Strategic leadership involves the way you interact with the other members of the executive team, but to be effective, it must also be instilled within the IT organization.

As I write this Advisor, my primary computer is at my computer support organization, where it is being analyzed and cleansed of malware and viruses it has accumulated over the last six months or so. As careful as I am, these "gotcha" moments seem to come more and more frequently.

As I write this Advisor, my primary computer is at my computer support organization, where it is being analyzed and cleansed of malware and viruses it has accumulated over the last six months or so. As careful as I am, these "gotcha" moments seem to come more and more frequently.

As I write this Advisor, my primary computer is at my computer support organization, where it is being analyzed and cleansed of malware and viruses it has accumulated over the last six months or so. As careful as I am, these "gotcha" moments seem to come more and more frequently.

Organizations increasingly rely on relationships with vendors, partners, and service providers to better manage their businesses. Lean economic times help accelerate the outsourcing trend, and the software as a service (SaaS) market is experiencing double-digit growth as businesses seek to avoid costly acquisition costs and financial commitments of supporting a full-system lifecycle. The rapid growth in SaaS, cloud computing, and offshoring continues to move information security risks from inside the enterprise to outside.

The third role type for product management is one that focuses on achieving corporate profitability or business value metrics. It incorporates many of the attributes of the product management roles for marketing and technology, but in a way in which those functions must be integrated in order to maximize business value.

A few weeks ago, I had a little electrical incident at my house. After the fire department left and the mess was cleaned up, we took stock of the damage. Except for the offending surge "protector" that caught fire, our UPCs pretty much did their job.

Last week, it was Oracle Corporation buying real-time data integration vendor GoldenGate Software, Inc. (see "Oracle Buys GoldenGate: Adds Real-Time Data Integration and 'Zero-Downtime' Migration Tools," 28 July 2009). This week, it's IBM acquiring data mining and statistical analysis tools vendor SPSS, Inc. for US $1.2 billion.

"IT, when used judiciously, is an indispensable asset. At the same time, it can be a forge of distractions and a time sink undermining our productivity."

-- Gabriele Piccoli, Editor

"IT, when used judiciously, is an indispensable asset. At the same time, it can be a forge of distractions and a time sink undermining our productivity."

-- Gabriele Piccoli, Editor

You'll likely decide to make the transition to agile if there is a compelling business objective for doing so. Reasons may include decreased time to market, higher quality, increased employee engagement, better use of each dollar invested, or greater focus on delivering what your customers need.

Managers need to keep pace with rapid developments in global offshoring opportunities outside Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC). This Executive Report by Leslie Willcocks, Catherine Griffiths, and Julia Kotlarsky describes these developments and provides a 20-factor framework for assessing the location attractiveness of the emerging 120-plus countries offering offshore services.

Managers need to keep pace with rapid developments in global offshoring opportunities outside Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC). This Executive Report by Leslie Willcocks, Catherine Griffiths, and Julia Kotlarsky describes these developments and provides a 20-factor framework for assessing the location attractiveness of the emerging 120-plus countries offering offshore services.

In a global offshore outsourcing market that saw some US $55 billion in revenue in 2008, Brazil, Russia, India, and China are commonly seen as the "BRIC" inheritors of globalization, offering both offshore IT and back-office services as well as huge potential markets (with their vast populations and developing economies). However, as of mid-2009, there are more than 120 other active offshore locations. All are looking for new business, and many are making strategic investments in developing scale and capability.

In a global offshore outsourcing market that saw some US $55 billion in revenue in 2008, Brazil, Russia, India, and China are commonly seen as the "BRIC" inheritors of globalization, offering both offshore IT and back-office services as well as huge potential markets (with their vast populations and developing economies). However, as of mid-2009, there are more than 120 other active offshore locations. All are looking for new business, and many are making strategic investments in developing scale and capability.

A harsh economic recession calling for renewed cost reduction with an emphasis on tactical solution-delivery projects causes concern over the effectiveness of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA) and puts agile back in the limelight.

