tag:www.computerweekly.com,2008:/blogs/cio-making-it-happen-blog//109 2008-04-18T09:17:16Z Making IT happen in the workplace Movable Type 4.1-en tag:www.computerweekly.com,2008:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.28826 2008-04-18T09:08:56Z 2008-04-18T09:17:16Z

Having a good network is a key asset of a CIO.

Adam Burstow that network - I mean your personal contacts. I'm a member of the Property IT Directors Forum, run by the indefatiguable Chris Lees at Calvis. 30 strong, it's members are the most senior person responsible for IT in almost all of the leading agents and property companies. We get together from time to time, and if anyone has a question they can send it out and within an hour of two you'll have 10 responses. If you're a CIO and there's one of these in your sector, then join it! (and if there isn't, then start one)]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2008:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.28536 2008-04-15T07:36:27Z 2008-04-15T08:05:03Z

The results of a mini survey of CIO's on their plans for Office 2007.

Adam Burstow http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA101650321033.aspx]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2008:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.26868 2008-03-18T16:56:47Z 2008-03-18T17:17:54Z

Cordless Group specialise in people, the workplace and technology. Neil Salton gave a great talk today covering the many emerging technologies on show at Cebit and other big european tech shows.

Adam Burstow Cordless Group - This covered the overlap between technology, work and people. Neil Salton their (deep breath) Senior Technology Visioning Consultant gave an excellent talk based on his experiences of attending some of the big Euro tech shows like Cebit. There is an incredible array of new stuff out there. I tapped notes into my Blackberry and at the end had come up with: "Team communications, ms ocs, e.g. web conf group instant messaging, better phones eg wifi, share point, public instant messaging , virtual Margaret, 3d, display technology, multi screen, web cams, blu ray, oled, 3d, blu casting, styles of collaboration, better use of tech, short throw projectors, ultra mobile pc, data input, tablets, asus ultra mobile, giraffe pc, independent docking stations, face recognition, printing eg printstick, run own reprographics inc binding and stapling, rfid, active rfid tags, changing networks, use of mobile data, iphone corporate, smartphone interfaces symbian interface, google, iphone, windows mobile, femtocell at home" A few priorities for my company: multiple screens, desktop video conferencing, Microsoft OCS, corporate iphone. (No great corporate benefits for the iPhone but I may apply Burstows CIO law - that user satisfaction rises at the square of the rate of distribution of shiny new trinkets).]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2008:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.25936 2008-03-05T11:05:08Z 2008-03-05T11:20:21Z

My role at Telereal has changed - I'm now Corporate Development Director at Telereal, and have a Head of IS reporting to me.

Adam Burstow I haven't done any entries for a while as my job has changed and I have been waiting for the dust to settle. I'm now Corporate Development Director at Telereal, responsible for growing our services business and account managing BT, who are our largest customer (accounting for more than 90%+ of our turnover). I'm still responsible for IT on our Executive Committee, but now have in place a Head of IS. I've agreed with the team at Computer Weekly to carry on the blog, as I'm in a fairly unusual position of being able to look across IT and the rest of the business from two different viewpoints. Already I'm...changing. I've now got my own marketing projects that have IT components to them, and so, like marketing teams the world over, I want stuff done yesterday... tag:www.computerweekly.com,2008:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.21878 2008-01-14T12:46:35Z 2008-01-14T13:05:58Z

The USAF has just created a 30,000 strong 'cyber army' to meet the military threat of cyber warfare. the UK army does not have an equivalent. Are we ready to meet the threat?

Adam Burstow creation within the US Air Force of Afcyber - a 30,000 strong 'army' for cyber warfare. The article goes on to mention that there is no military equivalent in the UK. I find this surprising. I remember attending a lecture by Major General Sir Laurence New who described his role commanding a tank division (or other military grouping - not sure what Major Generals command in the hierarchy of things) in West Germany in the 1980's. Someone asked him what the most important part of his job was and he responded "readiness". He went on to elaborate that with how ever many soviet divisions just across the border, his troops had to be constantly ready to meet the threat. Do we have the same level of readiness to meet cyber equivalent of the wave of soviet tanks? I'm thinking of theose military comparison maps with numbers of tanks, planes, ships etc - how would we fare in the equivalent cyber warfare resources map? ]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2008:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.21540 2008-01-09T20:48:52Z 2008-01-10T10:08:45Z

Telereal's new website went live recently. We are very happy with the end result but in the process had to throw away the first version and give our designer free rein.

