the current crop of cars is being championed as much for <a href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/car-tech/fords-vision-for-the-connected-car-1086473">Internet connectedness</a> as it is for engines and mechanical specs. CES has been smart about dividing the show floor into <a href="http://www.cesweb.org/Show-Floor/CES-TechZones.aspx#21jump">tech zones</a> that focus on specific industries or applications rather than letting the show grow into a helter-skelter hodgepodge. The safe driver tech zone focuses on how electronics will be used to make driving safer. We are not quite ready for the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/google-driverless-car-morality.html">Google driverless car</a>, but it is not all that far away either. CIOs need to team up with their CMOs to build a strategy around their products' connection capabilities as much as their individual features. <P> <strong>4. Gadgets:</strong> Okay, so much for the big trends, how about the gadgets? CES and the gadget world are interlinked. The waves of gadgets tend to follow a predictable path: First a couple of smartphones and then mountains of smartphones, first a couple of tablets and then a mountain of tablets. You get it, but the trick is picking some of those early predictors. I'll credit <a href="http://readwrite.com/2012/12/24/is-this-the-hottest-tech-company-of-2013">Dan Lyons over at ReadWrite</a> for reminding me about <a href="https://leapmotion.com/our_story">Leap Motion</a>. You'll have to hunt them out at CES, but the idea that its motion controller will become part of every digital consumer and business product is not all that farfetched. Businesses will need to start thinking about how customers will interact with them via gesture computing. <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> <strong>5. End Of The Smartphone?</strong> It's hard to believe that some pundits are predicting the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-end-of-the-smartphone-era-is-coming-2012-11">end of the smartphone</a> just as gobs of new phones are introduced at CES. However, if we start wearing more of our devices (think <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/business/google-project-glass-must-be-more-than-f/240007341">Google glasses</a>) instead of carrying our devices in our hands, the smartphone could become more of an adjunct than a primary communication device. Pity the poor CIO, already befuddled with how to deal with an onslaught of BYOD devices, now having to figure out how to deal with employees accessing corporate information via smart glasses. <P> <strong>6. Software To Control The Gizmos:</strong> Gadgets are, after all, just one more way for customers to access data. The bigger story for companies -- and one that is not well covered at CES -- is how companies will manage all the data coming in and respond in ways people can understand on whichever device they are using at the time. How consumers can filter out all the noise they are now overwhelmed with from all their networks is becoming a big deal. Even <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2012/12/28/scobles-prediction-for-2013-a-lot-more-noise-in-your-life/">Robert Scoble is into noise filtering</a>. In many ways, CES is a physical example of an environment full of noise, as the crowd of journalists and analysts scramble about trying to filter the important from the silly. Maybe data analysis and teaching business organizations how to create messages that rise above the noise level are not in CES's future. But watching which companies at CES get noticed and which get swept under the rug can teach business execs a lot about how to strive for valued communication instead of noise. <P> <strong>7. The Next Big Thing:</strong> Ah, there is no more elusive animal than "the next big thing" at CES. There is also no dearth of companies claiming to be or have the next big thing. I've already voted for gesture computing from the likes of Leap Motion, but here are a couple of other entries. Flexible displays (Samsung will show a <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57560518-37/will-samsung-top-apple-by-withholding-revolutionary-tech/">5.5-inch flexible display</a> at CES and other flexibles will be close behind. Flexibility can get you thinking about all sorts of different form factors (e.g., wear it on your wrist) for smartphones. By the way, while the CES <a href="http://ces.cnet.com/next-big-thing/">next big thing session</a> will be interesting, I'm sure, it's unlikely that the true next big thing will be unveiled at any panel session. <P> <strong>8. Cupertino's Cold Shadow:</strong> OK, look, CES is fun with lots of parties and schmoozing and all that stuff, but the big giant in consumer electronics doesn't play in Vegas. Apple is the game changer in the consumer electronics space. Will Apple usurp the news from Vegas by doing something big along the lines of Apple TV? Maybe. I wouldn't put it past them. And at the risk of hearing from every Apple aficionado out there, I'm not sure Apple is still the game-changing company it was under Steve Jobs. Apple changed the business world by not concentrating on the business world, but instead arming businesses employes with devices that overtook the boring stuff handed out by IT. <P> <strong>9. Boring Stuff Handed Out By IT:</strong> Tough to talk about how CES is going to influence the business space without talking about Microsoft. Microsoft has been late to the consumer party in both the smartphone and tablet space. It's is there now, but is it too late? <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/windows/operating-systems/windows-8-10-questions-for-microsofts-en/240009997">Microsoft's play in the business space</a> is to present a connected business environment that spans the server room, the desktop, the laptop, the tablet and the phone. In some ways, I think <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-microwho-ces-not-hurt-by-microsofts-absence-this-year-20121226,0,4908030.story">Microsoft bailed out</a> of its CES keynote position one year too early. A keynote on corporate connectedness would probably be out of place at CES, but it sure would be useful to all those CIOs trying to decide whether to bet the future on Microsoft. <P> <strong>10. Beyond The Consumerization Of IT:</strong> Businesses are turning from inside-out organizations to the reverse. The smartest businesses are collecting lots of information from the outside and using that data to make smart inside-business decisions. CES represents all that outside information in the forms of gadgets, smart health, smart homes, smart cars, smart fitness and just about everything else that can go digital. The best role for a business exec wandering the aisles of CES is to think about what happens when all these devices want to start gabbing with business operations. At CES, businesses can see the wave of data that's coming, then figure out how to turn that data into revenue.2012-12-18T09:06:00ZThe old role of outsourcers -- doing repetitive stuff overseas because it is a lot cheaper -- is history. See what's coming to take its place.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/7-ways-outsourcing-has-changed/240144554?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_I was driving back from a dinner with Shami Khorana, president of India-based outsourcer HCL America, after a HCL customer event in Boston recently when I started thinking about how the concept of technology outsourcing has changed in the past year, and ways it will continue to change in 2013. HCL is playing a role here, and I'll get back to it and its initiatives in a bit. First, here's my list of seven changes that are impacting how we view and use outsourcing. <P> <strong>1. Outsourcing Within Your Own Company</strong> <P> CIOs have watched their technology budgets march off to other departments, notably the marketing department to implement social networks, the sales department to implement customer resource management, and most recently the human resources department to implement human capacity management. Chris Murphy has a good analysis of the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/will-cmos-outspend-cios-wrong-question/240009521">CMO becoming a technology purchaser</a>. I've argued <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/cio-strategy-5-ways-to-transform-your-20/240143045">that this dispersal is not a bad thing</a> if the CIO still functions as the hub for privacy, compliance and the solution to tech chaos. <P> <strong>2. IT Loses Outsourcing Control</strong> <P> Those sales execs, HR bosses and CMOs have, in turn, outsourced their tech needs to service providers such as Salesforce.com, Workday and Hubspot, respectively. This outsourcing was the result of a realistic look at their primary job responsibilities. For example, the CMO's job is to get marketing and brand management right, not to be a software developer. <P> <strong>3. Outsourcing Hardware</strong> <P> IT departments have outsourced their role as employee hardware providers to Apple, Google and whatever other device catches the employee's eye. This <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/personal-tech/top-ten-byod-developments-of-2012/240144258">BYOD-driven outsourcing</a> has fundamentally altered the role of IT as the giver and taker of employee tech. Again, it's not a bad thing, but it does alter the IT department's role from hardware supervisor to gadget software administrator, responsible for figuring out how to keep the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/personal-tech/smart-phones/how-to-decommission-byod-mobile-devices/240144356">corporate data secure in a BYOD</a> free-for-all. <P> <strong>4. SaaS, PaaS And IaaS</strong> <P> Software-as-a-service is a little easier to understand in that (as in the example of Workday or Salesforce.com) the model is fairly well defined. You sign up for the service and pay on a subscription basis. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_as_a_service">Platform-as-a-service</a> has a lot of definitions, but I consider it more in the application layer where a lot of the nitty-gritty details of application development and deployment are taken on by the service provider, while the customer still has a responsibility on the infrastructure provisioning. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Infrastructure-as-a-service falls into the pure-cloud category in my thinking, and is designed for the customer to eventually put its entire technology infrastructure onto <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.rackspace.com">Rackspace</a> or whichever vendor provides the best mixture of cost and comfort. While the capabilities around these services have been building since, yes, the timesharing days, in 2012 (and in particular on Amazon) these outsource options have become real for a wide range of customers. Charles Babcock has a good <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/infrastructure/amazon-web-services-slashes-storage-pric/240142741">analysis of the latest Amazon push</a> into the enterprise. <P> <strong>5. Crowdsourced Outsourcing</strong> <P> Want to find someone to tune your website, head over to <a href="https://www.elance.com/">Elance</a>. Need an enterprise-level crowdsourced outsourcer, head over to <a href="http://blog.lionbridge.com/enterprise-crowdsourcing/2012/11/27/enterprise-crowdsourcing-the-time-is-now/">Lionbridge</a>. If you're looking for a keynoter for your event, visit <a href="http://www.speakerfile.com/">Speakerfile</a>. Check out the recommendations for a prospective new hire, go to <a href="http://www.linkedin.com"> LinkedIn</a>. And on and on. Those wondering when crowdsourcing, popular in the consumer space, would hit the business world should stop wondering and start using the many outsourced, crowdsourced business services now available. <P> <strong>6. Tech Vendors Cash In On Outsourcing</strong> <P> Dell made its name assembling custom hardware ordered over the phone or online, getting paid for those boxes before they had to pay the suppliers. This was a very good business, but as founder Michael Dell recently told <em>InformationWeek</em>, those days are being <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/desktop/michael-dell-our-transformation-is-compl/240144292">eclipsed by Dell the services company</a>. Building boxes was a decent business for HP also, but <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/11/us-lenovo-hp-gartner-idUSBRE8991RF20121011">not so much anymore</a>. <P> Cutting a deal between the box builders, the operating system developer and the chipmaker was a great revenue triad for box builders, Microsoft and Intel. Those days are gone, vaporized by the onslaught of Apple, Google, Lenovo, cloud vendors, tablets and smartphones. Dell is recasting itself as a services provider. HP is still trying to figure out what to do and Microsoft wants to have it both ways, selling the software and the hardware. It is hard to see this story having a happy ending for all the vendors, but turning your company into an outsourced services vendor is the best choice out there.<strong>7. Outsourcing The Enterprise</strong> <P> Businesses that rely on employees to come to work in a brick-and-mortar headquarters are at a disadvantage compared to companies with a mobile workforce that engages with customers worldwide. The ability to use outsourced services in your customers' locations is an advantage not to be discounted. Mobile computing has created an era of workforce outsourcing, and also one of the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/cio-role-in-2013-four-headed-monster/240005431">CIO's trickiest problems</a>: How to provide services, but still ensure security for the mobile workforce. <P> I could go on, but the old outsourcing model is in a big transition. The original idea, which I called "doing repetitive stuff overseas because it is a lot cheaper," was probably a model doomed to be deconstructed. Outsourcing customer service was never a good idea. Customers are your source of revenue and new ideas, and you really don't want that knowledge to go away. This original model of outsourcing led to the rise of the big India-based outsourcers, as well as heated arguments regarding job displacement, and was based on more of a business process shift than a technology shift. <P> As 2013 approaches, I think you will see more outsourcing due to a technology shift, as executives recognize they don't have the internal skills required to accomplish the technology projects their companies require. Mobile, social, cloud computing and big data constitute the big four drivers for business tech in 2013. <P> -- Mobile development requires a new application design, development and deployment process that few enterprises now have. Consider the rise of the consumer-friendly user interface, the app store deployment model, and the need for responsive content management systems that adapt to various devices. These require expertise not readily found in the enterprise. I'll correct that: The skills may be found in the enterprise, but more likely among the company interns than the company developers. <P> -- Social network deployment and activity monitoring takes place outside of IT, if it takes place at all. In reality, a lot of social network deployment tends to be ad hoc, and monitoring tends to be after the fact rather than a forward-looking activity. <P> -- Cloud computing requires a total rethink of the corporate technology infrastructure. The idea that a company would go through three stages of cloud adoption was popular a year ago. You'd take your current infrastructure and create a "private cloud," and then you'd sprinkle in some services to create a "hybrid cloud" and eventually you would graduate to a "public cloud." This was a good plan for vendors looking to bring customers along on a long, slow and expensive process. If your final goal is to be in the public cloud, you can get there a lot faster by skipping the interim steps. <P> -- Big data and big data analysis are gaining importance, but we lack the requisite skills for it in today's corporate technology departments. <P> Outsourcers would be wise to deliver the services to fulfill these four drivers, rather than merely doing stuff cheaper. HCL refers to the unfolding corporate drivers as a combination of social, mobile, analytical and cloud (SMAC) development. <P> "As an outsourcer you conceptualize and you develop expertise ahead of the game," said HCL America's Khorana. "You don't just create expertise, you actually create solutions around that expertise. It is not very easy for an end-user organization to develop those skills." <P> What may be the most surprising outsourcing trend shouldn't be a surprise in light of the rancor and political posturing that often accompanies a company's decision to outsource services. While I have yet to see anyone protest a company's decision to outsource its infrastructure to Amazon, the decision to outsource to an overseas provider is one where questions around job development and downsizing are sure to be debated. In a development I'd call onshoring, companies like HCL are hiring and developing business operations in the U.S. <P> Last January, HCL CEO Vineet Nayar outlined plans to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/services/outsourcing/indias-hcl-hiring-10000-in-us-europe/232500637">hire about 10,000 workers in the U.S. and Europe</a>. You can <a href="http://www.hcltech.com/geo-presence/united-states">track HCL's hiring</a> from its U.S. operations website. Outsourcers hiring in the U.S. are developing employees with skills that their customer employee base does not have. This may provide the closing loop of the virtuous skill circle, and could be the biggest outsourcing story of 2013.2012-12-12T12:48:00ZUnlike the disappointing tech startups of the late 1990s, healthcare IT will continue to grow because it addresses problems the medical industry has yet to solve.