ITIL

IT portfolio management is the subject of managing IT investments. It involves the establishing of a formalized process for gauging and monitoring the worth of IT investments, making decisions scientifically and creating frameworks as outlined by the IT governance board. More and more companies are adopting IT portfolio management to increase productivity. An efficient IT portfolio management system helps in aligning technology investments with a good business strategy. It maximizes the value of IT investments by introducing the right processes and practices at the right time. Also, IT portfolio management helps in assessing costs and risks. Researches have shown that the general efficiency level...

You have an IT department, but you are not big enough to have a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and the company owner isn't a technology master. Can you outsource this position part time? There are a lot of companies that bring in people to cook the books on a weekly or monthly basis, but few consider bringing in someone to make the IT decisions. In fact, all too often the important IT decisions are passed off to the IT department ( or IT person) hoping they will make the right decisions. Leave IT Governance To An Expert In business today this is a horrible decision. Consider finding an IT professional, who can manage your IT department, not on a day to day basis...

Risk assessment is a core competence of information security management. A recent question and answer exchange goes to the nub of how risk appetite and an organization's risk acceptance criteria should be approached. The question was: 'ISO27001 hammers home that the approach to risk that an organization has towards security risks should be based on the organization's approach (and risk appetite) for business risks. This just doesn't ring true to me given how granular the rest of 27001 is.' A business risk is fundamentally different from a security risk and I really struggle to see how the approach to one maps over to the other. It's one thing to say "we are willing to take a high degree of risk, so...

We all dream of the day that we will get the nod to become CIO - finally we will have arrived. Or will we have? Take just a moment and think about all of those major projects that you've see during your career that started out with a bang and ended up failing and going away with a whimper. When you are CIO, things are going be different and that's because you won't just be the CIO, you'll also be the company's Strategic Execution Officer. What Have I Signed Up For? Business processes are like pit-bulls: they really don't like change and if you try to change them, they are probably going to bit you really, really hard. This is one of the reasons that so many major company initiatives fail - nobody...

Established in 1978, CISA (certified information systems Auditor) is a professional certification for the information technology audit professionals. It is acquainted by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA); the candidates have to meet the essentials that are set by ISACA.The course involves technical as well as the practical information that are needed to qualify the CISA exam. CISA certification has been recognized globally by organizations, it reflects a professional commitment to serve an organization along with IS audit, control, and security industry. The reason behind this kind of certification was to develop and assert a method that can be utilized to assess the...

I originally wrote this on a train from Prague, Czech Republic to an interview in Vienna, Austria; one of the things I typically do as a lead-up to an interview is mentally walk through what I do, and what my organizational priorities are. This got me thinking about the many times I've gotten the "so, you write web pages and programs, right" line from my friends who aren't working in the technology sector. It's an understandable mistake; I was a developer before I got into management, and software is still my focus. Today I manage technology organizations. And in answer to that much more specific question of "what do you do", here is what managing technology organizations means in my world. I ensure...

Several years ago, a well-known IT consultant and author of several books on IT Strategy mentioned to me that CIOs were no longer particularly concerned about prioritizing their Information Technology Project Portfolios...they had other more pressing issues. At the time, I had some difficulty processing this thought and found it troubling on many levels. Try though I did, I was unable to reconcile the statement itself with its source - a learned colleague, friend and mentor. So, suffering from what I believe psychologists refer to as "cognitive dissonance", I youthfully resigned myself to living with this conflict. Now that I am older and wiser, I have concluded that my reluctance to accept this...

The standard for portfolio management offers the generally acceptable practices for programs and projects, to help them meet an organization's strategic objectives. Portfolios are collections of active projects, programs, and other work going on at a given point of time. Managing these is important, since it helps control the components of the portfolio, assists in the identification and assessment of the individual programs and projects, and helps people involved prioritize the components in such a way to best use available resources. As the concept of project management gains in acceptance, we need to start looking at the natural followup - portfolio management. The big issue here is making sure...

Have you ever tried to convince your management to fund the implementation of information security? If you have, you probably know how it feels - they will ask you how much it costs, and if it sounds too expensive they will say no. Actually, you shouldn't blame them - after all, their ultimate responsibility is profitability of the company. That means, their every decision is based on the balance between investment and benefit, or to put it in management's language - ROI (return on investment). This means you have to do your homework first before trying to propose such an investment - think carefully how to present the benefits, using language the management will understand and will endorse. I'll...

Importance of risk analysis in software projects can be judged from the fact that, no Software Development Life Cycle is viewed as complete unless it has passed through active consideration to areas having several types of risks associated with them. The vulnerable areas covered under the process of risk analysis are 1) Assessment of Risk 2) Characterization of Risk 3) Communication of the Risk 4) Risk Management 5) Defining the Risk Related Policies Following terms related to Risk Analysis need to be understood clearly Let us try to understand as to what is Risk Analysis? It is a technique employed to identify and assess various factors, which may jeopardize the success of a project or achieving a...

A perfect definition given by Wikipedia for Enterprise Mobility Management is Enterprise Mobility Management is the set of people, processes and technology focused on managing the increasing array of mobile devices, wireless networks, and related services" but I'm here try to explain as simple as possible. So the Enterprise Mobility Management defines the accessibility of the mobile workers to their organization to give instant information. Now a day's many corporations having large mobile workforces in field and marketing service. But in time if they are not able to update their information to their organization makes time worst. So the remote accessing becomes the main issue for big organization...

It doesn't matter what industry a larger business is in, day-to-day operations depend on transactions. While most consumers think primarily of transactions as financial processes, industry professionals realize internal communication within a company is of equal importance. For example, tracking inventory isn't a financial transaction but this type of transaction is vital to keeping a business vital and competitive. Once a Business Reaches a Certain Size Application Performance Management Becomes Essential. It doesn't matter what type of business, once a business reaches a certain size, keeping an accurate handle on the transactions that make the business successful becomes impossible without...

Though the benefits of implementing the Six Sigma strategy to a business's processes can lead to far greater successes that could ever have been achieved without it. However, this is only the case when the implementation of Six Sigma has been done properly. Unfortunately, this is not always what happens. Mis-implementing Six Sigma can be extremely damaging to a business. Because Six Sigma often leads to an entire overhaul of every single process and function within a business, its implementation impacts all levels and employees. When done properly, this means that every employee and process will be used to its fullest potential, creating the highest level of quality, and leading to the most...

Six Sigma identifies several key roles for its successful implementation: executive leadership, champions, master black-belts, blackbelts, green belts, and yellow belts. While the executive leadership includes the CEO and the top leadership who plan for the Six Sigma implementation, the champions take the responsibility for this implementation across the organization. The Master-Black Belts are identified by the champions and act as coaches on Six Sigma. They assist champions and guide Black Belts and Green Belts in the actual implementation of the Six Sigma projects in the organization. A certified Master-Black Belt is a professional who is not only thoroughly conversant with Six Sigma philosophies...

As information technology continues to evolve, it provides you with bold new opportunities to revolutionize how your equipment is serviced and supported after it leaves the factory. These service and support opportunities can improve your competitive position by simultaneously increasing revenue and decreasing costs. A remote asset management solution is a vital tool that reduces troubleshooting & support costs, increases uptime, helps track warranties and manages equipment contracts. Equipment information has become the new competitive advantage and when choosing the right solution for your equipment, it's important to consider the factors that lead to long term success. Here are seven key success...

Productivity measures the ratio of output quantity over input quantity. Increase of productivity means growing the output quantity faster than the input quantity. Output quantity can mean anything from number of products made over number of customers served to number of donors treated or number of work passes produced. Input is usually summarising all resources needed to do this from raw material over equipment to man hours. How is productivity increase possible? One way seems to be obvious: we have to work faster so that we get more done in the same time. Although, this request might have been just right 30 years ago, it is highly inappropriate today and would lead to even more frustration amongst...

One of the best ways to plan for future success is to conduct a postseason analysis. I'll explain how to perform a postseason analysis of your center as a baseline for customer service, process improvement and cost reduction. Here's a step-by-step guide to the postseason analysis. 1. Form a postseason review team. Because your efforts are directed at customer service, process improvement and potential cost reduction, form a team that can bring different disciplines to the process. While much of the work will fall to contact center management (managers and supervisors), broaden the group to involve a few good reps. Also include general training and quality training, human resources, center scheduling...

