CIO Talk Network Podcast

In order to stay focused, we have always applied benchmarks and metrics to establish a baseline and measure progress against predefined goals. Are the same benchmarks and metrics still relevant? Is everything that we want to measure, measurable? Given the fast pace and fluidity of business and IT, will measurement get easier or more difficult moving forward? What challenges and opportunities lay a...

The IT landscape, how it supports business, drives change and derives business value is changing rapidly. How are we redefining the role of future IT leaders to adapt? What are organizations looking for in their IT leaders as they hire or retain them? How hopeful should we be about future IT leadership based on the current pipeline of CIO aspirants? Guest 1: Thornton May, IT Futurist & Dean, The I...

What's on the minds and wish lists of CIOs for 2012? What does business expect IT to focus on for next year? …Increasing enterprise growth, attracting and retaining customers, creating new products or services (read "innovation"), or improving operational performance? In the coming year, how much of IT and IT leadership's investment in time and resources is going to be invested in building new com...

Enterprises are expecting big results from Big Data. Mining Big Data sets (like web searches or twitter postings) is expected to help business managers leverage data-driven strategies to innovate, compete, and enhance productivity. Beyond the hassle of storage, how prepared are IT leaders, to fully exploit the potential of Big Data. Guest 1: John Crary, CIO, American Red Cross Guest Bio: https://w...

Every day, those of us who depend on public transit expect it to get us where we're going inexpensively, safely, and with the reliability and consistency of a utility. How has mass transit changed from the past? How is IT transforming public transit now and for the future with regards to offering real time statuses on arrivals/departures, connecting with riders via social media, offering informati...

Almost everyone is tuned into social media in their personal lives, so it's no surprise social media is making inroads into the business world as well. While businesses are using SM to connect with new customers externally, could IT use SM for better communication with its own business customers within the enterprise, and to better align IT with the business? What is being tried, and what is worki...

Three security issues loom large over the future of Cloud Computing: Will corporate IT security policies still apply to the applications and services delivered via the cloud? How will a CIO prove to management and clients that the company's applications and services are as secure as before the cloud and meeting all SLAs? Will security be robust enough to pass any compliance audits required? Only w...

Cloud Computing has been around long enough for us to have ironed out most of the kinks and is quickly becoming part of our enterprise computing DNA. But does that mean most of us have aced the Cloud Computing paradigm or that we use the mature technology to its best advantage? If we fail at using it properly, then where are we and what do we need to do to get to the next level? Is there a clearly...

There's lots of talk about IT leadership skills, but the personal energy capacity a leader needs to do it all is equally important. Even a champion marathon runner takes breaks. How can an IT leader, under the gun 24/7, maintain his/her "energy" at peak performance level? Where does he/she find the personal reserves to successfully handle stress and promote the maximum productivity of those around...

Payment card and check fraud was #1 & 2, phishing/vishing #3, and ACH/wire fraud #4. Financial Services, Retailers, Government & Law Enforcement IT, as well as Healthcare IT and eCommerce all face these threats. However, security efforts are often focused on the traditional types of fraud that concern regulators while the newer digital threats often get less attention than they merit. Can IT help...

Healthcare organizations of all types, pharmacies, healthcare vendors, healthcare providers, and health insurance companies are all under pressure to go digital sooner rather than later. At each organization, the IT leader will have to assess the pros and cons of various services and cloud options, each of which comes with its own security concerns. Additionally, these IT leaders will have to impl...

The sheer power of "hactivism" to disrupt eCommerce and perpetrate cybertheft, is attracting technically savvy groups with more ambitious agendas then activism or crime. Not just sensitive data of governments is at risk, but infrastructure, utilities, transportation, emergency, eCommerce and other critical networks are also at risk to cyberterrorist groups' hacking. What is the current state of co...

