The IT Beacon

Aspiring CIOs - Step this way.

City University plans to industrialise the production of next generation CIOs -  http://bit.ly/aGXwSC. Thank goodness.

e-Skills: Social Exclusion

Individuals who do not have base-level e-skills going forward are just as likely to be socially excluded as those who cannot read or write. Many people today can live without having a Facebook account.

A social dependence on such tools is increasing. But to many that trivialises social exclusion.

Perhaps more important are those that because of an absence of basic e-skills, they are not just unemployed but unemployable. This is a serious threat to the fabric of a society whose future economic sustainability is underpinned by new technology.

This and many other issues will come to the fore during the European Commission's e-Skills Week commencing 2nd March 2010.

In the C-Suite: Digital Gold

Are you aware that you have an asset that:

• Is significant enough to warrant representation on the balance sheet
• You have invested in heavily – and continue to do so
• Has a shelf life – although its value may increase before it goes into decay
• Is largely ungoverned
• Its absence could lead to your imprisonment
• Is easily contaminated and thus potentially a liability?

Read my latest Financial Times piece for more details. Click here.

CIO: Don't square up to the CFO

Who does he think he is cutting my budget, when in fact he should be increasing it to enable me to deliver operational efficiencies elsewhere? Tempting as it maybe to have it out with the CFO, this is rarely productive.

I suggest you take cost management into your own hands. Get ultra lean and divert the saved cash to delivering operational efficiencies elsewhere in the business. Then get the beneficiaries to push the CFO for more of the same.

On the basis that the CFO trusts the other departmental heads more than you, or at least likes the sound of costs being cut around the organisation, he is likely to see the wisdom in investing in further cost management initiatives.

Tech Sector - Go South Young Man!

Just back from Johannesburg. As far as I can see Africa is a hi-tech gold mine. Massive infrastructure opportunities and nearly a billion apps-expectant consumers.

Though it's not enough to be there. You need the excavation tools.