A harsh economic recession calling for renewed cost reduction with an emphasis on tactical solution-delivery projects causes concern over the effectiveness of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA) and puts agile back in the limelight. SOA and agile methodologies are commonly seen as opposites, but opposites that don't attract.

This month's installment of Cutter Benchmark Review is the fourth in our yearly series on IT budgets and the budgeting process. The budgeting process is of critical importance to the IT and business professionals in our readership. That last statement may have never ringed as true as it does today in the midst of the greatest economic upheaval we have witnessed, perhaps in our lifetime. As you get ready to read and evaluate the results of the survey to make sense of what we've uncovered, you need to bear in mind that the data gathered in this survey was collected during the worst economic climate in the modern computer era. Contextual and environmental events of this magnitude have an impact that is felt throughout a benchmarking survey of this kind, beginning with a very low response rate as the belt tightens and IT professionals around the world find themselves working harder, and on more responsibilities, than ever before.

This month's installment of Cutter Benchmark Review is the fourth in our yearly series on IT budgets and the budgeting process. The budgeting process is of critical importance to the IT and business professionals in our readership. That last statement may have never ringed as true as it does today in the midst of the greatest economic upheaval we have witnessed, perhaps in our lifetime. As you get ready to read and evaluate the results of the survey to make sense of what we've uncovered, you need to bear in mind that the data gathered in this survey was collected during the worst economic climate in the modern computer era. Contextual and environmental events of this magnitude have an impact that is felt throughout a benchmarking survey of this kind, beginning with a very low response rate as the belt tightens and IT professionals around the world find themselves working harder, and on more responsibilities, than ever before.

This month's installment of Cutter Benchmark Review is the fourth in our yearly series on IT budgets and the budgeting process. The budgeting process is of critical importance to the IT and business professionals in our readership. That last statement may have never ringed as true as it does today in the midst of the greatest economic upheaval we have witnessed, perhaps in our lifetime. As you get ready to read and evaluate the results of the survey to make sense of what we've uncovered, you need to bear in mind that the data gathered in this survey was collected during the worst economic climate in the modern computer era. Contextual and environmental events of this magnitude have an impact that is felt throughout a benchmarking survey of this kind, beginning with a very low response rate as the belt tightens and IT professionals around the world find themselves working harder, and on more responsibilities, than ever before.

This month's installment of Cutter Benchmark Review is the fourth in our yearly series on IT budgets and the budgeting process. The budgeting process is of critical importance to the IT and business professionals in our readership. That last statement may have never ringed as true as it does today in the midst of the greatest economic upheaval we have witnessed, perhaps in our lifetime. As you get ready to read and evaluate the results of the survey to make sense of what we've uncovered, you need to bear in mind that the data gathered in this survey was collected during the worst economic climate in the modern computer era. Contextual and environmental events of this magnitude have an impact that is felt throughout a benchmarking survey of this kind, beginning with a very low response rate as the belt tightens and IT professionals around the world find themselves working harder, and on more responsibilities, than ever before.

This month's installment of Cutter Benchmark Review is the fourth in our yearly series on IT budgets and the budgeting process. The budgeting process is of critical importance to the IT and business professionals in our readership. That last statement may have never ringed as true as it does today in the midst of the greatest economic upheaval we have witnessed, perhaps in our lifetime. As you get ready to read and evaluate the results of the survey to make sense of what we've uncovered, you need to bear in mind that the data gathered in this survey was collected during the worst economic climate in the modern computer era. Contextual and environmental events of this magnitude have an impact that is felt throughout a benchmarking survey of this kind, beginning with a very low response rate as the belt tightens and IT professionals around the world find themselves working harder, and on more responsibilities, than ever before.

Cloud computing describes the state of the art in data center infrastructure and its possibilities. As we explore in this Executive Report by Brian J. Dooley, the cloud provides some hope for handling some of the trickiest issues regarding business intelligence (BI).

Cloud computing describes the state of the art in data center infrastructure and its possibilities. As we explore in this Executive Report by Brian J. Dooley, the cloud provides some hope for handling some of the trickiest issues regarding business intelligence (BI).