I guess the answer really depends on what complaints are being hurled in the IT department’s direction. Do people feel as though you’re stifling innovation? In other words, let’s say the business comes to IT with an idea. In some cases, IT may shoot it down right away because of security concerns or systems compatibility issues. That’s not always the best approach when trying to polish your reputation. A better idea is having both sides collaborate in order to find a way to produce the desired outcome. Educate the business. Besides, IT working side-by-side with the business is a win-win for everyone involved and the organization as a whole.

What if your IT department is catching a bad rap for promising the moon and stars, yet falling staggeringly short of expectations? Maybe a project overshot its budget by a sizeable amount or took twice as long to complete. It’s also possible the end result just wasn’t up to par. These issues can be caused by a variety of reasons, such as:

- Poor project management

- Unrealistic expectations

- Strategy misalignment

- System constraints

- Unexpected complexity

- Communication problems

IT has to be relevant to the business and that’s the bottom-line. When an IT manager shows up to a meeting, you don’t want the response to be something along the lines of “oh here’s the IT guy.” Let’s be honest, there’s no doubt that IT is a huge asset but that value needs to be on display and promoted throughout the organization. How is your IT shop viewed and how do you plan to sharpen its image?

Here are some great articles on how to improve IT’s reputation and effectiveness:

5 Ways to Improve IT Effectiveness (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

IT’s Reputation Problem (Real User Monitoring Blog)

Improving IT’s Image and Brand (Processor)

Why IT Has a Credibility Problem (Information Week)

5 Ways to Improve Your IT Department’s Reputation (Agile IT Blog by Doug Luxem)

This report looks at the value of an EPMO with regards to things like organizational strategy alignment. It walks the reader through a deployment approach focusing on three phases: Intent, Implementation, and Realization. You will also get an in-depth look at the particular EPMO model SunTrust selected as well as some background around those particular decisions.

This section of the report talks about the value that PMOs bring to projects and their organizations (download the full IMF Report here):

“The value proposition of the EPMO is clear. There is a line of industry data that describes typical project performance and the influence that a PMO brings to the table. Generally speaking, project execution can be wrought with challenges. If you look on the right side of Figure 1, nearly ¾ of all projects fail or run into trouble.  The majority are either failing or challenged, meaning they are not delivering on time, on budget, or within the intended specified scope. The size of the company does not seem to matter, with large, medium, and small companies alike are running into problems with their projects a majority of the time.

Just looking at the numbers in Figure 1, you can see that organizations cancel 25% of launched projects, with 10% of those being valued at more than $200k. That adds up to be a sizable amount of wasted capital. Two-thirds of today’s organizations have a PMO. Focusing on larger projects of $500k or more, projects are successful three out of four times when a PMO is involved. That statistic alone should demonstrate why utilizing a PMO is a great idea; PMOs bring value to the table. Two-thirds of companies that have a PMO in place also have a process for aligning projects with strategy. That is a very important component of an enterprise model. Nearly 70% of organizations implementing

PMOs reported that their project success rates have improved significantly as a result. The last bullet point in Figure 1 should really stand out:

“Companies with a mature PMO met expectations 90% of the time”

While a PMO does add value, it needs to mature in order for the benefits to come to full fruition. The statistics definitely bear out that notion…“

• Which types of devices will you allow?

• Will you provide a stipend to your employees for device purchases?

• How much support are you willing to provide for the devices?

• Should you set up restrictions around who is eligible for a personal device?

• What procedures are in place if a device is compromised, lost, or stolen? (Ex. Device Wipe)

• Which Mobile Device Management (MDM) technology vendor should you select?

• Does your organization have the necessary infrastructure in place for a BYOD model?

The factors above merely scratch the surface when it comes to creating an effective BYOD policy. Whatever policy you decide on, be sure to make it adaptable. Don’t assume that one policy size fits all users. Plus, at the rate new devices explode onto the scene, there’s no telling what your company will have to prepare for next. Consumerization and BYOD are realities and they are here to stay. Don’t put your organization behind the 8-ball. It’s time to get the right policies and technologies in place.

IMF members interested in learning more about BYOD policies are encouraged to attend our Innovation Forum taking place June 7^th - 8^th in Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center. NASA’s Adrian Gardner will speak on the topic and discuss the issues with meeting attendees. For more details, visit this year’s Innovation Forum meeting page on our website.

