What's IT worth? Northwestern Mutual Life CIO knows

CIO Tim Schaefer thinks words do matter. He looked at the words IT used inside Northwestern Mutual Life, and felt they sent exactly the wrong message about IT's role in meeting business goals. So, over the last 18 months, these words are out: IT costs, internal customers, IT leaders, Alignment, IT systems, and "IT and the business." In are these: IT investments, external customers, business leaders, integration, service levels, IT assets, and "our business."

Business and IT file for divorce

Guest Column/Tom Groenfeldt: Mark McDonald, a group vice president at Gartner, gave an amusing and provocative presentation at Fusion, a CEO/CIO forum in Madison, Wisc. on Wednesday. Just the idea of bringing together CEOs and CIOs in one place for two days is interesting in itself, and the conference drew a bunch of big name sponsors to the Fluno conference center near the University of Wisconsin business school.

IT companies optimistic towards growth, hiring prospects

Robert Half released their latest survey of Chief Information Officers which found most where optimistic towards growth and hiring that gave insight into the IT environment. The IT Hiring Index indicated 9 per cent plan to add full-time information technology employees during the second quarter, the highest forecast since the second quarter of 2009.

NY set to replace IT consultants with state workers

New York State has embarked on a plan to shift a number of jobs filled by IT contractors and consultants to the state payroll as part of an effort to save millions of dollars. As many as 500 new state IT jobs may be created under a new in-sourcing program that was recently approved by the legislature and backed by Gov. David Patterson.

Press releases and other news

• Wide Web of diversions gets laptops evicted from lecture halls
  Source: Washington Post
• Instant ads set the pace on the web
  Source: New York Times

Business and IT file for divorce citing irreconcilable differences

CIO Executive Edge/Mark McDonald: The headline highlights an old and ongoing argument within IT that assumes that the business is perpetually disappointed by IT and that IT is consistently undervalued in the enterprise. While the argument is an old one, the basic assumption for more than 30 years as the business and IT needed each other and therefore they would find a way to make it work.

Google Maps adds biking routes for the intrepid cyclist

After a long wait and more than 50,000 signatures on an online petition, cyclists will be happy to know that Google has finally added bicycle routes to Google Maps. In Google Maps, users can now find "Bicycling" in the tool's "Get Directions" drop-down box. After choosing the option, bikers can input two addresses and find the bike route that will get them to their desired destination.

Press releases and other news

• Phishing scam targets UW e-mail accounts
  Source: Badger Herald
• How CEOs See Cloud Computing
  Source: Bob Evans for InformationWeek
• HSBC Employee Stole Data on 15,000 Swiss Accounts
  Source: The Epoch Times

Before Apple vs. HTC: Tech's five most sensational patent cases

Imagine a world in which Microsoft wasn't allowed to sell Windows or Word, no one could use a Blackberry, Intel's chips were taken off the market and every company that wanted to deploy Linux had to pay an exorbitant fee to an obscure software vendor.

Leading in times of transition

CIO Executive Edge/Mark McDonald: We are nearing the end of the first quarter of calendar 2010 and a few things are becoming apparent. 2010 is a year of transition as the global economy begins to recover, strategies turn to a focus on growth and new technologies work their way into the market place.

Press releases and other news

• Google opens app store for business software
  Source: New York Times

WiCell marks stem cell anniversary with WISC Bank expansion

A year after President Barack Obama issued a landmark executive order to remove eight years of limitations on U.S. federal funding of stem cell research, the WiCell Research Institute has expanded the number of cell lines available through its WISC Bank (Wisconsin International Stem Cell) to 33.

IT decision makers display widening disparities in confidence

There may be signs of growing confidence among IT decision makers in some sectors, but it is not widespread, and there are still lingering areas of pessimism. According to the latest CDW IT Monitor, increased optimism about growth among federal government and large corporate IT decision makers is balanced against a less confident outlook among those in local government, state government and small businesses.

Press releases and other news

• PercipEnz Technologies honored as one of the 2010 “Wisconsin Companies to Watch”

Marshfield Clinic leaders named to e-records board

Two Marshfield Clinic leaders said their organization's vast experience with integrating electronic health records will provide real-world solutions for a state board tasked with making personal health information available to any doctor in the state. Dr. Robert Carlson, chief information officer, and Gary Plank, director of pharmacy services, were named last week to the Wisconsin Relay of Electronic Data for Health Board, or WIRED.

Galileo's top five tips to entrepreneurs

Guest Column/Lydie Hudson: An entrepreneur in the twenty-first century might not look to seventeenth century Venice for a role model, yet a remarkable one exists in Galileo Galilei. Galileo is famous because he was the first to offer evidence that the earth is not the center of the universe but revolves (along with the other planets) around the sun.

Google local search: It’s ‘the place to be’

Social Meteor/Troy Janisch: The best location on the Internet for most local business owners is the small map that appears at the top of every local search results in Google. It’s free. It appears ABOVE Google’s organic search results. And, it’s one of the most effective selling tools available to local business owners.

Press releases and other news

• Amicas to reconsider Merge Healthcare buyout offer
  Source: BusinessWeek
• Core BTS wins customer satisfaction award
  Source: Core BTS
• Flawed security exposes vital software to hackers
  Source: New York Times

Are your business model and brand strategies aligned?

Guest Column/Kay Plantes: A new client asked me a good question today. “You talk Kay about helping us find our value promise, but my communications agency is totally focused on our brand platform. What’s what and why does it matter?” The answer rests in understanding communication challenges.

FBI director warns of 'rapidly expanding' cyberterrorism threat

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III warned Thursday that the cyberterrorism threat is "real and . . . rapidly expanding." Terrorists have shown "a clear interest" in pursuing hacking skills, he told thousands of security professionals at the RSA Conference in San Francisco. "They will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders, with an eye toward combining physical attacks with cyberattacks," he said.

Press releases and other news

• Startup visa act proposed to create US jobs
  Source: InformationWeek