April 2008 - Posts

Nicholas Bate: Productivity 1
I had the pleasure of attending one of Nick's classes several years ago. I was quite young and impressionable at the time and much of what he said has stayed with me since and I've found it all very valuable. Much of what we discuss with productivity Read More...
Posted 30 April 08 10:37 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
Microsoft Office Labs
One of the great things about Microsoft Office is its extensibility. Part of what makes it a great choice for Business Productivity Infrastructure is the capability to run it as an application platform also. Office Labs showcases some of the tools developed Read More...
Posted 28 April 08 05:54 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
THE BI Blog : PerformancePoint: Implementation web cast series
I've always found our BI webcasts to be incredibly valuable and so I thoroughly recommend signing up for the upcoming set: THE BI Blog : PerformancePoint: Implementation web cast series Read More...
Posted 25 April 08 10:57 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
The "Alignment Trap" - Part 4 ... In conclusion
The essential concept of the alignment trap is that a poorly performing or excessively complex IT organization won't accomplish the desired business outcomes regardless of how well aligned IT is to those outcomes. I would also argue that the concept of Read More...
Posted 23 April 08 03:13 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
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The "Alignment Trap" - Part 3
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Its not often that Leonardo da Vinci is quoted in a business journal, but its probably also rare that these words carry such relevance. Investing in Effectiveness is one of the tips in the article. What this Read More...
Posted 22 April 08 02:02 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
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The "Alignment Trap" - Part 2
Uncovering the "Alignment Trap". Heavily referenced in the article are Schwab. According to the data, Schwab found itself spending 18% of its revenue on IT compared to an average of 13%. However it's not alone. "Only 18% of respondents believed that their Read More...
Posted 18 April 08 08:30 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
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The "Alignment Trap" - Part 1
Great article in the Fall 2007 edition of the MITSloan Management Review . So good in fact, it warrants a multi-part response. What is the "alignment trap"? This is articulated by a quadrant where alignment trap is measured against "maintenance zone", Read More...
Posted 18 April 08 11:50 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
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IT Commoditization
Much is made of this discussion. Many argue that the ubiquity of IT diminishes its capacity to deliver a competitive advantage. There is some basis for this. Does e-mail provide competitive advantage? Possibly not. But what about information overload? Read More...
Posted 15 April 08 07:44 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
Business Productivity - Projects or Platforms and the search for innovation
Looking across all the literature the web has to offer, if there's anything that we're all agreed on, Nicholas Carr, John Thorp, Erik Brynjolfsson et al, its that successful return on technology is less about the technology and more about how its used. Read More...
Posted 14 April 08 05:08 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
Seth's Blog: Who answers the phone?
Microsoft talks a lot about the "People Ready Business". The message behind this is a very strong one, but sometimes gets diluted as just a marketing campaign. Seth does a great job in underlining the importance of each and every individual Read More...
Posted 10 April 08 11:00 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
Of bread, butter, cheese, and mousetraps... - Lawrence Liu's Report from the Inside
Culinary metaphors and analogy seem to be flavor of the month round here. But this one is particularly pertinent. If Lawrence can liken SharePoint to the butter and Office to the bread then I would liken BPI to the whole sandwich. Needless to say it tastes Read More...
Posted 04 April 08 02:24 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
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CIOs And Spring Cleaning - CIOs Uncensored Blog - InformationWeek
Straight forward advice from InformationWeek. Downsize your applications. In other words, what are your opportunities to rationalize? Where are the opportunities for convergence and consolidation of functionality? Can you achieve Collaboration, Search Read More...
Posted 04 April 08 01:13 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
The "dollar daze"
EUR/USD 1.57332 GBP/USD 1.99362 USD/JPY 101.93681 That's what the dollar looks like today. Where was it a year ago? For a European exporter, not happy reading. In a recent BusinessWeek article we find the following useful advice: "If there's a lesson Read More...
Posted 04 April 08 12:55 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
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The CIO And SharePoint - CIOs Uncensored Blog - InformationWeek
"SharePoint often grows in a viral capacity, as many business people take the lead in standing up systems without an appreciation for corporate standards. Get a governance policy to manage the provisioning process, as otherwise it can backfire." This Read More...
Posted 03 April 08 02:01 by bernardc | 0 Comments   
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Software Consumerization
Many of the greatest IT innovations of recent years have come from the consumer world. From the PC to Facebook innovation has been incubated at home (or the garage) before the office. The challenge for the IT department is managing the influx of this Read More...
Posted 03 April 08 02:00 by bernardc | 3 Comments   

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