We are moving quickly towards the creation of 'virtual enterprises' that encompass e-business customers, distributors, suppliers, physically distributed management, and staff, as well as a multitude of intermediate-term interconnected business partnerships.
The role of the CTO requires the same approach as that of a tightrope walker. Reaching your goal requires careful steps to remain on the visionary path.
For most people, thinking about detective work tends to evoke age-old icons, including trench coats and utterances such as "just the facts, ma'am." These days, however, many online sleuths are trading their trench coats for keyboards in the name of spying online for (and against) your company.
We are moving quickly toward the creation of "virtual enterprises" that encompass e-business customers, distributors, suppliers, physically distributed management, and staff, as well as a multitude of intermediate-term interconnected business partnerships.
Would you ever consider that the words AS/400 and open source would be in the same sentence? Perhaps not. The term open source is often seen as being synonymous with the Linux platform. But the fact is that there are many open-source projects that span one or more platforms.
"Ms Beegs," the lanky, short-haired man yelled out to me from across the supermarket, "we started carrying that brand of cat food that you like. You'll find it in aisle three." With his words ringing in my ears, I hustled to the appropriate location, and the cat food sale was made.
In contrast, my phone rang recently and a very stilted voice read me a script detailing why I should change long-distance companies. You may also have received such a call. In this interaction, the sale was not made.
You've most likely uttered an expletive or two while in the midst of grappling with the business impact of a telephone area code split. We all know what happens: We have too many voice lines, data circuits, fax machines, pagers, cell phones, and the like.
You may have the stellar products, services, staff, and technology needed to attack e-business head on, but a detour that requires your attention has come up on the road to the URL. I'm talking about how the Web has fundamentally changed the nature of both internal and external communications.
"Ms. Beegs," the lanky, short-haired man yelled across the store, "we started carrying that brand of cat food that you like. You'll find it in aisle three." With his words ringing in my ears, I hustled to the appropriate location, and the cat food sale was made.
Let's face it: Big iron' business applications are usually large and mission-critical, but also generally the most profitable. Once upon a time, if you wanted to keep your mainframe business applications up to date you had only two choices: to modify or to rewrite.
The world would be a boring place if there was only one model of car to purchase or one style of home to live in. When we shop for these major purchases we choose those that are solidly constructed yet practical, given our circumstances.
There are people who find their way to a physical location by means of a map and there are people who prefer to rely on hunches to get them to the right place. Finding the right road to go down with your e-business strategy is much the same. You might have a pretty good hunch about the direction your company should take; however, a detailed map will help you home in on the best route.
You may have the stellar products, services, staff, and technology needed to attack e-business head on, but a detour that requires your attention has come up on the road to the URL. I'm talking about how the Web has fundamentally changed the nature of both internal and external communications.
There are people who find their way to a physical location by means of a map and there are people who prefer to rely on hunches to get them to the right place. Finding the right road to go down with your e-business strategy is much the same. You might have a pretty good hunch about the direction your company should take; however, a detailed map will help you home in on the best route.