Tag Archives: CIO
Top 6 Data Challenges Of Cloud Computing
This week Cloudbook published an article called: Could Data Sprawl in the Cloud Cost You Your Job? It features an overview of Informatica Cloud and includes many best practices for organizations seeking to develop a cloud data integration strategy. Going beyond the traditional CIO challenges (aka the” 5 c’s” – cost, compliance, complexity, competition and credibility), the article outlines the top 6 data challenges of cloud computing. (more…)
SaaS And Enterprise Architecture: Key Enablers Of IT Innovation
Adopting Salesforce CRM: The Importance Of Data Integration
Here is part two of my interview with Informatica’s Scott Geffre. Scott has led the CRM rollout at Informatica, helping the company migrate from Pivotal to salesforce.com. In the first half of our discussion, he spoke about evaluating TCO and some of the benefits of software as a service (SaaS) applications. In this post, Scott talks about the importance of cloud integration, the challenges of hand coding, and master data management (MDM). (more…)
Adopting Cloud Applications: Evaluating TCO
Embracing the Cloud: With a Heavy Dose of Integration
The Informatica corporate IT team has recently migrated us from Pivotal to Salesforce CRM. Like many organizations, we’ve had pockets of salesforce.com in production for a long time. In fact, over the past few years our IT organization, led by CIO Tony Young, has been on the cutting edge of SaaS application and cloud computing adoption. In the coming weeks I’ll publish a series of interviews with the team, but I wanted to start off with a comment I received from Eric Johnson, senior director of enterprise applications, in response to a Loraine Lawson blog post called, “Is SaaS/Cloud Adoption too Easy?” (more…)
How Is Cloud Computing Changing The Role of IT?
It seems that the debate between centralized and decentralized IT organizations is once again picking up steam. At one point it seemed like monolithic suites and enterprise standardization had swung the pendulum firmly toward centralized IT. But now the disruptive impact of cloud computing, and more specifically software as a service (SaaS), is fueling the decentralization fire. Two recent articles on the topic got my attention. (more…)
Why Applications Don’t Matter
Nicholas Carr infamously penned “Why IT Doesn’t Matter” back in 2003, and many in the IT world howled their indignity at the idea. Many proved over and over that IT did matter in many businesses. IT did provide competitive advantage.
But part of what he stated does resonate now. Business applications used to be the epitome of how IT helped differentiate an enterprise. American Airlines invented the yield management system for allocating and pricing airline seats, revolutionizing the industry and generating an estimated $1.4 billion in additional revenues over three years. MCI won five points of market share from AT&T in the 1990s with its Friends and Family plan, enabled by its uniquely flexible billing application. Bank of America cemented customer relationships and leapfrogged competitors by providing state-of-the-art electronic bill pay capabilities. (more…)
Cloud Integration Drives CRM And Sales Success
Today Informatica announced that Bay & Bay Transportation has used Informatica Cloud Services to achieve a six month project payback on their total Salesforce.com investment and a 900 percent return on their critical data integration project.
Bay & Bay is using the turnkey, on-demand Informatica Cloud Services to provide robust, bi-directional synchronization between its logistics management databases and applications with Salesforce CRM. Using an intuitive web based integration wizard, the company automatically maps source and target fields, configures powerful data transformations, and sets automated synchronization schedules. And being a true multi-tenant cloud-based service, there is no hardware, software, or infrastructure for them to install, manage, or maintain.
Embracing Cloud Computing As A Business Strategy
I am a technology opportunist. I stay away from unproven segments when they are overhyped with no sustainable business model, or too amorphous with definitions and segmentations debated at every turn. But I like to get in early enough so that we have the opportunity to reshape and redefine the requirements to lead the segment. So I made a point to visit the Dreamforce Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco this year to hear directly from the customers and partners to assess the maturity of cloud computing. The timing was good as Informatica had just released Informatica Cloud 9 (Learn more about the Informatica Cloud Platform).
At the show, I had a chance to catch up with John Bair, CTO of Launchpoint. Launchpoint offers cloud-based information management services. (more…)
What Components Are Required To Be Information Driven?
Being information driven is as much an organizational commitment as it is a technology commitment. The following outlines the major components required to be information driven.
Data Governance (DG) – DG is the overarching program for a data driven company. In my last blog, I defined DG as the practice of managing data as a corporate asset across the enterprise. It involves the processes, policies, standards, organization, and technologies required to manage and ensure the availability, accessibility, quality, consistency, auditability, and security of data in a company or institution.
Who should own DG? In most things we do, we look for the single point of accountability. In this instance, I recommend a collective structure of senior business managers who are accountable for the data subjects that drive your business. Additionally, I suggest a senior member of IT who can drive change across IT systems. (more…)