CIO Blogs
Must-read commentary from expert contributors
Best practices, advice, research for IT leaders
As the COVID-19 crisis continues to challenge the IT community, IT leaders turn to experts, peers and research for help with those issues and more.
Security executives succeeding in the chaotic coronavirus world
What a crazy world we live in – employees working from home, “dirty” personal devices being used to access corporate data, furloughed employees still maintaining corporate IT assets and access – all while the quantity and variety of cyberattacks and fraud is drastically increasing. Corporate security executives have never had a harder set of challenges to deal with.
Crossing the project-to-product chasm
Most IT organizations have honed their ability to deliver projects when the scope and desired outcome are static, but struggle when priorities shift or are not clearly defined. Several leading IT organizations have turned to product-based IT to cut through this ambiguity and elevate their role from service provider to business partner.
Is your business about to be disrupted by data?
The challenge of dealing with COVID-19 comes on top of recent trends in data-driven innovation and presents challenges and opportunities for companies across all sectors.
Make it a spreadsheet problem
Making data-driven business decisions can change the entire equation.
Predictive analytics unlocks factory capacity at Reynolds
Rita Fisher, CIO and SVP of Supply Chain, discusses her approach to digitizing plant operations at the global consumer products company.
5 key ingredients for the ideal board resume
Whether it’s a DIY rewrite of your executive CV or a professionally produced document, every board candidate needs a resume that shines.
Let’s learn from Europe’s broadband mistake
Former Congressman Rick Boucher, founder of the House Internet Caucus, says the US’s better internet performance during the coronavirus pandemic is attributable to sustained private investment that has been encouraged by a light-touch regulatory regime for broadband.
5 steps to assess offshore support risk (and 5 steps to address critical needs)
To ensure continuity of critical operations, all businesses should take these practical steps to engage, assess, and partner with offshore service providers.
Hold the DAM
Why starting with a data strategy is key to successful Digital Asset Management.
A CIO's checklist for executing the COVID pivot
Simultaneously adjusting to new realities and developing forward-looking plans is near-impossible. This checklist will help you focus your efforts.
COVID-19 thrusts e-commerce into the spotlight
3 stages to becoming a digital business in a novel economy.Post COVID-19 business models: Finding the new normal
Pivots and process changes, yes. New normal? Not so fast.
How PetSmart IT grooms the customer experience
Mike Goodwin, CIO, discusses how a new product management model is key to streamlining the "pet parent's" customer experience.
What the coronavirus has taught us about transformation
Becoming 100% virtual is a major disruptor to the way we do business, the way we learn and the way we live – but it is also propelling us forward while making use of fully available technology.
Effective IT cost optimization starts with internal alignment
Take the time to understand the priorities and objectives of business stakeholders and avoid the natural tendency to apply immediate pressure to vendor partners.
4 ways CIOs can drive circular economy innovations
CIOs are well-positioned to take a leading role in creating new business value and bolstering competitive agility in the circular economy.
Passion over profits: What nonprofit boards have to offer CIOs
Count on gaining useful experience and connections, but not the right skills to qualify for a corporate board seat.
Funding digital transformation through financial management agility
Navigating digital disruption requires a clear decision-making framework that is pwered by efficient and dynamic financial management practices.
5 tips for executing a successful ERP go-live
Few experiences in the business world compare to managing an ERP go-live. Here's how to set yourself up for success.
Finding the right balance in multi-cloud data management
IT leaders today have a lot more to consider in building a cloud-based and data-driven infrastructure than juggling resources and maintaining costs.
How to bring order to chaos
When taking charge of an organization characterized by chaos, use these principles to help quickly turn the ship get things under control.
Land O'Lakes IT whips up business outcomes
To encourage cross-functional product teams to focus on business outcomes, CIO Marc Carlson replaces spot bonuses with a long-term incentive plan.
5 tips for navigating supplier relationships in an economic downturn
Don't let cost-cutting derail your digital transformation; take these steps to strengthen supplier relationships.
How the COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping healthcare with technology
It’s a remarkable story that is playing out in the technology-led enablement at the back end of healthcare organizations, even as the headlines are dominated by the heroic response efforts at the front lines of care.
