This survey examined the interaction between the IT organization and its business clients with the aim of better understanding what organizations can do to increase the quality of IT service provided. Almost half (47%) of the 91 responding organizations are headquartered or based in North America; of the remainder, 15% are headquartered in Europe, 15% in Australia/Pacific, 13% in Asia, and 10% in South America or the Middle East.

Simulation is not new to business intelligence (BI), but its significance is evolving. The BI utilities of modeling and scenario analysis involve simulation, and the highly networked modern enterprise is more measurable and predictable with simulation than it was without it. Yet intelligence and a learning organization are different things.

Simulation is not new to business intelligence (BI), but its role is evolving. Within BI, it is evolving to create more realistic scenarios for analysis; outside of BI, it's being engaged for learning and enhanced reality. In whatever way a company uses simulation, it can drive superior performance and adherence to business rules.

Technology-fueled globalization is setting new terms for competition in all aspects of business. Organizations that wish to stay in the market must reinvent the way they finance, resource, research, design, produce, distribute, market, sell, and service. They must change the way they do everything.

Consider this: if you could upgrade all the software on your computer for free, would you do it? It's not a trick question -- give it some thought for a moment. I posed the question at a forum in Chicago earlier this year, and some of the responses were quite intense. That was not what I had expected.

Innovation

Most people know that innovation requires time to think, reflect, experiment, fail, revise, and explore. But many have likely not contemplated how directly cost pressures can impact innovation efforts. Psychologist Donald T. Campbell developed a model of innovation in 1960 that can help us understand just what's at stake. The Campbell model was inspired by Darwinian evolution. It portrays innovation as a two-step process, as follows:

Blind Variation + Selective Retention

Most people know that innovation requires time to think, reflect, experiment, fail, revise, and explore. But many have likely not contemplated how directly cost pressures can impact innovation efforts. Psychologist Donald T. Campbell developed a model of innovation in 1960 that can help us understand just what's at stake. The Campbell model was inspired by Darwinian evolution. It portrays innovation as a two-step process, as follows:

Blind Variation + Selective Retention

The Agile Triangle way of measuring performance can be useful in looking at business goals in new ways (the triangle involves value, quality, and constraints -- as introduced in my Advisor, "Flex Your Agile Triangle and Add Value," 30 April 2009).

Most of the attention being paid to cloud computing has focused on public cloud providers, such as Amazon and Google, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors, such as Salesforce.com.

The waves of the business cycle are becoming ripples. The recent American combination of minimal inflation and very low unemployment may not be an aberration, but the beginning of a new worldwide trend. Smarter government policy, globalization, changes in employment, advances in information technology, and emerging markets all cushion shocks and dampen the familiar boom and bust.

While EA and service-oriented architecture (SOA) have their own advocates and camps of followers, recent developments have seen many of the EA approaches and frameworks looking to offer increasing support for SOA. The fact that business is increasingly conducted in a collaborative fashion, using distributed Internet technologies, makes this very welcome.

Last week, I discussed SAP AG's new Business Objects tool that combines BI reporting and analysis with functionality that is like an Internet search engine: SAP Business Objects Explorer (see "SAP Business Objects Explorer: BI Search Meets ERP, But Will It Accelerate Adoption of BI Search?," 19 May 2009).

As methods such as agile development, agile testing, and agile project management are increasingly deployed to enable organizations to respond faster to the increasing turbulence of the global business and government environment, the roles of sponsors and business experts in the project space must change.

Agile sponsorship is based on a few, very powerful concepts:

To fully understand the advantages and challenges in software as a service (SaaS), we must analyze the emerging model thoroughly from the viewpoint of customers and independent software vendors (ISVs). The aim of such scrutiny is to reap the benefits and mitigate possible risks of SaaS.

Portals provide a common user interface (UI) platform for federating varied content and applications. In addition, portal server products offer out-of-the-box features such as personalization, security, and administrative control. The portal server also provides several customization hooks for layout, themes, skins, security, and so forth.

At the Cutter Summit 2009 conference in early May, I was talking with an executive from a company that contracts for large government projects.

With the ongoing proliferation of certifications available to business professionals of every type, it's no surprise that risk management has popped into the picture in the cost, IT development, and project management communities.

Regardless of a company's objectives, it must invest in operational and strategic technology. Operational technology has obviously become commoditized as prices have dropped and the industry has consolidated, but if acquisition, deployment, and support best practices are ignored, all of the advantages of commoditization disappear.

Regardless of a company's objectives, it must invest in operational and strategic technology. Operational technology has obviously become commoditized as prices have dropped and the industry has consolidated, but if acquisition, deployment, and support best practices are ignored, all of the advantages of commoditization disappear.

Many client organizations nearing the end of an outsourcing contract start to consider whether they should retender the deal.

Many client organizations nearing the end of an outsourcing contract start to consider whether they should retender the deal.

Businesses depend heavily on use of the Internet to perform their activities. But have business personnel received enough training and ongoing awareness communications about how to use the Internet securely? Has your staff received any training or awareness communications at all?

It's not the technology, stupid; it's the processes. Processes are good, bad, ugly, or indifferent depending on how well -- or poorly -- you incentivize their efficacy. Let me repeat: it's not the technology. In fact, among the triumvirate of people, process, and technology, technology is the least likely case of failure. Then comes people.