To be an effective IT manager, you must take the time value of your precious budget dollars into account. This is especially important in large systems computing, where project time is measured in months and years, not days and weeks, and costs can run into the millions. Time value of money can become an important strategic factor in planning and presenting project proposals.
It's not always enough to assume that "the financial people" are keeping a close eye on things. As a project leader, you should be able to read between the lines of a company's financial report to spot potential problems.
Of all the financial information a company publishes, the two most important are the Balance Sheet and Income Statement, which I discussed last month. With these two documents in hand, what's next? Where do you start looking for the important information? How do you make sense of the data?
Thinking about hiring a consultant, engaging a service provider or buying from a new supplier? Recommendations from satisfied friends and colleagues are important, of course, but for large expenditures your research should include a look at a company's financials.
Classic computer language and hot new platform
Today's accounting enviroment provokes examination
A bankruptcy doesn't occur in a vacuum, and there are distinct and important impacts a supplier's or service provider's misfortune can have on your business, whether you buy or sell IT products or services. This month I'll focus on the two types of business bankruptcies and explain the differences.
Innovation isn't a line item in the R&D budget. While we've been busily trimming costs to meet reduced revenues, too many of us seem to have cut innovation, too.
Annual Salary Survey: IT managers with mainframe and large Unix-based systems skills earn as much as 20 percent more than those in Wintel-based positions.
In an outlandish and swanky annual ceremony said to rival the Oscars, The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences makes an effort to recognize the best of the Web. Despite their tone, the Webbies aren't all fun and frolic.
With the economy still cooling off and corporate profits well on their peaks, dollars for infrastructure improvements can be hard to come by.
No doubt about it, our jobs in IT have expanded far beyond the realm of systems maintenance. No longer are we required to simply "support" the business; we're now called upon to help define it. Systems and technologies themselves have become infinitely more complicated as well.
Vendors, integrators and service providers still have much to learn from CRM systems. As the technology evolves, so should your appreciation of how it can affect the bottom line.
Between the demise of dotcoms and the over-valuation of technology companies, it seems to me that mainstream IT has acquired a bad reputation. In my mind, there’s far too much generalizing going on these days.
The world of e-business is rapidly expanding, becoming a battlefield of online merchants eager to capitalize on the new marketplace. There are three primary areas to consider in planning a transition to the e-commerce world: Adapting or changing the present business model, creating a personal sales experience, and inventing a unique site that entices a customer to return, and builds loyalty.
Everyone in the IT business knows that it takes a substantial amount of daily, resource consuming effort just to keep systems up and running to avoid business disruptions. The shortage of trained IT professionals is equally vexing for professional service organizations (PSOs). New solutions in integrated project management software are able to creatively and strategically address the resource challenges facing PSOs today.
The enterprise storage utility is a self-diagnosing, self-healing, policy-based, intelligent storage system that dynamically allocates and re-allocates a virtual pool of storage, and automatically handles saving and backup. Sound too good to be true? It is, for it doesn't exist -- yet.
Using Enterprise Productivity Software, day-to-day operations are significantly improved and problems are eliminated before they have a chance to become problems. The bottom line in operations is doing more, while using fewer resources and minimizing headcount, while maintaining acceptable SLAs.