Reskill for technology: Take a risk and invest in yourself
Technology changed in the way we work, impacting up to 54% of all employees who need to become digitally fluent almost overnight.
When it comes to cybersecurity, we need to adapt for now and the future
As we adapt to a future of remote workers, this is a critical time to ensure you have an incident response plan in place, and can adapt for an indefinite change in operational processes – including who is managing this response.
Briefing the board on security: Put data in the driver’s seat
Skip the scare tactics and cultivate “tech champions” among your board directors via data-driven stories and cybersecurity scorecards.
3 important things about online presentations
Online presentations have unique requirements for success. Here are three important things to keep in mind as you prepare and deliver a presentation online.
10 suggestions to lead effectively during an unprecedented pandemic
Be an effective crisis leader. The world needs leadership now, and it needs it from you.
How to keep hiring and onboarding new talent while working remotely
You can’t afford to slow down filling necessary positions when your offices are closed.
Data ahead! How smart products are changing the traditional sales cycle
Smart and connected products are changing the traditional sales funnel and customer lifecycle and presenting new challenges and opportunities for CIOs.
COVID-19’s impact on the enterprise and remote work
With the COVID-19 virus forcing people to stay at home, many enterprises suddenly have to support an entirely remote workforce. IDG influencers shared advice about how IT leaders can handle this new dynamic and the technology required during a recent #IDGTECHtalk Twitter chat.
5 ways to tick off a CISO
As a venture capitalist that invests solely in seed stage cybersecurity entrepreneurs, I often ask myself what keeps CISOs up at night to inform which gaps the next round of enterprise security products needs to address.
How to get the most out of working remotely
Global teams are connecting virtually to solve complex problems, which creates more opportunities to work remotely. But how will this shift affect employees and how does gender play into it?
Fear, loathing and profits – the battle over data access and data privacy in healthcare
The proponents of data access declare it to be a fundamental right for consumers. Those who stand to profit – or lose – from open access to patient data have different points of view.
Cloud 2.0 is coming – and it’s what you thought Cloud 1.0 would be
The cloud has changed the way we think about data management and distributed workloads. With one big gotcha. Thankfully, that’s about to change.
4 strategies for board presentation success
Veteran execs share their best advice on understanding the mindset of the board.
Why AI as a service is poised to take off
Like SaaS before it, AIaaS is a boon for businesses that want tap into the power of AI — without the time and expense of developing their own AI-based systems.
Organizing around the value stream
When working on multiple projects at once, it is hard to make good progress. If we organize around the value stream, then we can help the work to flow through our system.
Creating a new funding model for product-based IT
Shifting from project-based funding to product team-based funding is a major cultural and operational change – but can result in better relationships with business partners, and less expensive, more efficient ways to deliver higher-quality products.
The two things customers want from cloud vendors
Cloud vendors could go a long way toward building trust with their customers and differentiating themselves in the market with two key changes in their approach.
The 12 CIO skills every company wants
How one executive recruiter assesses the talent market.
Playing the "long game" of networking to earn a board seat
Landing your first board director role is often a multi-year effort. Be prepared to expand the diversity of your connections while building your breadth of business experience.
Is your patience holding you back at work?
Patience as a virtue might have made sense in the “Father Knows Best” era, but do those rules still apply?
Enterprise security in 2020: How to keep attackers out
When every employee is part of the security equation, having a security culture that includes education, collaboration between IT operations and security teams, and security tools is essential. That was the consensus among participants in a recent IDG TECH(talk) discussion.
4 lessons from the Hertz vs. Accenture IT disaster
A tremendous amount of information and specific insight can be gleaned by analyzing projects gone wrong. Here are four lessons IT leaders can apply to any outsourcing agreement.
The next casualty of cyberwar could be your business
We seem to live perpetually in a state of heightened alert, and companies need to ensure their security teams are prepared for a nation-state cyberattack and be able to react in a split second.
Engineering the hiring of engineers
Engineering is much more than just writing code – it’s about improving a system. By re-engineering our hiring processes, we can bring much-needed efficiency and results to the system.