News
Sensitive Information Policy Template released by Janco
The Sensitive
Information Policy Template (Version 2.4) has just been released by Janco.
This policy applies to the entire enterprise, its vendors, its suppliers
(including outsourcers), co-location providers, and facilities regardless of the
methods used to store and retrieve sensitive information (e.g. online
processing, outsourced to a third party, Internet, Intranet or swipe
terminals).
New with this
version are updates that specifically define the mandates of most
recent federal (Gramm-Leach-Bliley) and state (Massachusetts and
California).
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Which skills are in high demand and low demand
IT salaries are
determined by the skills that are required. Janco has determined the
following are the skills in high demand and low demand.
Skills with a high demand
- Project Management - especially large projects with short
time frame for delivery
- Security - focus on mandated compliance issues
- Network Administration - wireless and cloud administration
- Virtualization (Cloud) - new applications and management of
the IT infrastructure
- Business and Operational Analysis - focus on business change
- Productivity Improvement Analysis - metrics and operational
analysis
- Web 2 - interactive applications that add value
- Database Management - applications that leverage enterprise
assets
- System Administration - Windows and UNIX management
- Desktop Support - standardization and change management
Skills with a declining demand
- COBOL
- HTML
- System Network Architecture - SNA
- Siebel
- Rapid Application Development - RAD
- ColdFusion
- Wireless Application Protocol - WAP
- Visual J++
- Novell NetWare
- Asynchronous Transfer Mode -
ATM
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IBM outsourcing cost 2,000 US jobs
After shrinking its U.S. workforce by as many as 10,000
employees last year, IBM may be on its way to cutting another 2,000
workers.
As of last October, IBM employed 105,000 workers in the U.S.,
compared to 115,000 in 2008. In 2007, IBM had 121,000 U.S. employees. It employs
about 400,000 globally.
IBM isn't commenting on its latest round of cuts and information
about it comes from the Alliance union which
gathers its data directly from IBM employees.
"IBM is clearly offshoring things where they can," said one IBM
employee who received his notice and spoke on the condition of anonymity because
he didn't want to jeopardize his severance. A 10-year veteran and UNIX
administrator, this employee said his customer support team once had 15
U.S.-based workers. That staff was reduced over time to just three workers in
the U.S., with other members of the customer support team now in Brazil,
Argentina and India.
The employee said he was not given a good reason for his layoff.
"Higher ups made a decision that a certain percentage had to be cut - it was not
performance-based at all," he said. Although the employee said he's uncertain
about the job market, "my sense is that it is not horrendous but I'll have to
assume that I'll have to take a cut in pay."
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Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing Released by Janco
Practical
Guide for IT Outsourcing Released - Version 3.0 of the Practical
Guide for IT Outsourcing has just been released. It includes a sample
Outsourcing contract, Service Level Agreement with metrics, Risk Assessment -
Business and IT Impact Questionnaire, and much more.
The guide is delivered electronically and is available in MS -
Word and industry standard PDF.
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CIOs are looking for more cost savings
The recession
is impacting how IT is performing. Budgets for many IT organizations has
been frozen for about two years, and CIO have been on this efficiency kick for
about the same amount of time. IT organizations have virtualized, consolidated
data centers, have cut hiring and outsourced. There is no low-hanging fruit left.
Service level agreements
are set however costs need to be reduced.
The only
areas where cost savings can be made are in hardware and software
maintenance.
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CIO must protect critical data
CIOs need to focus on at least four areas in order to protect
critical data:
- Implement a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Plan. This is the traditional solution for mitigating exposure to
information loss. However it has grown more complicated as 24/7, global
economy, and open source have become standard business mantras. Of paramount
importance is overcoming the hurdles associated with backup window
requirements, application performance, reliability and consistency, and
recovery time.
- Streamline IT Infrastructure and Increase Productivity.
As staff and resources become overburdened, companies are refocusing on
infrastructure management. Easing critical pressure points is often the
catalyst to surviving a difficult fiscal climate.
- Manage Storage and Server Costs
Closely. Controlling cost
of operations has become a top priority for many organizations. With data
growing at exponential rates, these costs can easily mushroom.
- Support IT Infrastructure
Consolidation. Today's data protection architecture seems to be
intrinsically broken - as characterized by slow backups, complex recoveries,
compromised application performance, and difficult resource administration. IT
infrastructure consolidation including server virtualization magnifies the
problems and elevates the rearchitecture of storage and data protection as a
priority. Finding high performing, easy-to-use, scalable data protection
remains a key imperative. Further, system migration of production servers and
critical applications to a virtual environment are likely to be costly and
painful unless an easy and minimum-impact solution to migration is built into
the rearchitecture.
