ERP Newsletter
 
NEWSLETTERS
 

CIO.com updates, insights and advice on technology, management and your career.

 
 
 
LEADERSHIP
 
CIO Executive Programs
The Leader in Face-to-Face Education for Senior Executives

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 »

 
CIO Executive Council
A Peer-Advisory Service and Professional Association for CIOs

Mid-Market CIO Panel: Tips and Techniques for Improving Vendor Relationships

July 15, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)

We'll highlight relationship priorities and best practices identified in a Council study, and we'll interact with a CIO panel on the approaches they've used to improve strategic vendor partnerships.

Secrets of Successful Vendor Contract Negotiations for the Mid-Market

Sept. 10, 2009, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM U.S./Eastern (GMT-4)

On this free public Council teleconference, Matthew A. Karlyn, attorney at Foley & Lardner in Boston, will share tips on negotiating tactics and new, creative contract terms to help mid-market CIOs make better deals.

Executive Competencies Assessment Tool

Assess Your Business Leadership Skills with the Council's new benchmarking tool. Rate yourself in change leadership, strategy, customer focus and more.

More / Register »

Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »



 
 
RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
 
SUBSCRIBE TO CIO
 
Are you involved in setting the direction for your company's IT budget or strategy?

Apply today for a FREE subscription to CIO Magazine!

 
 

Lessons for Mastering Corporate Politics

I used to be vice president and chief information officer for engineering and construction company Washington Group International. But last ...

 

July 01, 2004CIO

I used to be vice president and chief information officer for engineering and construction company Washington Group International. But last August, the company told me it had decided to eliminate the CIO position and outsource IT infrastructure operations to Perot Systems. While the news did upset me at first, this decision has ultimately become a pearl in an oyster for me. You see, just prior to this event, my wife had been offered a fabulous position in Singapore, and we were in the midst of deciding how to handle that fortuitous event.

Before I tell you my story and what I learned, let me tell you how I got to be where I was. At Washington Group, I worked my way up from group director to corporate director, ultimately becoming the first CIO in the history of the company. At the time I became CIO in 2000, IT was a mess. Each business unit had its own IT, from applications to standards to people. The Hackett Group did a study of Washington Group and found 287 different financial systems in existence. Additionally, we had every make and model of e-mail, PC, network equipment, servers and so on. It was up to the corporate IT group to pull all these disparate systems and data together to create the "company view." I took on the additional challenge of changing an organization that was focused on the latest technology to one that would be focused on operational excellence and service delivery. I still remember a good business associate of mine telling me that he didn’t know whether to congratulate or console me.

It was an exciting time at the company. We had just completed a $600 million acquisition of Westinghouse Government Services, and we were starting due diligence on a $2.8 billion acquisition of Raytheon’s engineering and construction business that would more than double the size of the company. My boss, the new CFO, brought a very progressive leadership style to Washington Group. We made great progress during this time; about half the company was installed on one ERP system, and we reengineered many core financial processes. (One result: The monthly financial closing cycle was reduced from 28 days to seven.) We also installed a new enterprise data center and a single e-mail system for 13,000 users, and consolidated the independent IT organizations into operations and applications groups. In addition, we implemented a new project management program and launched a new network to connect more than 120 locations.

 
 
Loading...
 
WHITE PAPERS

Communications Transformation Platform

The Communications Transformation Platform enables you to provide the services your customers demand - faster, cheaper and with less risk.
 

Global Change in the TV Industry

Capgemini and MediaXchange have captured key insight to the change across the TV industry.
 

5 Key Requirements of Quality Power

What your IT equipment needs from a UPS: The top five requirements that define "quality power" in the eyes of the power supplies in your IT systems.
 

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for IT PPM Applications

This report evaluates 19 vendors on their ability to execute and completeness of vision.
 

Best Practices to Mitigate Risk

Make SOX Efforts More Effective
 

Keep Your CMDB On Course

Learn how configuration drift can challenge configuration management database integrity.
 

WEBCASTS

Managing Client Systems in the Enterprise

Keeping client systems costs under control is just one of the many initiatives IT must address when trying to manag...
 

IT Consolidation Made Easy

The Primary IT Initiative for Reducing Costs
 

Webcast with Dan Vesset: Investing in Business Analytics Technology

What exactly is business analytics and why should you care? Dan Vesset of IDC and Gaurav Verma of SAS answer this a...
 

Capitalize on Your SAP Content

After 18 years of partnership and over 3,000 successful customer deployments, Open Text has become SAP's premier pa...
 

Enterprise Cloud Computing: Ready for Primetime?

The progression toward enterprise cloud computing is happening today, as industry leaders deploy technologies that ...
 

BSM in the Field, Practical Insights from Peter Armaly

Have you thought about BSM, but haven't quite gotten the buy-in you need? Get down and dirty with BSM installations...
 

Resource Alerts

Get instant email notifications by topic when white papers, webcasts, and case studies are added to our library.

 
FEATURED SPONSORS
 
 
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

Taking the Service Desk to the Next Level

Communications and Collaboration Needs at Business Organizations

Using Open Source to Deploy Web Applications

Secondary Market Primer: Your Network at Half Price

Top-line Performance that's Bottom-line Efficient

Learn how a virtualized enterprise can help your company reduce costs

Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More?

Learn how to save 30% through project & portfolio management.

5 Steps to Automating Accounts Payable

BPM Survey Results: The Real-World Analysis

Ready to Act: 3 Recommendations for Agile Processes

Achieving Business Agility with Application Grid

Next Generation Enterprise Applications

Achieving Pervasive Performance Management

Smart Decisions: The Role of Key Performance Indicators

The Link Between Effective Online Business Banking and Web 2.0

Reduce risk, gain agility. See how Progress can help your business.

Improve ROI, lower TCO and reduce energy consumption.

Introducing the new HP ProLiant G6 server family

Accenture: Outsourcing for Competitive Advantage. More...

Better spam protection with Postini for just $1/user/mo

Introducing the new HP ProLiant G6 server family

infoBOOM! - The Mid-Sized Company CIO's Exclusive Community

Accenture IT Consulting: Logical meets technological. More . . .

The Fraudster Economy Model: Operating a Business in the Underground

Why Data Loss is Increasing--and What You Can Do About It

Learn how to managing client systems in the enterprise.

Build a High-Performance Open Web Platform

How Interactive Viewer Reduces the Effort to Meet Visualization Requirements

Stop Application Fraud at the Source with Device Reputation

Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Infrastructure

The Global Marketplace Today: Strategies for Tough Times

Top 10 Business and IT Drivers for the Wealth Management Sector

8 Key Ingredients to Building an Internal Cloud

BPM: Leveraging Competencies and Streamlining Processes to Achieve Operational Excellence

White Paper: The Building Blocks for Cloud Computing

Craft a Strategy to Lower Your Total Cost of Ownership

A Natural User Interface for Enterprise Applications

Delivering Secure and Reliable Data through Spreadsheet Automation

Financial Institutions Need Rich Internet Applicatons

"Enterprise-Proven" is the Prerequisite for Enterprise SaaS Portal Solutions

64-page prescriptive guide to security, compliance, and IT operations.

Get Google Enterprise Search for your business information.

Accenture IT Consulting: Enabling high performance. More...

Top Five CIO Challenges

Insight makes it easy to spend your Microsoft subsidy check.

Five minute business analytics assessment. Immediate results.

Dangerous Collaboration Practices: 5 Ways IT Can Minimize Risk

Accenture: Outsourcing for uncertain times. Click to learn more.

Keep online transactions fast with CA Wily APM