Before you Kill that Project, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins describes the often unanticipated
ramifications that must be anticipated before a failing project is finally
stopped.
COMPUTERWORLD,
March 10, 2008
The Pitfalls of Social Networking, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins asserts that although social networking can be very beneficial in the office, there are a number of potential problems that must be managed.
COMPUTERWORLD,
February 11, 2008
Follow the Loser, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins argues that if you have a pulse, it is easier to follow a CIO who is viewed as a complete failure, rather than a CIO who is highly regarded.
COMPUTERWORLD,
January 14, 2008
Know which Risks Matter, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins describes four types of risk, each with a different mitigation strategy
COMPUTERWORLD,
December 17, 2007
Don't take a CHUMP job, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins asserts that CIO jobs whose sole purpose is to develop and communicate long-term IT vision and strategy without an operational responsibility are doomed to failure.
COMPUTERWORLD,
November 19, 2007
ITIL Starts to Make Sense in v3, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins argues that the expanded scope of v3 will become much more useful since it facilitates business trade-offs, is more prescriptive and addresses executive audiences as well as IT.
COMPUTERWORLD,
October 15, 2007
Ten Ways to Cut Energy Costs, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins offers ten ideas for cutting the energy costs of the IT department.
COMPUTERWORLD,
September 10, 2007
Environmental Mandates on the IT Horizon, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins discusses some of the European and U.S. legislation requiring IT manufacturers, as well as companies that use that equipment, to become greener.
COMPUTERWORLD,
August 13, 2007
When to Fix a Broken Process: Before or After Outsourcing, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins contrasts the benefits of fixing a broken process before outsourcing with the benefits of letting the outsourcer fix the broken process.
COMPUTERWORLD,
July 23, 2007
RFPs: The Cost of Being Unclear, by Bart Perkins
RFPs produce much better results than RRPS that are not clear, says Bart Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
June 11, 2007
How to Jump Start a Records Management Program, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins offers suggestions on how to get a good records management program underway.
COMPUTERWORLD,
May 21, 2007
12 Things You Know about Projects but Choose to Ignore, by Bart Perkins
Good records retention is important as a result of legislation, costly penalties in several recent high profile cases, and awareness by the legal profession, says Bart Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
March 12, 2007
How to Conduct a Post Project Review, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins asserts that a comprehensive post project review requires more effort than simply getting a few people in a room to discuss a project. This article describes the necessary steps required for a worthwhile post project review..
COMPUTERWORLD,
February 12, 2007
Postproject Reviews: They're Critical, by Bart Perkins
A PPR provides an opportunity for
team members to reflect and report on their experiences
in a way that helps the organization learn constructive
lessons, says Bart Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
January 15, 2007
Assessments Are Opportunities, by Bart Perkins
Opinion: Baseline reviews, audits
and other assessments are opportunities to reevaluate
direction, change strategy and enter new markets, says
Bart Perkins. Don't let them go to waste.
COMPUTERWORLD,
December 18, 2006
Managing IT as a Professional Services Firm, by Bart Perkins
Savvy Fortune 500 IT organizations
are finding that adopting management concepts from
legal, consulting and accounting organizations increases
their effectiveness. Bart Perkins provides some examples
you can try.
COMPUTERWORLD,
November 20, 2006
IT
Attitude Check, by Bart Perkins
Treat your customers as if they could
take their IT business elsewhere, says Bart Perkins.
It’s more and more likely that they can.
COMPUTERWORLD,
October 23, 2006
Budget Busters Are Looming, by
Bart Perkins
You may have wrestled compliance to a
draw, but don't relax yet, says Bart Perkins. He sees a
lineup of big-ticket expenses ahead for IT departments.
COMPUTERWORLD,
September 11, 2006
Bad News Is Not Like Fine Wine, by
Bart Perkins
Ignoring problems almost never improves
them, says Bart Perkins. He offers some tips on facing
bad news in a timely and effective way.
COMPUTERWORLD,
August 14, 2006
Stifling IT Innovation,
by Bart Perkins
It's easy to demand innovation from IT,
says Bart Perkins, but in many cases, it may be nearly
impossible for IT to deliver.
COMPUTERWORLD,
July 10, 2006
The Long
Fuse to Fusion,
by Bart Perkins
Oracle's upcoming Fusion migration will
require customers to make some hard business decisions,
says columnist Bart Perkins. And the time to develop a
strategy is now.
