5 metrics to make sure you're spending IT dollars wisely

The information technology question at the forefront of the minds of most executives is how does their IT spending stack up against that of other organizations?

It’s a difficult question to answer by simply looking at a line item that is driven by variables such as organization size, industry sector and IT strategy.

Below are five fundamental financial metrics that any IT department should be able to provide to its leadership.

Average cost per user

This number is derived by taking total IT spending for the year and dividing it by...Read this article in it's entirety at Sacramento Business Journal >>>

Lower your company's IT security risk

Don’t want your company to end up like Sony Pictures, federal Department of Personnel Management, or Anthem? Then consider these five things to prevent security breaches and keep your organization from becoming a victim.

Conduct a formal IT security audit or risk assessment
If you do not keep detailed asset management records of all your hardware, software and data sets, then you are either overspending or underspending on information technology security.

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Recruit Millennials by Meeting Expectations

It’s official: The U.S. Census Bureau announced this summer that millennials — people born between 1982 and 2000 — now represent more than one-quarter of the nation’s population, exceeding the baby-boom generation in size. As those young people come to dominate our workforce, it’s critical to understand how their expectations differ from those of earlier generations.

Those include expectations about work environments, company cultures and technologies that are unfamiliar for many companies. These evolving expectations must be met if your organization wants to attract and retain the best new talent.

Putting a kegerator in your break room or allowing employees to work from home on Fridays might not be for every company, but getting the right technology in millennials’ hands is something all companies should do.  Read this article in it's entirety at Sacramento Business Journal >>>

Balance Fosters Project Success

Implementing and adopting new technology is difficult for any size organization. A 2012 McKinsey & Co. report concluded that “On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted.”

We certainly have seen high-profile information technology failures here in the Sacramento region. Most of us have likely seen an IT project fail at some level.

The problem is not finding a solution; it is finding a solution that balances investment and return. Easier said than done.

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Reduce the Risk of Buying the Wrong Technology

We've all experienced the pain of buying a new technology to solve a problem and then discovering it didn't meet our expectations, was incompatible with other devices or software, or a better alternative existed, maybe at a better price. The pain might be a sting if it's a consumer item that costs a few hundred dollars. The pain is very different if it's a business technology that costs the organization tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A request for proposal, or RFP, is the tool I recommend to minimize risks of buying the wrong technology or hiring the wrong provider.

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How to staff small business IT departments

I consistently see small organizations struggling to staff their IT departments. The struggle often is rooted in budget constraints resulting in only one or two full-time positions within the department. That means squeezing a multitude of roles and skillsets into the positions and then attempting to fill the highly diverse yet specialized roles from a limited pool of applicants who can meet the demands.

Doing more with less is a necessary mantra of most small businesses. So what strategies should small businesses use to properly staff their IT departments?

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Do you know which cloud you're buying?

Plenty of ambiguity still exists around what exactly is the cloud. The ambiguity creates a lack of transparency and ultimately confusion for buyers. My theory on the root of this confusion is we all reference one cloud, but in reality we have two clouds, an enterprise cloud and a consumer cloud. Do you know which cloud you've bought or plan to buy? This post offers a tool to quickly assess your cloud type. I'll then run the tool against some the biggest players in the cloud to find out where they fall.

 Read this article in it's entirety on LinkedIn>>>

What is the “right” Information Technology for my Business?

The biggest information technology (IT) problem any company faces is how to find, evaluate and select the “right” information technology. The problem is compounded by the rapid evolution of information technology and the extensive options bombarding businesses.

I help startups and small businesses tackle this problem in the Sacramento SCORE class “How to Improve your Business through Technology”. The class teaches a framework for the discovery, evaluation and selection of technology that drives the three most important things in business; people, process and product. If people, process and product are an unfamiliar concept, one of the best and most entertaining ways to learn about this concept is to watch Marcus Lemonis on CNBC’s “The Profit”.

Improve communication with IT, even if you don’t speak geek

How do you communicate with IT if you don’t speak geek?

Anyone who’s called technical support knows that communicating with computer technicians can be intimidating and frustrating. I got a taste of this on my first day as team lead of an outsourced IT department. After I took the staff to lunch to get acquainted, the conversation quickly steered to “Star Wars.”

Now I enjoy “Star Wars” as much as the next guy, but the conversation wasn’t a simple debate on the superior trilogy (original or prequel). The topic was on light-sabers, and specifically the origin of each light-saber’s color.

Read this article in it's entirety at the Sacramento Business Journal Read More >>.

How do small organizations capitalize on "Big Data"?

Overview

The big box stores like Wal-Mart and online retailers like Amazon have been leveraging "Big Data" for years, but they have millions of customers and hundreds of thousands of transactions a week. How can small organizations hope to tap into Big Data when they don't hit a hundred thousand transactions in a year? The answer is while smaller organizations likely won't achieve the Big Data capabilities of their larger counter parts, it doesn't mean they still shouldn't travel the path.

Big Data, much like "The Cloud", is an industry buzz term comparable to large scale Business Intelligence. Gartner defines Big Data as "high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.".

Plotting points on a graph helps to conceptualize the high-volume of Big Data. If you have two points on a graph, A and B, a straight line is drawn and an assumption is made the line will continue its trend after point B.

How small business CFOs bridge the IT GAAP

Overview

A joint survey completed in 2011 by Gartner and the Financial Executives Research Foundation found that 42% of IT organizations report directly to the CFO. This number quickly jumps to 60% for smaller businesses with revenues between $50 million and $250 million. Addressing the communication, cultural and professional problems that arise from this reporting structure is difficult even for large corporate enterprises. Several articles offer advice to CFOs and CIOs on tackling this issue at the enterprise C-Level, but for small to middle market companies lacking an IT executive, this reporting structure should be approached differently due to both human and financial resource constraints.