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 »September 14, 2007 — CIO —
It is striking how most everyone will insist that communication is a key activity to successful outsourcing. So why the heck can it be so darn hard to make people within an organization understand what is going on? And why is it so hard to have clear-cut communication between the outsourcer and the outsourced?
The reason to outsource is mainly to cut costs and thus improve the bottom line. Consequently, efficient communication becomes second priority and far too often gets lost somewhere along the way. However, focusing on IT costs alone will not make a difference to the IT organization unless there is an actual understanding of what is going on. Sure, any project manager will know the importance of communicating so that expectations will—at least in theory—match the deliverables. And even if the project managers do it all by the book, it is still often a limited audience that gets the information.
As an example, on one outsourcing contract it turned out that the dedicated intranet was read each month by only 10 percent of the employees. With such a poor hit rate, it does not matter how much effort is put into the intranet. If it is not read, it is useless.
Key elements to overcoming some of the communication obstacles, and therefore improving the overall perception of a global outsourcing agreement, include: