Swedish  English

   blog home  |   archives  |  authors  |  topic areas

recent comments in the Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy blog


Great and very informative article. Keep up the go...
Custom Website Design on Jul 16

Thanks for including the diagram. It is very helpf...
Larry Crane on May 11

Could you send a sample diagram?
Tom Finneran on May 6

Secured process transactions solution will overcom...
Dolar on May 6

Great diagrams! They really show that you must ali...
Mark Kilens on Feb 22

Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy bloggers


Ashu Bhatia (21)

Dr. Khalid Mansour (2)

Gregg Powers (3)

Mark Benedict (1)

Tom Finneran (5)

Tom Marrs (1)



See all CIBER Bloggers

Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy blog archives


March 2009 (1)

April 2009 (3)

May 2009 (4)

June 2009 (5)

July 2009 (5)

August 2009 (3)

September 2009 (3)

October 2009 (1)

December 2009 (1)

January 2010 (1)

February 2010 (1)

April 2010 (1)

May 2010 (3)

June 2010 (1)



See all blog archives

become a CIBER practical innovator


We are always seeking talented and innovative people. We have IT careers open all around the globe.

Join our team

 

Tom Finneran Some Useful Views of Metadata

Tom Finneran, Principal Consultant  :  14 June 2010 / 10:40 AM  :  0 0 comments

Most IT practitioners recognize the importance of metadata but not all can describe it’s value.  Gartner has stated these benefits of metadata management:

  • Increased reuse of established software assets
  • Reduced time to perform change impact analysis
  • Quality assurance that all affected assets are part of a coordinated change
  • Identification of redundancies and opportunities to reduce maintenance costs through consolidation
  • Improved understanding of overlaps in business areas, including during mergers and acquisitions
  • Accuracy of end-user analysis
  • Savings in training costs
  • Speed of business intelligence tool implementations
  • Better management decisions
  • continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 0 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Intelligence  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Ashu Bhatia IT Strategy – bringing it all together

    Ashu Bhatia, Director of Delivery  :  21 May 2010 / 4:54 PM  :  0 0 comments

    I often talk to folks within the executive team that seem to be struggling with issues around how to service business needs, how to fund initiatives, which metrics to report, etc. I always bring a simple and powerful framework to consider these questions:


    IT Strategy Alignment with Business Strategy – To understand the role that IT plays as an enabler and value partner, we need to start with looking at the following dynamics of the marketplace in the industry:

  • How is the industry doing? Industry growth rate, industry margins/pricing, industry challenges – cost pressure/ fear of substitute ...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 0 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Architecture   Business Value  CIO  IT Planning  IT Strategy  IT to Business Alignment  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Mark Benedict Practical Process Improvement

    Mark Benedict, Director of Quality Assurance and Testing Services  :  06 May 2010 / 11:57 AM  :  3 3 comments

    Process Improvements are routinely needed everywhere in the IT and IS worlds. But no matter what the process is that needs improvement, the technology that needs to evolve or the new methods people need to use the overarching story is the same: We need to do this, but we just don't have time to do it. We're too busy working.

    Even in organizations that have it all figured out, it comes down to this one last thing. Making the change. And that's where the worst resistance in any organization hits your best intentions with a sucker punch.

    Recently I've gotten calls from several organizations that have done all the right things from Root-Cause Analysis with all the right people and points-of-view involved, realistic process re-engineering, the cr...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 3 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Change Management  Governance   Risk and Compliance   IT Planning  IT Strategy  Knowledge Management  Lifecycle Controls  Organizational Change Management  Process Improvement  Project Management  Project Methodology   Quality Assurance  Quality Control  Quality Management  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Ashu Bhatia Incident Management vs. Problem Management

    Ashu Bhatia, Director of Delivery  :  05 May 2010 / 9:10 AM  :  0 0 comments

    Incident Management vs. Problem Management

    I was talking to this executive in a fortune 500 company and he was struggling with putting in some SLAs for his IT organization. He wanted to show the business side that he was making operational improvements. One of the things he was struggling with was Incidents and Problems that folks were capturing. He could not get his team to look as these separately and was talking about how Incident Management is related to Problem management and how it should be different.

    I thought of capturing my point of view as below. Whether you use ITIL terminology or not, here’s the difference:

  • An Incident is any event that is not part of the standard operation of a...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 0 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Architecture   Business Value  CIO  IT to Business Alignment  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Tom Finneran Setting up Data Governance

    Tom Finneran, Principal Consultant  :  29 April 2010 / 2:52 PM  :  0 0 comments

    There are a number of steps that should be taken in setting up a Data Governance.

    First, let us define what we mean by data governance.  Data Governance: is a strategic, “top-down” program in which leadership communicates the core value of data quality and integrity.  It includes development and enforcement of standards and processes. It requires broad understanding of upstream and downstream stakeholders, systems, and processes for all decisions and issue-resolution. It requires executive sponsors to provide support for their business Data Stewards.

