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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.

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Guiding Your IT Department on the Road to Change

After two mergers, the CIO of logistics provider YRC Worldwide had to carefully apply change leadership techniques to blend three IT departments into one.

 

July 13, 2007CIO

Although I was hired by YRC Worldwide nearly two years ago to create a strategy to drive innovation, I quickly realized that there was more work to do within IT than just creating a strategy. In the wake of the merger of Yellow Freight, Roadway and USF, the IT groups from our three companies operating in multiple locations had been merged into one unit but had yet to jell into a cohesive team. Adding to the stress from its change of identity, the group had to develop an application road map for the merged organization that would modernize and simplify the application portfolio. Only then would we be able to free up the resources needed to focus on innovation and driving growth. The IT transformation is the biggest change effort ever seen within IT, ultimately involving hundreds of people.

The size and scope of such a task requires change leadership from the CIO. I have to be actively involved, and it's a tough balancing act. I've been spending between 20 to 30 percent of my time as the hands-on manager of our change initiatives during the past 18 months while at the same time fulfilling my strategic role.

Fortunately, change leadership is one of the C-level competencies that seems to be native to the IT profession, even in the middle-management ranks. There aren't many disciplines that have experienced as much change during the past 20 years as IT. People who have worked in IT over time have benefited from rolling with a series of technology changes. That experience makes us less resistant to change.

When we become corporate executives, we quickly realize that we are not working in a dictatorship. We learn that we have to take time to understand the needs of our constituents and stakeholders and help them along with technology changes. Without these basic change leadership skills, no IT leader is going to get far.

Creating a Corporate Identity
After the mergers, we had multiple technologies used for similar functions, and this creates a level of complexity that is difficult to manage. It's taken a year and a half to evaluate our portfolio and to decide which of the applications and technologies we want going forward as well as how to manage the migration to our target state. Our target state represents a 40 percent reduction in applications and a 30 percent reduction in total technologies by the end of 2010.

 
 
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WHITE PAPERS

Why an Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, EPPM

Beyond traditional project portfolio management, Primavera P6 EPPM improves visibility into every aspect of the project manufacturing process.
 

Reinventing Infrastructure Management

This paper, based on recent research among CIOs and IT leaders, examines why a new infrastructure management model is needed and how it can be achieved.
 

Standardizing Best Practices with Technology

A guide for engineering and construction (E&C) firms choosing the right technology to promote standardization across their organizations.
 

Unlock Hidden IT Opportunities

How can your organization weather this economic storm? Surprisingly, a variety of opportunities for IT are hidden within todays financial challenges.
 

White Paper: Innovation and IT

Download this paper for further results and guidance in making wise IT investments that lead to innovation success.
 

Strategies for Tough Economic Times

This paper includes interviews with corporate executives and broad-based strategic and economic analyses of what is happening in the global marketplace today, as well as strategies for tough times.
 

WEBCASTS

Beyond Installing ITPM Software: How a global company reduced risk and successfully implemented ITPM

Live Webcast: November 11, 2009
1:00 PM EST

Hear directly from one of your peers who has reduced risk...
 

IT Consolidation Made Easy

The Primary IT Initiative for Reducing Costs
 

Taking a Seat at the Executive Table: The Reality of Virtualization

This year, for the first time, the number of virtual machines is on track to exceed the number of physical machines...
 

Who Are the Data Center Leaders?

Today's data center is still very much a heterogeneous environment. Gabriel Consulting recently surveyed over 250 d...
 

SharePoint - Unchecked growth of content is unsustainable - now what?

Recent research has confirmed that it has become critical for IT leaders to reclaim authority over the SharePoint c...
 

Unleashing the Power of Customer Data

To hear how companies use feedback from their clients to develop business strategy, watch our video.
 

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