It's the stuff of CSO nightmares. Early on the morning of September 2, while most folks were home sleeping off the hot dogs, thieves used bolt cutters to break into an Alltel Communications warehouse and four of its loading docks in Fort Smith, Ark. Sources say they escaped with an estimated US$10 million worth of cell phones, not a bad haul for their Labor Day efforts.
It's not easy to sort through the maze of IT training options available today. Classroom training, interactive Webcasts, online tutorials, customized multimedia courseware -- there is so much from which to choose.
Recent years have been unkind to the worldwide utility sector. Industries such as oil, gas, water, nuclear power, electricity and petrochemical have seen their share of woes -- from the doleful economy to deregulation to increased governmental scrutiny because of the corporate collapses.
Like every other company in its industry, chemical giant Atofina needs to wring every last dollar and whiff of inefficiency out of its operations. A few years ago, the US$19.3 billion company, previously known as Elf Atochem, began to implement a system that collected data from its manufacturing plants for analysis by plant-floor personnel.
Winemaking is not your ordinary manufacturing industry. After all, wine has been gladdening the hearts of men (and women) since at least Biblical times. But winemaking does not lend itself to a formula that can be repeated with a consistent outcome. Winemakers must respect the ever-changing conditions of the terroir, or terrain--the grapes, the soil and the sun, which combine with the simple passage of time to create the precious nectar.
Vehicle suppliers are used to doing things the Big Three's way. On e-commerce, however, they said no way. Surprise: the automakers actually listen to their suppliers' concerns. In the biggest man-bites-dog story in recent memory, the Big Three car companies dropped their plans to achieve world dominance via separate trade exchanges and came together to collaborate on a single platform. The reason? Vehicle industry suppliers cried out at the folly of implementing and supporting multiple disparate systems.
After pledging to annihilate each other's Internet e-commerce exchanges, Ford Motor and General Motors in the US lowered their swords and decided to work together to build the world's biggest online bazaar.
You're running on Internet time these days, frantically keeping pace with new technology and your demanding B2B and B2C customers. But in your haste to keep up, you've got to remember the people who depend on you most--your users. E-business has increased not only external customer demands but also internal user demands. Users seem to have a growing need for IT to perform such miracles as rapid response, flexibility and instant applications.
No one wants to arrive at a situation like Ken Garcia's. Your best hope of ensuring that all of your projects stay on track is to prepare a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) before work commences, according to Stephen DeVaux, president and founder of Analytic Project Management, a consulting firm in Bedford, Massachusetts. DeVaux is author of Total Project Control: A Manager's Guide to Integrated Project Planning, Measuring and Tracking.
One of the biggest project management disasters of late would have to be Boston's Big Dig underground highway construction project. Slated to take 14 years at a cost of $10.8 billion, the project's total price tag is now estimated at $14 billion. Little wonder Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci recently demanded that Big Dig chief James J. Kerasiotes hang up his hard hat - for good.
You might think Peter Solvik has his hands full serving as CIO and senior vice president at Cisco Systems Inc., one of the world's largest and most successful technology companies. But no. In addition to his in-house duties at the $15 billion San Jose, California-based networking equipment maker, Solvik serves on four Different external boards of directors of internet startup companies. Why would he agree to serve on these boards, stretching his already-packed schedule to the limit?
You might call Lloyd DeVaux the wizard of bank acquisitions. In 1998 alone, DeVaux, executive vice president and CIO at Union Planters, oversaw the technical side of 18 different bank acquisitions. In 1999, there were five more acquisitions. In fact, DeVaux has been involved in more than 50 bank acquisitions since he joined the $33 billion Memphis, Tenn.-based bank holding company in 1994. It's enough to make anyone's head spin.
Mark Caron is used to big guys beating on him. A one-time high-school football halfback, he bears the scars of shoulder, knee and ankle injuries suffered in the gridiron wars. But--tough guy that he is--Caron grossly underestimated the battle ahead when he took the reins as CIO at the ailing Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts two years ago.