When Oracle first announced its agreement to acquire NetSuite, back in July 2016, there was widespread agreement in the tech industry that the deal could allow Oracle to serve a broader range of customers, including smaller businesses, expand to more vertical industries and more countries, and accelerate Oracle’s application software push into the cloud. The…
Ask a CIO how he or she quantifies the impact of their digital transformations and you may get a funny look, like you told tasteless joke. The reality is that many CIOs don’t have metrics for gauging the success of digital projects, such as new ecommerce platforms, mobile apps and chatbots. But CIOs who fail…
In the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window, James Stewart portrays a paranoid magazine photographer convinced one of his neighbors murdered his wife. Stewart’s L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries character is isolated in his small Greenwich Village apartment recovering from a broken leg. He passes the time watching his neighbors through a telephoto lens as he sits…
Data analytics has emerged as one of the most important business and technology differentiators for organizations, giving them the power to draw keen insights about virtually any aspect of their operations and thereby gain an edge on the competition. Research firm Gartner earlier this year predicted that 2017 would be the year data and analytics…
What is outsourcing? Outsourcing is a business practice in which services or job functions are farmed out to a third party. In information technology, an outsourcing initiative with a technology provider can involve a range of operations, from the entirety of the IT function to discrete, easily defined components, such as disaster recovery, network services,…
I’ve interviewed many CIOs for their insights on the transformation of IT into a strategic asset. Many of their success stories appear in my book, “The Strategic CIO: Changing the Dynamics of the Business Enterprise” and in my CIO.com column, “Transforming IT for Business Success.” I’ve also been reading a number of books on digital…
One of the habits from Stephen Covey’s bestselling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is to begin with the end in mind. Putting that in today’s business context, organizations need to figure out what digital transformation means for their business and what their goals are before they go throwing a bunch of new…
In this lively hourlong discussion, Maryfran Johnson, executive director of CIO programs for CIO Events and the CIO Executive Council, talks with Bernie Gracy, Chief Digital Officer of Agero, the largest provider of roadside assistance services to car makers and insurance providers across North America. Johnson and Gracy talk about the sophisticated data analytics behind…
Enterprises realized value in IT shared services organizations for the past three decades. Over the past two years, I’ve delved into the nuances of capturing the promise of digital transformation. As I think about the impact of digital transformation on shared services, it becomes clear that shared services are in for substantial changes. I…
In the 2008 film, Zombie Apocalypse, college roommates Mark and Tom are forced to defend themselves against a town full of zombies. Fortunately, our heroes are prepared. According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Mark is handy with an axe, and medical student Tom has played enough video games to keep his cool in the chaos.” It’s not…