Governance

So long as business applications are user-friendly and do the job, users shouldnt need to care about the bits and bytes. Whether youre at the helm of your company or are a time-pressed employee trying to get your job done, the last thing you want is to be slowed down ... read more..

There is little doubt that despite the apparent signs of recovery throughout the UK, for most in IT the future will be challenging. 2009 has been a very challenging year The general theme from our discussions with NCC members is that they remain under huge pressure to change; delivering more ... read more..

Keith Mitchell of Replify Ltd looks at how optimisation can create the platform for greater efficiency and productivityInfrastructures in businessTodays technology can affect businesses in many different ways. Deployed properly it can propel a company to greater productivity and profitability with far fewer resources than were required just a few ... read more..

why it pays to rationalise your BI infrastructure Your IT budget is razor thin, your staff is maxed out, and management has ordered another round of cuts. Meanwhile, three departments are clamouring for specialised applications to compete effectively against the market leader thats eating your lunch. Somehow youre expected to ... read more..

Building trust between IT and FinanceIn most organisations the economic decision maker for large scale IT purchases is the Finance Director/CFO or Board of Directors of which they are part. However, despite this, there is a lack of understanding between IT and the finance function (www.pwc.co.uk/pdf/best_of_enemies.pdf). The National Computing Centre ... read more..

Not too long ago, the only people who cared about metadata were geeks like me. IT and business users didnt think about how data was organised, where it was located, or how pieces of information were related; they simply wanted reports. And for that, information analysts were the go-to people ... read more..

In November Microsoft released a beta version of SharePoint 2010. This is the fourth version of SharePoint, and the product is showing its maturity with a lot of improvements from the 2007 version. Indeed, whether or not you currently have SharePoint, 2010 is worth a serious look, and in this ... read more..

Sean Sherman of Tripwire explains how the fast maturing compliance landscape is changing the way organisations are addressing global regulatory requirements. Increasing sophistication in both the regulatory bodies and compliance experts is driving regulations to evolve beyond tick box compliance towards a risk-based model that reflects organisations specific operational requirements. ... read more..

With falling technology costs, human resources increasingly comprise the largest component of IT expenditure. As IT governance is concerned with achieving value for IT expenditure, it must focus on these human resources, as well as on the technological and financial resources. The constantly changing IT world presents particular challenges for ... read more..

IT Governance is a critical topic for business leaders given the significant investment and central role IT plays in today's organisations. However, IT Governance is a much misunderstood subject and means different things to different people. At Ernst Young, we think it's time for organisations to put IT Governance ... read more..

Research conducted by the National Computing Centre and Atos Consulting, the consulting arm of Atos Origin, has revealed growing acceptance and planned take-up of Open Source, despite current caution.Report highlights include:Over 50% have either adopted or are planning to adopt Open SourceOver 55% either accept or include Open Source in ... read more..

Cloud Computing is a term that has quickly become the hottest topic in the technology sector, with seemingly every major provider and thousands of smaller companies offering Cloud Computing services. But what exactly is Cloud Computing? A recent McKinsey report listed twenty-two definitions of Cloud Computing! The umbrella term 'cloud' has been used ... read more..

2009 has seen the power of social media reach an all-time high with many of us dedicating our precious time daily to blogs, chat forums and popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Rob Marcus, director at social networking moderation company, Chat Moderators believes that social media is ... read more..

There has been a recent surge in the number of websites that are created day in and day out. Have you ever wondered how many of these websites exist in the virtual world? Have you ever been in awe of the amount of effort that goes into developing a website? ... read more..

The network's the limit when it comes to making the most of the cloud In the grip of global recession, businesses are looking at 2009 as a year for cost-cutting. Facing substantially lower revenues, management boards are increasingly taking an active interest in how cost-efficiently business functions such as IT are ... read more..

Implications of the increasing use of web-based applications available in the computing cloud There are important security and compliance implications in delivering mission-critical applications as Web-hosted services. CIOs need to be very aware of the risks they face if they allow the organisation to float off into the Cloud, says Alan ... read more..

The recession is prompting a growing number of companies to consider the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, leveraging low initial cost and a pay as you go approach to minimise costs and create a highly flexible operation. But how do the cost arguments stack up? In some areas, such as CRM, there ... read more..

During the economic boom, many organisations invested in people, processes and systems without fully appreciating whether they met needs. Arif Ahmed examines how IT departments can achieve better ROI and close the IT efficiency gap. It is a universal truth that technology can improve operational effectiveness, and in recent years many ... read more..

John Thorp, President of The Thorp Network and Chair of Val IT Steering Committee for ITGI, considers the necessity of effective governance around value management. Tough decisions will be required in today's troubled economic times - times that may be with us throughout 2009 and beyond. The quality of those decisions ... read more..

This Butler Group Technical Paper emphasises the how of a Master Data Management (MDM) programme. There are many different definitions of MDM. The one used here is aimed to help clarify the goal of the MDM programme: MDM is a combination of tools, processes, and people to establish an ongoing ... read more..

Documents created in any country and any language can be, and increasingly are, relevant to investigations or regulatory matters. Consequently, there is more of a need than ever to be fully aware of how to best equip for the challenges of dealing with multi-lingual forms of data. In the area ... read more..

How do you take account of the various standards and best practice approaches when looking to develop an IT governance framework? Alan Calder guides you through the maze. Most IT management frameworks and standards offer solutions and tools that can help with IT governance, but they are typically very detailed, and ... read more..

Where is knowledge management now? Knowledge management in 2003 is still at a very critical phase for further acceptance and development. Generally, the major shift in thinking that is essential to understanding true knowledge management - together with the understanding and ... read more..

[MEMBERS_IMAGE_LEFT;28_2_1.jpg;trends in knowledge management] Knowledge Management (KM) is now almost a dirty word in some ... read more..

It's an open question at the moment as to whether knowledge management is really going anywhere other than as a fancy name for information management, focusing on the codification of knowledge into processes and documents. Mind you something very similar could ... read more..

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