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/health-it-bubble-is-no-bubble-at-all/240144251?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/electronic-medical-records/ 9-mobile-ehrs-compete-for-doctors-attent/240144143"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/923/mobile_doc_i mage_175.jpg" alt="9 Mobile EHRs Compete For Doctors' Attention" title="9 Mobile EHRs Compete For Doctors' Attention" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">9 Mobile EHRs Compete For Doctors' Attention</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> "Great topics & panelists. Feels like the Internet bubble in 1998," tweeted one attendee following the conclusion of Boston's <a href="http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2012/10/25/xconomy-forum-healthcare-in-transition-2/">Xconomy Forum: Healthcare in Transition</a>. <P> I was at the Boston event and I concur that the packed room full of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and established vendors were in agreement that something big -- driven by tech -- is happening in healthcare. I was also there at the Internet bubble and the healthcare fervor has some big differences from that era of Pets.com, Webvan and Kozmo. Those Internet bubblers were solving problems that didn't exist. The healthcare upstarts are trying to solve gnarly business/technology problems in a multi-trillion dollar industry. <P> <a href="http://www.hhs.gov/open/discussion/bryan_sivak_bio.html">Bryan Sivak</a>, CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is at the forefront, trying to change an industry that at times seems cast in concrete. "Can technology-driven innovation be infused within the legendary bureaucracies of government?" I asked Sivak in an interview following his Xconomy keynote presentation. "The funny thing is, I don't think government is that much different from other large industries," Sivak said. <P> Sivak, who came to the 90,000-employee HHS six months ago, was the founder of knowledge management company InQuira, which was acquired by Oracle in 2011. "Some of the greatest people I've worked with are in government ... [T]hey are people doing these projects for the right reasons, they are smart, they work hard and they are dedicated. But the way the system is structured can be risk adverse, with no tolerance for any sort of failure. What we are trying to do is to allow people to successfully experiment, even if those experiments don't happen to show the hypothesis to be true." <P> <strong>[ Make these <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/cpoe/5-healthcare-it-resolutions-for-2013/240144068?itc=edit_in_body_cross">5 Healthcare IT Resolutions For 2013</a>. ]</strong> <P> In his keynote, Sivak said "data is changing the healthcare industry right now. Healthcare is an opaque market and you need transparency around cost and quality." He could have the biggest, big data project currently taking place in government. The healthcare industry is awash in data contained in silos, subject to various privacy rules, guarded by companies that want to keep the data to themselves, in an environment where paper and manila folders still rule. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Figuring out how to mesh that data, maintain privacy and make it available in a customer-friendly format is a tech and business problem formidable enough to stump the best and the brightest. You need to take the complex data and present it in a consumer-friendly user interface. That information will most likely be viewed on a mobile device and, while difficult, there are some initiatives that are pointing the way. Sivak points to the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/government/enterprise-applications/feds-want-wider-use-of-health-records-ap/240007937">Blue Button initiative</a> as an example of a simple way for Veterans Administration patients to access complex data streams. <P> Solving the healthcare big data dilemma has enormous rewards. Healthcare in the United States is a multi-trillion dollar industry (2007 figures were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States#Spending">$2.26 trillion</a>), and it is expected to continue to grow as the population ages. National health reform, changes in Medicare, and changes in the provider, insurer, and patient relationships are all creating a search for efficiency. This requires new methods of care, as well as the application of business analysis to an industry that traditionally operated under extensive medical and legal oversight, but little impetus for a customer-first attitude. <P> That shifting relationship and the resulting business opportunities filled the room at the Xconomy Forum. Here are four technology trends that will change healthcare over the next five years. <P> <strong>1. Cloud:</strong> "Payers are stuck with 25-year-old infrastructures. They are asking: Is there another way?" said Rob Gillette, CEO of <a href="http://www.healthedge.com/">HealthEdge</a>. The prospect of a cloud-based architecture to mesh those information silos and provide patients, providers and payers with a consistent view into the healthcare system is one of the big health investment drivers. <a href="http://rockhealth.com/resources/digital-health-startup-list/">Rock Health</a>, a venture capital organization, tracks health-related startups and lists seven in the health cloud category. <P> <strong>2. Robots:</strong> The idea of a robot scooting around a hospital ward checking on patients might sound farfetched -- until you speak with Yulan Wang, CEO of InTouch Health, based in Santa Barbara, Calif. I interviewed Wang from Boston via the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/mobile-wireless/10-medical-robots-that-could-change-heal/240143983?pgno=4">RP-VITA robot</a>, which is a co-project with iRobot. The robot allows full-image, full-audio and (for the doctor or nurse) remote monitoring. The biggest issue holding back the wider use of robotics for telemedicine is not technology but figuring out the provider and payee reimbursement systems. <P> <strong>3. Consumers:</strong> Consumer gadgets are expanding from music, video and social sharing to include health monitoring and health improvement. The most interesting one mentioned was <a href="http://www.scanadu.com/"> Scandu</a>, which is pioneering in allowing patients to do tests using a smartphone app that were once restricted to the doctor's office. Where this will lead is anyone's guess, but patients will increasingly know more details about their personal health than any one office visit can provide. <P> <strong>4. Big Data:</strong> No tech conference is complete these days without some mention of big data. But just as Sivak's keynote address stated, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/clinical-systems/big-data-analytics-wheres-the-roi/240012701">big data in health</a> may be our biggest data analysis problem with the greatest benefit. Unlike other industries where data on an individual or process may be sparse, the healthcare industry suffers from an overload of data contained in silos, often incompatible and very often still in analog, rather than digital, form. The cloud may help align some of that data, but it will be the data analysis systems still to be built that may finally turn data overload into just the right data being available at just the right time. <P> Venture capital funding of healthcare technology companies is <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/RockHealth/q3-2012-digital-health-funding-report-by-rockhealth">70% ahead of Q3 2011</a>, year over year, with the Boston and San Francisco Bay regions accounting for about half of the funding. <P> VCs looking for "real" investments, as opposed to yet another social networking app, are betting on those shifts in the multi-trillion dollar healthcare economy to create superstar companies. I'm betting they are right and this bubble is no bubble at all, but the stuff from which great new companies will emerge.2012-12-04T09:06:00ZTake the reins in these key areas and you will win a place back at the big table in leading your company's technology efforts.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/cio-strategy-5-ways-to-transform-your-20/240143045?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/232700431"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/772/01_Steve-Haindl_tn.jpg" alt="10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over" title="10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE -->Ah yes, the role of the CIO. Does it stand for Career is Over or Chief Innovation Officer? In either case, the current state of the CIO is curious. On one hand, the digital transformation of business is in full swing. On the other hand, line of business managers are both frustrated and armed with a corporate credit card and are out buying the technology services they can&#8217;t find in house. <P> Here are five steps to re-invigorate the CIO position and get you a seat back at the big table. <P> <strong>1. End War And Seek A Negotiated Truce.</strong> <P> Once upon a time, the size of your budget reflected your importance in the company. CIOs with huge technology budgets owned bragging rights, were the envy of less-well-endowed CIOs, and got to play golf and eat steak at vendor-sponsored junkets. Those were the days, but they are gone now. Here's a radical idea: Your value as a CIO will be measured in how much of your budget you give away. Give those budget dollars away to the marketing department, to human resources, to sales and so forth. Crazy idea? I don't think so. You give away the budget and embrace the role of technology conductor, the hub through which all those departments travel. <P> <strong>[ Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/cio-role-in-2013-four-headed-monster/240005431?itc=edit_in_body_cross">CIO Role In 2013: Four-Headed Monster?</a> ]</strong> <P> This "hub and spoke" strategy stolen from the airline industry satisfies your line of business executives who want the latest, greatest Web service right now and satisfies the CEO who would really like to know that amidst the services chaos, he or she can has one executive who is charting a secure, private, compliant path to company growth. The budget dollars go away, but your influence increases. I credit CIO Michael Skaff for prompting me to think that <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/strategy/240134953">CIO as hub</a> makes a lot more sense than CIO as technology hoarder. <P> <strong>2. Lead The Business.</strong> <P> The genteel tradition around the CIO had business execs handing off a business strategy and the tech side of the house conjuring an infrastructure to support the strategy. This handoff made far more sense in theory than reality. Budgets and strategies tend to happen in a frenzied burst as the fiscal year closes. Business strategies tend to be either vague (Please the customer!) or bean-counter specific (increase sales by 10.23%). Scrambling to match infrastructure to business gets lost in translation. Understanding how Amazon uses technology to <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/02/the-philosophy-behind-amazon-web-services-cloud-strategy/">run thin margins and attack high-margin competitors</a>, how airlines (sometimes) turn customer complaints into customer champions through social media listening, and the big box stores are planning to use supply chain technology to create <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324712504578133602774225678.html">same-day delivery</a> will get you ahead of the business curve and earn you a place at the start of the year's strategic planning cycle. <P> <strong>3. Rethink Innovation.</strong> <P> And then there is innovation. All in favor of innovation say, "Aye." Opposed say, "No." The ayes have it unanimously. Although all are in favor of innovation, how to define and implement innovative projects is up for debate.CIO consultant Martha Heller pointed me to a recent Info-Tech <a href="http://www.infotech.com/">report</a> on the <a href="http://blog.hellersearch.com/Blog/bid/165716/Crossing-the-Innovation-Chasm">innovation chasm</a> that separates IT from business.This relates to leading the business suggestion but also acknowledges that while you want to lead the business you still have to accomplish the tasks of being a firefighter and a trusted operator. IT as a firefighter puts out those digital fires including "I lost my password" and "Someone (not me of course) downloaded a bunch of music files from some sketchy site and now my laptop is frozen." IT as a trusted operator keeps the system running 24x7. I've argued that the first step in innovation is to figure out how to put out the IT fires before they start and figure out how to pull down the maintenance costs associated with being a trusted operator to free up funds to do the cool new things. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --><div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"><div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a><div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div><span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span></div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> <strong>4. Get Off Of Your Cloud.</strong> <P> Cloud computing currently is being peddled in three flavors: private cloud, hybrid cloud and public cloud. Here's my first suggestion: If a vendor is promising to get you into cloud computing by selling you more hardware -- look elsewhere. Here's my second suggestion. Instead of thinking of what you now have and trying to figure out how to make your infrastructure more cloud-like, reverse the course. Take a look at Amazon, Rackspace and Google and cloud offerings by traditional vendors IBM, Microsoft and try out their services. You will learn a new language built around federation, dynamic load balancing and subscription services. Amazon held its first Amazon Web services conference recently and provided a good road map to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/infrastructure/amazons-vogels-challenges-it-rethink-app/240142928">rethinking IT infrastructure in the cloud era</a>. <P> <strong>5.The Act Of Marching Forward.</strong> <P> Your tech staff doesn't have the new skills you require. Your CEO can't get past talking about BYOD as the new paradigm in technology. Your CMO is using the words "Big Data" on every Powerpoint. Your corporate counsel is worried about customer data entering the wild. The CFO wants to know why you even need an IT staff. There are lots of reasons to stand by the sidelines and watch the digital parade pass by. But you got into the tech side of the business because you were convinced that digital technology would continue to upend the business world and someday digital first would be the way companies would compete and win. That time is now. Yes, your employees can go out and acquire hardware, software and services that make your company's toolset look more paleo digital than modern digital. Time for your company to catch up and you are the one to do it.2012-12-03T09:06:00ZNBA teams' IT executives explain how and why they decided among on-premises, hybrid and hosted technology services.http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/infrastructure/celtics-nets-score-with-unified-communic/240143017?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_While the basketball players from the Boston Celtics and the Brooklyn Nets were getting ready to <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/11/29/rondo-handed-2-game-suspension-for-celts-nets-brawl/">mix it up on the courts</a> Nov. 28, their senior technology managers, Jay Wessel and Mireille Viau Verna, respectively, were showing different approaches to off-court technology. Their choices illustrate the crux IT finds itself in as 2013 approaches. <P> Wessel, VP of technology for the Boston Celtics, is a self-described "hardware guy" who is willing to use hosted unified communications services as a backup and expansion supplement, but prefers to be able to walk into his server room on Boston's Causeway Street, next to the <a href="http://www.tdgarden.com/">TD Garden</a> where the Celtics play, and make sure the system lights are blinking green. Verna, senior director of IT for the <a href="http://www.nba.com/nets/">Brooklyn Nets</a>, opted for hosted services to build out the technology capabilities for the Nets, in its first season in Brooklyn after moving from its previous New Jersey location. <P> At a press event hosted by unified communications vendor ShoreTel (both the Celtics and the Nets make extensive use of ShoreTel's products), Wessel and Verna outlined why they selected their particular approaches to technology. Wessel favors the hybrid technology approach, which mixes physical devices with hosted services. Verna went all hosted. <P> <strong>[ Check out the tech behind the NFL's biggest game. