cio

CIOs sick of enterprise software pricing, Forrester finds

Forrester just released a report that should be required reading for enterprise software vendors who insist on inflicting the 20th century on their customers. According to Forrester, "software licensing and pricing continues to be marred by complexity, soaring maintenance costs, and a lack of flexibility and alignment with business goals."

In the French version of the synopsis, Forrester gives even more detail. For those of us who compete with these bloatware kings, this isn't news. But for enterprises who haven't been on a buying spree lately, you're in for a rude awakening:… Read more

Tell-tale signs of a bad CIO

CIO.com asks the question, "How do you spot a bad CIO?" With a nimwit CEO, it's a bit easier because the numbers tell the story: profits and sales falling, etc.

But how do you discern a failing CIO before she fails? CIO.com has some answers:

High employee turnover Rehashing the same ideas, projects and technologies that s/he's implemented in all previous CIO positions Firing existing employees and replacing them with people who've worked for him/her in the past

To this list I'd add:… Read more

What you didn't miss at Davos

The Financial Times has an interesting take on Davos today, viewed through the lens of a recent Roffey Park Institute report on corporate management and its varying views on the world. Roffey noted, for example, that while 82% of board directors believe their companies' leadership is good or excellent, only 52% of middle managers felt the same. Or while 37% of board directors felt that their company's morale was high, just a scant 9% of middle managers agreed.

Where you sit in the organization heavily guides your opinions of what is right and wrong within an organization, largely because it controls the information you see. As Roffey Park's director of research suggests:

Business leaders often end up losing touch with the rest of the organisation. The upward flow of information can be unreliable and intermittent.

Small wonder, then, that so much of the research and analyst community continues to underrepresent the huge gains open source has been making. Such firms invariably glean their findings from what the CIO thinks, yet too often what she thinks is somewhat irrelevant to what the organization below her thinks...and does.… Read more

CIOs rate Red Hat the #1 IT vendor for value...again

The only friend open-source vendors have is the customer.

That's what a wise friend at Red Hat once told me. If it's any consolation to him, he's got lots of friends, because CIO Insight's ranking of IT vendors just came out, and Red Hat tops the list for the fourth consecutive year. 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007. Customers have voted Red Hat the #1 vendor for value over Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Novell, etc.

Wondering who consistently was given the worst ratings by CIOs? CA, Oracle, Microsoft, Cognos, and a range of consulting companies. If you dig into the numbers, the reasons often stem from overpriced and unreliable software.

Red Hat can't rest on its laurels, however. Why? Ask the numbers.… Read more

Any CIO not using open source "should be fired": a conversation with CIOs

I'm reading through the transcript from an excellent CIO event, the CIO Survival Guide for Web 2.0, which was co-hosted by WaveMaker and BSG Alliance (Tuesday, November 6 at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco). Speakers included: Jim Sutter, former CIO of Xerox and Rockwell International; Steve Douty, President of BSG On-Demand Applications; Andrew Aitken, founding partner of the Olliance Group; Lila Tretikov, CIO of SugarCRM; Larry Singer, former CIO of the State of Georgia; Max Rayner, former CIO of SurfControl; and (Moderator) Raven Zachary, Open Source Research, The 451 Group.

The conversation is wide-ranging and insightful. Here are a few of the gems as they relate to open source:

Steve Douty stirred the pot a little with this comment:

So, this is about CIO-safety. I would say that any CIO that doesn't work open source into their near-term plans or future plans should be fired, and that's because he's misappropriating his own resources.… Read more

Open source is about much more than price, says California Air Resource Board's CIO

Cost savings are nice - and open source delivers them in spades - but price is just one benefit of open source. According to Bill Welty, CIO of California's Air Resource Board, price isn't even the most important factor.

"Increased agility, responsiveness to internal clients, and team-building" are the real value drivers of open source, Welty insists:… Read more

CareGroup CIO votes for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

It's just one man's opinion, but I always like to hear what the end customer thinks about technology. While I'm not a big believer in the Linux desktop (at least, as a direct competitor to OS X and Windows in the US/EMEA enterprise market), I'm glad to see SUSE Linux Desktop pass the test with the CIO of CareGroup:

...Halamka found in SUSE a version of the Linux operating system that didn?t crash or lock up once during the month he used it; that booted quickly (within 30 seconds); that was easy enough to … Read more

Ziff Davis sells enterprise group, some publications

Ziff Davis Media announced Thursday plans to sell its enterprise group for approximately $150 million in cash to a New York-based private equity and venture capital firm.

An affiliate of Insight Venture Partners of New York is snapping up Ziff's publications EWeek, Baseline and CIO magazines, according to Ziff's announcement.

But before jumping to the conclusion that CIO magazine has been sold, keep in mind that CIO is owned by rival IDG. The CIO magazine Ziff is selling is CIO Insight.

Ziff is also selling a number of online publications as part of the deal. These include EWeek.… Read more