The IMF Blog

Archive for April, 2010

Do you sleep with your cell phone? A look into generational differences and how it can affect the workplace

April 14th, 2010

By Natalie Phillips, IMF Operations Manager

Recently my six year old son asked to borrow my FLIP camcorder so that he could record himself completing a technically challenging course on Mario Wii and upload it to YouTube for others to see. He informed me that he had “mad skills” on this game and could show others how to reach his lofty level. . As a borderline Baby Boomer/Gen Y-er, my immediate response was “really”? Now, in all honesty, he did learn how to do this from his tech savvy ten year old brother, who also has a blog, a YouTube channel and at ripe old age of a decade old, is rapidly surpassing both of his college degreed computer science parents in his knowledge of social media. The generational difference that we have with our children transposes itself in our working relationships as well. No, I don’t work with six year olds; however, I do work with other boomers, Gen Yers, Gen X-ers /Millenials.

In a recent research study by Pew, “The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change”, they state that their biggest distinction as a generation is their use of technology. But it’s not just their gadgets – “it’s the way they’ve fused their social lives into them”. So much so, that 83% of Millennials have slept with their cell phones.

The research is really amazing and enlightening to how the different generations view a variety of different things. In business, appealing to the multi-generational masses can be challenging and keeping up with social media is moving quickly in many directions. So how do you know which one is the right one for your company to use? How do you engage customers and prospects using the social media? Do you want your company’s product demonstration on YouTube to be found in a search with my son’s wicked mad Wii video? Probably not.

Related IMF Event:

Join us for our WebForum Thursday, April 29^th at 2PM EST where we will learn about social medias role in a BtoB world from an industry expert from Arketi, a company that specializes in marketing and PR.

Many BtoB marketers are rapidly embracing social media and integrating it into their marketing mix as a way to engage customers and prospects. But others are still sitting on the virtual sideline.

Is YouTube truly relevant to your audience? What type of things should you be tweeting, via Twitter? Can a social media news release help with search marketing?

This webinar will address:

• Striking the right balance between listening and engaging

• Learning key components of effective BtoB social media strategies

• Establishing your brand’s social media presence through an integrated approach

• See case studies of BtoB companies successfully leveraging social media

For more information please contact : information@theimf.com

About the Author:

Natalie serves as Operations Manager for the Information Management Forum and Global Information Partners. She has more than 20 years of experience in a variety IT marketing and project management roles. She also has extensive hands-on leadership experience in integrating disparate IT, Marketing and Operations initiatives, including more than eight years at Home Depot, where she most recently directed the global B2B Services organization. In that capacity, Natalie successfully enabled cutting-edge electronic invoicing, logistics and distribution processes across one of the retail industries largest and most diverse supply chains. While at The Home Depot, Natalie also managed several large projects including the International SAP project and Y2K initiative. Natalie has also held several management positions at companies such as BetweenMarkets, Borland, Powersoft/Sybase and has been able to build bridges from industry-standard to industry-leading by developing innovative competitive advantages in rapidly changing environments.Natalie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from The University of New Haven.

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Posted in Strategy

Tags: Baby Boomer Generation X Generation Y generational differences in the workplace Millenials Pew Research Study: The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change"

Props to Peer to Peer Networking

April 13th, 2010

By: May Advincula, IMF Communication Manager

Professional peer to peer networking offers individuals the opportunity to interact with others in their industry and to leverage their experiences. As a result, applications of gained knowledge through learning sessions allow individuals to influence the current practices of their respective organization. From a learning perspective as well as from a profit standpoint, the result is oftentimes beneficial to the organization as a whole.

As Matthew Moran wittingly noted in his article Professional Networking Made Easy, Primping the Pump, “It isn’t who you know, but who knows you and knows what you know.”

The Information Management Forum offers many services which allow IT professionals to learn from the best knowledge source in the industry- fellow peers. In particular, the IMF Connect process allows for specific concentration on a topic of interest. IMF Connects provide participants with focused insight and information that is drilled down to key points that will essentially help the organization with their next course of action.

More about IMF Connects:

Connects are information sharing sessions facilitated by IMF that allow you to leverage the knowledge and experience of your peers.

