For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

How Green Is Your IT Infrastructure?

The Value Of A Green IT Maturity Assessment

by Simon Yates, December 29, 2009

If a CIO's first step toward greener IT is to make a maturity assessment, then the next step is to interview the IT infrastructure and operations department, where most green IT initiatives initially take hold. Are you ready for that conversation?

For CIOs

IT Leaders Lack Skills For The Most Important Cost-Reduction Activities

Process Redesign And Project Management Hold The Most Promise With The Least Expertise

by Marc Cecere, December 9, 2009

What cost-reduction activities are important to IT? And how mature are IT leaders at performing those activities? We posed these questions in a survey to 56 senior IT people. The results? Process redesign and project management were the most important . . .

For CIOs

The Value Of A Green IT Maturity Assessment

Introducing Forrester's Green IT Maturity Assessment Methodology

by Doug Washburn, Christopher Mines, October 20, 2009

CIOs recognize the importance of environmental considerations in planning IT operations, but they are often unsure about how to put that recognition into action. With sustainability rising on the corporate agenda, and the cost, risk, and revenue benefits . . .

For CIOs

Two Texas Healthcare CIOs — Driven To Innovate

Texas Health And CHRISTUS Health Both Have Entrepreneurial Execs

by Sharyn Leaver, July 15, 2009

It's an exciting time to be a healthcare CIO. Technology advancements, healthcare consumerism, and government funding have created a perfect storm of opportunity for innovation. Forrester recently spoke with Texas Health CIO Ed Marx and CHRISTUS Health . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

BT For I&O: Make IT Easy For The Business

BT Changes IT's Operating Model

by Simon Yates, May 12, 2009

IT's role is changing. As business units become ever more reliant on technology and more comfortable with implementing it themselves, IT is becoming an advisor and a service integrator rather than the direct manager of all technology assets. Forrester . . .

For CIOs

BT Changes IT's Operating Model

CIOs And Business Execs Balance BT Leadership Along An Operating Model Continuum

by Bobby Cameron, March 6, 2009

The transition from IT to BT continues, evidenced by the absorption of traditional IT roles throughout the business organization and the increasing number of business executives who are taking ownership of technology decisions. Successful BT operating . . .

For CIOs

Back To Basics — IT Strategy In Turbulent Times

Service Archetypes Focus IT Delivery Strategy

by Alexander Peters, Ph.D., February 4, 2009

Budget pressures and business expectations are squeezing IT as CIOs grapple with balancing efficiency and business enablement. CIOs can strengthen their position by mastering the business management practices identified by Harvard Business School's Evergreen . . .

For Technology Sales Enablement Professionals

Role Profile: The CIO

Understanding And Marketing To The CIO Professional

by Emily Van Metre, Eric G. Brown, December 18, 2008

Knowing your customers will help your sales force start the right conversation with a prospect, understand how your products are relevant to your customers' daily life, and in the end help to land you a sale. This role profile will take you through key . . .

For CIOs

Changing IT's Culture — What's Cheap And Easy?

by Marc Cecere, December 3, 2008

Forrester asked 72 IT professionals about the importance, enablers, and costs of culture change. Our analysis broke down culture change into eight enablers that included rewards, policies, and peer actions. Some of our findings: Leaders' actions and statements . . .

For CIOs

CIOs: Must-Read Research In Economic Downturns

by Alex Cullen, November 5, 2008

The signs all point to an economic recession having started in 2008 and continuing into 2009, although there is no useful consensus on how long or how deep this recession will be. CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs struggle to make plans in this uncertain environment, . . .

For CIOs

The Three Basic Steps Toward Business Governance Of IT

Business Leadership Needs To Drive Governance, Not IT

by Craig Symons, October 14, 2008

Improving IT governance is on the agenda for many organizations as they attempt to improve the business value that they are getting from their IT investments, increase operational efficiencies, and reduce their risks. Unfortunately, there is a very important . . .

For CIOs

Managing IT When Times Get Tough

Proactive CIOs Will Help Firms Amid Economic Uncertainties

by Alex Cullen, Phil Murphy, March 25, 2008

Macroeconomic conditions, whether they are downturns or boom times, broadly shape the CIO's job, but the firm's own context drives action. The reality is that any business at any time may need to shift its executive focus toward running lean &mdash . . .