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/security/management/232600174?itc=edit_in_body_cross">9 Security Technologies For Super Bowl And Beyond </a>. ]</strong> <P> Wessel's and Verna's decisions reflect what I've heard from a wide range of CIOs and technology executives choosing from a continually unfolding set of products and services offered in on-premises, on-premises/hosted hybrids, and pure-hosted configurations. Recently the hosted options have received significant boosts as infrastructure-as-a-service vendors <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/infrastructure/google-counters-amazons-storage-price-cu/240142946">Amazon and Google</a> have significantly increased services and cut prices. Amazon CTO Werner Vogels recently said the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/infrastructure/amazons-vogels-challenges-it-rethink-app/240142928">role of IT</a> is to create controllable, resilient, adaptive and data-driven infrastructures. <P> "I'm a big redundancy guy," says Wessel, adding he may eventually move to all-hosted services, but in the interim he wants the visible assurance of system uptime in concert with game-day high-capacity requirements. The unified communications servers are located only a few feet away from the Ticketmaster servers that handle seating and ticketing. <P> For Verna, the speed of installation, new Web-based mobile capabilities and ability to quickly add new users and remotely manage system performance were selling points. The opening of the new Nets facility in Brooklyn was a "greenfield" opportunity that required rapid system deployment, but also provided a chance to rethink systems selections, notes Verna. <P> "We hit the ground running, we opened the new arena and now we can go back and look at some of the features we might want to add," Verna says. The system's continued performance during the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/platform/hurricane-sandy-lesson-vm-migration-can/240142242">Superstorm Sandy</a> hurricane that hit New York in October bolstered Verna's confidence in hosted systems. <P> Greenfield opportunities are rare for most senior IT execs. The hybrid approach, where systems are more slowly transferred from all on-premises to a mix of on- and off-premises and on to hosted solutions, appears to be far more common. ShoreTel -- which hosted the discussion by the Nets' and Celtics' IT executives -- is taking the tack offered by many technology vendors with both on-premises and hosted solutions. <P> Eighty percent of ShoreTel's customers are using on-premises unified communications deployments, according to ShoreTel CEO Peter Blackmore. The company purchased cloud services provider M5 Networks last February to prepare for a continuing shift to hosted solutions.2012-11-19T13:31:00ZThe role of the CIO is changing rapidly. These innovations could help you keep pace and increase the value of your business.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/trends/5-innovative-ideas-for-enterprise-cios/240142317?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/preview/232901489/7-examples-put-gamification-to-work"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/791/slide1_full.png" alt="7 Examples: Put Gamification To Work" title="7 Examples: Put Gamification To Work" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">7 Examples: Put Gamification To Work</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE -->I recently moderated a CIO panel at the <a href="http://www.e2conf.com/innovate/">E2 Innovate</a> conference. Based on discussions from that panel, here are five enterprise innovations I'm convinced are about to become a big deal. <P> <strong>1. Gamification</strong> <P> Adding "tion" to a verb in an attempt to make it a noun is usually, well, strained. And in that sense, the term <em>gamification</em> generally misses the whole idea of creating recognition, reward, and engagement programs in the enterprise. <P> Chandar Patabhiram, VP of worldwide marketing for <a href="http://badgeville.com/about">Badgeville Inc.</a> told me that about half of purchased enterprise software applications remain unused due to lack of employee adoption. Badgeville, which he described as a "behavior platform," can increase software usage and customer retention, and foster deeper user engagement. The company recently released a version of its application that allows vendors to embed recognition and reward activities directly into their platform. Once I stopped thinking <em>games</em> and started thinking <em>recognition and reward</em>, the innovation behind Badgeville-type vendors became clear. <P> <strong>[ For more on the changing role of the CIO, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/gartner-cios-begin-3-year-shift-in-respo/240009599?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Gartner: CIOs Begin 3-Year Shift In Responsibilities</a>. ]</strong> <P> The business arguments for developing a game strategy are based on overcoming corporate reluctance. Patabhiram pointed to customers such as EMC, Dell and Oracle that successfully use rewards and recognition strategies. He also cited Everyday Health, which increased its free-to-paid conversion rate by 5% and lifted user value by 20% for its health-related website. <P> <strong>2. Aggregated SaaS</strong> <P> Software-as-a-service is growing as an industry, and as long as the service meets your company's privacy, security and compliance requirements, it can be a great idea. Shifting the burden of software uptime, updates and distribution to a vendor whose business is to ensure that their application is the latest and greatest makes a lot of sense, financially and otherwise. <P> But what is the next big thing in SaaS? Kevin Spain, general partner at venture capital firm Emergence Capital, predicts that SaaS vendors will become data aggregators. Much like Google takes all its searches to create its <a href="http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/">Google Zeitgeist trend index</a>, SaaS vendors also have the ability to create trend analyses, best practices, and support and service information by reaching a range of customers with their service applications. <P> Of course, such aggregation will still require that security and privacy obstacles be overcome. But it would be an innovative next step for SaaS to move from a cost calculation to an added-value application that an on-premise system could not match. For example, aggregated content from a human-resource services vendor might include everything from how to increase employee participation in company satisfaction surveys to salary data over industry segments. <P> <strong>3. Federated Identity</strong> <P> Issues around identity have been around since long before the computer industry took hold. The old corporate database question of one person holding many functions, or of one function applied to many people, has accelerated as now that corporate identity takes place in both cloud-based and on-premise applications. Trying to maintain corporate identities in silos (such as human resources, sales, finance, etc.) and identities in social networks (such as Facebook and LinkedIn) leads to juggling of multiple passwords and confusion over employee and customer data across the enterprise. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> Shelton Waggener, senior VP of <a href="http://www.internet2.edu/">Internet2</a>, said that creating a federated identity system was the most innovative enterprise project he has ever undertaken. Similarly, creating a federated identity system at your company might be your most important project in 2013. Waggener has been a driving force in the development of <a href="http://www.incommonfederation.org/">InCommon</a>, the identity management federation for U.S. research and education. The federated identity project has a goal of single sign-on, privacy and secure user access to a wide range of services. It's a goal many private organizations would also like to meet. <P> <strong>4. CIO As Orchestra Leader</strong> <P> One of the topics we discussed during the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/strategy/why-cios-must-fight-for-innovation-not-b/240134953?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News">E2 Innovate CIO panel</a> was the trend of successful CIOs shifting from fighting for budget dollars to encouraging innovation. The CIOs on that panel, along with many other CIOs I speak with, overwhelmingly support a partnership in which business managers identify the best software services for their department while CIOs act as a hub, orchestrating all department decisions into a corporate technology platform. This mindset can be a big change for CIOs, but it provides a strong strategic basis for the future of enterprise IT architecture. <P> <strong>5. The Visible Corporation</strong> <P> As a kid, I spent a lot of time constructing a visible <a href="http://www.revell.com/model-kits/engines/85-8883.html">V-8 model engine</a>. After I finished the model, it was a lot easier to tinker with real V-8s. <P> At E2Innovate, <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/05/31/google-cio-runs-it-on-trust-and-transparency/">Google CIO Ben Fried</a> spoke about building a transparent IT operation. In a transparent operation, users have open access to the products and services they feel they need to do their jobs rather than having to jump corporate approval hurdles. The same users have access to financial reports that include the cost of their technology choices. <P> Such transparency and open access might seem trivial, but I think it represents an innovative approach to upending the traditional top-down model of corporate organization. The combination of a mobile workforce, social networks and real-time data analytics is making the traditional model -- decisions passed down from the top to an awaiting workforce -- cumbersome, slow and non-competitive. <P> Transparency helped me learn how to time a V-8, and it can help you learn how to tune your company. <P> <i><a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=DIWEEK">Cloud Connect</a> returns to Silicon Valley, April 2-5, 2013, for four days of lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions on a comprehensive selection of cloud topics taught by leading industry experts. Use priority code DIWEEK by Jan. 1 to save up to $700 with Super Early Bird Savings. Join us in Silicon Valley to see new products, keep up-to-date on industry trends and create and strengthen professional relationships. Register for <a href="http://www.cloudconnectevent.com/santaclara/?_mc=DIWEEK">Cloud Connect</a> now. </i>2012-11-15T16:32:00Zhttp://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/9062/IT-Business-Strategy/research-2012-it-perception-survey.html?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_2012-11-12T09:06:00ZWith human resources, marketing and other departments going in different technological directions, IT's new mission is to tie all the company's services securely together.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240077530?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/slideshows/big-data-analytics/7-tips-on-closing-the-big-data-talent-ga/240012658"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/895/01_BigD_Talent_Gap_tn.jpg" alt=" Big Data Talent War: 7 Ways To Win" title=" Big Data Talent War: 7 Ways To Win" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle"> Big Data Talent War: 7 Ways To Win</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE -->The future of corporate IT is less about building stuff and more about tying stuff together. I suppose this might be obvious to some folks, but it is worthwhile to step back and take a look at what is happening to business technology, budgets and the state of the IT profession. Consider the following three developments: <P> <strong>1. CMOs Spend Lots On Tech.</strong> <P> The marketing department -- you know, that group that is always going out to lunch and talking about brand development and cost per eyeball -- is now a major technology spender. Gartner analysts are predicting that by 2017 the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaarthur/2012/02/08/five-years-from-now-cmos-will-spend-more-on-it-than-cios-do/">CMO will spend more on tech</a> than the CIO. <P> The language gap between marketing and IT might be the biggest chasm on the corporate landscape. Recently I took a look at a presentation from a marketing startup in San Francisco that is in the forefront of changing the Web ad model from measuring ads served -- a really weak proposition -- to ads viewed. Its metrics for measurement, heat maps and best practices makes great sense to the marketing group and would sound like Romulan to the IT group. Come to think of it, because many in IT are Trekkies, Romulan might sound more familiar. <P> <strong>[ The key to success is asking the right questions. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/will-cmos-outspend-cios-wrong-question/240009521?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Will CMOs Outspend CIOs? Wrong Question</a>. ]</strong> <P> <strong>2. HR Has Become A Major Player.</strong> <P> The HR department, which used to be a backwater of forms, procedures and free donuts on Friday, is now a major technology spender. You don't have to look any further than the rapid growth of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/software/productivity-applications/workday-collaborative-hcm-analytics-tool/240062632">Workday</a>, and in particular the mobile capabilities of <a href="http://www.workday.com/company/news/workday_update_18.php?campid=ushm_fma_no_de_529">Workday 18</a>, to see a SaaS platform that enables team collaboration, time management and talent development. Workday's growth spurred SAP into spending $3.4 billion for <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2011/12/03/news-analysis-sap-buys-successfactors-for-3-4b-signals-saps-commitment-to-cloud-hcm-and-social/">Success Factors</a> and was a major factor in getting stodgy Oracle to transform into a cloud advocate. Maybe the language gap between HR and IT is not quite as large as the marketing gap, but how many in IT have ever heard of human capital management (HCM) best practices? <P> <strong>3. IT Has A New Primary Role: Bundling.</strong> <P> The finance department, the manufacturing group, sales, and building services all are being wooed by software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors eager to get a foothold in your company. The BYOD trend means you don't even get to be the arbiter of who gets a new laptop or smartphone. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --><div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"><div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a><div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div><span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span></div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> So, the building and owning stuff train has left the station. Although you are probably happy not to have to sit through one more requirements meeting about enterprise resource planning systems, you are probably wondering just what is your future role? I'll argue that the future role is vital, happening right now and probably unrecognized at your company. With each department out there contracting for the service that best meets their needs, one thing becomes clear: there is no one tying all these services together in a system that is secure, private, always available and in compliance. <P> I'm not alone in seeing this new role for IT. Nico Popp at the <a href="http://siliconangle.com/blog/2012/11/02/the-future-of-i-t-cloud-mobile-and-the-identity-iceberg/">SilconAngle</a> has a good article looking at the role of identity in a SaaS world. For many users the issue of identity is apparent in the frustration of maintaining multiple sign-ins. But the frustration of trying to remember which sign in goes with which service is, as Popp points out, only the tip of a very large iceberg. An employee has a role within the company that changes with each department: HR sees an employee one way, sales another and so on. An identity and privacy system that spans all those roles is about as nitty gritty an IT issue as you will encounter. IT's role as the glue that ties all those systems securely together is not going to get usurped anytime soon.When I interviewed Pew Charitable Trust CIO Greg Smith following his keynote at the Fall Interop conference in New York, he outlined the new roles that IT will have to undertake. Of the seven new roles for IT, three dealt with the shifting role of IT in supporting the SaaS choices being made by business groups. One was to pursue a cloud strategy as part of the IT strategic role. Another was to refine and redefine your security strategy to center around filtering and data loss prevention. The third was to shift business intelligence internal systems to cloud-based applications. Any one of those activities requires a new talent set for IT; all three together represents a fundamental shift. <P> A few weeks later, I was moderating a panel that included Bret Goldstein, CIO for the City of Chicago. Goldstein's myriad projects include providing a way for waiting riders to know where buses were on their routes, mobilizing applications that were developed years or decades previously and taking on projects that directly affect residents. <P> In wintery Chicago, getting the snowplows to plow the streets in the most efficient manner possible is a big deal, said Goldstein. He is anxious to get to the public sector the types of software services available to the private sector, and in many cases that involves bringing in SaaS. One of his most interesting projects involved using predictive analytics to identify some of <a href="http://magazine.uchicago.edu/1102/arts_sciences/byte-cop.shtml">Chicago's crime spots</a> for additional policing. I'd say the overarching role for IT in Goldstein's model is to figure out the best way to acquire services; take analog services -- such as buses -- and bring them into the digital world; and tie the whole system together in a mobile, secure private environment. <P> The employment prospects in the IT community remain quite good. In an analysis of the current IT jobs market, Foote Partners described the IT job market as "roaring back" after a September dip with 12,500 IT jobs being created in <a href="http://www.cio.com/article/720827/IT_Job_Market_Bounces_Back_in_October">October</a>. But the talents needed for IT are rapidly changing. Not too much new in that sense. I remember when being a Netware engineer was the hot job. Chris Murphy has a nice roundup of the current state of <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/6-surprises-about-it-hiring-plans/240012679">IT hiring</a> in which retraining IT for mobile is strong and app development -- which I think app integration is part of -- is also strong. As Rob Preston recently wrote, <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/when-incremental-it-change-wont-cut-it/240010562">incremental change in IT</a> won't cut it. Cutting it in the future for IT will mean changing from a builder to a bundler. CIOs will change from technology owner to technology orchestra leader, and IT employees will find a great future if they are willing to learn some great new mobile, integration skills.2012-11-08T11:40:00ZBig data analytics have proven their mettle in predicting baseball and election success. How can you make them work for your business?http://www.informationweek.com/news/240062638?