As a part of the Information Management Forum’s vast network, you will be connected to industry professionals who have a range of perspectives on issues currently affecting the trade. Not only will you be able to learn from their experiences, but they in turn can do the same with the insights that you contribute. With IMF member companies varying in size and scope, you are sure to find information that you will be able to apply to your own organization. As a result, you can potentially increase your organization’s cost savings and efficiency.

IMF Connects offer quality and vendor-free information that is focused and concise and provided at a fraction of the cost compared to other firms. Ultimately, you are linked to the best source of information in IT- your peers.

What happens once I submit a Connect request?

After you submit a Connect request, IMF will find members who are interested in discussing their insights on your particular issue. The IMF then schedules and facilitates a web conference or meeting. Upon completion of the connect session, IMF will summarize the results in a Connect report for future reference. (*Note: Company names are removed from these reports to maintain privacy.)

Connect Examples:

In the first quarter, IMF member-initiated connects revolved around web mail solutions, severity levels of incidents, and corporate mentoring programs.

In order to improve its existing processes, one IMF member was interested in exploring how other IT organizations defined their severity levels of incidents reported. This organization already had a service desk process in place, and though it what been working well, the organization desired to reassess the process in order to adjust to changing business requirements.

Another IMF company was interested in beginning a corporate mentoring program for high school students. The organization already had an internal mentoring program in place, but wanted to design an external program to help youths in their community. They also wanted to examine challenges that are often encountered, legality, and other best practices for establishment of these types of programs.

To read the first quarter Connect report in its entirety please click here. (Members must be logged in to download.)

If you are not a member, and are interested in obtaining a copy of the Connect report, please click here.

Have you utilized professional peer to peer networking? What are some of the benefits that you’ve experienced? Comment or tell us on Twitter via @ITInfoForum

About the Author:

May serves as the Communication Manager for the Information Management Forum. Through this role May is able to provide members with access to IT-related information from various IMF forums and web forums held throughout the year. She accomplishes this primarily through management of the reports process which involves transcription, editing, and publishing as well as through utilization of social media applications to update members with the latest IMF content. May graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism specializing in Publication Management

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Posted in IMF Updates, Strategy

Tags: IMF Connect IT industry professional network peer to peer networking

Is Storage Reclamation a Financially Prudent Strategy?

April 12th, 2010

By Caleb Masland

Two years ago, I spoke with a group of storage infrastructure managers about their storage management strategies, and nearly all of them had an active project or pilot focused on storage reclamation. These efforts were positioned anywhere from a small operations team to the Enterprise Configuration Management group, but the reasons for the push were generally of the following “flavor”:

· Storage proliferation is out of control, and we need to get a handle on how to manage the footprint

· Although the unit cost for new storage is getting lower over time, we’re either running out of physical space in our current datacenter(s) or are in the process of consolidating datacenters and need to make a commensurate consolidation of storage

· We have regulatory/compliance issues which make an assessment of the storage environment necessary – policies dictate retention periods which may or may not be properly upheld and this process is part of an assessment and cleanup effort.

On its basic merits, this strategy seemed like a smart strategy: Spend less on buying and installing new storage by getting more out of what we’ve already got.

More recently, I am hearing a very different story from many storage teams. There are some very compelling arguments to abandon the “reclaim and redeploy” strategy, and fall back to the plan of buying storage as needed. The reasons for this are very sound:

1. Storage reclamation has proved to be a labor intensive process, to the point which the labor cost makes these efforts more expensive (on a per GB basis).

2. Network/datacenter interconnectedness continues to improve, making wholesale moves of stored data easier. In this way, data can more easily be moved to archive environments or into a more efficient active environment.

3. Storage is still declining in unit acquisition cost while technology continues to improve such that more storage fits into a smaller space. In this sense, replacing older storage arrays with new hardware both reduces the unit cost of management and reduces the physical footprint of the storage infrastructure.

What is your storage team strategy? Comment or tell us on Twitter @ITInfoForum

About the Author:

Caleb Masland oversees the IMF Benchmark Forum and IMF Connect services and serves as a consultant on benchmarking engagements for Global Information Partners. Through these roles, Caleb strives to uncover improvement opportunities for clients and to deliver quality projects for client satisfaction. He has also been a contributor at IT Finance conferences on subjects such as IT Benchmarking Trends and Best Practices.