Archive for December, 2010

Turning a White Elephant Into Gold

December 10th, 2010

A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth. How do you know when your company or organization’s ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is the white elephant in the room? There tend to be two main drivers: 1) you cannot get rid of it; 2) upkeep and upgrades cost a lot of money. This is what the IT department at Gettysburg College had to deal with in regards to their particular PeopleSoft ERP system. However, their white elephant had “red and green stripes.” The green refers to money lying around it and the red reflects people lying around it. Turning the PeopleSoft system into something of value was so important to the college because of its reach and scope within the campus community.

About 10 years ago Gettysburg started with the implementation (’99-’00) of their PeopleSoft ERP. The school spent $15 million on this implementation. Rodney Tosten, the current Vice President of IT at Gettysburg College was a teacher for the college at the time. He can recall other faculty members being upset at the amount of money spent on a back office ERP system. The maintenance costs were a quarter of a million dollars per year out the door just to keep the system running. The system in general did not seem like a good fit for the college. In terms of personnel costs, the people who were involved with this project are no longer working for the college. There have been two CIOs that have come and gone since this particular project started. There are also political costs associated with the ERP system. It was difficult getting the faculty to feel comfortable using the system. When they were logged into PeopleSoft, all they think about is the amount of money that was spent on it and not about its value. It turned out to be the system on campus that people loved to hate. The costs at that point seemed to far exceed the benefits and it left people like Rodney wondering, “where is the payoff?”

To find out how Rodney and Gettysburg College turned their white ERP into gold, take a look at our IMF Report: Customizing an ERP to Support the Core Mission of an Organization.

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IT Jobs: Made in China

December 9th, 2010

While the job picture in the U.S. “seems” to be improving, the IT sector appears to be a mixed bag. The good news is that the number of IT jobs lost over the next few years will decrease. However, as far as job creation goes, the future looks bleak. This is all according to a study done by the Hackett Group. CIO.com spoke to a couple of Hackett’s lead researchers and you can read that interview right HERE. The following is a short snippet from the article:

“… CIO.com: You predict that IT job loss will level off at around 115,000 jobs a year, at least until 2014. What happens after that?

Michel Jannsen: In the corporate world, it’s going to be a grizzly picture here. [Net IT job loss] could continue until 10, 15 years from now.

Honorio Padron: Even longer. You know, the Chinese are now outsourcing to South Africa because it’s cheaper. [U.S. IT job loss] is going to go on for a long time. It could be 50 years.

Michel Jannsen: Companies have to understand the global marketplace. What we have is an asymmetrical talent war. In Asia or India the question is, ‘How do I hire 500 people?’ In the U.S. it will be, ‘How do I hire 5, 10, or 50?’ In the U.S., they will be hiring professionals with very specialized industry skills, the ability to manage in the global context, or experience in new technologies…”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for IT employees, huh? Obviously this outsourcing and off-shoring isn’t a new development. It is also clear there are many benefits to doing business this way. Now I may be a bit naieve but I think this is a trend that needs to be reversed. It is bad enough now that everything you buy in the U.S. says “Made in China” but now that even applies to employees and workers. How is this country to get back on its feet if we keep shipping jobs overseas? I know the this argument has been made millions of times by millions of people but I encourage to read this whole interview and then think about all of the bright young minds out there who are enthralled with IT. What are they supposed to do? It would be an absolute shame to see that talent go to waste.

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Posted in IT Outsourcing, IT Workforce

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Securing Your Information in 2011, Part 3

December 3rd, 2010

Part 3 of our series concludes today with four more things you should be aware of heading into 2011 when it comes to information security.

7. Cryptographic Key Management

Issue: Managing all the cryptographic keys that have been created to protect confidential information.

Considerations: Has a cryptographic key management framework been developed that includes establishing and maintaining-

- A cryptographic key inventory

- A cryptographic key recovery plan

- A cryptographic change frequency plan

8. Prove Appropriate Levels of Security

Issue: Establishing a rigorous and reliable approach to evaluating the risks presented by third parties to whom information or responsibilities are outsourced.

Considerations: Does the firm-

- Conduct rigorous vendor due diligence at the inception of the relationship and on an ongoing basis thereafter

- Routinely obtain Independent Risk Assessments

- Obtain external Certifications such as ISO 27001 or SAS 70

9. Pandemic Planning

Issue: Maintaining a robust business continuity plan (BCP). Today’s BCP must be very different from previous BCPs that emphasized alternate locations, equipment, and creature-comforts.

Considerations: Does the BCP take into account-

- Half the staff being absent for 2 weeks

- An 8 week effect (rolling outages)

- Critical personnel being incapacitated

- Areas of business that may be affected by the incapacity or unavailability of public infrastructure, sub-contractors, and outsourced relationships

10. Virtual Machine Security

Issue: As virtualization technologies become more widespread, so too has the concern over the associated vulnerabilities. Generally speaking, virtual machines can have all of the same security threats as traditional operating systems and physical servers. Moreover, virtual machine software is very powerful, can “spawn” quickly, and can be allowed to consume resources and allow for excessive access.

Considerations:

- What unique security issues does the VM environment present?

- How have the incident detection methods and reporting been revised to specifically address the virtual environment?

- What changes have been made to ensure the continued effectiveness of the incident response plan in a VM environment?

If you would like to find out more about these security threats and prevention methods, please download our report, Key Information Security Activities for 2011.

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Posted in IT Security

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