    The Data Governance process begins by getting both business and IT senior executive support.  Business and IT managers with interest in the major transactions and master data objects gather periodic...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 0 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Intelligence  Business Modeling  Business Value  Data Architecture  Data Modeling  DW / BI Architecture  Enterprise Architecture  Enterprise Integration  Governance   Risk and Compliance   Information Management  Information Security   IT Strategy  IT to Business Alignment  IT Value  Knowledge Management  Model-Driven Design  SOA & Data Architecture  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Ashu Bhatia IT Capacity - Do more with less

    Ashu Bhatia, Director of Delivery  :  23 February 2010 / 4:22 PM  :  0 0 comments

    I was talking to an IT executive and he was chatting about how difficult it was to raise awareness within the business side of what IT capacity he has and how much his organization can really take on. He mentioned that despite some IT demand management processes, it was tough to set expectations. I guess these days IT Operations faces a number of opposing priorities:

  • Increasing demands on IT staff to “fight fires” vs. provide value add services
  • Addressing the increasing rate of change spawned by business needs
  • Improving IT’s business value
  • “Doing more with less”
  • Measuring end-to-end quality of service
  • But the real essence comes down to 3 things:

  • Do things

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 0 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Architecture   IT Planning  IT Strategy  IT to Business Alignment  IT Value  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Gregg Powers Business Drivers and IT Strategy

    Gregg Powers, Senior Management Consultant  :  20 January 2010 / 12:13 PM  :  3 3 comments

    In the last blog entry, we looked at some of the first principles of IT strategy – things that should be addressed within an IT strategy document.  In this blog entry, we explore in more detail, some of the fundamental aspects of tying IT strategy to the business.   A key relationship that develops over time, although not immediately recognized by IT executives, is IT organizations inability to objectively define their value proposition are often viewed as an expense to be minimized.  Hence, there is a linkage between the view of IT within the organization as an expense and IT’s inability to define its value.

    IT organizations have historical...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 3 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: IT Planning  IT Strategy  IT to Business Alignment  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Ashu Bhatia Master Data Management

    Ashu Bhatia, Director of Delivery  :  08 December 2009 / 11:05 AM  :  1 1 comments

    Master Data Management

    Master Data is the fundamental business data in the company, typically long-lived and used across multiple applications, inherently including the subset of Master Reference Data.

    Master Data, including Reference Data, is not to be considered “Metadata”. Metadata is data about data. It describes data content but it is NOT the content.  There is no formal and universal definition of how deep to take the definition from a content perspective. Only those metadata whose management will bring more value to the enterprise than the cost of the labor needed to create and maintain it should be managed and integrated formally. For example, “Master Data” definitions (customers, suppliers, products, org...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 1 comment

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Architecture   Data Architecture  Enterprise Integration  Information Management  SOA & Data Architecture  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Ashu Bhatia Shared Services and proper Chargeback is key for IT Operational Excellence

    Ashu Bhatia, Director of Delivery  :  01 October 2009 / 9:37 AM  :  2 2 comments

    There has always been much discussion and interest in creating Operational Efficiency through Shared Services - and today's climate is no exception. In particular, if a company is decentralized and the IT organizations are serving businesses in a disparate manner, there is some scope to optimize the IT spend, after bringing these silos under a common umbrella. But a Support Services business model typically used, whether as a cost center or profit center, has its pluses and minuses. However, in any case that this is set up, there are certain steps to be followed:

  • Establish Service Portfolio and Catalog - Gather requirements from customers, decide and implement best way to acquire talent, screen/test applicants, check backgrounds, negotiate positions, relocat...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 2 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Architecture   CIO  IT Strategy  IT to Business Alignment  IT Value  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    Gregg Powers II - IT Strategy First Principles

    Gregg Powers, Senior Management Consultant  :  18 September 2009 / 4:20 PM  :  0 0 comments

    In the last blog entry, we looked at the need for IT Strategy. In this blog we will look at some of the foundational elements and perspectives used in development of a good IT strategy.

    Google ‘IT strategic plan’ – go ahead and try it.  Once you find some hits, take the time and look at some of the plans that are within the links.   What do you see as common within the pl...

    continue reading

    Permalink : Share : 0 comments

    More by this author

    Tagged: Business Value  IT Planning  IT Strategy  IT to Business Alignment  IT Value  

    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

    older articles

  •  

    TOP

    CIBER USA   :  Services | ERP / Package Solutions | Industries | Case Studies & Resources | News & Events | About CIBER :: Contact Information
    International  :  CIBER International | Global Locations    Employees :  Employee Resources | Recruiters | CIBERspace | CIBERstore | Password Reset

    Newest Case Studies : Elsevier  |  University of Texas at Dallas  |  KNG International  :: more
    Popular Case Studies : Mercedes Benz  |  MOPAR  |  An International Cruise Line  :: more
    Newest White Paper  : Are You Ready for ERP? Gaining Full Value from ERP Implementations in the Public Sector   :: more
    Newest Webinar  : Oracle's Master Data Management (MDM) Solution for Higher Education   :: more


    Visit other CIBER sites:  

    RSS Feeds   CIBER on Twitter

    © 2010 CIBER, Inc. — All Rights Reserved. Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Corporate Governance | Website Feedback
    CIBER, CIBERJOBS, CIBERspace and the CIBER logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of CIBER, Inc.
    CIBER stock is publicly traded under the symbol "CBR" on the NYSE.