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New Year's Resolution 2: Better sales compensation management

By James Gaskin on 1/27/2009

Figuring a good sales compensation plan is like making oil and water blend smoothly. Sales people always think management is cheating them out of commissions. Management always thinks sales people are stealing them blind. Owners of smaller companies who manage the sales people themselves often focus on the dollar paid in commission rather than thinking of the associated $20 of company revenue.

Application Rationalization: Moving to a Second Circle Portfolio

By John Stone on 1/27/2009

I wrote a few weeks ago about strategic outsourcing and technology rationalization (link). Today, I am sharing some further views on successful technology portfolio assessment and a transformation strategy to Second Circle Technology ™.

As the economic downturn continues we are seeing and increasing number of companies looking at cost reduction through application portfolio transformation. Application transformation with Second Circle Technology drives more flexible and lower cost while legacy systems constrain IT’s ability to meet business needs. We have seen reductions in cost that range from 15% to 30% of IT spend. At the same time, legacy application portfolios constrain the ability to meet business needs. Some of the typical constraints are:

applying systems and processes consistently throughout the company
adapting quickly enough to address changing business needs
ensuring the skills needed to make critical changes to systems

In the Spotlight: Upcoming Content Management Webinar

By TJ O'Connor on 1/27/2009

Business Strategies for Content Management
Part 2 of 4: Syndicating and Repurposing content with RSS Feeds
February 4, 2009 | 2:00 PM EDT | Register Now!

Many users now prefer to subscribe to content via feeds, instead of traditional email newsletters. RSS is a technology that allows organizations to deliver regularly updated content to users. This relevant, personal content is then aggregated into a single, easily accessible location.

Do you want to reduce information overload to your audience by moving information away from the e-mail inbox?
Do you want to increase portal and intranet usage by incorporating updated, personalized information?
Would you like to improve employee collaboration and knowledge sharing

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, this is a must attend webinar for marketers, business leaders, content editors, and developers. Join TJ O'Connor, Principal Consultant, CrossTech Partners, along with Mark Boisvert Account Executive, CrossTech Partners, in part two of a four part series on Business Strategies for Content Management, and learn how create syndicated content, allow users to subscribe, and reuse content across multiple areas of your website.

Open Outsourcing

By David Abrahams on 1/27/2009

Open Outsourcing is a development model that focuses your programmers' proprietary domain expertise on the core concerns of your application, lowers development costs, and increases the sustainability of your codebase.

Security Necessities - IT Managers Should Think Holistically To Protect The Company's Nerve Center

By Carmi Levy on 1/27/2009

Your Data Center is the core of your company's IT environment. If it's compromised in any way, the risk to your business could be incalculable. But as companies actively look for any opportunity to save money, they may want to think twice about cutting indiscriminately within the data center. One size definitely doesn’t fit all, and that last cut may be fatal.

Making Staff Cuts - Have A Selection and Communication Strategy and A Plan For Surviving Staff

By Kurt Marko on 1/27/2009

The protracted recession and concomitant financial crisis is decimating the bottom line at most businesses and leading them to seek any means to cut expenses. Unfortunately, this often means reducing staff, and IT personnel aren’t immune to the sacrifice. Because staffing amounts to about 70% of the typical IT department’s budget, according to Jennifer Perrier-Knox, senior research analyst at Info-Tech, significantly reducing IT costs is impossible without some layoffs.

The Year In IT - A Look At The Highs & Lows Of 2008

By Carmi Levy on 1/13/2009

Looking back at the year as it draws to a close isn’t just an annual tradition in IT. It’s an important part of the planning cycle that prepares the organization for next year’s challenges. As worries about the economy deepen, these reflections become even more critical to the organization’s future. In that context, 2008 was a monumental year for IT.

Information Nirvana or Information Overload? Information and Content Management Revisited

By John Stone on 1/13/2009

I thought about some of the interesting work we are doing with Second Circle innovators and decided to dust off and update this article that I originally wrote in 2003. Not surprisingly, basic opportunities and concepts have not changed too much so I decided to re-publish it with a few updates. What HAS changed? Certainly the jargon has. I am sure you have heard these: "Inboxing" is now when a relationship of Facebook has progressed from the Wall to 1:1 communications to direct "inbox communications"!…. "We're inboxing" - cool.. "Friending" and "Unfriending" even "Facebook Stalking" ouch…

BladeSystems Insight 2009 to Feature "Next Data Center" as Part of April Event in Phoenix

By CrossTech Media on 1/13/2009

IT executives have a challenging mission in 2009 when it comes to the data center. Cut energy and operating costs, go green, make architectures more flexible, evaluate blade and other server platforms, and stay on top of the ever-evolving world of virtualization and cloud computing - just to name a few key concerns. CrossTech Forums can help with two major IT executive summits.

BladeSystems Insight, taking place April 19-21, 2009 at the Arizona Grand Resort in Phoenix, is focused on blade servers, virtualization, power and cooling and other core data center technologies. It is an annual national event that provides a travel participation package for IT decision-makers. The Next Data Center is a series of regional one-day summits that will host an audience of IT executives starting in June 2009 in Dallas, October 2009 in Chicago, and March 2010 in Atlanta. To launch the "Next Data Center," there will be a special program at BladeSystems Insight in Phoenix this April.

It’s a great way to kick off a year of data center education, networking and business for IT executives everywhere. Solution providers interested in sponsorship opportunities should contact Paul Samargedlis at 781-821-6740 or [email protected]. For information on applying for an executive invitation to attend any of the summits, visit http://www.bladesystemsinsight.com/ or http://www.gondc.com/.

Prepare Your Enterprise For Social Engineering Attacks

By David Geer on 1/13/2009

Most SMEs have priceless customer data, intellectual property, or both. In the wrong hands, they are wares for the black market, selling at a premium to the highest bidder. How do information thieves purloin the precious electronic cargo? They use social engineering attacks, manipulating human behavior until company employees unwittingly hand over everything they need.

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