As professionals, project managers know it is important to network. It helps to keep up with the profession, to be aware of developments and new opportunities, and to find chances for career growth. It can also be very helpful to solve project management problems that other colleagues have already encountered. In this era of social networking, here are some top project management networks. All professionals know it is important to network. It helps to keep up with the profession, to be aware of developments and new opportunities, and chances for career growth. It can also be very helpful to solve problems that other colleagues have already encountered. So in this era of social networking, where...

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed on July 2002 and many public companies in the US have been implementing compliance procedures since then. Unlike other business standards, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires a more detailed disclosure in its filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on everything that might affect a company's business and financial performance. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that public companies use well established "disclosure controls and procedures" for all intellectual property (IP) assets so this vital information is first presented to the management of that company well before it's revealed to the SEC. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act also requires these procedures to...

Because the Sarbanes Oxley Act is so focused on the finance aspect of businesses, the IT consultant is often left wondering if there is any scope of SOX implementation work that requires the services of IT professionals. In this article, I will briefly outline how the IT professional can make significant contributions to a SOX compliance project, and how you can go about searching for SOX-related jobs and expand your IT career in that direction. First things first. SOX is all about internal controls over financial reporting. And we know that a high percentage of, if not all, financial data is stored, processed and managed by various computerized financial systems. Here is where the IT professional...

The majority of companies all over the world use the Instant Messaging (IM) and document collaboration systems daily. These systems help to solve a number of problems of different levels while being at the same time very convenient means of real-time connectivity between the employees. Communication and instant collaboration of the employees play one of the most important roles in business running and often prove to be basic factors of success. Nowadays the market of corporate and business IM systems offers a wide range of software solutions to organize the environment for instant message exchange inside the local network of the company, between its offices and divisions. Such solutions, aimed for...

Compatibility and compliance are two important factors in the implementation of any ERP system in the organization. Both of them form an important part of the concept of ERP system integration. The thing is that the Enterprise Resource Planning solution must be able to integrate in the current information technology infrastructure of the organization. Any solution which demands massive upgrades is not at all welcome. After all the ERP system is to be deployed for the company and not the other way round. Any organization which is planning to deploy an ERP solution must already be having at least an entry level information technology infrastructure in place. This would for the core production and...

A helpdesk support software solution does much more than responding to all customer inquiries. To give the best customer service possible, it is important to get accurate reports at the right time and track inquiries in a timely and active manner. You can be greatly successful in your efforts at improving customer service if your help desk has fast reporting and smart filtering abilities. An efficient help desk solution will manage all the basic function with minimum supervision and keep you updated with the data necessary to improve customer service. It is basically the admin funtions of the help desk that help you do that little extra for your customers. For example, certain solutions provide a...

The Lean approach is one of elimination of waste and improving the flow using Lean tools to bring about quick improvements in problem areas. Need for Integrating Lean and Six Sigma Both have been successfully used in different companies. Six Sigma helps in elimination of defects, but does not optimize the processes, and Lean does not use any statistical tools, which can be even more effective and are required for making the system perfectly lean. The experts on the matter are of the opinion that the combination of Lean tools and principles with Six Sigma can make a major difference in bringing about sustained improvements in the business processes and profits. A structured approach to integrating...

The data is very vital for business. When the business uses the process of server colocation, it can safeguard its data, information and reports in another location with utmost security. Learn more about the advantages and value added benefits of this option. • Economic: The primary reasons for the going for colocating the servers would be that they are economic and very secure. The only initial investment involved is the purchasing of servers. At times, this is also reduced if the company chooses to rent out the servers from the colocation provider at a nominal monthly or quarterly rental. • Safety assured: The safety for the data and data transfer is assured as this forms the key in the service...