Here is a little extra reading on BYOD policies, concerns, best practices, and statistics:

BYOD or Bust: Survey Results Report (Software Advice)

Best Practices & Effective Policies in a BYOD Environment (ComputerWorld UK)

BYOD Best Practices: Three Pitfalls You Can’t Afford to Ignore (Trend Consumerization Blog)

More Than 12 Thoughts on BYOD Best Practices (MOBI Wireless Management)

Video: Consumerization of IT in the Enterprise (Avnet Inc. YouTube)

Think about the way your organization operates now in terms of its business, processes, and people. Josh Linkner wrote an article for Inc.com called 7 Steps to a Culture of Innovation and some of those steps include ideas like fueling passion, encouraging courage, and failing forward. Collaboration also breeds innovation. However, all of this can mean change in how a company decides to operate and some are reluctant to change with the times. In the ever growing global marketplace companies must adapt to survive and often times change is necessary.

I mentioned people and processes above for a reason. Innovation needs to permeate throughout the organization. For example, in the hiring process, HR needs to look for individuals who are creative and display the characteristics of working well in an innovative and collaborative culture. The Finance department may influence innovation based on how they decide to manage and govern an organization’s risk and investments. Culture infers that everyone has to build innovation into their daily habits and processes in order for the concept to prove fruitful.

Here are a couple of links that deal with creating a culture of innovation in your company:

Avoiding Key Mistakes on the Way to Innovation (Huffington Post)

Six Secrets to Creating a Culture of Innovation (Harvard Business Review Blog)

Video: Interview with David Kester, Chief Executive of Design Council (Harvard Business YouTube)

If you are interested in hearing more about creating an innovative culture, IMF members are encouraged to attend our Innovation Forum taking place June 7^th - 8^th in Atlanta. Matt Manzella, Director of Strategy and Innovation Services at Allstate, will be there to discuss the topic with attendees. For more details on this year’s Innovation Forum, visit the meeting page on our website.

It’s hard to imagine that those tiny dots can lead to such personal frustration and corporate collapse. Passwords in many cases are the only thing standing guard over your sensitive information. From an organization’s perspective, they may have hundreds or even thousands of individual passwords that protect company data and all of them are ripe for the picking. In today’s world you need passwords for everything, from your social networking sites to your online banking account. People are busy running in a million different directions so nobody has the desire to memorize 10-20 passwords. I’m guilty of it as well, using the same password for multiple accounts. This concept of password reuse is the biggest problem with passwords in general according to John Sawyer, who wrote a piece for DarkReading.com called “How to Hack the Password Problem.”

In theory, people are going to do what is easy and convenient for them and memorizing a bunch of passwords falls into neither of those categories. Organizations will typically conduct some kind of security awareness training to emphasize the power of their employees’ passwords and why it is critical they take it seriously. That only goes so far though and what you might end up with are employees putting all of their passwords into an easily accessible spreadsheet or, worse yet, writing them down on a sticky note. Instead, Sawyer recommends simple desktop based management tools like Password Safe or LastPass and enterprise single sign-on solutions such as those offered by Oracle and CA. He ends with this comment, which I think hit the nail on the head in terms of password issues with users:

“…if a company wants to address an issue like passwords, then it has to make it easy for the

user and not rely solely on the user to be the more secure link in the chain.”

Then again, some feel that passwords are becoming obsolete altogether due to their unfriendly nature. How do you feel about passwords in general and what steps does your organization take to address password security?

“It does not matter if you put up a Facebook page while

your customers are complaining on Twitter.”

In other words, know what platforms your customers are using and, taking it a step further, how they are using them. Once you have solved this equation, then you can dedicate your organization’s resources in the right way instead of taking a “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” approach. Again, a lot of companies have the desire to establish a social media presence but they have no real purpose behind their efforts other than simply wanting to be involved in the phenomenon. Queue Jason Breed again:

“You need to do social on purpose–otherwise, you are

simply moving for the sake of motion.”

I suggest you read Debra’s article on the matter as she talks to a couple of business owners about how they developed their company’s social media strategy. It might make you rethink your strategy or lack thereof altogether. For more discussion on this issue, attend our Innovation Forum, June 7^th and 8^th in Atlanta, to hear PwC’s Carlos Bermudez speak on “Corporate Use of Social Networking to Promote Collaboration.”