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/slideshows/big-data-analytics/7-tips-on-closing-the-big-data-talent-ga/240012658"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/895/01_BigD_Talent_Gap_tn.jpg" alt=" Big Data Talent War: 7 Ways To Win" title=" Big Data Talent War: 7 Ways To Win" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle"> Big Data Talent War: 7 Ways To Win</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Only one number mattered to the data analysis aficionados watching the presidential election results on Tuesday night. That number, 538, is <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/">Nate Silver's blog</a> (now under the <em>New York Times</em> auspices). Silver, by using predictive analytics applied against a range of polling and related data, hit a perfect 50 for 50 in his <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/11/07/nate-silver-wins/">state-by-state predictions</a>. <P> Remember, this was in a race where the pundits for the losing side were confident in their landslide-win predictions, and pundits on the winning side were predicting a razor-thin victory margin where vote counts and recounts could stretch for weeks. While Silver was spot-on, the pundit stars were overwhelmingly wrong. <P> Silver is now a media star with sales of his recent book, <em><a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/11/nate-silvers-book-sales-skyrocket-148893.html">The Signal and the Noise</a>: Why So Many Predictions Fail -- But Some Don't</em>, up 850%. Does Silver's success mean that comments about aggregated analytics, gamma distributions and sum-of-squares formulas will now become de rigueur on the Washington cocktail circuit? That all those math teachers telling toiling high school students that statistics <em>really will</em> be useful in real life will finally be vindicated? That all the talk about "big data as the next big thing" will actually prove to be more than passing buzz? <P> Let's talk about that third item. In my opinion, Silver's success is less about big data (which is quickly being overused into meaninglessness) and is more about rigor, innovation and looking outside your business confines to find inspiration. And baseball -- baseball is important also. <P> <strong>[ We're not lacking facts, figures or tools -- so why are we having such trouble wrangling big data? Learn <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/news/software/information-management/6-lies-about-big-data/240009681?itc=edit_in_body_cross">6 Lies About Big Data</a>. ]</strong> <P> Silver is not secretive about his methodology. You can <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/methodology/">read it here</a>. (By the way, the <em>Times</em> has a paywall which allows for 10 free articles; if you're worried about hitting it, follow these <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-5-tips-you-can-try-to-keep-reading-articles-for-free-from-the-new-york-times-2012-3">tips for an end run</a>.) The methodology's seven steps are laid out in detail, but just following them will not make you a political-prediction superstar. Silver provides the recipe, but not the measure of ingredients used in each step. <P> His weighting to individual polls is part of the secret sauce, or more precisely the end result of the scientific method applied to statistics. That secret sauce is derived through trial, error and adjustment: the same steps scientists have used for years to conduct experiments. Gut checks are replaced by rigor, thinking outside the normal confines and fine tuning. The process is not fast, but measured in years, and supports the concept that computers can aid in prediction, but cannot totally usurp the intelligent, curious human at the keyboard. <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> I've found one of the best explanations of Silver's methods to be in the Wikipedia entry about his role as a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Silver">practical statistician</a>." "The practical statistician first needs a sound understanding of how baseball, poker, elections or other uncertain processes work, what measures are reliable and which not, what scales of aggregation are useful, and then to utilize the statistical tool kit as well as possible." <P> And that brings me to baseball. Silver's first rise to fame came in 2003 when he developed the PECOTA (player empirical comparison and optimization test algorithm) system for predicting hitters' and pitchers' future outlook. Is baseball the same as politics? Yes and no. Yes, in that there is an old-guard baseball scouting system that relies on gut feel, and a new guard melding statistics and new ways of player measurement. This old guard/new guard division was best laid out in the book and movie <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moneyball"><em>Moneyball</em></a>. <P> So what do politics and baseball have to do with your business? The goal of all the discussion around big data and data analysis is, as I've argued, not to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/gartners-top-10-it-trends-hits-and-misse/240010008?pgno=2">make the wrong decision faster</a>, but to develop the best decision at the right time and deliver the information to the people that most need the information. In an <em>Information Week</em> column Wednesday, Tony Byrne argued <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/news/big-data-analytics/small-data-beat-big-data-in-election-2012/240062584">small data beat big data</a> in the presidential election. <P> Call it business intelligence, data analysis or predictive analytics, IT's role here is to provide a foundation for your company to make the right decisions. Those decisions might be what to charge passengers for seats on a flight, how much to charge to for a season ticket or how many widgets to create to strike the right balance among manufacturing costs, inventory and availability. These decisions are fundamental to business success. <P> There is no magic to Silver's methods. There is hard work, a willingness to make mistakes and adjust, and a realization that the common wisdom is sometimes not wisdom at all. Innovation can happen in strange places and Silver has shown that the buttoned-down world of statistics doesn't have to be that buttoned down at all. <P> Here's my advice: Pay attention to Silver's process, but be equally assertive in looking at how your company operates. You will probably find lots of silos of activity where each group tends to use the same measures and methods year after year. Your job is to think outside the box, think like a customer and consider all the influences that would go into a purchasing decision. Understand the influences and you will be on your way to developing a prediction model that actually works for your business.2012-11-07T10:18:00ZFrom infrastructure to tech education, here's what I want to see on the to-do list for the next four years.http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/5-items-should-top-obamas-technology-age/240062556?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_The presidential election is over. Now it is time to get to work. While the sweep of this year's presidential elections was overwhelming in money spent, media attention and endless (and sometimes mindless) commentary, the tasks facing President Obama and team for the next four years are also formidable. Here are my five top technology agenda items. <P> <strong>1. Technology Infrastructure</strong> <P> Infrastructure was one of those background topics that was interesting but not at the forefront until Hurricane Sandy changed the agenda. Infrastructure covers a lot of territory, but the technology weaknesses uncovered by the winds and water of Sandy <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-roston/hurricane-sandy-infrastructure_b_2084213.html">moved infrastructure to the top of the list</a>. In the technology infrastructure, the telecom segment has traditionally been seen as the most formidable in terms of disaster recovery, redundancy and overall resiliency. I grew up in New England, where winter blizzards were the rule rather than the exception. While the power might disappear for a week or so, the phone system's dial tone was always comforting and available. However, bunker-built telecom switching centers <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/31/storm-sandy-telecoms-idUSL1E8LVEZN20121031">don't work so well when they are underwater</a>. <P> A smartphone-carrying public quickly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/03/technology/cellphone-users-steaming-at-hit-or-miss-service.html">overwhelms the current cell tower and backhaul infrastructure</a> when disaster strikes. The vital importance of the communications infrastructure was recognized long ago as vital to overcoming disaster. The <a href="http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/what-internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet">Internet was created to assure communications</a> in the event of a nuclear attack. The good news is that <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/trends/5-emerging-enterprise-technologies/240010605">cellular technology is on the verge of a big leap forward</a> as micro cells, new backhaul capabilities and intelligent spectrum use systems are ready to move from the labs to the marketplace. The government's role is to find a balance between open competition and assuring a base level of communications availability should disaster strike. No easy task, but not impossible. <P> <strong>2. Technology Defense</strong> <P> Defense is one of the few topics that all parties can agree is a basic function of government. While matching up sizes and capabilities of armies, air forces and navies is fairly straightforward, matching up cyber security defenses versus threats is a lot more murky. Discussing cyber security is always one of those opaque conversations between transparency regarding what we know and not tipping our hand to what we fear. However, we do know that both the government and private worlds are becoming increasingly digital as machine-to-machine communications and the Internet-of-things sensor capabilities continues to transfer once analog systems into the digital framework. While the proposed Cybersecurity Act of 2012 died in Congress, that defeat may afford the opportunity to come back with a more balanced approach that considers both <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/senate-votes-against-cybersecurity-act-of-2012/">security needs and privacy concerns</a>. The private industry has a lot to teach the government in regards to quickly building security systems that can accommodate rapid change in technology as BYOD, cloud computing and mobile computing are rearranging the private security landscape. Melding cybersecurity privacy requirements with oversight, transparency and wider industry participation is a priority. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <strong>3. Technology Education</strong> <P> Employment and job creation was a centerpiece of the presidential election. We can't afford to waste the opportunity to train the workforce to take advantage of the jobs being created as mobility, big data, cloud computing and digital manufacturing transform the technology landscape. Gartner, at its recent IT Symposium, predicted the Big Data technology segment could see big growth but will be hobbled by <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/gartner-2013-tech-spending-to-hit-37-tri/240009565">the lack of technologists able to build the systems required</a>. The current enterprise technology workforce is about to be upended by the growing need for software developers comfortable in the world of mobile applications, APIs, video, and smartphones as the primary device. Traditional educational institutions are scrambling to catch up. New <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/429376/the-crisis-in-higher-education/">online educational platforms</a> are becoming available. It is an urgent requirement that government make sure educational opportunities are available to all segments of the society, including the disadvantaged, the disabled and military veterans, and schools prepare students for the skills needed to compete in a global economy. <P> <strong>4. Technology Enabled Government</strong> <P> The concepts of efficiency and government need not be in contradiction. Creating a government that is transparent, accessible and efficient is both a noble goal and fiscally prudent. Organizations <a href="http://sunlightfoundation.com/about/">promoting open government</a> have developed, but government officials need to take a more active role. Voting systems that assure privacy, are digital in nature and allow wider participation among the franchised voting public is not an impossible dream. Reducing paperwork in the employment process, reporting process and benefits process is both sensible and offers cost savings. Using technology to allow the citizenry to make their voices heard, make more efficient their interaction with government at all levels and make government services available at the time of need (rather than only during regular office hours) will only encourage wider democratic (small d) citizen participation. <P> <strong>5. The Next Tech</strong> <P> Encouraging fundamental research has resulted in everything from the Internet to moon landings. The best research takes place when a big goal is announced -- landing someone on the moon -- and technologies are funded to meet those goals. The recent <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/government/enterprise-architecture/curiosity-rover-maps-more-of-mars/240044427">Mars unmanned craft landing</a> is a great example of research used to enable a big goal. The list of big goals is long, and the need to fund the next big tech is crucial. <P> The agenda for the next four years is already long, but technology considerations need to be a vital part of the government's to-do list.2012-11-06T09:07:00ZLinkedIn understands the value of a business conversation. Consider these tips to make sure you're part of it.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/240044429?