Whether you're on the verge of deciding to buy a customer support software or just browsing, you will need to arm yourself with adequate information on what you want to buy. Whether it's a known brand or the latest model to come out in the market, there are things that could never be compensated by a good research. You need to determine what you're looking for in a software and exactly what you intend to pay for it. The following is the anatomy of a topnotch customer support software. - Easy customization. From changing text colors and font styles to the name of your help desk, everyone probably has an individualistic taste. Now, your help desk team will be entirely in awe if customization comes...

Help desk software is an application offered by companies, through which customers can access their technical support services. These programs not only offer customers with background and technical information of the organization and its services, these solutions also forward customer service requests to the help desk and alert the right agents via intranet. Similarly, the application can be used by the technical staff to access emails and follow-up customers with a variety of follow-through techniques. The best feature of help desk software is that it allows the access to the database that logs solutions. A core and vital part of a successful business, the help desk is the place where problems...

Students have another resource for help polishing those all-important essays: online editorial services like "It's important to have someone check your work before you hand it in," says Chandra Clarke, a director of "Especially if you've been working on it in the wee hours of the morning, as students often do." A variety of research supports the need for an objective set of eyes to critique writing and fix errors. A study by Meredyth Daneman and Murray Stainton of the University of Toronto tested whether proofreading one's own writing is harder than proofreading someone else's. Subjects spent 30 minutes writing an essay, then proofread their own papers as well as those written by others. The...

In many industries the hierarchy of some organizations is not well managed, and as such the communication between lower, middle and upper management is rather unorganized. The hierarchy and the duties of each level should be clear, however, even in organized companies there are always problems with productivity and production. Statistical methods of solving problems are lacking and that makes the efficiency of any company below its optimum. What those companies need is an efficient operation management. Six Sigma is a training module that works with both low level management and top level management. Six Sigma training is based upon statistical methods of improving company's efficiency. By...

The main advantages of computerizing the activities of business organization are as follows: Advantages: 1. Speed: Computerisation helps in processing the data placed in several data files in no time. This is possible due to the high speed of computers for processing data and CPU of the computer works at the speed of electricity which is the highest ever attainable speed. 2. Accuracy: The data processed by the computer are highly accurate. The programs written on the system checks and controls data before and during processing. It detects invalid data and ensures high degree of accuracy and reliability of output reports. 3. Flexibility: The modern digital computers can be used for a variety of...

Capacity planning is crucial to the efficient allocation and optimal utilization of an enterprise data backup and storage system. Today, companies are trying to find ways to maximize their financial resources, and IT departments are also finding it necessary to streamline their budgets. However, the amount of data that needs to be processed and stored continues to grow at an exponential rate. This has led to the need to fully maximize data backup and depository resources, which can be achieved through the implementation of a capacity manager solution. IT managers looking to make the most of their resources can take advantage of a reporting and management platform that provides a full view of their...

This is because of various requirements that have been allowed to flow in and out of the project scope. This experience, that Six Sigma teams face and need to effectively handle, is called scope creep. How Do You Handle Project Scope Creep? Scope creep is often due to unclear planning. In the first meeting of the team, if the scope is not defined and rules set to handle scope creep, then there is bound to be the failure of such a project due to its unmanageable scope. With knowledge about what needs to be considered for success, project scope can cover most of the issues before implementation. Scope creep may come in even after that. In such cases, if you want to avoid creep spoiling your project...

The focus should be on your company, compared with the standards or achievements of other similar companies. They are external references on which to base your evaluations of your own achievements. Benchmarking can be called comparing your own performances to those of the best practices in top-level companies. It involves an evaluation of how those companies have achieved results - and on the basis of this information, setting the targets for your own company. Benchmarking is not limited to mere goal setting. It involves concentrating on the superior performance. Benchmarking projects are like any other project - it is essential to have a systematic and structured approach to the process. At the...

Six Sigma is a management methodology for accuracy in manufacturing, etc. to make sure things are done right the first time and with that comes increases of economies of scale-fewer returns, etc. Such processes are especially important in Military, Health Care, manufacturing, transportation and computer industries. When every thing is right with fewer returns, less time is spent fixing your mistakes, thus higher profits. Some of this could be classified as Micro-management of little details which goes against the theories of Fly by the seat of your pants, entrepreneurs, yet when working on lower margins in low cost high volume matured industry sectors, if you cannot do it the Six Sigma way, you...

