CIO Insight Staff

Companies still aren’t going the extra mile to keep customer and employee data private. Yes, most companies claim to have new safeguards against identity theft, and to have implemented privacy policies. But unless training is improved, many of these measures will prove ineffective against data thieves. And unless companies learn that it’s best to be […]

Offshoring isn’t a top-of-mind priority for CIOs, but it is on the rise. The potential savings is tempting CIOs to offshore more of the work that is not strategic. India is by far the No. 1 destination, and half of respondents say they have cut IT jobs as a result of offshore outsourcing. Expect to […]

Business intelligence technology requires IT workers who are intelligent about business. The proportion of CIOs with a substantial business background is growing, and many regularly talk or meet with their company’s major customers. Before long, the same will be true for their staffs. As companies focus more on business intelligence, they will increasingly seek people […]

A new career path opens for IT executives. There are two kinds of CIOs: those who are expected to focus on creating strategy, and those who leave strategy to other executives and focus instead on operations, processes and implementation. The latter will increasingly report to COOs or other senior operations executives. That’s not a devaluation […]

Management myopia adds to the risk. Most CIOs are well aware that careless, risky behavior is a major security problem; many also worry about lack of employee awareness, and resistance to security problems. Still, many companies are dropping the ball by letting security policies lapse. CIOs seem to be putting their faith in technology, and […]

Data quality will go from nice-to-have to need-to-have. Flexibility and openness remain nothing but talk, while standardization and virtualization remain useless, unless companies can reliably integrate their systems and ensure the quality of their data. Not only do strategic systems such as business intelligence depend on integration and accurate, up-to-date and unambiguous data, but so […]

IT spurs search for process management technologies. Since IT now plays a leading role in business process improvement, it’s not surprising that CIOs should turn to technology tools to help companies model their processes and adjust them on the fly. IT executives will turn increasingly to business process management and modeling technologies going forward, and […]

It’s not just about the money. Open source usage will spread well beyond the Linux operating system, the Apache Web server, and the Firefox browser, and come to include a wide variety of tools and applications. The lure of lower costs won’t be all that drives the move: Smaller firms in particular see open source […]

This penguin wears three-piece suits. Linux isn’t making much headway as a desktop operating system, but it has already become one of the leading server operating systems. In the near future, companies will be using Linux to replace its legacy systems—most notably Windows, Unix and Solaris. That’s not just because of the virtues of Linux […]

Don’t expect any letup on the pressure to speed up processes. In physics, velocity equals speed plus direction. In business, velocity is a characteristic of successful, well-aligned companies. CIOs will continue to focus on speeding up processes and networks, implementing emerging technologies faster, and embracing innovation—but not for the sake of speed alone. At many […]