Our Blogs – For CIOs by CIOs

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

It is an unfortunate reality that most outsourcing deals fail to reach their true potential. Over the course of assisting many clients with outsourcing, we have found that the following seven things, either alone or in combination, are the major causes of dissatisfaction with outsourcing:

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

Thanks to the wonders of technology and transportation, today many (if not most) business processes can be performed almost anywhere in the world. As a result, your organization has countless options for global sourcing – so much so that analyzing all of the options can be challenging.

To assist you in this area, CIOPS has developed a matrix that serves as a succinct strategic framework for illustrating your global sourcing alternatives. Here’s what you need to know…

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

In today’s highly competitive global environment, many companies are asking the question, “Is outsourcing right for us?” The short answer is probably a qualified yes. In my last post I presented some of the benefits of outsourcing. Some part of almost every organization could undoubtedly benefit from an outsourcing assessment. But which part?

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

In today’s highly competitive global environment, many companies are taking a close look at outsourcing. Should they outsource? And if so, why?

What exactly is outsourcing?

By Stephen McGrady
Associate

A big question facing many CIOs today has to do with the changing nature of enterprise IT organizations. What is the best delivery model for the applications on which their businesses depend? Should they keep everything in-house? Should they keep the servers and applications on-premises but outsource all of the development and/or management? Or would it be better to switch to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, and let others handle it all?

While I cannot give you a one-size-fits-all answer, I can provide a framework for the evaluation process. Here are some of the most important questions you need to ask:

By Stephen McGrady
Associate

As I mentioned in a previous article, I’m a big believer in Enterprise Architecture Planning. However, I’m also a realist. I know that in today’s hyper-competitive and very fast-moving business environment, about the only enterprises that are enthusiastic about going through the full nine-month or one-year EAP process are government agencies. Everyone else needs results now.

By Stephen McGrady
Associate

I’m a big believer in Enterprise Architecture Planning, the detailed planning process that looks at how an enterprise will use information to support the business, and provides a blueprint for handling data, applications and technology.

While the process of creating an EAP can be lengthy – typically six to ninth months – the end results can make a significant difference in the IT organization’s ability to meet business needs. From my standpoint, I think the key benefits include:

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

As an information technology consulting firm, CIO Professional Services specializes in information technology strategy and business/IT alignment. To better understand why organizations seek us out for assistance, we spoke with Ed Barrantes, Chief Financial Officer of the YMCA of Silicon Valley.

As described in a previous article, we’ve been working with the Y to help them overcome their very significant technology debt. They had a situation where systems had not been updated in over two decades! Here’s what Ed had to say about working with CIO Professional Services, and the 5 key values that he feels we bring to the table:

By David Haedtler
Principal

Last year I was asked to plan and facilitate a two-day conference for over 140 engineers and researchers. Participants included representatives from universities, industry, national laboratories and federal agencies. The goal of this meeting was to brainstorm potential innovations in a particular field, explore these ideas and come to a consensus regarding which ones were worthy of further funding.

It was an important conference about important work, but there was a catch: the participants would be physically sitting at six different sites from coast to coast. My challenge was to make this multi-site conference work.

By Jeff Richards
Managing Partner

Life at a Nonprofit

For the past 2-1/2 years I’ve been the interim CIO at the YMCA of Silicon Valley – my fourth non-profit client since 2009. My experience is limited but I’ve seen a trend emerge.

Senior executives at non-profits are usually wonderful people who are very passionate about what they do. They’re very good at focusing on their mission and the services they offer to meet this mission. They have a clear understanding of who their constituents are. More often than not they have spent their entire career at their current organization or one that’s similar.