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- Image Aligning right --> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/view/240008245/6-ways-iphone-5-ios-6-amp-up-social-opportunities"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/878/ios6_image_tn.png" alt="6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities" title="6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- / Image Aligning right --> I'm one of those that always felt a bit strange posting work-related activities on Facebook. Mixing in links to posts on social media analytics with updates on family, friends and important information about what wine paired well with dinner frankly just feels contrived. The shifting and confusing privacy settings at Facebook haven't done much to encourage me to see the admittedly huge social network as the place where business networks can thrive. <P> LinkedIn is a business network by original design, lately accelerated through a raft of new features that are quickly propelling LinkedIn as the place where business, and in particular business-to-business interactions, take place. And no, I don't have any stock or affiliation with LinkedIn, and I recently upgraded to the business account on my own nickel. In a 2011 <em>Harvard Business Review</em> article, analyst Judith Hurwitz outlines <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/05/three_smart_moves_brought_link.html">three steps taken by LinkedIn</a> in its original strategy that are now paying dividends. <P> From a sort of digital Rolodex for business contacts, and a place where business groups were easily created but largely remained inactive (except for spam), LinkedIn is transforming into the place where business goes to connect, meet and converse. Wall Street is noticing. The stock is up about 70% for the year. On November 1, the company reported third-quarter revenue of $282 million (up 81% over the comparable quarter a year ago), while income swung from a year-ago loss to a profit of $2.3 million. Membership is now at 187 million. While the numbers beat the Wall Street estimates, analysts, including those at <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/977591-linkedin-can-a-monetization-increase-offset-slower-member-growth">Seeking Alpha</a>, question whether a slowdown in the number of LinkedIn users will dampen growth. <P> The business strategic issue of either increasing the number of users or getting more value from the existing user base is very reminiscent of the obstacles and opportunities that have faced all business-to-business media publishers. One of the enduring B2B media lessons is to let the B2C gang chase the big user circulation growth, while B2B needs to build conversation, curation and rich content platforms for users who are smaller in number but bigger in budget. In its transition from a place to park electronic business cards to a media platform, LinkedIn is firmly in the content creation, content aggregation and community building media business. <P> Consider the changes LinkedIn made in the third quarter: <P> 1. Redesigned the home page to highlight targeted content. I find the content selected by LinkedIn much more relevant than the <a href="http://techmeme.com/">Techmeme</a>-type content aggregators which tend to highlight the same stories (Apple, Apple, Apple) over and over again. As I wrote this column, I went to Techmeme to see if I was being unfair -- the first four top stories were all Apple. <P> 2. Notifications. You can get a red flag notification on your LinkedIn homepage when someone comments on your shares, becomes part of your network or you get an InMail (LinkedIn's email system). This encourages the user to check in frequently and encourages interaction. <P> 3. Enhanced company pages. This allows companies to build out an informational page within LinkedIn. This one is still under development, in my opinion. <P> I'm less excited about some of the other changes. Endorsements is a nice idea but can easily get swamped as users find it very easy to endorse (Debra Donston-Miller has a very good article on some of the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/240012750/5-ways-to-improve-your-new-linkedin-profile">recent changes in LinkedIn</a>, including why recommendations are better than endorsements. <P> I was one of those many free LinkedIn account users and would probably have stayed that way until I thought about fitting LinkedIn into an overall social media strategy. Here's how it works for me and here's why I upgraded. <P> It still all starts with a contact. The essential dilemma of what to do with all those business cards you collect has existed since business cards were invented. However, just like one of those laws of physics, a business card contact at rest tends to stay at rest. I use <a href="http://www.cloudcontacts.com/">Cloud Contacts</a> to ship off the cards I collect at events, etc., and get them quickly (in a day or two) transferred from the card to a database that can be easily downloaded, in my case to Google Contacts. From Google Contacts I can select the contacts I want to download to LinkedIn for building connections. The next step for me is to use <a href="http://www.nimble.com">Nimble</a> to get a social graph of those connections and see where and how those connections are conversing. This is probably not the perfect process, but it is a process. Anyone who has not figured out how to keep the conversation going after making a contact is missing a business opportunity. <P> For me, the upgraded account was a way to be more precise in contacting, connecting, organizing and communicating with the larger LinkedIn audience. If you are in the business of building communities, creating events, organizing panel discussions or making the content you create seen by the precise audiences you want, then the upgrade seems worth it. My advice to take advantage of the free one-month trial offer to see if the advantages outweigh the $15 or so monthly cost. <P> In a world of social evaluation systems such as <a href="http://www.klout.com">Klout</a> and <a href="http://www.kred.com">Kred</a> and any number of new social networks, LinkedIn (founded in December 2002) is one of the older members of the social network club. If you haven't taken a look lately, it is worth your while to see what is new at LinkedIn. <P> <em>The business world is changing. Is your company ready? E2 Innovate, formerly Enterprise 2.0, is the only event of its kind, bringing strategic business professionals together with industry influencers and next-gen enterprise technologies. Register for <a href="http://www.e2conf.com/innovate/registration/?_mc=IWKPL">E2 Innovate Conference & Expo</a> today and save $200 on current pricing or get a free expo pass. Nov. 12-15, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Silicon Valley.</em>2012-10-29T15:48:00ZYou don't want to find yourself tweeting from your smartphone as you blow away in the wind.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/240012503?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- Image Aligning right --> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/slideshows/view/240008245/6-ways-iphone-5-ios-6-amp-up-social-opportunities"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/878/ios6_image_tn.png" alt="6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities" title="6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">6 Ways iPhone 5, iOS 6 Amp Up Social Opportunities</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span> </div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- / Image Aligning right --> Sandy, the monster storm, generated a monster amount of predictions, storm trackings, warnings and social commentary. The storm rightfully usurped the political races, sports and any other news events that were quickly diminished in the storm's slow march to the East Coast. <P> With <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Frankenstorm">#Frankenstorm</a> (and related <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Sandy">#Sandy</a>) clearly topping Twitter trending tags and Hurricane Sandy leading the <a href="http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends">Google hot search term list</a>, the amount of media focus on the hurricane was as enormous as the storm itself. And while I heartily agree with the idea of warning the populace of impending danger, I sometimes wondered during the storm if the overwhelming amount of social interaction prevents networkers from taking responsible and intelligent actions to avoid Frankenstorm's wrath. It is sort of like texting while driving: you are spending so much time immersed in the minutia of storm coverage and interaction, you miss avoiding the tree in front of you. The business equivalent would be like the downside of Big Data: too much information overwhelming the ability to make a decision. <P> Matthew Ingram at Gigaom has questioned if social media creates an <a href="http://gigaom.com/2012/06/23/is-modern-technology-creating-a-culture-of-distraction/">environment of distraction</a> and he mentions both Joe Kraus of Google Ventures arguing for slow tech to <a href="http://joekraus.com/were-creating-a-culture-of-distraction">ward off a culture of distraction</a> and Nicholas Carr arguing in his book <em>The Shallows</em> that all the social interaction only <a href="http://www.theshallowsbook.com/nicholascarr/Nicholas_Carrs_The_Shallows.html">makes us dumber</a>. <P> But what about when an impending Frankenstorm is barreling down on us and we continue to Tweet, Facebook and Instagram when we should be packing up the car and heading for the mountains? Clearly there is no current data from the current hurricane. However, I couldn't help but notice in the television coverage the number of people with smartphones taking photos of the approaching storm. I guess there has always been an ample supply of folks willing to take photographs of an onrushing storm rather than taking a more reasonable path (all those tornado watchers come immediately to mind). But the ability to instantly post their storm experience would seem to me to encourage what you might call social storming. <P> The upside to storm-oriented Twitter activity is the ability to communicate and get help when other media channels are lost. CNN covered Twitter accounts used for <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/tech/social-media/storm-sandy-social-media/index.html?hpt=hp_c2">storm and relief updates</a> and noted, "News apps and mobile sites are helpful, but for real-time streaming updates, it's hard to beat Twitter. With that in mind, here's a roundup of Twitter accounts offering real-time information about evacuations, mass transit, flooding, power outages and emergency-relief efforts." <P> The ability to track and discuss this storm's potential and path is in dramatic difference to what happened in New York and New England in 1938. I wasn't around for the <a href="http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/hurricane/hurricane1938.shtml">Great New England Hurricane</a>, which saw a record wind gust of 186 mph at a weather observatory outside of Boston, 25 foot tides, and 564 deaths. The massive, fast-moving hurricane hit the New York and New England regions with absolutely no warnings for residents. How could this be? It was in the era before radar, but not before radio. The hurricane had missed Florida and the forecasters were sure it would miss the U.S. If you have an hour, watch the public television <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/hurricane/">documentary</a> on the 1938 hurricane. If with Hurricane Sandy we suffer from too much information, then 1938 was all about too little information and too much reliance on past history rather than present conditions. <P> It seems to me that the storm of social media interaction that takes place all the time -- but is hugely accelerated around big events like a hurricane -- can create a social network version of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis">analysis paralysis</a>. In a manner similar to all the money being spent by companies to create social analysis systems that will allow a company to measure social sentiment but also be able to act on that sentiment, a similar capability is needed in the personal social media world. You want your networks to alert you that the best thing to do is to head for higher ground rather than create a fog of conversation. <P> <em>Social media make the customer more powerful than ever. Here's how to listen and react. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/gogreen/081312by/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">The Customer Really Comes First</a> issue of The BrainYard: The right tools can help smooth over the rough edges in your social business architecture. (Free registration required.)</em>2012-10-29T09:06:00ZIf you are not watching these developments, your business is missing out. Here's what Gartner's annual top 10 tech trends list missed.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240010605?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_Recently I attended the <a href="http://www.gartner.com/technology/symposium/orlando/"> Gartner IT Symposium</a>, which is as close to an annual gathering of the CIO tribes as you'll find. Although it's primarily a consulting organization, Gartner does a good job aiming its conference activities at a high-level discussion of enterprise trends and developments. <P> Part of the Gartner forum is its annual top enterprise technologies listing, which I handicapped <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/gartners-top-10-it-trends-hits-and-misse/240010008"> in a previous column</a>. While Gartner's list is solid, I think their analysts missed five big developments. Some of these developments were recently highlighted at <a href="http://www2.technologyreview.com/emtech/12/">MIT's EmTech</a> emerging tech conference, which I attended immediately following Gartner's. <P> These five developments should be on your corporate radar: <P> <strong>1. Digital Manufacturing Systems.</strong> <P> Still a big part of the U.S. economy, manufacturing is worth about $2 trillion, according to <a href="http://www2.technologyreview.com/emtech/12/"> Rodney Brooks</a>, founder of Rethink Robotics. Brooks has spearheaded development of an industrial robot that is safe, easy for humans to work with, and as simple to program as downloading an app from the Apple app store. (I tried it, and it really is that simple.) <P> With a $22,000 robot that can be up and running in a manufacturing site within minutes, the company is clearly onto something. But Rethink is only one leg of a three-legged rethink of U.S. manufacturing. Another is the development of 3-D printers to quickly prototype a manufactured product. Finally, development of the small run and a short-run manufacturing marketplace for innovators (<a href="http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/faq/">MIT's Fab Labs</a> is one example) who want to get their ideas into production quickly are coming together to create a manufacturing system that will make it economically sensible for companies to manufacture near their customers. <P> Any C level exec in the manufacturing industry who is not looking at these systems is in for a shock. Shipping manufacturing work overseas for cheap labor and handwork is about to lose its economic advantage. <P> <strong>[ CIOs need to focus on growth, amplification, and technology, says Gartner analyst. Read more at <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/gartner-cios-begin-3-year-shift-in-respo/240009599?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Gartner: CIOs Begin 3-Year Shift In Responsibilities</a>. ]</strong> <P> <strong>2. High-speed Wireless.</strong> <P> The mobile workforce seems like a good idea -- until you encounter data caps, throttling, and slow connection speeds. What if, within ten years, your wireless cellular network was 1,000 times faster than the one you use today -- sound farfetched? <P> Not really. Advances in use of the digital spectrum, swarms of repeaters tied into nearby backhaul lines, and most importantly, base stations the size of a deck of cards operating inside buildings are all within our technical grasp. Qualcomm CTO Matt Grob explains it all in <a href="http://www2.technologyreview.com/emtech/12/"> this video</a>. If you think the mobile Internet will always be a poor cousin of the fixed net, you're in for a surprise. <P> <strong>3. Responsive Design. </strong> <P> The rise of the mobile Web means fewer and fewer people are accessing your corporate website from a desktop. That mobility also means you need to design for a wide range of smartphones and tablets, each requiring its own app and web content management system. <P> A better solution is one design that adjusts to the device on which it is being viewed: Responsive Web Design. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design">RWD</a> should become the new three-letter acronym that is part of every corporate Web development organization. <P> <strong>4. Education Tech.</strong> <P> Big data, cloud computing, and corporate mobility all require technical skill sets that most companies don't possess. The numbers of positions required are predicted to be massive. Gartner analysts estimated that development and analysis of large data sets will set the stage for 4.4 million IT jobs worldwide needed to support big data by 2015. <P> That sounds like good news, especially as people outside IT will be required to support the new rich data environment. In the U.S., the big data movement will create 1.9 million IT jobs by 2015, according to Gartner head of research Peter Sondergaard. <P> The downside -- and it's a big one -- is that only one-third of these jobs will be filled, due to lack of skills. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> Let's assume for a moment that Gartner's projections are close to correct. Corporations tend to do a great job of talking up the need for employee training, but a lousy job of providing training. Into this scenario comes a whole new set of companies, such as <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/prweb/article/Udemy-Announces-New-Platform-to-Allow-Any-Expert-3963019.php"> Udemy</a>, that are aimed at disrupting the current education model. While such companies tend to focus on fixing public education, their platforms and techniques are equally applicable to business. CIOs need to direct their corporate training programs toward providing employees with the skillsets needed to fuel company growth. <P> <strong>5. Small Data.</strong> <P> Many big data expectations are based on a one-sided deal. Customers allow companies to surreptitiously collect information on their Web activities in return for free service and applications on Google, Bing, FaceBook and others. The myth of user anonymity is perpetuated by pages full of privacy rules that no sane person can read or understand. <P> In return for this, users get targeted ads and an increasing awareness that the "privacy-for free-access" is a Faustian bargain, as their identities get auctioned in the digital world. <P> What if there was a method for users to recover their identity and parcel out their information for something more than free email? This is the thinking behind Personal.com. In his presentation at EmTech, president Shane Green made a compelling argument that users rightfully expect to become part of the media/advertising mix, not a target of it. <P> The rise of the user and the recovery of identity and privacy rights will become a big deal for companies as they increasingly turn into digital commerce platforms. Customer control over <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1836521/personalcom-creates-online-vault-manage-all-your-data"> identity and personal information</a> is going to reorganize the concept of lead management, customer nurturing, and other activities that require a persistent knowledge of a user's activities. <P> <i>The business world is changing. Is your company ready? E2 Innovate, formerly Enterprise 2.0, is the only event of its kind, bringing strategic business professionals together with industry influencers and next-gen enterprise technologies. Register for <a href="http://www.e2conf.com/innovate/registration/?