With the increasing strategic importance of IT, it would seem logical for IT leaders to focus attention on top line growth related initiatives. Meanwhile, workplace IT is a good candidate for outsourcing since doing so would free IT from the need to deal with provisioning, support calls, updates, and hardware refreshes. Certainly companies are ready to make this move. However, unaddressed question...

Enterprises everywhere are finding themselves in a position where they must accommodate workplace consumerization. The next logical step would be to go all the way and institute a BYOC policy. But, how does an IT leader go about instituting these new workplace computing paradigms? What is a right balance? How far should we take it? Are there any limits? Guest 1: William Martorelli, Principal Analy...

BI is a business principle and an ongoing process. As the business changes, so too does BI. There also needs to be a governance framework stating guiding principles, decision-making bodies, decision areas, and oversight mechanisms, all aligned to the company's unique needs and culture. How do you define these? How do you align BI with corporate strategy and diverse, non-static business and IT requ...

As extended mobile business applications for business intelligence (mobile BI) are gaining momentum, most BI tool vendors are offering a mobile extension to the native BI suite itself. But is mobile BI really just a mobile version of traditional BI?  Is implementing mobile BI the same as in traditional BI projects? Is mobile BI secure since now that sensitive data will be provided on a remote devi...

Today's BI is reactive, strategic, casual, whenever, and reliable. With the introduction of Social Media and mobile business tools, the old walls between BI users and IT will disappear. Already BI decisions are becoming collaborative, made increasingly while on the move, making BI Actionable and agile.  Future BI will be proactive, operational, extreme, timely, and will demand accountability. How...

Today, IT people must wear multiple hats and be able to switch roles quickly! And managers need real time visibility on who, where, and when as well as the ability to configure, dissolve, and reconfigure teams as needed, without delays or loss of creativity. While a governance structure may help project team members cope with the usual stressors (e.g., time deadlines, ambiguous power/authority rel...

Often there is an implicit disconnect between the expectations and incentives set for business lines and those set for their IT counterparts. For example, business Line managers are expected to quickly spot new customer needs and adapt the processes needed to meet those needs. Meanwhile, the IT organization (and its CIO) is often assessed on efficiency metrics that may be internal to IT, including...

If IT is increasingly more important as a partner to all aspects of business, doesn't apportioning most of one's IT budget to ordinary enablement and overhead, prevent IT from engaging in those things that IT excels at, like innovating and improving business? Could a more generous allocation of funds actually reduce costs and increase income by accelerating processes, reducing wait times and facil...

A Bean Counter prides him/herself on efficiency and predictability. He/she expends steady but sure progress at reaching goals.  An Investor takes calculated risks. Risk of failure comes with the possibility of job lost, but success could pay off well beyond expectations. The two mindsets seem mutually exclusive. Are they? Which mindset would work best for a CIO, and under what circumstances? Guest...

Business models are changing, customer expectations are rising, complexity is increasing, and it's all occurring at an accelerating pace! The old, "tried and true" leadership/management styles may not continue to work. If businesses are to successfully confront these painful realities and thrive, they will need to improve decision making, rethink what's possible, and empower execution. This will r...

In our mobile and interconnected world, we're constantly playing catch up with "what", "how much", and "where" as we try to meet the expectations of our customers who want it all yesterday. We may feel we're not "in control," but could IT change that? If so, how? For example, what if we were to create a dynamically scalable and extensible IT application and infrastructure portfolio where all costs...

Change is always hard. How do you move from pure luck at implementing a successful change to ensured change success? How do you make a successful change repeatable? We know the milestones: vision, the building of momentum as the change is implemented, eventual sustainability, and finally the desired results!  But what does it really take to successfully steer your organization to a successful chan...

For decades, companies have implemented CI to improve and simplify processes, eliminate waste, reduce response time, and improve quality & customer service with an eye towards increased revenue. While a CI Project may reduce process cycles and defects, it may still not significantly impact the bottom line. Why do CI projects fail to deliver? In a brutally fast paced competitive environment, would...