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CIO and CTO Changing Role
In a recent study of over 2,000
CIOs a major firm defined high-growth and low-growth CIOs who
work in organizations with high Profit Before TaxProfit Before Tax growth as
"High-growth CIOs" and to those working in organizations with low Profit Before
Tax as "Low-growth CIOs." The characteristics
of the role played in each type of firm are different.
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High Growth Companies |
Low Growth Companies |
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Are members of most-senior management team
|
62% |
46% |
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Integrate business and technology to innovate
|
64% |
33% |
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Focus time on
enabling the business and corporate vision
|
28% |
15% |
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Focus your time on providing core technology services
|
23% |
40% |
|
IT team uses collaborative tools |
53% |
33% |
|
IT team provide collaborative tools across the enterprise
|
41% |
22% |
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Aggressively turn data into actionable information
|
58% |
36% |
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Give customers excellent data integrity and transparency
|
68% |
44% |
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Seek active input from your customers
|
87% |
70% |
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Co-create business strategy with fellow execs
|
74% |
61% |
|
Co-present business strategy to senior management
|
66% |
53% |
|
Part of the team setting the organization's strategy
|
62% |
46% |
|
Business models unique and hard to imitate |
63% |
49% |
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Business models include partnering alternative sourcing
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60% |
52% |
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Create IT centers of excellence
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44% |
26% |
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Data readily available for relevant
users |
67% |
51% |
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Data reliable and secure |
81% |
66% |
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Manage change successfully |
61% |
43% |
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IT Infrasturcture Policy Bundle Released
Janco has combined the policies that it has developedin concert with some of
the best IT organizations around the globe into a single package. With this
bundle you get a PDF file that has all of the procedures in a single document
that is over 210 pages long. It would take your staff months to develop these
procedures from scratch. In addition you get a separate MS-Word document for
each procedure which can easily be modified.
This bundle contains the following policies:
- Backup and Backup Retention Policy
- Blog and Personal Web Site Policy
- Internet, Email, Social Networking, Mobile Device, and Electronic
Communication Policy
- Outsourcing Policy
- Record Management, Retention, and Disposition Policy
- Sensitive Information Policy
- Service Level Agreement Policy
- Telecommuting Policy
- Travel, Laptop, PDA and Off-Site Meeting Policy
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Blackberrys with car chargers a key component of business continuity
Business
interuptions caused by the East Coast blizzard of 2010 show that BlackBerry
are a must have solution. A blizzard with whiteout conditions, warnings to
stay off the roads in the Washington metropolitan area and power interruptions
have proven to be no match for teleworkers with access to a BlackBerry smart
phone and a car charger.
Many federal employees were 100 percent on BlackBerrys during the
outage. With power losses to homes car chargers were the only way to keep
the devices charged.
This is a strategy that gained attention during the one-two punch of blizzard
conditions and multiple power outages in the Washington area. For three days in
a row, the federal government and many local governments are closed while a
second major snowstorm blew through on the heels of a historic snowfall Feb. 8.
Utility companies in Washington and Baltimore reporting about 17,000 homes
without power in the afternoon.
Many federal employees are relying on their BlackBerrys haven't slowed down
one bit.
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Feds to increase goverment IT budgets
President Barack Obama today requested $79.4 billion in spending
on information technology projects for fiscal 2011, a
1.2 percent increase from what he proposed in fiscal 2010 and a slight decrease
from the $80.6 billion the 2010 budget actually allocated.
The Obama administration has proposed increasing the number of
major IT projects. Last fiscal year, the administration proposed handling 781
major IT projects with $40.3 billion. In fiscal 2011, it's proposing 809 major
IT projects at $40.4 billion, according to the budget proposal.
Despite modest increases in the budget request, Obama wants IT
efforts related to open government and technology modernization to continue in
2011.
For example, work on the General Service AdministrationÂ’s
Citizen Engagement Platform would continue under the 2011 request. Designed to
be a resource for all federal agencies, that platform is a collaboration between
GSA and the Office of Management and Budget. It is intended to increase the
governmentÂ’s ability to interact and collaborate with the public and provide a
cost-effective way for agencies to access tools and guidance related to
engagement.
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