_mc=IWKPL">E2 Innovate Conference & Expo</a> today and save $200 on current pricing or get a free expo pass. Nov. 12-15, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Silicon Valley.</i>2012-10-25T12:58:00ZWe handicap Gartner's annual list of top enterprise IT trends, including mobile, cloud, and big data. Check out the ranking and consider what's missing.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240010008?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_Each year at the annual Gartner Symposium, Gartner analyst David Cearley names his top 10 strategic technologies for the enterprise CIOs and IT execs attending the event. This year had a couple of new entrants, including one named "integrated ecosystems" -- which seemed to me less a technology than a process, but the final list had many old names rearranged in order of priority. <P> I agree with him that mobile computing is the most strategic technology facing CIOs in 2013, but I think he also missed a few calls. Here is Cearley's rundown and my handicapping. <P> <strong>1. Mobile Devices Battle</strong> <P> The "mobile first and everywhere" theme has become a major part of Gartner's (and nearly every other consulting organization's) corporate mantra. The battle refers to the Apple/Google/Microsoft dustup of smartphones, tablets, and most recently convertible laptops. You should also throw Amazon in the mix, especially if they figure out how to tie the Kindle more tightly to customers signing up for Amazon Web Services. <P> The most interesting thing about the battle as I see is, while the fight is taking place outside the corporate confines, the selections will be part of the corporate infrastructure. The BYOD movement is fully upon the corporate world, with customers deciding what they want and expecting IT to make it work securely. The evolution of the BYOD movement with corporate mobile management and the restructuring of IT organizations to be mobile first is, I think, the most interesting part of the mobile battle. <P> <strong>2. Mobile Applications And HTML5</strong> <P> Is it odd that a revision of the markup language (still not approved and turned into what some call a living standard) is high up on the top tech list? Probably not, but the disruption inherent in HTML5 has been ongoing for a number of years. The "should we develop apps or Web?" argument continues in many companies. <P> I don't see this one ending soon. I think Gartner missed a chance to talk about responsive Web design (RWD), which addresses a lot of questions about adapting Web pages to a wide variety of devices. RWD is a disruptive tech. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> <strong>3. Personal Cloud, Not Personal Computing</strong> <P> This was a new one on the Gartner list. I think it belongs on the list. While a lot of time is spent figuring out how to divide business and personal operations on devices like smartphones, less time has been spent on figuring out how employees can build their own information clouds that contain their data and corporate data. <P> <strong>4. Internet Of Things</strong> <P> This one has been on the list for a couple of years and belongs there. As the Gartner analysts said at their opening keynote, it will soon be cheaper to sensor and monitor the corporation than to avoid the monitoring. In my opinion, network developers are not ready for the huge network demands that the Internet of things will create. <P> <strong>5. Hybrid IT And Cloud Computing</strong> <P> This refers to building corporate cloud infrastructures that mix inside and outside resources. Despite the hype around cloud computing, in my view, the hybrid model will be the most successful model over the next few years. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to take the concept to a deployed reality that can be measured, monitored, and secured. <P> <strong>6. Strategic Big Data</strong> <P> Clearly, 2012 has been the year of big data. Similar to cloud computing, the hype about big data has overshadowed the process of deciding what new types of data streams a company requires, how to introduce those streams into the infrastructure, and how to measure the value of creating a big data environment.<strong>7. Actionable Analytics</strong> <P> This is tied to the big data discussion but is probably more important. Turning on the big data firehose in your company won't make much sense unless you have a plan how to gather the data, analyze the data, and create actions on the data. Making the wrong decisions faster is not a plan for big data success. <P> <strong>8. Mainstream In-Memory Computing</strong> <P> At its simplest, in-memory computing can be considered a solid-state replacement for spinning disks. That would be a mistake as database structures, queries, and all the traditional pieces of the corporate business intelligence puzzle are changed by moving to the in-memory model. <P> This is one of those transitional points where users need to stop and rethink what they want to accomplish in their computing environment rather than simply stick with their traditional vendor now offering an in-memory appliance. <P> <strong>9. Integrated Ecosystems</strong> <P> I thought ecosystems were integrated by definition? Not in the computing world, I guess. In any case, this refers as a move back to the "best of breed" vendor and service selection, rather than marrying one vendor's stack of applications and services. Best of breed largely faltered on the difficulties of integration, and this will again be the deciding factor in whether the integrated ecosystems movement stumbles at the starting gate. This category was also new to Gartner's top 10. <P> <strong>10. Enterprise App Stores</strong> <P> This one is interesting. The app store model that has proved to be so successful in the consumer market is held up as the way corporate users should go about selecting and provisioning their corporate apps. While the concept has been around for a couple years, I've seen very few examples of the corporate app store emerging from a prototype to full-blown deployment. I think it might have something to do with the difference between app store consumer developers out trying to make money and traditional in-house app development. The enterprise app store may be one of those emerging technologies that is always emerging. <P> <strong>Conclusion</strong> <P> Gartner has offered a decent list, but one that I think misses a few big trends now unfolding. I'll cover that in a future column.2012-10-23T13:16:00ZTransformation marked by focus on growth rather than cost, from automation to "amplification," and from IT to technology, says analyst.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240009599?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --><div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/232700109"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/765/01_CEO_Logos_tn.gif" alt="8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most" title="8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div><!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE -->This year marked the start of a three-year shift in the fundamental responsibilities of the CIO, according to Gartner group VP Mark McDonald, coauthor of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Digital-Edge-Information-ebook/dp/B009UYP4XA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351520934&sr=8-1&keywords=the+digital+edge+mark+p.+mcdonald">The Digital Edge</a></em>. <P> The shift is marked by the following characteristics, according to McDonald: From a focus on cost to a focus on growth, from automation to amplification, and from IT to technology. <P> "CIOs have to pivot away from IT and towards technology," said McDonald in an interview with <em>InformationWeek</em>. He went on to explain that IT traditionally has been concerned with cost control, back office applications, and lengthy application development processes. A focus on technology means a customer-facing orientation often built around social network interaction, rapid development of a "mosaic" of services rather than monolithic years-long development, and a mobile-first strategy. <P> In a mobile-first strategy, the legacy applications become a data store for the mobile applications rather than standalone applications. <P> <strong>[ The key to success is asking the right questions. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/will-cmos-outspend-cios-wrong-question/240009521">Will CMOs Outspend CIOs? Wrong Question</a>. ]</strong> <P> McDonald described "amplifying technologies"--technologies that increase a business' reach. That increase is accomplished by digitalization of existing processes--such as the shift from print to ebooks--which provides a strategic advantage for a CIO's company. Those amplifying technologies bring the CIO into the boardroom and provide prominence in the company, above and beyond the role of mere cost cutter. <P> In a <a href="http://blogs.gartner.com/mark_mcdonald/">blog post</a>, McDonald writes, "Technology, not IT! This is a critical difference IT solutions like ERP, CRM and the like automate the enterprise with a focus on consolidation and cost. Technologies such as mobile, social, big data and cloud are fundamentally different than IT. These technologies amplify performance and strategy."2012-10-23T09:02:00ZCIOs need to spend on finding and building a pool of big data skills, Gartner execs say.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240009565?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/232700109"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/765/01_CEO_Logos_tn.gif" alt="8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most" title="8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">8 CEOs Speak: IT Projects That Matter Most</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> Every budget is an IT budget," according to Peter Sondergaard, senior VP at Gartner and the opening speaker at this year's <a href="http://www.gartner.com/technology/symposium/orlando/">Gartner Symposium/ITxpo</a>. <P> While that budget news is probably a surprise to all those CIOs currently in the throes of creating their yearly IT budget, the message makes some sense as the influences of mobile, cloud computing, social networking, and big data roil the corporate marketplace. Gartner, which is in the business of technology consulting and as such needs to create a new buzz phrase each year, calls this roiling the "nexus of forces" as technology spending increasingly accelerates outside of the IT departments. <P> Marketing departments are spending on social networks, sales departments are signing up cloud-based CRM, and individuals with credit cards are signing up for Dropbox accounts--all examples of the spread of technology budgets outside of IT. This seeping of technology beyond the confines of IT is not new, what is new is the acceleration of the spending. While the acceleration will vary by departments the trend is evident throughout the corporate environment. Sondergaard says, for example, by 2018 manufacturing will spend 90% of their technology budget outside of IT. <P> For those interested in trying to track IT spending, Gartner predicted at its conference that worldwide IT spending will surpass $3.7 trillion in 2013, which is a 3.8% increase from 2012. Major growth drivers include big data projects, cloud computing, and mobile. Worldwide IT spending will surpass $4 trillion by 2015. <P> While budget forecasts are just that--an educated guess at spending--the trends in technology were evident in both the keynoters and those tweeting in the audience. The role of the CIO is in the midst of changing from doing more with less to doing more with digital innovation. As Gartner research VP Mary Mesaglio said, "The CIO should not spend time automating back office but digitizing the interface between enterprise and customer." <P> <strong>[ The key to success is asking the right questions. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/will-cmos-outspend-cios-wrong-question/240009521">Will CMOs Outspend CIOs? Wrong Question</a>. ]</strong> <P> There were two notable data points made during this year's Gartner opening session. <P> First was the projected rise in IT employment particularly as it relates to big data and the forecasted inability to fill that need. The Gartner analysts predicted that by 2015, 4.4 million IT jobs globally will be created to support big data with 1.9 million of those jobs in the United States. That employment projection carries further weight when, as the Gartner analysts pointed out, each of those jobs will create employment for three more people outside of IT. <P> However, while the jobs will be created, there is no assurance that there will be employees to fill those positions. Sondergaard provided the dour prediction that only one-third of the jobs will be filled due to a lack of skilled big data applicants. One of the biggest tasks for CIOs is to rethink how to hire and train a workforce able to meet this demand for big data talent. <P> The other data point was what Gartner predicted would be a lackluster corporate reception to Windows 8. Sondergaard said there was no compelling reason for corporations to rapidly move to Windows 8 and further said, "90% of enterprises will bypass broad scale deployment of Windows 8 to at least 2014." <P> If Gartner is correct, those CIOs building budgets should be allocating their dollars to developing big data skills within their workforce rather than deploying Microsoft's new operating system. <P> Other data points of note made during the opening session included: <P> -- From 2011 to 2016, the business process services market will double in size to $145 billion as companies look for new efficiencies in the way they conduct business. <P> -- In two years, 20% of sales organizations will use tablets as the primary platform for field sales. <P> -- By 2015, 15% of all social media reviews and recommendations will come from social media participants being paid to write the reviews. <P> -- And in one data point, which IT can take as either a knock or an opportunity, 80% of executives today can name a critical piece of information they need but that IT is unable to provide.2012-10-15T09:06:00ZHow can your business profit from the new digital glue, application programming interfaces? E2 Innovate keynote panelists will explain.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/240008936?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_While "plastics" was the advice given to Dustin Hoffman for business success in the 1967 film <em>The Graduate</em>, the current hottest business prospect would be the three letter acronym API. <P> Since the first Web-based application programming interface (API) was <a href="http://blog.programmableweb.com/2012/02/06/5000-apis-facebook-google-and-twitter-are-changing-the-web/">launched in 2001 by eBay</a> to help sellers list and relist items, APIs have transitioned into the digital glue creating new businesses, partnerships, and software applications. By some accounts, that glue is due to turn the mobile API space alone into a <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443768804578034300680355238.html">$25 billion business</a> by 2015. <P> The secrets of unlocking the API economy will be the focus of an upcoming keynote panel at this year's <a href="http://www.e2conf.com/innovate">E2 Innovate</a> conference scheduled for November 12-15 in Santa Clara, Calif. The panel, moderated by <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/">Programmableweb</a> CEO and founder John Musser, will include Sam Ramji, VP of strategy for Apigee, Daniel Jacobson, director of engineering for Netflix, and Javaun Moradi, product manager for NPR. <P> "Before long, APIs will be the table stakes for companies to operate in an ever increasingly mobile and connected economy," said Musser. <P> APIs, which have been around in one form or another since developers first wanted software programs to communicate, have become a fast, simple, and effective way for organizations to connect their internal applications, connect with their partners, suppliers, and increasingly with customers and the public at large. APIs are the building blocks of most modern "mash-up" applications that, for instance, merge weather data, census data, inventory data, and customer data to offer a sale on snow shovels and winter boots in advance of an approaching winter storm. <P> "Without APIs, there would be no cloud services," said Musser, who also noted that the rise of the mobile Web, with its myriad devices accessing data, is a major driver of the API economy. <P> For CEOs and CIOs anxious not to be left out of the rise of the API economy and risk being left isolated from their better-connected competitors, Musser offers a three-stage approach to understanding the API world. First, utilize the API model internally to connect existing operations with additional services. Second, use that basic API knowledge to expand to supplier and partner operations. Third--and this is where the big economic benefits start to accrue--connect to the public on as grand a scale as Google makes its mapping software available, or on the smaller scale of a local restaurant showing what's new on the menu. <P> "Security, privacy, and compliance are as important in the API world as anywhere else," said Musser. The security best practices that should be part of any enterprise application development have to be transferred to the API-oriented application developments. <P> The goal of the panel is to shine a bit of light on what are the best API approaches from a business strategy perspective and how to generate business value from APIs, said Musser.2012-10-11T09:46:00ZYear Up director to discuss program that teaches tech skills to Bay Area students and helps them get industry jobs at E2 Innovate conference.