Adam Burstow Our new website went live recently. It is very simple, and we're all very happy with it. However, we almost ended up with a website that no-one really liked. Main lesson learned? Don't design by committee. Design is one of those professional areas where it always strikes me that there are low barriers to entry - everyone has an opinion. People who wouldn't presume to tell a brain surgeon how to do her job will expound at length on their ideas on web design. Hannah, our excellent web designer, was pulling her hair out with contradictory guidance from everyone involved. Hannah came up with an initial version of the website that responded to everyone's every design input, and it met every requirement. When I discussed it with Hannah I found it had a subtle flaw - she didn't like it. An hour of scribbling later and we'd come up with a functional structure we liked, and a week later Hannah produced a prototype of the new site which everyone thought was a knockout. I then spent a day editing all the text into digestable chunks (someone had to do it) and you can see the results. ]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.19724 2007-12-11T13:15:21Z 2007-12-11T13:33:16Z

An FT article on cutting red tape gives four examples - but three of them don't really cut it, they automate it.

Adam Burstow red tape. It refers to four examples picked from more than 280 'deregulation' measures. What's interesting is that three of them - on-line risk assessments, sending information to shareholders by e-mail, and lodging planning applications on-line - don't really cut red tape, they automate it. Nothing wrong with that, if it makes things more efficient, but I'm not sure it counts as deregulation.]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.19310 2007-12-06T14:42:24Z 2007-12-06T14:47:00Z

Our new website project has led us to the key question 'what do we actually do?'.

Adam Burstow Our new website project has thrown us into a fundamental question about Telereal - what do we actually do? A lot of people have been asked and a lot of answers received - but at the end of the day this has needed to be boiled down into some pithy text, which has caused a lot of debate. Much headscratching has revealed we are an investment and services company. Seems obvious looking back. tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.18953 2007-12-03T16:05:19Z 2007-12-03T16:43:23Z

We are updating our website, and would appreciate any comments on our current site.

Adam Burstow www.telereal.com . Many thanks.]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.16747 2007-11-01T08:58:18Z 2007-11-01T09:02:47Z

MI6 are searching for a new CIO.

Adam Burstow This has appeared in much of the computer press. I'm sure this would be an absolutely fascinating job. One of my colleagues notes that all cv's go to Hotmail, so Microsoft will get to know the candidate pool even before MI6 do... MI6 searches for a new CIO Who will be the spy who loved IT? The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) is advertising for a new chief information officer, following the retirement of the previous IT leader. The job advert from MI6 requests "an experienced manager of technological and commercial risk at a strategic level" to help defend the UK's security and economic interests overseas. "Technology is a critical enabler of SIS's work in tackling 21st century challenges such as terrorism and regional instability," said the SIS. "Like any world-class organisation the Service is continually adapting to change and our technology has to be ever more responsive, agile and resilient." The successful candidate will be expected to grow strategic relationships with private sector partners Applicants must be British citizens and will be required to obtain Developed Vetting clearance – the government's highest-level security check, allowing access to top secret documents. Interested candidates should email their CV and a covering letter to CIOresponse@hotmail.com by 19 November, quoting reference 2810. tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.16150 2007-10-19T10:25:38Z 2007-10-19T12:00:26Z

IT teams are good at predicting the value of IT investments and getting other people to agree with the predictions. We call these business cases.

Adam Burstow This is a follow up to a recent entry about measuring IT value. As that entry said, most IT teams don't put much effort into measuring actual value, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as some of the attempts I have seen over the years are pretty bogus in any case. Your boss, and other people in the organisation, will always have their own instinctive valu-o-meter, and no post-implementation report is ever going to swing it much. What IT teams are great at is predicting value, and getting other people to agree with these predictions. Of course we have a technical term for these predictions - business cases. Every year we pursuade our colleagues to sign off billions of pounds worth of cases - a great and unheralded strength of the IT profession. I've read lot's of theory over the years. My experience is that, in practice, the cases that get approved tend to be one of the following types: Well sponsored cases. Remember the mantra "it's not an IT project it's a business project." This is of course completely true, and getting an influential person elsewhere in the organisation to drive the case because they think they will benefit from it is a good approach. The problem with this approach is that it doesn't necessarily identify the best cases, just the most popular ones. There is a difference. Cases that prey on fear. The value proposition is usually compliance based - i.e. approve this and you won't go to prison, get fined, ruin our reputation etc Real value adding cases. The classic 'case' - based on real observable cash flows - spend this now, and increase that income / save that cost in the future. FD's are always very suspicious of these - they manipulate numbers for a living, and know all the tricks. Grind them down and they will eventually start to feel guilty about not signing them. Don't go too far or you will seem like a stalker. Transformational cases. Best approach here is to hook into something your colleagues read about in the paper - Web 2.0 is a current favourite - and then subtly imply in the case that anyone who doesn't approve it is a progress halting luddite dragging the organisation backwards into the stone-age. 'Trust me' cases. I put one of these through every now and again. If you have an instinctive judgement that something is right, you shouldn't let the fact you can't articulate it put you off. Creativity and experimentation have a place. tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.15949 2007-10-16T07:56:54Z 2007-10-16T08:15:30Z

In an average year I probably get around 500 companies trying to sell things to my company. Yesterday I got got an e-mail from a recruitment company with heroic phrases such as "waiting...for my opportunity to shine". Unfortunately it started "I trust you are well and had a pleasant Easter weekend".

Adam Burstow In an average year I think I probably get contact from around 500 companies trying to sell IT products and services to my company. Some do a great job, and some don't. This is the first in an occasional series highlighting some of the best and worst approaches. Yesterday I got an e-mail from a recruitment consultant I have never met, selling his services. It included the phrases "waiting patiently in the wings for my opportunity to shine" and "I'm looking to build solid relationships, not to engage in hit-and-run-business". Stirring stuff, but it started "I trust you are well and had a pleasant easter weekend". Ah, the joys of cut and paste. tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.15273 2007-10-03T12:29:54Z 2007-10-03T13:07:58Z

The FT had a front page article this week about how companies do not know measure the value they get from IT. My own view is that you cannot accurately measure all value, and that if you try you will have to make so many assumptions that your arguments won't stack up.

Adam Burstow "Big spenders reveal..." ...and this is a more detailed piece on p26: "Big spenders are brought to book..." I was reminded about these articles by a letter in today's FT which responded with three points: first, how do you define IT spending, second even if you knew how much you spent how would you know whether this is 'right', and third, how do you measure benefits. My own view? First, what a coup for Micro Focus, who commissioned the survey. With an annual turnover of $172m this is a fantastic piece of 'free' advertising. Second, whilst 70% of respondents said they knew how they were spending on core software assets, we will never know how many of them were right. I don't believe for a moment that 70% of companies really know. Third, to the 48% that tried to quantify the financial value of all their IT assets my response would be good luck, but I'm with the 52%. I'm left with an image of complicated spreadsheets underpinned with swathes of assumptions, that produce the 'answer' that 'yes, IT does add value'. I do think you can quantify the value of IT in some cases, but in others you can't. The trick for a CIO is to recognise the best approach to articulating potential value to support cases, or real value to present results. For that you need a whole range of approaches. I'll add a list of mine in a few days.]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.14220 2007-09-14T12:54:18Z 2007-09-14T13:00:29Z

The worlds best blogs

Adam Burstow 2007 Bloggies Awards - this is the webbies for blogs, if you follow (if you don't, the webbies are the oscars for websites). You will find some amazing blogs. My favourite is Post Secret, a simple and elegant idea. It won best overall blog this year. I hesitate to link to it here as it occasionally has adult themes (in context, never gratuitous), so you'll have to find it yourself. The 'posts' are funnier, more honest and more moving that anything else you'll find on the internet.]]> tag:www.computerweekly.com,2007:/blogs/CIO-making-IT-happen-blog//109.14219 2007-09-14T12:49:59Z 2007-09-14T12:53:58Z

Destruction of percelain figurines

Adam Burstow strangely beautiful. I found this through Tom Coates award winning blog plasticbag.org. Like him, I like the hummingbirds. ]]>