"body">o Profit Centric Motives Beget the Need for New or Changed Process...o Process is created or changed through Project(s)...o Project(s) view Information from the perspective of the Process Need...o Project(s) cause Information to be defined and structured to satisfy Process...o The result... MORE INFORMATION/PROCESS SILOS Information/Process Silos are outcomes of defining and structuring Information as a Necessity for Process rather than as a Value Enabler for the Enterprise. In any business, there are literally thousands of Information/Process Silos. The bigger the business, the more Information/Process Silos there will be. Today, finding the linkages, relationships and implications within...

In a day to day life, we store numerous important data in the form of word documents, presentations, spread sheets, bookkeeping files, database files, graphics, photos, and multimedia files. Any example of file loss, surely lead to an enormous business or personal loss. As we all know, our memories and some work never can be recreated, every finger points to a single way, that is file recovery software. In a day or two, there is a business meeting and your office laptop failing to boot after showing an unusual error message. All your power point presentation files, a month long extracts of your day and night work lies with that laptop. Within a short notice, the recreation of that presentation seems...

Tansee iPhone Transfer SMS can provide you: - Backup SMS in iPhone to computer before iPhone reject receiving new SMS. - View and Manage old iPhone SMS in your computer. - View SMS in Text file format (.txt file) or ANTS file format (.ants file) on PC. - Password protection support (ANTS file only). Download Click Here All iPhone users can't backup the SMS to anywhere until the SMS box is full, then you have to delete all of them to prevent iPhone rejecting new SMS receiving. With Tansee iPhone Transfer, you can transfer the iPhone SMS to computer as a txt file or a ANTS file before the event above happens. Before the transfer, you can choose to transfer from all contacts or a single contact...

Gadgets are as useless as trash whenever it won't run, recharge or reconfigure itself without a personal computer even how expensive it may be. Nowadays, gadgets must work hand in hand with the computer because the heart of technology is the computer. They are dependent on it basically to tell the computer what went wrong and procedures to do. However, how does a computer know precisely what to do? These gadgets have their own drivers and that is what they do, to tell the computer what went wrong. Device drivers are programmed instruction that communicates with a computer how to run the device. It's just like a chain reaction. A gadget won't work without a computer and a computer can't run a device...

AVG AntiVirus 9.0 is a product that is released by AVG in both a paid and free version. The makers of AVG have the noble vision that everyone deserves at least some basic type of protection from the threats that are on the Internet today. AVG does an excellent job of optimization scanning. This type of scanning can speed through malware problems and notify you of them plenty in advance for you to take action. AVG can also scan in safe mode to remove the threats that exist and could be damaging your computer so much that it cannot boot normally. AVG does a great job at detecting a large majority of threats. Most systems are not threatened by the normal problems accessing the system. The AVG toolbar...

Those of us in the United States may finally lift a 5-inch 88880006 Dell streak and shake their heads in amazement, while we use a completely new device with the Android 1.6. Meanwhile, abroad, at the start of Euro leaked to the interwebs. Smart streak has gotten their hands on leaked update file and has nothing but love for him. If you happen to be too happy to phone you from the sea, hit the links to the instructions to download and install updates, and many more pictures.[ Forums MoDaCo by Smart Streak ] Via: Dell Streak now available in the U.S., see the Android 2.1 leaked abroad Related Posting Search Result: Dell Streak out the source code for all to see Releasing the source code for the phone...

When we discuss Green issues at Ventless Gel Fireplace, it occurred to me that there is some confusion between the agencies that monitor and pass legislation concerning gel fuel and clean air solutions. Advertisers and other content writers throw around such agencies as OSHA, EPA and even agencies like USDA and DOE. But, they often cite the wrong agencies and just expect readers to believe whatever information they are given. I have always had a pet peeve when it comes to the media splashing false information across all of our communication transits with absolutely no responsibility for the verification of facts. What makes it worse is that there are readers out there who will simply believe the...

