So, you want to avoid the offshoring lay off axe? Then become the person who manages all the offshoring initiatives in your organization.

So, you want to avoid the offshoring lay off axe? Then become the person who manages all the offshoring initiatives in your organization.

So, you want to avoid the offshoring lay off axe? Then become the person who manages all the offshoring initiatives in your organization.

So, you want to avoid the offshoring lay off axe? Then become the person who manages all the offshoring initiatives in your organization.

In May, I wrote an Advisor titled "The Convergence of BPM and SOA Continues" (3 May 2006). Little did I know that it was only the beginning. The pace of consolidation has increased significantly in recent months in the SOA, BPM, and combined markets. Let's take a look at some of the highlights.

A client recently asked how to assess the effectiveness of their IT organization. We immediately responded: does the IT organization add value to the business? Of course that's the right question -- but exactly how does one go about getting the answer?

The other morning, over coffee, I was talking with several folks about the predicament that the big US automotive manufacturers General Motors and Ford now find themselves in. Simply put, GM and Ford are in trouble because sales of their SUVs, pickups, and other large vehicles have declined considerably. Some defined it as a forecasting problem. Others said it was faulty data analysis, and asked me why Ford and GM's BI folks failed to predict the shift in consumer sentiment to smaller, more gas economical cars.

Back in 2003, I wrote about the use of intelligent video systems for adding automated, real-time threat detection, identification and alarming capabilities to closed circuit television cameras for security applications (See "Intelligent Video Surveillance for Security Applications," 30 September 2003). Since then, there have been a number of new developments regarding intelligent video systems.

Back in 2003, I wrote about the use of intelligent video systems for adding automated, real-time threat detection, identification and alarming capabilities to closed circuit television cameras for security applications (See "Intelligent Video Surveillance for Security Applications," 30 September 2003). Since then, there have been a number of new developments regarding intelligent video systems.

As the years have passed, the Balanced Scorecard has gone through two stages of development: a business indicators stage focused on performance measurement and a strategic modeling stage1 focused on integrating performance measurement into organizational strategy. The field has been remarkably successful. The Balanced Scorecard has been adopted and applied worldwide.

The Balanced Scorecard field has gone through two stages of development: a business indicators stage and a strategic modeling stage. The discipline has been remarkably successful in the sense that the Balanced Scorecard has been widely adopted and applied and that software tools for strongly supporting its first two stages are readily available and have benefited from vigorous competition. But there are at least five challenges facing the practice as follows:

This Executive Update, the first in a series of two, provides an overview of the methodology and approach used to develop detailed business processes for managing an IT environment. A real-life case study using an approach for creating service management processes and subprocesses is presented, and the interfaces needed to support application development migration are identified. Finally, an example process model as well as process flows are included.

Everyone in IT is talking about service-oriented architecture (SOA).

Everyone in IT is talking about service-oriented architecture (SOA).

This is the second of four Executive Updates in which I shall be analyzing the results of a recent Cutter Consortium survey on service-oriented architecture (SOA).

The frameworks, ideas, data, and guidelines in this issue of <em>CBR</em> will be helpful in your quest to evaluate and possibly implement a service-oriented architecture in your organization.

The frameworks, ideas, data, and guidelines in this issue of <em>CBR</em> will be helpful in your quest to evaluate and possibly implement a service-oriented architecture in your organization.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is quickly emerging as the next innovation within the IT marketplace that is being widely adopted by organizations. Both vendors and customers are lining up to become SOA-enabled. Vendors such as IBM, SAP, Oracle, HP, and Microsoft see the enormous potential of SOA and are rushing to become active in the SOA market space. Customers don't want to get left behind and hence are clamoring for information about what they need to do to get ready for SOA.

Cutter recently surveyed organizations about their adoption and use of best practices concerning service-oriented architecture (SOA). Of the 78 organizations to respond, three-quarters (58) either currently have SOA deployed, are actively working on SOA, or are planning to deploy it. This article analyzes the responses from those 58 organizations, concentrating primarily on the use of best practices to implement SOA.

This issue of Cutter Benchmark Review focuses on a topic of increasing interest to our readership: service-oriented architecture (SOA). Our academic contribution is provided by Andrew Schwarz, Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the EJ Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University (LSU), and Rudy Hirschheim, the Ourso Family Distinguished Professor of Information Systems in the EJ Ourso College of Business at LSU. Both Andy and Rudy focus on the managerial and organizational aspects of new information technology and are becoming increasingly interested in SOA.

This survey investigated the extent to which organizations have adopted service oriented architecture and SOA best practices. Of the 78 responding organizations, 27% have more than 10,000 employees, 23% have between 1,000 and 10,000 employees, 28% have between 100 and 1,000 employees, and the remaining organizations have 100 or fewer employees.

This survey investigated the extent to which organizations have adopted service oriented architecture and SOA best practices. Of the 78 responding organizations, 27% have more than 10,000 employees, 23% have between 1,000 and 10,000 employees, 28% have between 100 and 1,000 employees, and the remaining organizations have 100 or fewer employees.

Coming out of nowhere, blogs have become commonplace in today's Internet-connected world. Only a few years ago, social media, like blogs, were strictly the province of hard-core geeks. But now, grandmothers, public relations (PR) flacks, and teenagers have joined the digerati, posting their political views, their cookie recipes, and their innermost thoughts on the newest boy band, and sharing these posts with friends, family, and the wide, wide world.

Coming out of nowhere, blogs have become commonplace in today's Internet-connected world. Only a few years ago, social media, like blogs, were strictly the province of hard-core geeks. But now, grandmothers, public relations (PR) flacks, and teenagers have joined the digerati, posting their political views, their cookie recipes, and their innermost thoughts on the newest boy band, and sharing these posts with friends, family, and the wide, wide world.

While commonplace today, only a few years ago social media technology, such as blogs, was strictly the province of hard-core geeks. But now, grandmothers, public relations flacks, and teenagers have joined the digerati, posting their political views, their cookie recipes, and their innermost thoughts on the newest boy band, and sharing these posts with friends, family, and the wide, wide world.