The Great Debate: IT & Productivity While companies have been investing in computers and software for decades, it took a while for them to figure out how to use these tools not just as a convenience, but to change the nature of people's jobs. (Apr. 2001 CIO)

IT-Business Engagement Starts With Top Execs The demand for new systems, flexible access to legacy data and increased dependence on technology mean that executives are poised to cooperate to accomplish these goals. IT must leverage this support to change the way business professionals perceive their role in the development and evolution of information systems. (Apr. 2001 ComputerWorld)

A Growing Bubble IT investments don't yet account for the full costs of installing and maintaining IT. Each dollar of capital investment in IT requires at least another $2 to $3 in labor costs to maintain it. This amounts to a total IT budget last year of about $1.7 trillion, twice the total of all profits. (Apr. 2001 ComputerWorld)

Laid-off IT managers consider pay cuts, demotions Many companies are scaling back and doing so at the manager and director level. IT job seekers shouldn't be surprised if they see their salaries drop by 15% to 20%. The hard-core techies are the people who are still in high demand. (Apr. 2001 ComputerWorld)

How to Make a Big Hit With Your Pitching I've had to sit through many presentations from people trying to get me to buy their products. Many of these presentations were nothing short of disasters. It seems some folks think that their audiences are morons. (Mar. 2001 ComputerWorld)

Can IT survive out on its own? Analysts remain unconvinced over the merits of companies spinning off their IT divisions. They argue that these half-way-house divisions perform better when they become totally independent from their parent company. (Mar. 2001 ComputerWeekly)

Making a Case for Today's IT Leaders Even though IT leaders are rarely thrust into the spotlight, they have more influence today on their organizations' destinies because virtually every employee function, business transaction and customer interface now involves an IT component. To be effective, today's IT leaders must be able to think strategically and technically, and be able to act collaboratively, as opposed to autocratically. (Mar. 2001 Computerworld)

Why We're Still Talking About Alignment Since the age of vacuum tubes, dot matrix printers and green-screen monitors, IT executives have been obsessed with how closely an organization's IT strategy is interwoven with and driving its overall business strategy. Currently, staffing issues, reporting structure and e-business are the biggest pieces of the alignment puzzle. (Jan. 2001 CIO)

Outsourcing's Great For The Lawyers, Too The average company with an outsourcing contract spends the equivalent of 15% of its IT budget on litigation in general. The average cost of litigation fees is greater than the cost of coding, which is the bulk of a typical IT budget. (Dec. 2000 Informationweek)

Cashing in on IT? Recent big bank mergers, aimed in part at slashing IT costs, have yielded mixed results. In many cases, the big cost savings promised from closing redundant data centers, combining back-office operations and applications and downsizing IT staffs have been realized. In other situations, cost savings have been elusive. (Oct. 2000 Computerworld)

IS at the Crossroads: A Matter of Life or Death The reins of technology spending and control have been slipping from IS's grasp very slowly—almost imperceptibly—over the years. Since the dawn of e-commerce, IS groups have been content to maintain the engines while other business groups have steered the bus. This passive role has convinced some business leaders that IS groups simply aren't capable of even having a hand on the steering wheel. (CIO Jun. 2000)

The hazards of corporate vanity Overconfident management has been responsible for most of the marketing disasters of past decades. General Electric couldn't crack the mainframe computer market in spite of its reputation for brilliant management. Xerox couldn't duplicate its copier success in computers. IBM, on the other hand, couldn't figure out how to do the opposite. (UpsideToday May 2000)

Shaping the Adaptive Organization: Landscapes, Learning and Leadership in Volatile Times. One of the advantages of moving quickly is if you do something wrong you can change it. What technologies tend to do is they tend to make a lot of mistakes, but then we go back and aggressively attack those mistakes—and fix them. Read an excerpt from the book by William E Fulmer. (CIO May 2000)

Plugging IT into the merger equation Technologically forward-looking CEOs (a description that Meta Group estimates to fit only about 5 percent of corporate bosses) will most likely factor in IT for all key strategic considerations. Another 25 percent are likely to get IT somewhat involved. But a full 70 percent of CEOs see IT as a support function and budget line item, according to Hobbs. (InfoWorld Apr. 2000)

Total Leadership: Playing Defense Sometime, somewhere in your career, you will find yourself a leader in political hell. You have both the leadership opportunity of a lifetime and a giant, red bull's-eye plastered on your chest. The question is, how do you survive and succeed? (CIO Mar. 2000)

Dear «uninformed executive», I thought it about time that I explained the realities of software development to you. No, I do not want to turn you into a programmer or even enable you to read code - I want you to get a clue. (Network World Fusion Feb.2000