The term barcode software company can be applied to a firm that develops barcode software, distributes software from a third party, or provides services such as custom software development. Barcode software programs are used to create professional barcode labels, including those on photo IDs, warehouse goods, departmental store products, and driving licenses. Many software companies deal in developing barcode software and selling them to other establishments. They also customize barcode software according to specific requirements. While several companies offer free trials for their products before charging a fee, some companies offer their products for free. Among a few famous companies that...

What a big subject communication is. I'm even having to divide it up for my blog because it's so big. The reason I'm writing about it at all is because of it's huge importance in every area of our life, and if you're running a business, it's essential that your communication skills are excellent. When you're offering the same widget or service as hundreds of others, what is it that can make people buy from you? Is it that your prices are cheaper? If you're buying off the net, this might be the case, but if someone prefers to get something from a shop it may not be. What about a money back guarantee? This is very attractive to a client buying something like coaching and it's something I'm using more...

Have you, at one point, experienced a slow connection? Want to know how to speed up Firefox? Below are some Firefox speed tweaks to help improve the browser's performance: 1. Clear the cache. Manually clear your cache by clicking Tools on the upper portion of your screen. From the Tools menu, select Clear Private Data. Go to Settings afterwards and reduce the size of your cache to around 50 MB. 2. Get rid of toolbars and plugins. Surely, they make your web surfing easier but if Firefox gets overloaded with these add-ons, it will run slower. It's best to cut down on these features especially if you rarely use them. 3. Clean the registry. The registry is the central database of your computer. It...

Valuable Customer Service Tips for the home based business. Make good customer service become excellent customer service by finding out what the customer needs. These customer service tips will save you thousands of dollars and create a lasting bond with your customers. I was thinking recently about one of my worse home based business nightmares and how it turned out to be a very valuable lesson for creating excellent customer service. It started out like a great dream. We just started our toner and ink-jet business and our first business customer was a medical firm of about 20 offices. I had known the purchasing agent for sometime and before long we got the contract to...

Online Customer Service... Do it well or die. There are some fundamentals in marketing anything, ONline or OFFline. EXCELLENCE in customer service ranks very highly on this "must do" list... and digital marketers ignore thisfundamental rule at their own their peril. Why is it that some digital marketers think that thebasic rules of marketing only apply to the OFFline world? Excellence in customer service has ALWAYS been one of thetenets of a successful business. It has always made thedifference between an average business and an extraordinarybusiness. For example, examine the success of a major, internationalhamburger chain. Do they sell the best hamburgers in theworld? No, they don't. However, one...

It has been argued that a customer service job is the least sought after as the job is perceived as monotonous, insignificant, low paying and a thankless job exist merely to serve the whims and fancy of customers. Surely, a job that requires a person to be subservient to the every need of customers eight hours a day is certainly not inviting. Take the job of a call center representative for instance. He is expected to pick up an average of over 100 calls a day and listened to all kind of demands and worst being accused of being slow and unfriendly simply because he speaks too fast. Whenever a complaint is received, the call centre staff is presumed guilty until proven innocent. Imagine the mental...

The electronic product you bought online five minutes ago doesn't workproperly and you're gonna fire away an email letting that *$&$#* companyknow just what you think of their stinking service. Sound familiar? If so, consider this: Yes, there are dishonest merchants on the web and yes, some merchantsoffer dismally poor customer service. Nevertheless, it's a mistake to painteverybody with the same brush. Many of the merchants that operate onlinebusinesses are legitimate and are interested in turning you into a satisfiedcustomer. However, in your role of consumer you have to give them a fighting chance. Before you fire off that email, consider the following; * Have you provided the merchant with a...

Ten customer service tips for online businesses. How to keep customers happy and turn them into evangelists for your company. Other than the current buzz words, customer service has changed very little since commerce first began. If you want a customer to buy from you again, and to recommend your product or service to others, complaints or problems must be handled properly. "A satisfied customer will tell five people about their experience, a dissatisified customer will tell twenty-five!" Customer Service on the Internet The Internet is an impersonal place to shop. Because of this, the online customer feels little loyalty to you or your company. Many online shoppers won't restrain their anger and...