COMPUTERWORLD,
June 12 2006
IT Energy Costs: The Quiet Budget
Killer,
by Bart Perkins
Reducing your energy use is a relatively
easy way to reduce your infrastructure costs, says
columnist Bart Perkins. Here are lots of suggestions to
get you started.
COMPUTERWORLD,
May 8, 2006
The Pervasive Potholes of
Charge-out, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins offers advice on how to
avoid eight potholes that can make your route to
effective charge-out unnecessarily bumpy.
COMPUTERWORLD,
April 10, 2006
Outsourcing: Out of Sight, Out of
Mind? by Bart Perkins
A yard-care outsourcing debacle reminded
Bart Perkins that you can outsource an IT function but
never its management.
COMPUTERWORLD,
March 13, 2006
Don't Outsource Program
Management, by Bart Perkins
You can outsource individual projects,
but never abdicate responsibility for program
management, says Bart Perkins. He tells why you need to
maintain accountability in-house and how to do it.
COMPUTERWORLD,
January 16, 2006
Katrina Brought Out the Best Of IT
by Bart Perkins
Rallied by the American Red Cross, a
large group of IT vendors put aside competition and
profit in a highly effective team effort to assist with
relief after Hurricane Katrina.
COMPUTERWORLD,
December 5, 2005
Penny Wise and Pound Foolish, by
Bart Perkins
Software consolidation has many obvious
benefits, says Bart Perkins, but it's time to look at
some of the more troubling long-term implications.
COMPUTERWORLD,
November 14, 2005
Leveraging the Risk/Reward
Contract, by Bart Perkins
Managing risk/reward contracts requires
extra effort and a new mind-set, says Bart Perkins, but
the benefits are worth it.
COMPUTERWORLD,
October 10, 2005
Executive Sponsors: What They
Really Do,
by Bart Perkins
Executive sponsors are crucial to an IT
project's success, but only if they do what they ought
to be doing. Bart Perkins has some ideas about that.
COMPUTERWORLD,
September 12, 2005
The Elusive Executive Sponsor, by
Bart Perkins
Business people can be reluctant to take
on an executive sponsor role, but don't let them off the
hook, Bart Perkins says. He offers some suggestions to
get them to commit.
COMPUTERWORLD,
August 8, 2005
A
Separate IT Capital Pool Makes No Sense, by Bart Perkins
Eliminating discreet capital allocation
processes for IT and business is a boon to both, Bart
Perkins says.
COMPUTERWORLD,
July 11, 2005
Business Cases: What, Why
and How, by Bart Perkins
If your IT priorities aren't based on
business cases you're shooting in the dark, says Bart
Perkins. Here's why you need to build them and how.
COMPUTERWORLD,
June 23, 2005
Management Controls: A Lost Art, by Bart Perkins
Good
management controls are the basic blocking and and
tackling of IT, says Bart Perkins. By letting controls
at your company grow lax, you're setting yourself up for
embarrassment and failure.
COMPUTERWORLD,
May 9, 2005
Strategic Cost Accounting, by Bart Perkins
Accurate
IT cost accounting is crucial to making good trade-offs,
says Bart Perkins. Here's how it will help your business
make the right decisions.
COMPUTERWORLD,
April 11, 2005
Share the Spoils, by Bart Perkins
Helping
your suppliers reduce costs takes time and effort, but
it makes you a preferred customer and can save you
money.
COMPUTERWORLD,
March 14, 2005
Enterprise Agreements? Not So Fast! by Bart Perkins
Sure,
corporatewide contracts often save you money, but be
careful, says Bart Perkins. In some circumstances they
can backfire.
COMPUTERWORLD,
February 14, 2005
Funding Your Infrastructure, by Bart Perkins
The IT
infrastructure is the foundation of corporate
productivity, but it's not sexy, so nobody wants to pay
for it. Bart Perkins suggests some strategies for
getting the business to see the light.
COMPUTERWORLD,
January 17, 2005
Don't Outsource These! by Bart Perkins
Knowing
which IT functions belong in-house is as important as
deciding what to outsource, Bart Perkins says. Here are
some of the keepers.
