An article on one of these issues will be published in this section every month.
1. Is your IT an enabler or a barrier to change?
Many CEOs see IT as a barrier to achieving their strategic goals, rather than an enabler of change. Information Technology has to shift from the backroom management of technology to the harder job of helping the business to manage processes, relationships and knowledge.
2. Align IT with business strategy, culture and management to maximise the value of IT investments. Businesses are constantly adapting to meet the challenges of the marketplace. Successful deployment and use of IT is key to corporate success and IT investment decisions need to be made on the basis of value contribution to the business. It is critical to align IT and business in the design and execution of a single corporate strategy.
3. If it’s not strategic to your business, why are you spending so much time and cost on generic IT services? We’re approaching a “Clause Four” moment for the IT industry. Applications provided over the internet, external hosting and outsourcing - you really don’t need much internal IT infrastructure. However, your in-house IT department are the means of production, not the providers of a service. It’s time to simplify your IT, slash the cost of providing generic IT services and refocus the investment on the things that add value to your business.
4. Managing a mobile workforce. The way we do business has changed. Employees are no longer reporting to an office every day and logging onto a desktop computer. We increasingly allow and expect employees to be working from home or travelling, both nationally and overseas. How do we enable this flexible method of working with an anytime, anywhere IT service ?,
5. Making the decision to go open source.
Make no mistake, there is nothing that will be so disruptive to your existing IT environment than the decision to go to an open source software strategy. Is open source it as good as your existing software and will the savings in cost be worth the trouble ?
6. How do I use Business Intelligence as an enabler of business innovation?
In the knowledge economy, timely and accurate information about processes both internal to and external to the organisation is critical for business innovation. Business Intelligence solutions are evolving from simple management operational dashboards to complex integrators of intelligence for business innovation and growth.
7. How to reduce telephony and data communications costs. Advances in technology and availability of cheap bandwidth have turned the telecommunications market upside-down. Still paying for your telephone calls ? Telephone calls can now be routed more cost-effectively through your internet line using Voice Over IP (VoIP) technology.
8. Corporate governance and IT - where do you stand? Whether or not you are subject to the Combined Code and the Turnbull Report, Sarbanes-Oxley or (for finance sector companies) Basel 2 you will find that privacy regulations, data protection rules, risk management, business continuity management and information security are increasingly important corporate governance issues. IT Governance is the difference between success and failure in today's high technology environment.
9. Stopping the indirect attack: how to identify and prevent the most dangerous IT security threats. Your IT security strategy is based upon the best IT security products on the market. It’s a daily battle, but it deals with all known threats. However, it’s not designed for an indirect or oblique attack. How do you stop the intelligent hacker who tries something new ? What about the person in finance who’s just accessed all high value accounts ? Evolutionary computing techniques promise a new type of intelligent, adaptive monitoring tools that can identify and prevent oblique threats.
10. Cost effective IT solutions for SMEs
Small and mid-sized businesses, without the benefit (and cost) of large IT departments, face particular issues when investing in IT and communications solutions. How to select the right technologies, that are appropriate and cost effective for SMEs ? How to implement, without creating a large fixed cost ? How to avoid complexity and so maximise the return on investment ?
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