Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Almost all organizations have some level of ability to see a snapshot of how their organization is faring on a regular basis. That ability allows them to keep an eye on how well the organization is meeting its objectives on a daily or sometimes even a real-time basis. These dashboards typically cover the organization's financial data at the very least and often extend into monitoring of production line outputs and related metrics.

Users are not interested in programs. If they are, it is our fault. What users want is systems that produce needed outputs with the minimum of additional input and with the maximum of integration (or the ability to integrate) with other systems with which they share data.

Market mechanisms

The sale of software through a brokered clearinghouse is likely to usher in an era of drastically changed software pricing and an entirely new take on the notion of open source software.

Hardly a day goes by that you can't pick up another publication espousing the necessity of "IT strategic alignment." The importance of this concept has grown over the years as corporations have seen the increasing role that information management plays in their business.

Oddly enough, American universities may be leading the way in outsourced e-mail. Both Microsoft and Google have made inroads within universities across North America. For budget-strapped universities, it's almost a no-brainer, and many are voting with their feet. Why manage the rapidly growing size of e-mail when someone can do it for you? And for free, too.