Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »June 19, 2007 — CIO —
Digital cameras didn’t creep up on the Drees Company as much as they pounced. Five years ago a lot of employees at the $1.1 billion real estate company weren’t even using computers. Today, those same employees are responsible for one of the company’s more innovative uses of technology.
But at first, says Brian Clark, Drees’s manager of data management, the company wouldn’t support the devices. Technology that wasn’t approved by the IT department was not supported in the workplace. But employees ignored the rules. “This was when cheap digital cameras were first coming onto the market,” Clark recalls. People used them to take pictures of under-construction homes, upload the pictures to their work computers, and then e-mail them to out-of-state buyers, insurance brokers or contractors. Clark admits it was a great idea. It’s a lot easier to show a contractor a picture of the place on the wall that needs fixing than to try to describe it on the phone. Soon, however, the behavior reached a tipping point, which was when Clark knew he had to fix it.
Every camera had its own proprietary software, and the IT department didn’t have the resources to test every one to find out what it would do to its environment. When rogue cameras occasionally would appear, Clark made it clear that his department wouldn’t help users with any technical problems. IT also tried to find a camera solution the company could use because the business benefits were undeniable. Finally, about a year ago, a user suggested that Drees use Picasa, a free, camera-agnostic photo management application from Google. Clark ran a few tests, determined that it didn’t pose any risks and rolled it out. Picasa is now standard on every Drees computer.
Picasa is a free consumer application; a company using it doesn’t have to pay for licenses, but it won’t get any support from the vendor either. A recent survey by CIO magazine of 368 IT leaders found that 41 percent wouldn’t even consider such an application for use in their enterprises. But Clark, like the majority of technology executives surveyed, sees it differently. “Our attitude has changed a lot,” he says. “First, you can’t dismiss Google anymore. They aren’t some fly-by-night company.” Second—and he has learned this from experience—using freely available software can have a huge ROI. “We don’t teach people how to use it,” he says. “But when they do, it allows us to leverage someone else’s work at little to no cost. How can you not win in that situation?”