COMPUTERWORLD,
December 14, 2004
Outsourcing: First Ask Why, by Bart Perkins
By
identifying reasons to outsource early, you can make
better decisions, says Bart Perkins
COMPUTERWORLD,
November 8, 2004
Development Drop-Down Budgeting, by Bart Perkins
Ongoing
infrastructure and support costs for new development can
throw your hard-won budget out of whack, says Bart Perkins.
Plan carefully to avoid nasty surprises.
COMPUTERWORLD,
October 11, 2004
Your Other IT Budget
Gearing up
for the budget wars? A different mind-set could provide
additional ammunition -- and allies. Bart Perkins tells how.
COMPUTERWORLD,
September 13, 2004
Objectivity: Don't Settle for Less, by Bart Perkins
IT vendor
consolidation has made objective advice a rarity, says Bart
Perkins. But good IT planning demands unbiased guidance.
Here's how to get it.
COMPUTERWORLD,
August 9, 2004
Regenerating IT, by Bart Perkins
Amputating a
"broken" IT shop through outsourcing squanders precious time
and resources, says Bart Perkins. You're better off
investing in a sound project to bring the failed
organization back to life.
COMPUTERWORLD,
July 12, 2004
Risk/Reward Contracts: Laying the Foundation, by Bart
Perkins
Bart Perkins
looks at how to manage risk/reward contracts to maximize the
rewards and minimize the risks.
COMPUTERWORLD,
May 10, 2004
It’s
Time for a Risk/Reward System, by Bart Perkins
Sharing
the risk on a contract benefits the IT customer and the
vendor, says Bart Perkins. Here's how shared risk contracts
work.
COMPUTERWORLD,
April 12, 2004
The Peanut Butter Syndrome, by Bart
Perkins
Bart
Perkins says that if you squeeze the central IT budget too
hard, you'll force the pent-up IT demand to spill over into
the budgets of the business units.
COMPUTERWORLD,
March 8, 2004
The
Case of the Missing Metrics, by Bart Perkins
When
dealing with outsourcing contractors, "if you don't use the
metrics you designed and negotiated, you'll get the
performance you deserve," says Bart Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
February 9, 2004
Offshore
Mania, by Bart Perkins
Bart
Perkins reminds us that business people need to slow down
and make sure that they're sending work to locations that
offer the best combination of cost and service.
COMPUTERWORLD,
January 19, 2004
Big
Outsourcers: Behind the Eight Ball, by Bart Perkins
Bart
Perkins says the big outsourcers are being undercut by
smaller upstarts. It's bad news
for giants like IBM and EDS, but it could mean falling
prices for their clients.
COMPUTERWORLD,
December 8, 2003
Outsourcing’s Dirty Little Secret, by
Bart Perkins
Bart
Perkins says many users wind up unhappy with their
outsourcing deals, for reasons ranging from "sales puffery"
to insufficient performance monitoring. Sometimes it's
simply because the execs who were enthusiastic about the
deal have left.
COMPUTERWORLD,
November 10, 2003
Offshore:
The Third Time's the Charm, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins says the conditions
are right for this third wave of offshore IT outsourcing to
be more successful than the first two.
COMPUTERWORLD,
October 13, 2003
Selecting the Right Offshore Vehicle,
by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins says there are
different types of offshore outsourcing vendors, and it's
wise to pick the type that fits your company culture,
requirements and risk profile.
COMPUTERWORLD,
September 15, 2003
The
Forgotten Side of Outsourcing, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins says you must
consider and manage the people issues when making
outsourcing decisions. Reckless outsourcing can strip your
organization of talent and sow fear in the remaining staff.
COMPUTERWORLD,
September 8, 2003
Terminator 4: How to Fire Suppliers, by Bart Perkins
Careful and regular pruning of
your IT vendors will reduce costs and complexity, says Bart
Perkins. He provides guidelines for doing it right.
COMPUTERWORLD,
August 11, 2003
Oracle,
PeopleSoft and You, by Bart Perkins
Oracle's effort to take over
PeopleSoft underscores the need for
CIOs to protect their own interests in software
contracts, says columnist Bart Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
July 21, 2003
A Reality
Check on Going Offshore, by Bart Perkins
Bart Perkins provides a checklist
of issues to consider -- from U.S. privacy and security laws
to potential employee backlash -- before taking the offshore
IT outsourcing plunge.
