Encouraging IT innovation

CIO recently looked at how innovation can be promoted in IT. They look at the company Eurpac, and how every meeting, CIO Mike Skinner asks three questions: 1) Where are the resources invested? 2) What progress have we made? 3) What is our next goal?

Mike's goal is to constantly have his team looking forward and constantly fostering an innovative atmosphere. Do you have a similar initiative for your IT department? What do you do to promote innovation?

Free Web Seminar by Tony Byrne of CMS Watch - Enterprise Social Software: Ready for Prime Time?

In anticipation of the IT Leadership Forum this November we are putting on several webinars. This is the 1st in the series in which Tony Bryne from CMS Watch will be presenting "Enterprise Social Software: Ready for Prime Time?" on Thursday August 13th from 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT. Here's a brief description of the event:

You can now find numerous case studies of successful departmental implementations of various social software technologies, such as wikis, blogs, forums, tags, micro-blogs, and so forth. However, extending those projects to enterprise-wide initiatives gets trickier.

Noted independent analyst and evaluation firm CMS Watch will explain how the challenge in enterprise deployments stems partly from immature technology. Many social computing tools – even from large, established vendors – lack key functionality. But the rest of the challenge lies in organizational factors, including common barriers to adoption.

This seminar will assess today’s social software and collaboration marketplace and offer concrete advice about how to select the right tool for your circumstances. It will also share best practices in enterprise deployment and adoption of social technology.

What you will learn by attending:
- Key success factors for enterprise-wide social software roll-outs
- How the enterprise social software marketplace breaks down into six categories
- Strengths and weaknesses of some of the major vendors
- How to pick the right tools for your enterprise
- What the future holds for 2010

Featured Speaker
Tony Byrne, Founder, CMS Watch

Make sure to mention priority code G1M2114W1BLOG when registering.
Register here: http://bit.ly/1pn1Um

New video conferencing tool for small businesses

eWeek recently took a look at the video conferencing tool ooVoo. This video chat startup is meant for small businesses to be able to easily jump into video conferences. The line can hold up to six people at a time and the can chat via video and phone. Additional users can join via telephone line. This ad-free package lets users share their desktops without viewing any ads on the platform. Read the full article here.

IT Managers Must Listen to Honest Feedback in Order to Succeed

According to this article in CIO.com communication between teams and honest feedback from managers and employees is essential in order to successfully run an IT team. It might be tough to get feedback from customers in businesses, but meaningful feedback from managers should not be tough to get, especially since it is vital to your job.

When is the last time you received important feedback from one of your IT teams? How did it affect the project?

New IE 8 allows users to customize browser

Microsoft's IE8 has been designed to be customized by the person using it. The first time the user opens IE8, it allows the user to build the browser to hold the features that are relevant to the user.

Another important part for IE8:
"IE will never install, or become the default browser without your explicit consent. However, we heard a lot of feedback from a lot of different people and groups and decided to make the user choice of the default browser even more explicit. This change is part of our ongoing commitment to user choice and control."




Read the full article at eWeek here.

How can IT change if the NYPD still uses typewriters?

Cio.com recently wrote an article on why IT change is so hard within an organization, especially with the example they give of the NYPD signing a three year, $1million deal for typewriters. This comes after the magazine covered a story in 2003 on the NYPD and how Jim Onalfo took control of their IT department and made massive improvements in disaster recovery, wireless communication, and network infrastructure.

Even though these massive improvements have taken place in the past couple of years, it is evident that there is still a lot to be done. What are some of the IT issues your company is encountering?

Xobni has new premium offer

According to the Bits Blog at the New York Times, Xobni has expanded their offerings to help clear a busy inbox to a premium version of their services. As of Tuesday night, they were offering Xobni Plus, and the premium service would include the normal tool box with search capabilities. To read the other capabilities offered, read the article here. They're looking for the number of free users to increase, because they have more confidence is in the business due to the offering of a premium product.

Web Seminar: "Is LEADER spelled with an I?" Searching for Innovation in the World of Talent Development

Here's a web seminar that is being put on by one of our sister events that I thought our readers might be interested in.

About the webinar:
The success of leadership development, leadership transitions and leadership integration vary widely across industries, organizations and individuals. Why? In a recent research review, most executives expressed doubt that new leaders can step into new roles and deliver positive results. With all of the investments being made in talent management today, there are expectations that greater outcomes will be achieved. Please join Dr. David Yudis and explore some paths of possibility.

Featured Speaker
Dr. David Yudis, Director, Global Learning and Development, Disney

Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Find out more and register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/501492696
Use Priority Code: G1M118W1BLOG

Twitter accounts for more than one person

Read Write Web mentioned yesterday new new platform that allows more than one person to manage a Twitter account: CoTweet. It's a device that is free for now, and allows multiple persons to access and tweet to one Twitter account. Read the full story here.

What's the best browser for the enterprise?

In a recent article at eWeek, they look at how Internet Explorer is one of the most widely used browsers in the enterprise, but may not be the best for the industry. They state that IE6 and IE7 are loosing market share quickly, but IE8 and Firefox 3 are gaining share quickly. He also points out that Firefox now controls 27.73%of the market, and Google, Opera and Apple all have single digit market share. So if IE is not the best for the enterprise, why does it have such a corner on the market? The article looks to suggest that since it is a standard feature on all new PCs, many companies see it as a quick and easy way for their employees to surf the web. What do you think? What is the best browser for the enterprise, and will IE loose its share anytime soon?