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240008443?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/232700431"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/772/01_Steve-Haindl_tn.jpg" alt="10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over" title="10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> You have a BYOD business and now you need a help desk that can help with Windows, Apple, Android smartphone hiccups. Good luck with that. You have cast your IT infrastructure to the clouds and now you need someone who can link your in-house financial app to your cloud-based CRM. Good luck with that. And you want to use Big Data to tie your customer data with big bank credit data, weather data and U.S. Census population, and demographic trend data. Sure you do. <P> The skills gap among technology professionals and their company's business aspirations is morphing into an opportunity gap as good ideas lie fallow for want of the technology professionals to turn plans into products. <P> "Companies in the [San Francisco] Bay Area are looking for talent and not finding the right match," says Jay Banfield, the founding executive director of Year Up in the Bay Area. <a href="http://www.yearup.org/">Year Up</a> is an intensive one-year training program designed to take disadvantaged students and prepare them for beginning technology careers. Banfield will be hosting a keynote panel on "Innovating the Skills Divide" at the <a href="http://www.e2conf.com/innovate/">E2 Innovate conference</a> scheduled for Nov. 12-15 in Santa Clara. He will be joined by some of the Bay Area's top technology executives including Matthew Zeier, senior director of IT for Mozilla>, Debra Chrapaty, CIO of Zynga and Tim Campos, CIO of Facebook. <P> In surveys, business organizations are finding a profound technology skills gap. In its <a href="http://www.comptia.org/news/pressreleases/12-03-12/Business_Operations_Impacted_by_Widening_IT_Skills_Gap_New_CompTIA_Study_Reveals.aspx">"State of the IT Skills Gap,"</a> published earlier this year, the <a href="http://www.comptia.org/home.aspx">CompTIA</a> organization found that in the U.S., "The great majority of employers (93%) indicate there is an overall skills gap, the difference between existing and desired skill levels, among their IT staff." <P> <strong>[ Some IT jobs are opening up in Michigan. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/recruiting/gm-to-hire-1500-it-pros-in-michigan/240008636?itc=edit_in_body_cross">GM To Hire 1,500 IT Pros In Michigan</a>. ]</strong> <P> And that gap, according to the CompTIA study, is hurting business with, "Most (80%) organizations indicate their IT skills gap affects at least one business area such as staff productivity (41%), customer service/customer engagement (32%), and security (31%). <P> One of the more curious aspects of the onrush of new technologies and the tech skills gap is that in the current economic and political climate where a stubborn unemployment percentage of about 8% (a percentage that has become a political cause celebre), tech jobs are going unfilled. "We are creating unfilled jobs. We have a shortage. This shortage is going to get worse. It's a problem that's approaching dimensions of a genuine crisis," Microsoft Counsel Brad Smith <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/windows/microsoft-news/microsoft-says-6000-jobs-open-wants-more/240008011">told a Brooking Institution panel</a> recently. Smith contended that the U.S. economy is producing 120,000 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) jobs each year, yet U.S. colleges are only producing one-third of the needed degree students in the STEM fields. <P> Year Up is one organization that aims to help close the technology gap through a one-year intensive technology, business, and career development course for disadvantaged students with the goal of preparing them for entry level positions in tech support, quality assurance, and data center operations. The organization has more than 3,500 alumni and a remarkable success rate: 100% of qualified students are placed in internships, 95% of interns meet or exceed expectations, 84% are employed full time or are in college within four months of graduation, and the average hourly wage of $15 for graduates is far above the minimum wage level. <P> "We saw the need for a creative way to develop a pipeline of talent" says Banfield. Creating a program that equips Year Up students with the talents to make themselves appealing to employers has been fundamental in the program's success in the Bay Area. Twenty-four companies including some of the area's marquis names (Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce, eBay among them) are taking part in the Year Up internship and hiring programs. <P> While the technology skills are important, business, presentation, and social skills are also vital pieces of the Year Up program, says Banfield. <P> Closing the skills gap, forecasts of what skills will be required in the future, and how to restructure educational and business training programs to fill that gap will be the subject of <a href="http://www.e2conf.com/innovate/conference/keynotes.php">Banfield's keynote panel</a> at this year's inaugrual E2 Innovate event.2012-10-09T09:06:00ZIs the role of the CIO to be an innovator or a custodian? Two leading CIOs share advice on how to become the innovation champion in your company.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240008616?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_<!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/global-cio/interviews/232700431"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/772/01_Steve-Haindl_tn.jpg" alt="10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over" title="10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over" class="img175" /></a><br /> <div class="storyImageTitle">10 CIOs: Career Decisions I'd Do Over</div> <span class="inlinelargerView">(click image for larger view and for slideshow)</span></div> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> No, not the one that took place in Denver. I'm talking about the great CIO debate. Is the role of the CIO to be an innovator or a custodian of the IT infrastructure? While the desire is be the champion of innovation, the reality is that CIOs and the IT department are often measured and paid for, as they say, "doing more with less." <P> This conundrum between what tech execs want to be and where they find themselves on the org chart was reinforced to me during a couple of days at the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/interop">Interop show in New York</a>. I was fortunate to be doing onstage interviews with two CIOs who are firmly in the innovative camp. <a href="http://www.interop.com/newyork/2012/speaker-list/?speaker=arthur-tisi&id=988e9cc8-a64e-efd7-b915-7e50e8bd25f6">Arthur Tisi</a>, CIO of <a href="http://www.fairwaymarket.com/">Fairway Markets</a>, and <a href="http://www.gregoryssmith.com/">Greg Smith</a>, CIO of <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/">Pew Charitable Trusts</a>, both "get it" when it comes to expressing the urgency CIOs need to feel as mobile, social, big data, and the oft-mentioned cloud computing agendas unfold in their companies and their competitor's companies. Becoming complacent as budget dollars wander off into other departments, waiting for technology to settle down before acting, or taking refuge in spreadsheets and internal committee meetings is a career limiting (maybe ending) attitude. <P> <strong>[ More to think about. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/why-business-doesnt-look-to-it-for-innov/240008408?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Why Business Doesn't Look To IT For Innovation</a>. ]</strong> <P> But even Arthur Tisi (who also did a stint as CIO at the <a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/">Metropolitan Museum of Art</a> and has produced music with some of the icons of rock) said keeping the lights on is one of the required tasks of the CIO. Fortunately, as Greg Smith noted, technologies such as cloud computing (in all its forms of private, hybrid and public) is making that infrastructure management easier. As <a href="http://ebusiness.mit.edu/erik/">MIT Professor Erik Brynjolfsson</a> pointed out during the recent <em>InformationWeek 500</em> conference, the inexorable rise in processing power for microchips may soon make such futuristic ideas as self-healing and self-managing systems a reality. The trick for CIOs is to lead the way in breaking the back of the typical 80% of the tech budget that goes into system maintenance and use those dollars for the really important projects. <P> And what are those projects? Smith puts mobility at the top of the list. Thinking mobile first in your organization means a lot more than simply pushing email or standard apps onto mobile devices. Data security in a mobile environment, business applications that are as user friendly and powerful as consumer applications, and rethinking what your company would look like if you were starting it from scratch with mobile as the first priority are all part of the mobile-first strategy. <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <!-- GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> <span style="font-size:.9em; font-weight:bold;">Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.</span> </div> </div> <!-- /GLOBAL CIO GLOBE --> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P> Leveraging instead of grousing about the rising power and budget dollars of the CMO should also be at the top of your priority list, argues Tisi. The rise of digital marketing that can analyze, make offers, and engage customers with strong digital ties is changing the economy, companies, and can make the CIO into a company rockstar. The CMO might know what he or she wants to accomplish in the marketing activities, but the CIO can turn those wants into services through the use of business intelligence, big data mining, and digital services that are beyond the CMOs technology grasp. <P> In the big debate around the future role of the CIO, the best solution may be compromise. Take the needed, but underappreciated and costly activities that are eating up the tech budget and leverage the cloud in all its forms to cut those costs. Take those cost savings and use them to become the innovation champion in your company.2012-10-08T08:00:00ZMost employees outside of IT don&#8217;t call their IT teams very innovative, yet most believe technology is growing in importance, our research shows. Can IT still be the hero?http://www.informationweek.com/news/240008408?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Policy_Remember when the IT department was the group that saved your bacon time and again? Computer crashes that everyone was convinced wiped out precious corporate data turned into miraculous recoveries. Critical applications that suddenly stopped working were just as suddenly revived. Even the ill-conceived, snarky "reply all" email that was deleted before corporate-wide distribution. Windows upgrades, network upgrades, database upgrades, everything upgrades were handled with aplomb.</p> <P> What happened? We all know that the demands for IT have moved out of Fix It mode and into Innovation. Businesses need a new kind of IT hero. But when we asked 382 business pros--a mix of IT and non-IT people--about how IT is perceived in their companies, we were shocked by what we found in both the responses and the emotional comments that accompanied them. </p> <P> The data shows a disparity between how IT views its performance (not bad) and how non-IT pros view it (not good). For example, asked if their companies' business users are at least moderately happy with the quality, timeliness, and cost of IT projects, two-thirds of the IT pros who responded to our survey said yes, but just half of non-IT pros said so. Asked if IT is foremost a support or maintenance organization (as opposed to the innovation engine it might want to be), 39% of IT pros agreed, but 54% of non-IT pros agreed. Again and again, the data shows a disturbing gap between IT's perception of itself as reasonably innovative and effective, and non-IT's lukewarm view.</p> <P> As powerful as the data is, the free-form responses we received--and we got dozens of them--cast an even harsher light. </p> <P> First, let's hear from the IT side, which had plenty of hero stories to relay. </p> <P> "We brought 18 divisions (companies) under the same networks, interfacing at all levels from the top to the bottom. Wow, what a hurdle; these were all separate companies that were bought by my company. A major task."</p> <P> <div style="float:right;padding-left:10px;"> <div style="width:210px; border:1px solid #000000;"> <div style="margin:0; padding:5px; background-color:#CC0000; text-align:center; font-size:1em; color:#ffffff; font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/9062/IT-Business-Strategy/research-2012-it-8200perception-survey.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_20121015" target="_blank" style="color:#ffffff;">How IT's Perceived By Business</a></div> <img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1346/246CS_Reportcover.jpg" width="175" height="112" style="margin:15px;"> <center><strong>Get All Our Survey Data Free</strong></center><br /> <div style="font-size:.9em; margin:0px 1px 0px 10px;">The data in this article comes from our <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/9062/IT-Business-Strategy/research-2012-it-8200perception-survey.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_20121015" target="_blank">2012 IT Perception Survey</a> of 382 business technology professionals. <br /><br />This report includes all the IT Perception Survey data, including: <ul class="normalUL"><li>Comparisons of the 246 IT pros and 136 non-IT responses</li> <li>Insight on IT's role in mobile policy and social strategy</li> <li>Funding plans for innovation</li></ul> <center><strong><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/9062/IT-Business-Strategy/research-2012-it-8200perception-survey.html?cid=pub_analyt__iwk_20121015" target="_blank">Get This</a> And <a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/">All Our Reports</a></strong></center><br /></div> </div> </div> <P> Answered another: "We recently upgraded all our servers and desktops to virtualization and cloud computing. We needed more available space and were running out of room in our data center and server room. We also wanted a better way to control our storage and have better security. Our team of IT workers worked on this project day and night and weekends to make this project a success in a timely fashion with hardly any downtime or customer complaints." </p> <P> Yet for every success story from the IT pros who responded to our survey, there were as many cutting comments describing the IT staff--even from IT pros themselves.</p> <P> "Here, IT is seen as a drag on innovation. The user perception of IT is very low and generally this perception is ignored by senior IT management as not being of importance," said one respondent.</p> <P> Said another: "Unfortunately, IT in our business is seen as a roadblock--users want to use personal devices, social networks, cloud services, etc.--and we often prevent that entirely or provide poor internal substitutes. We can't ever seem to coordinate upgrades on time. When I tell people what versions of Office, Web browsers, etc., I have to support, it's embarrassing!"</p> <P> One sentence seems to sum up the scores of comments we received: "We are seen as a slow and bureaucratic organization."</p> <P> The data puts an exclamation point on that last point: 57% of IT pros consider their organizations to be distributed, agile, and flexible; just 29% of non-IT pros do.</p> <P><strong>'More With Less' Isn't Enough</strong></p> <P> There's little debate that IT is a critical function. About 60% of both IT and non-IT pros say their internal IT team will be more important to the company in the next two years, and nearly all the rest say it will remain just as important as it is today. </p> <P> So what's the source of this tension? Are IT organizations doomed to fall short of impossible expectations in this era of bring your own device, cloud computing, and software service vendors pitching business units with a fast install and end run around IT? Will IT's legitimate concerns about security, compliance, and integration make it the innovation villain, viewed as a drag on new corporate capabilities, rather than an innovation leader?</p> <P> One argument is that IT has done too good a job in its cost-cutting role. A recent Gartner study showed that its record of doing more with less (a response found frequently in our study) makes IT a business segment leader in productivity. But while measuring IT largely on the "do more with less" criterion may warm the CFO's heart, it can run counter to the concept of implementing new technology to drive innovation. </p> <P> "CIOs have made IT more efficient, with the result of devaluing IT as the returns on efficiency did not flow back to the source of those efficiencies in most organizations," says Gartner group VP Mark McDonald.