Why the CIO Must Give Up Something for the Greater Good

The Wall Street Journal

A CIO once told me that it's impossible to be perceived as strategic when you're person the CEO calls when email isn't working. The quote stuck with me for a reason beyond his specific predicament. Software, in the words of venture capitalist Marc Andreesen, "Is Eating the World". So, in this time of disruption and downward pressure on costs, how can a CIO manage commoditized technologies and also be responsible for making technology a key part of every business strategy?

For the most part, the answer is that the CIO can't. The skills, approaches, tools, and executive qualities required to drive operational aspects of commodity IT services are different, if not antithetical, to driving strategic use of technology for competitive market differentiation. Instead CEOs should look to split the role into two. The first drives commoditized technology improvements, basing performance on cost reduction and maintenance of service levels. While it's possible to do this in innovative ways, the ultimate goal is to allow for investment to shift towards more impactful technology that directly drives the business...

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...Narinder Singh is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Appirio

Dilbert disses cloud (or at least cloudwashing)

GigaOM

When Dilbert takes aim at cloudwashing, maybe it is the beginning of the end for that annoying practice which threatens the credibility of tech companies.

Dilbert’s boss (he of the awesome two-point hairdo) tells Dilbert to move some of the company’s functions to the Internet but to call the Internet “cloud.” Why? Because no one “will take us seriously unless we’re doing something in the cloud,” says Mr. Two-Points, aka PHB or Pointy-headed Boss. The remedy is to apply mindless jargon to what they’re already doing. This has been the practice of 95 percent of software companies for the past few years –put out an update and call it “cloud.”

Last year, Appirio inaugurated a “Cloudwashies” contest to give the most shameless perpetrators of cloudwashing the dubious acknowledgement they so richly deserved. Oracle and its CEO Larry Ellison — whose miraculous “come-to-cloud” conversion made him the no brainer choice — were winners. So were Salesforce.com and Microsoft — for it’s beyond-irritating “to the cloud” ads. (InformationWeek has its own take here.)

Knowledge Infusion Takes Next Step

Human Resource Executive Online

...KI has long been a Workday consulting and advisory partner; new owner Appirio, an implementation partner. Together they will have strategy and technology covered in The Cloud. Vendor agnostic to the end, KI has recently become a deployment partner for SuccessFactors and Salesforce.com's Work.com, as well.

Says Corsello, once KI's No. 3, "What made KI unique is that they got to know their clients' business and help build their HR and talent management strategy from there. Most others just focus on the technology. Appirio has quickly become the Accenture of the Cloud world and, by all indications, appears to be a great match."

KI plans to expand its brief under Appirio with Heidi building a people-centric, work-centric practice across the other corporate domains besides HR, including marketing and customer relationship management (CRM).

Appirio beefs up, acquires Knowledge Infusion

ZDNet

Appirio on Monday said it will acquire Knowledge Infusion in a deal aimed at implementing cloud-based human capital management software at a broader scale.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The news, which should be good for companies like Workday and Salesforce, will create an organization with 600 consultants. Appirio has specialized in cloud and software as a service deployments. Knowledge Infusion has primarily focused on the HCM market.