COMPUTERWORLD,
June 16, 2003
What You
Measure is What You Get, by Bart Perkins
How to get the most of your IT
services contract.
COMPUTERWORLD,
May 12, 2003
Readying
for a Trip Offshore, by Bart Perkins
Consider the same consequences for
offshore outsourcing as you would in any outsourcing
decision, warns columnist Bart Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
April 21, 2003
Look
Before You Leap to Outsource, by Bart Perkins
Do your homework before leaping
into an outsourcing contract, advises columnist Bart
Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
March 10, 2003
What
CIOs Need from IT Suppliers, by
Bart Perkins
Deciding which suppliers to retain
is a complex decision. Columnist Bart Perkins offers
CIOs a checklist they can use to
decide which suppliers should be on their A-list.
COMPUTERWORLD,
February 10, 2003
Manage
Suppliers for Project Success, by Bart Perkins
About $75 billion is spent yearly
on failed IT projects, and poor management and methodology
are the chief culprits, says columnist Bart Perkins.
COMPUTERWORLD,
January 27, 2003
Develop a
Supplier Contingency Plan, by Bart Perkins
Who could have anticipated the
fast demise of WorldCom or Arthur Andersen? In today's
market, you need to prepare for the unforeseeable. For IT
managers, that means developing a supplier contingency plan.
COMPUTERWORLD,
December 9, 2002
A
Squeezed Supplier Never Forgets, by Bart Perkins
Anyone can cut supplier costs in a buyer's market. Suppliers
expect to be squeezed. But don't squeeze too hard, as it's
bound to leave your suppliers angry and waiting for revenge.
COMPUTERWORLD,
November 11, 2002
Buying
Well Is the Best Revenge, by Bart Perkins
Six key steps to developing a successful IT sourcing
strategy
COMPUTERWORLD,
October 14, 2002
The Other
Three Rs, by Bart Perkins
Forget reading, writing and arithmetic. There are three new
Rs to supplier management.
Here's how to put them to work to cut costs.
COMPUTERWORLD,
September 9, 2002
Divide,
Conquer, Save, by Bart Perkins
So many suppliers . . . so little time, money, staff and
patience to manage them effectively. Your baseline of IT
suppliers identified thousands of vendors. But you can't
treat them all equally. Don't even try - divide and conquer.
COMPUTERWORLD,
August 12, 2002
Step 1:
The Baseline, by Bart Perkins
Establishing a baseline of information on your IT suppliers
and the way you buy products and services marks the first
phase in gaining better leverage from your vendors and in
your buying processes.
COMPUTERWORLD,
July 8, 2002
Discipline by Design by Bart Perkins
Having a disciplined process to guide IT purchasing can save
your company money. But more important, it can help you
simplify your corporate IT architecture.
COMPUTERWORLD,
June 10, 2002
More
Isn't Better, by Bart Perkins
Want to wring costs out of your purchasing budget? A good
way to begin is to initiate a supplier portfolio management
program and whittle the number of your company's IT
suppliers. Here are the steps you should take.
COMPUTERWORLD,
May 13, 2002
IT
Procurement Goes Big Time, by Chris Woodward, Scott Knell
and Cher
Boespflug
CSC Foundation Research Journal,
Computer Sciences Corporation, May 2002
Buying
the Elephant--A Portfolio Approach to IT Procurement, by
Scott Knell
Info-Tech,
April 16, 2002
After the
Purchase, by Bart Perkins
It's critically important today for IT to provide a good
return on what it spends. And effective supplier management
is one of the best ways to leverage external spending and
boost the IT organization's success. So says former CIO Bart
Perkins in his debut as a Computerworld columnist.
COMPUTERWORLD,
April 8, 2002
Purchasing Model Broken
IT leaders rarely have a clear buying strategy when it comes
to technology purchases. As a result, they often wind up
following the strategies of their vendors, according to
panelists at Computerworld's Premier 100 conference.
COMPUTERWORLD,
March 5, 2002
How to
Choose an IT Vendor
Twelve tips from managers on picking a technology supplier
-- and cutting through marketing blather.
COMPUTERWORLD,
February 25, 2002
Where Do
You Fit?
There are predictable stages that companies go through in
selecting a vendor. You might be surprised to discover where
your organization ranks.
COMPUTERWORLD,
February 25, 2002 |