</p> <P> General Motors CIO Randy Mott put it this way, when addressing the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/1343"><i>InformationWeek 500</i></a> Conference last month in Dana Point, Calif.: "Businesses talk about their revenue and their costs, and they talk about their profits. IT is the area that has the most complexity, has the hardest work to do in a lot of cases, and all they get to talk about is costs. There's just something about that that just doesn't feel right."</p> <P> It's why Mott requires a "revenue of IT" metric for every new IT project--business units, IT, and finance agree on that revenue-like value. At GM, Mott is trying to prove that the discipline companies demand for IT can co-exist with the need for rapid-fire innovation and new ideas. So some of GM's most innovative projects won't have a direct benefit but will proceed because business unit leaders say it's something the company or group needs. "The innovation is discretionary," Mott said. "That discretionary spend has to be evaluated like you look at other discretionary resources, like capital."</p> <P> John Halamka, the CIO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, is taking a similarly disciplined approach to the problem of balancing innovation and tight budgets. </p> <P> "Governance" was the emailed response from Halamka when I asked him the best way to make sure IT and business align for innovation. (Beth Israel Deaconess is the No. 1 company in the 2012 <i>InformationWeek 500</i> ranking of business technology innovators.) The hospital group has committees in different areas that bring IT and business leaders together. "These committees are where I propose innovative tactics to accelerate business owner strategies," Halamka says. </p> <P> I can hear the groans: Committees are the antithesis of innovation, no? However, innovation counts for little if it's not aligned with business objectives. The trick Halamka has mastered is creating a transparent committee where business priorities are developed and IT resources are matched to those goals. These leaders are working to formalize tech innovation as part of everyday business, because the reality is that business units aren't always going to ask for IT's help anymore. </p> <P> <strong>End Run Around IT</strong></p> <P> The tension that comes through in our survey is about a lot more than budgets and governance. The less measureable but more emotional issue is IT losing its role as the source of the cool new technologies. "Sidestepping enterprise IT and using your own devices and applications is usually easier, more fun, and, let's face it, often cooler than using what the IT department doles out," Accenture writes in a recent study.</p> <P> So even as technology innovation is seen as the driving force for companies (what is Google or Amazon or Facebook other than a technology engine underpinning a business strategy?), the people who should be empowered with the design, development, and care of that engine are seen--and often see themselves--as, well, slow and bureaucratic.</p> <P> This split personality comes through in the survey. Only about a fourth of IT and non-IT pros say their organization is an innovation leader. When three-quarters of your employees consider your organization an also-ran in innovation, you have a problem.</p> <P> Only 32% of the IT respondents think that IT plays an extremely important role in business innovation; only 25% of non-IT respondents think so. </p> <P> One problem is that IT leaders, who should be trained, equipped, and ready to drive technology innovation, often aren't invited to the party. Allowing each company department to make its own tech decisions can quickly lead to a mishmash of social collaboration, CRM, analytics, and marketing tools and systems. GM's Mott acknowledges that rogue IT purchases and deployments are done to meet a pressing business need, but he also notes that not centralizing them squanders the chance to leverage the data or systems across the company. Other business units also don't have IT's experience vetting technology vendors and contracts.</p> <P> "I see the decisions that people and companies make when they have no internal IT guidance, and it can be disastrous," says one respondent to our survey. "They fall prey to the latest fad or great salesman that comes along, and they end up with a mess and no one to help except the next salesman who comes along." </p> <P> What would a more successful IT and business partnership look like? "Our IT team continues to be the filter and gatekeeper and rescuer regarding all things IT," says one of the more positive survey respondents. "We have several areas that work closely with us, and the amount of innovative and everyday work we can accomplish is tremendous." </p> <P><strong>Who's To Blame?</strong></p> <P> At too many companies in our survey, no one's in charge of innovation, there are scant funds to pursue it, and training is mostly do-it-yourself. But at least one survey finding is encouraging: Most respondents think business and IT departments are equally at fault for their dearth of innovation.</p> <P> When we asked survey takers if their company "actively helps its IT professionals develop the business or soft skills needed to stay current and aid innovation," 55% of IT respondents said there's no formal program but they do what they can, and 22% have no program at all. Only 19% said their company has a program in place.</p> <P> Dedicated IT funding for innovative new projects is scarce--only 13% of IT and 14% of non-IT respondents said their companies have such a fund. Similarly, 16% of IT respondents and 13% of non-IT respondents said such projects are a fairly easy sell despite no dedicated fund. The lion's share of respondents said funding is project-dependent (37% of IT and 29% of non-IT). However, a notably large percentage of respondents (24% of IT, 17% of non-IT) takes the dim view that projects take so many executive approvals that "by that time, they're no longer innovative." </p> <P> <strong>IT Is In Demand</strong></p> <P> The idea that the IT organization is overlooked as an innovation driver and is being bypassed by business units comes at an odd time when you consider the robust employment prospects for IT professionals. Between 2001 and 2011, more than 742,000 new U.S. IT jobs were created, an increase of 29.1%, while employment as a whole grew just 0.2%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures contained in a report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The report notes that the number of IT jobs has grown throughout the recent recession--6.8% from May 2007 to May 2011--as the U.S. job market shrank by 4.5%. At the same time, average IT worker salaries were 74% higher than the overall average. Offshore IT outsourcing hasn't displaced nearly as many American IT workers as critics have feared.</p> <P> But make no mistake: IT pros must keep on evolving and adapting. </p> <P> <!-- Image Aligning Right --> <div style="margin:0; padding: 0 0 10px 10px; width:185px; float:right; text-align:center;"> <img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/1346/346chart_numbers.jpg" width="170" height="700" alt="By The Numbers" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" /> </div> <!-- / Image Aligning Right --> <P> The biggest change is moving from being a service builder to a service integrator, as more of what IT provisions comes from cloud-based software, says Michael Skaff, CIO of e-commerce startup LesConcierges. Also a challenge is balancing corporate-wide computing requirements with requests from individual departments for rapid software implementation and BYOD, he says.</p> <P> But Skaff's no stranger to using technology to drive cultural change. In his previous role as CIO of the San Francisco Symphony, he was instrumental in melding innovation within the conservative confines of a symphony hall. For example, instead of being steadfast about patrons turning off smartphones during a concert, those in the second level of the venue were encouraged to use Twitter and Facebook--with audio alerts turned off. </p> <P> As other departments (most notably marketing) have embarked on technology strategies, the role of the CIO has also evolved into a collaborative and consulting role with those departments. "We are moving from classic design, develop, and deploy to collaborate, integrate, and secure," says Gregory Smith, CIO of The Pew Charitable Trusts and author of the CIO career guide Straight To The Top. In particular, the CIO should be involved in vendor selection based on criteria of security and corporate integration capabilities that a CMO might not consider. </p> <P> As employees buy their own mobile devices, and cloud software runs in a vendor's database, these trends free IT from some of their duties of running--and fixing--day-to-day IT systems. Inside enterprise data centers, private cloud architectures are automating more work, also freeing IT pros up from manual tasks. </p> <P> In a keynote speech at the <i>InformationWeek 500</i> Conference, author and MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson forecast a scenario where technology innovation will accelerate, replacing ever more human tasks and functions. While the idea of self-learning and self-healing systems has been around for a while, it's only now that those systems are leaving the R&amp;D labs and entering the mainstream. The biggest threat to the traditional American IT employee won't be an offshore worker, Brynjolfsson said, but the very systems they're building and managing.</p> <P> So how does IT move forward amid the uncertainty and doubt about its innovative firepower? That's one area where there's almost no debate in our survey. Nine out of 10 IT pros and non-IT pros either "completely agree" or "somewhat agree" that IT should work closely with business executives to develop innovative applications. That's a no-brainer, but companies doing it well are putting structures in place to make sure that cooperation happens. </p> <P><strong>The Innovation Blitz</strong></p> <P> Think about innovation, and you automatically think big insurance company, right? Probably not. But Allstate Insurance, under the office of its CIO, assigned Matt Manzella the job of chief innovation officer five years ago. (Just over one-fourth of companies in our survey have a chief innovation officer, and more than 70% of the time the role is part of IT.) "Innovation is less about traditional research and development and more about employee engagement," Manzella says.</p> <P> Allstate runs what it calls "innovation blitzes." Manzella's innovation group works with a business unit to lay out a problem or opportunity, and then it's opened to employees, via an online forum, for ideas and discussion. Blitzes last about 10 days. The best ideas bubble up through voting and a high volume of comments. Business units and IT teams decide which to push into prototypes. </p> <P> An Innovation Council consisting of top Allstate executives also reviews the results to see if the leading ideas have been adopted. There's even an Innovation Posse, which rounds up the good ideas that didn't make it to the top of the pack but are still worth exploring.</p> <P> Allstate also stages hack-a-thons, known as Allstate App Attacks, four times a year whereby programmers working on new business systems on their weekends compete for prizes. With these techniques, Allstate collected 4,000 ideas from 20,000 employees in a year. It's implementing 100 of them.</p> <P> Manzella, speaking at the <i>InformationWeek 500</i> Conference, explained how one Blitz led to the development of a new process that steered claims around an adjuster if that person is unavailable. Allstate's innovation group produced a lightweight prototype, which the claims department helped to flesh out. Allstate, which implemented the process a year ago, estimates that it saved the company $18 million by reducing the time claims assigners and adjusters spend in meetings and reducing errors associated with claims processed after employee vacations.</p> <P> Manzella offers three pieces of advice for developing innovation practices: Get top executives to buy in and participate; get business departments to do the same; and respond rapidly to comments and suggestions.</p> <P> <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 10px; width:300px; float:right;"> <div style="border:1px solid #000000; padding:0;"> <div style="margin:0; padding:4px; font-size:1.4em; text-align:center; color:#ffffff; background-color:#000000;"> <strong>5 Next Steps</strong> </div> <div style="margin:0; padding:4px; font-size:1.2em; text-align:center; color:#ffffff; background-color:#CC0000;"> <strong>Help Your Tech Heroes Thrive</strong> </div> <div style="margin:0; padding:8px;"> <span style="color:#cc0000; font-weight:bold;"> 1. Take an honest assessment</span> Is IT only the break-fix group that's called in for forgotten passwords? Or is IT expected to drive great things, with funding and training to support the mission? What are the examples that prove the innovation case? <div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> &#9;&#9;&#9; <span style="color:#cc0000; font-weight:bold;">2. Organize for success</span> Think transparent, flat, and collaborative. Creative companies have set up processes for drawing ideas out of business units, often using online platforms to encourage corporate-wide, crowd-sourced innovation idea generation. <div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> &#9;&#9;&#9;<span style="color:#cc0000; font-weight:bold;">3. Create a realistic budget</span> Whittling IT staff down until no one has time to do anything but put out fires is a fast way send tech leadership up in flames.</p> <div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> <span style="color:#cc0000; font-weight:bold;">4. Train and educate</span> What are the skills people need to spark technology innovation in your company? Business knowledge, communication, technical? Don't shuffle responsibility for training your organization out of IT's hands.</p> &#9;&#9;&#9;<div style="margin:10px 0 10px 0; padding 0; border-bottom:solid 1px #666666;"></div> &#9;&#9;&#9;<span style="color:#cc0000; font-weight:bold;">5. Celebrate the heroes </span>IT pros can't wait to be called. They must be embedded in departments and interacting with customers to spot where technology can make companies better. And when you succeed, throw a party. </div> </div> </div> <P> And as IT organizations look to drive innovation at their companies, be prepared for skeptics. That Allstate claims department with the $18 million savings? It was reluctant to even take part in innovation blitzes because it manages staff time closely to keep productivity high. Now the claims department runs blitzes under its own branding, Gold Mine. </p> <P> You never know where the next great idea will come from. When Allstate did a blitz around its mobile app, it opened it up to about 5,000 people, producing 200 suggestions, from which 19 turned into actionable ideas that went on to the mobile app road map--including one from a top Allstate trial attorney in an office far from headquarters. "I guarantee you that guy's boss never said, 'Do you have any mobile ideas?'" Manzella says. </p> <P> Mobility is one big reason the IT team at JPMorgan Chase got more aggressive with innovation. For example, Chase was among the first banks to let customers deposit a check by taking a picture of it with a smartphone. "We were bleeding edge, and that's something new for us," said Paul Heller, senior VP of the bank's corporate Internet group, speaking at the recent TechTomorrow IT leadership conference in Columbus, Ohio. </p> <P> But Chase's IT team faced doubters when it first pushed the mobile agenda several years ago, when it suggested that the bank should offer text messaging for certain transactions. "Stupid idea" was the initial reaction from a business unit leader, Heller recalls. After some small experiments, which proved popular, that same skeptic is the biggest mobile advocate--and asking why the IT team can't move faster. Chase now has a dedicated strategy team that tracks trends in mobile payments and behavior, and takes those to business units where they work together on potential uses.</p> <P> Today, it's the huge tech-driven opportunities that are creating the pressure on IT organizations, and the dissatisfaction. Line-of-business leaders see the chance to connect with customers better via smartphones or understand consumers better via high-speed analytics, but they aren't sure how to get there. The IT teams that help them get there will be on the fast track to hero status. <em>--With Charles Babcock and Chris Murphy</em></p> <P> <!-- KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <center> <div id="printfeaturePDFpromo"><div class="printfeaturePDFCover"><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/9095/IT-Business-Strategy/informationweek-october-15-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1346/smallcov2.jpg" alt="InformationWeek: Oct. 15, 2012 Issue" title="InformationWeek: Oct. 15, 2012 Issue" /></a></div> <div class="printfeaturePDFCopy"><strong><a href="http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/83/9095/IT-Business-Strategy/informationweek-october-15-2012.html?k=axxe&cid=article_axxe_os">Download a free PDF of <nobr><em>InformationWeek</em> magazine</nobr></a><br /> (registration required)</strong></div> <div class="clearBoth"></div> </div> </center> <!-- /KINDLE EXCLUDE --> <P>