Configuration management is a critical cornerstone of IT automation, providing tools that allow you to centrally manage the packages, configuration files, process state, firewall rules and other settings that equip servers to do their assigned jobs. Without automated configuration management, you do all these tasks manually, or with handwritten scripts. It's time-consuming, and prone to human e…
No performance management strategy can be completely effective without support from underlying technology. When a company pursues performance management, it must find a single, unified solution that can meet all its requirements and deliver a holistic view of performance across the enterprise by easily accessing any metric from any source – without compromise. The solution should remain compl…
The rise of the social consumer creates tremendous opportunities for organizations to develop deeper relationships with their customers in support of their business objectives. Whether your goals are to acquire new users, increase on-site engagement, or collect and leverage customer insights (or all of • What are your business objectives? • What are you trying to achieve on your site? • …
Business documents are vital strategic, financial, operational and intellectual assets that are essential to daily business processes. They constitute the lifeblood of an organization. Yet half of organizations rate their document management practices as less than effective. This is why document process management is becoming an outsourcing strategy that enables organizations to reduce cost…
The expression “better, faster, cheaper” is commonly associated with supply chain initiatives, where companies have developed an edge by getting products to market faster and more efficiently than their competitors. However, in the new world of cloud computing, more companies are looking at their IT department as a competitive differentiator by enabling them to quickly deploy hosted appli…
In today’s competitive business environment, small and midsized businesses that want to grow and sustain an edge in the market must continually streamline and improve core business practices. In many instances, technology-based solutions are integral to achieving operational efficiencies and to furthering key business objectives. As businesses progress from small to midsize organizations,…
Today’s rising overhead expenses drive organizations to find practical ways to reduce costs. Profit-conscious executives face the challenge of either reducing headcount or reducing overhead expenses. Much of the time, either of these strategies can have a negative impact on productivity and morale. Every so often a strategy appears that can provide significant expense control and enhance prod…
Organizations need to protect their data and restrict access to enterprise resources to authorized users. Many companies attempt to address their security concerns by simply implementing stronger password policies, requiring employees to remember more and stronger passwords for all applications. However, most employees can not remember more than one or two strong passwords, so they won’t f…
For most companies, changing accounting software is a daunting challenge. Not only is transitioning the accounting function to a new software package tricky in itself, but it is usually catalyzed by one or more business challenges that are (hopefully) solved by the new system. As a result, most companies wait until problems have become (or are obviously becoming) insurmountable before initiatin…
Has a CRM or incident management vendor ever told you how wonderful their knowledge management “module” is? If so, beware: knowledge management must be the core of any successful CRM deployment, not an add-on module. Knowledge is power—but only when it is deeply integrated into the customer experience, the agent experience, and the enabling technology. A vendor with a knowledgebase modul…
The future of many organizations depends on their ability to harness the power of information technology, and good project managers continue to be in high demand. Colleges have responded to this need by establishing courses in project management and making them part of the information technology, management, engineering, and other curriculum. Corporations are investing in continuing education t…
This guide aims to provide an overview of risk management in the context of public procurement of innovation (PPI). By definition, pursuing an innovative solution is a process that involves a higher degree of uncertainty towards the intended result compared to choosing for a proven solution. These uncertainties often act as a major barrier to innovation. Therefore, risk management is a key suc…
In December 2008, when I met with the president of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), I was far from imagining that the work we wanted to do together would become a reality so quickly. As early as the beginning of 2009, we were given a unique opportunity to share our respective experiences through the celebration, throughout 2009, of 15 years of the West African Economic …
The aim of this book is to provide a new account of the fundamental concepts and arguments that define Heidegger’s early work; specific- ally, my focus will be on the period from 1919 to 1935. I am interested in three sets of issues in particular, and in the interaction between them. The first concerns the interpretation and validity of the various philosophical theses which Heidegger advance…
Our world is dominated by an urban culture. Cities not only represent economies of density, but also economics of interaction. They incorporate both quantity and quality. Cities are not just geographical settlements of people, they are also the ‘home of man’ (Ward 1976). They reflect the varied history of mankind and are at the same time contemporaneous expressions of the diversity of human…