Paul A. Strassmann

Can an information-technology department cut its annual spending by 30% and still remain effective? Hewlett-Packard is on track to do that under a five-year business transformation plan that calls for cutting information-technology costs from $3.04 billion in 2003 to $2.11 billion in 2008. HP offers a case study for tech managers on how to consolidate […]

You can take some solace in knowing that it isn’t easy to earn a top score in the Baseline 500. In fact, barely half of the public companies in the U.S. manage information well. Of the 4,952 public companies, 2,499 failed to generate a positive score when the numbers were crunched for this year’s Information […]

General Motors CIO Ralph Szygenda reportedly said in 2004 that the auto giant achieved at least a 25% cut in I.T. spending over an eight-year period. His annual budget declined from more than $4 billion in 1997 to about $3 billion in 2004. From 1997 to 2004, while sales were growing 13%, GM reduced its […]

Thousands of information-technology professionals now hold the lofty title of chief information officer, though many are no more than de facto chief technology officers. Why? Many CIOs have insufficient power to be truly accountable for the management of information. Contributing to the power vacuum: a lack of generally accepted standards or regulatory requirements comparable to […]

How can you tell if information technology matters? Start by examining the role of the chief information officer. If the CIO does not have the authority to set and execute information management policies, information technology cannot be sufficiently important in a company or other organization. Without an empowered CIO, accountability for technology will be diffused […]