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10 Technology Projects for CIOs in 2011

By Eric Lundquist on 2010-12-16


What happens when business tech and consumer tech collide? We're going to find out in the year ahead. We've long talked about the "consumerization" of IT in the enterprise, but in 2011 we're going to experience a perfect storm of technology advances and worker demand that will make this concept our reality. Enterprises that only a year ago were slamming the door shut on any discussion of personal mobile devices being allowed into the workplace are changing their views as they consider the productivity benefits these solutions can unleash. Enterprises that have previously taken a dim view of social networking are starting to consider how social media can enhance collaboration and team building across the operation. Enterprises that have been dismissing cloud computing as the latest vendor hype will put to good use the business agility that such options can enable. With these drivers in mind, we've created this list of 10 technology projects to embark on in 2011. These projects won’t cost you much money, and they might just help you change your company into a long-distance frontrunner.

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Learn to orchestrate the cloudSign up for a Google Apps for Business account. (www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html). I’m only picking this one because it is fully available now, while other vendors (like Microsoft) are still filling out the suite. Cloud based apps, app stores and all the rest can profoundly change your business. You better learn what it is all about.

Start Yammering or Chattering Yammer (www.yammer.com) wants to be Facebook for the enterprise. Chatter (an offering from Salesforce.com) wants to be, well, Facebook for business. The only company that, in my opinion, will never be the Facebook for business is Facebook. Find out why.

Buy an Apple computer, sign up for $99 one-year, one-on-one training. Okay, I said you wouldn’t spend too much money. In this case you can always resell the Mac Air (or whatever you get) after a year or so. The one-on-one training option gets you off your old system onto the new with as much training as you can handle in a year. Let the vendors become your help desk and training center.

Become a smartphone sandbox expert. Smartphones are rampant in the enterprise. Real enterprise smartphones will separate personal application and corporate applications in a protected software sandbox. Get a smartphone and grill your vendors about how to create distributed, virtualized applications running in a protected area.

Sign up for a Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com/) or Box.net (http://www.box.net/) account. Corporate-level file sharing, collaboration and content management is attainable. Try it.

Tablets, yeahWhat else do you need to learn about tablet computing? A lot. Consider publishing and content management for tablets. Take some time to understand more conventional tablet CMS systems such as WoodWing (http://www.woodwing.com/), interesting applications for tablets such as Flipboard (www.flipboard.com) or research projects that are still figuring out what to do with tablets (Microsoft InkSeine http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/inkseine/)

FourSquare (www.foursquare.com) Sign up, read the Foursquare for business section of their blog (http://foursquare.com/businesses/) and think about how your business can use geo location.

TwitterYes, you need a Twitter account. What you really need is a way to create a Twitter analysis back-end for your company. Start Tweeting and thinking about Tweeting.

Social network analysisWow, there are a lot of these services to choose from. Right now Hootsuite (http://hootsuite.com/) is worth a look.

Wireless printingGet a WiFi enabled printer and try print-anywhere and cloud printing applications. Corporate printers and supplies still suck up way too much time and money. This is the year to get it under control.

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