For CIOs

CIOs: So You Want To Be A Transformation Agent

Preparing For The Future — The Role Of The 21st Century CIO

by Alex Cullen, February 19, 2008

CIOs are looking at a fork in the road &mdash and some see how they can effect change in their enterprises, becoming agents of business transformation. These 21st century CIOs realize that firms that remain the same really lose ground in a competitive . . .

For CIOs

CIO Management Style Will Reflect IT Archetype

by Lewis Cardin, April 19, 2007

CIOs always look for ways to improve IT's value and effectiveness to the firm. One way is to structure and strengthen relationships with key stakeholder groups. This means being attuned to the assumptions and requirements for IT's contribution to the . . .

For CIOs

IT Leadership Maturity Checkup

IT's Operations Are More Mature Than Stakeholder Relationships, Strategy Links

by Bobby Cameron, February 22, 2007

Forrester has taken its IT leadership maturity model and tested it against the experience of 84 senior IT executives. This checkup looks at three sets of IT practices: linking technology to business strategy, running IT operations as a business, and relating . . .

IT Archetypes Help CIOs Optimize Career

Business' Expectations Of IT Define What Successful CIOs Do

by Bobby Cameron, August 21, 2006

CIOs' personal ambitions provide vital fuel for achieving career objectives. But this drive can result in frustration unless the success-focused IT exec recognizes that not all firms or business units want the same thing from their CIOs &mdash that . . .

How IT Leadership Shapes Manufacturer And Retailer Collaboration

by Christine Spivey Overby, February 28, 2006

In the consumer products industry, the CIO reporting relationship substantially affects collaboration with retailers and related technology initiatives. Firms use collaboration technologies to support top-line growth when CIOs report to CEOs; conversely, . . .

The CIO Profile

Are CIOs Too Tech-Oriented To Communicate Well With The Business?

by Bobby Cameron, October 7, 2005

Although CIOs have more access to the business than they did even a year ago, their background and time management choices have typecast them as technology specialists. Most business users view the CIO as a technology expert, and CIOs spend most of their . . .

What Must EA Do To Sustain SOA?

Enterprise Architecture's Leadership Role Must Change

by Alex Cullen, September 30, 2005

The concepts and philosophy of service-oriented architecture (SOA) are becoming mainstream in IT. Enterprise architecture (EA) has been largely successful at championing this change. The efforts by IT to incorporate SOA concepts can be characterized as . . .

CIOs Must Join Their Firms' Executive Rotation

CIOs Are Becoming General Managers — Not Technology Professionals

by Bobby Cameron, March 8, 2005

A fundamental change has occurred in the CIO role; no longer is the position reserved for technology professionals who have worked their way up through the ranks of the technology organization. Instead, more and more firms position their CIOs as general . . .

Defining the Leadership Model for the Project-Based Organization

by Marla Ramirez, November 1, 2002

The project-based organization introduces a flatter organizational structure and creates a more level playing field among different IT managers by redistributing the governance functions among a series of more crisply defined roles.

Building the Global IT Organization: Two Models, Two Approaches, Two CIO Leadership Styles

by Marla Ramirez, December 12, 2001

Many IT organizations are trying to become truly global to support global businesses. But the challenges faced by CIOs and the leadership skills required are quite different in centralized and decentralized IT organizations.

How Leaders Manage Their Time

by Marla Ramirez, November 13, 2001

Time management is one of the most difficult challenges of any CIO. And time management is one area of distinction of true leaders. The core of the time management issue is escaping the tyranny of the urgent to devote more time to the important.

When to Lead and When to Manage

by Marc Cecere, October 12, 2001

Leaders are truly different from managers and, though the current wisdom is that senior IT managers should aspire to be leaders, this isn t always either possible or the right thing to do.

Leadership Styles Reflect Roles in Disaster Response

by Robert Klehm, September 18, 2001

US President Bush and New York Mayor Giuliani demonstrated different leadership styles in their efforts to handle a traumatic situation. Senior IT management and line managers should consider these approaches as respective examples in their own roles.