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the section talking about lessons learned during the roadmapping process:

“A roadmap is not a roadmap in the sense that it is singular. The key to having a good roadmap is having one source of data. No matter how you look at it, you need to have a single source of truth for the data on which the map is being constructed. It should cover policy, process, and systems as well as have multiple views for multiple audiences (Fig. 5). For example, at Cisco they had an architecture view that showed the key dependencies. Boxes were literally checked off as they progress along the roadmap. You could actually see the progress that was being made as they moved across time on the roadmap. If the CIO wanted to know where things stood on the architectural roadmap, Mark’s team could show him this perspective and get his view on it.

On a related note, have different ways of looking at the metrics. Cisco tracked them by each of the major initiatives. Then, in total, they looked at revenue and productivity. Those were the two value drivers in terms of where they were realizing the benefits. It was either top-line revenue or productivity enhancements.  So they looked at each initiative and attempted to track where they were in terms of revenue and what was expected. Then, on the backend, a process was implemented to track that over the two years to ensure they actually hit the targets…”

IMF members can download the full report on Developing Capability Roadmaps here.

This report excerpt describes a couple of the different keys to achieving your organization’s governance goals:

“The first key is having that close alignment with business strategy and understanding the role of IT in its achievement. Obviously every company is different but you need to have some type of organization where you get executive alignment. Harris Corporation achieves that by having division IT leads essentially sit in the business. Without their existence someone in IT would be assigned and responsible for a business entity in an executive relationship. They are very close to the day-to-day activities and responsible for the IT component of that business unit or segment. Those leads help tie in those business objectives with the IT objectives. That gives you someone in the business that understands what is taking place. As a result, when trying to sell an IT project or gain executive sponsorship to meet business objectives, you do not have to worry about coming in cold to those business entities.

A keen understanding of the decision making process in your company is essential. In some companies there is one person that makes the decisions in certain areas. For instance, when Steve Jobs was at Apple, when dealing with a design component he was personally involved in that process. You really have to understand before you can document how governance works. Who makes the decisions? The Harris model for governance probably fits best into what is called a federated or federal model. Scorecards and metrics are a critical part of the supply side for governance, or “doing things right.” These will enable you to conduct industry comparisons. Executives want to know where the money is being spent and how that compares to your particular industry…”

IMF members can download the full report on IT Governance: Supply & Demand here.

“If CIOs are charged with building a social business, shouldn’t they have a social presence?” Fidelman asked, suggesting that “CIOs who don’t get social might not be CIOs next year.” Yet even in conservative industries like finance, there are CIOs like Royal Bank of Scotland’s Ian Alderton (#4 on the list) who are social standouts, Fidelman said.” -Mark Fidelman, Chief Social Strategist at Harmon.ie

Fidelman recently compiled a list of the Top 25 Most Social CIOs. Here is the Top 10:

1. SAP, Oliver Bussmann

2. Google, Benjamin Fried

3. Pemex, Abraham Galan

4. Royal Bank of Scotland, Ian Alderton

5. Microsoft, Anthony Scott

6. Supervalu, Wayne Shurts

7. Kimberly-Clark, Ramon Baez

8. Jacobs Engineering Group, Cora Carmody

9. Tesco, Mike McNamara

10. Omnicom Group, Kenneth Corriveau

For our members who are interested in corporate social media, we encourage you to check out a couple of upcoming IMF events:

April 26^th - Web Forum on “Social Media’s Benefit to the Business” led by Kandy White from Verizon

June 7^th & 8^th - IMF Innovation Forum discussion on “Corporate Use of Social Networking to Promote Collaboration”

Below are a couple of paragraphs from the report on tips for successful offshore leadership:

“Create longer team member engagements and retain subject matter expertise. An interesting finding is that team members wanted to spend a minimum of two years in a certain business area. They like the idea of becoming masters of that particular domain, application, or area. On the other hand, it frustrated them to be moved every 2-6 months. Now obviously there are people who do like that variety and can handle it but typically the longer you can retain people aligned to a certain business app or area the better. Take advantage of any time that you can use modeling and examples. Your pictures, diagrams, and examples are going to do so much more than text based documentation to help increase that understanding.

Make sure you are always using clear unambiguous language and define your terms. We are all supposed to have a running glossary but that can change from day to day. Even with some kind of collaboration tool, you need to make sure everybody knows the terms and acronyms. In regards to acronyms, when on a conference call it can be difficult to distinguish certain letters from others which leads to misunderstandings. Try managing through shorter, actionable tasks. Giving long, large, high level tasks increases your chance that you are going to get off path. The shorter your sprints, the smaller your tasks, the better you will perform. Finally, as with anything in life, if you expect you need to inspect.”

IMF members can download the full report on Leadership for IT Offshore & Distributed Teams here.