Release Early and Incorporate User Feedback One way to manage the cost to develop your mobile application is to release a basic version with minimal functionality. Make your app available for purchase, and you will see a quick ROI. Then you can increase functionality iteratively based on user...

There is no question that cloud computing is here to stay. The economics of using cloud computing are just too compelling and it will end up boosting the importance of information technology to your company. However, since cloud computing is so new, not all of the details have been worked out...

I have heard in number of CIO gatherings, many CIOs say “IT and the business,” The plain truth is technology professionals have been using isolationist language for decades. I say isolationist because any time we refer to “IT and the business” as if they were two different entities, we...

Innovation is the thing that allows an IT department to continue to improve. A part of every CIOs job is to find ways that will allow his or her IT department to do a better job of innovating more. It’s not easy to do all of the things that an IT department has to do and be innovative. This...

A CIO that tries to play it safe and not “rock the boat” is not going to have the CIO position for very long. Instead, when you become CIO you need to immediately start to look for ways that you can make changes that will have an impact on both the company and the IT department. A CIO needs...

Isn’t technology a wonderful thing? As CIO you are in charge of one of the most technologically sophisticated parts of the company. It’s very easy to fill your days dealing with issues regarding servers, networks, routers, switches, firewalls, etc. However, it turns out that if you do this,...

In order to be a successful CIO, you have to be able to take in all of the inputs that everyone else does, but you then have to see the world differently. As a CIO you need to have the ability to process inputs in ways that will allow you to show the IT department the correct way forward. The...

  Wrong Choice Of Products Even if you have selected a great e-commerce niche, there is still one more potential trap you might fall into, selling the wrong products. There are a number of different producers in each niche. Even though they all might seem professional and all, not all...

USE Video!!! Video is still relatively new promotional medium in E-commerce. In spite of that, I believe that more and more online retailers, and that includes small shops too, will start using it in their overall marketing mix. It’s Highly Engaging As mentioned already, video is highly...

For those of you that are not familiar with subcom or Subscription Commerce Model, let me give you a two second crash course. As I mentioned it is often referred to as subcom, it is a business model in which the subscriber pays a flat, monthly fee to receive some type of “box”. Such boxes can...

Creating a mobile site is a big undertaking. Especially when your visitors seem to prefer your desktop site. I’ve previously written about the mobile chicken & egg… the reason you don’t have more mobile shoppers is that your current mobile experience stinks. If you build it they will...

If you haven’t figured it by now, load speed of your website is may be the most important feature of any e-commerce site.  The following off the cuff thoughts are “some”  that you need to pay attention to. Make sure feature banners are loaded first or sooner than other...

The following 12 points are what I have learned throughout the years on the rules and methods that some of the best e-tailer use to be the best. 1. Don’t overwhelm homepage visitors One of the delights of online shopping is the sense of exploration and discovery that site visitors experience....

This is something I am often asked about. How can an online store utilize social media in their marketing strategy? In fairness, there are many approaches to that. Most typical uses of social media platforms in eCommerce include: Customer Service Social media is becoming a very powerful...

Many business executives have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Myspace, and Linkedin useful in making money. Building genuine online relationships that are also good for the bottom line is not so easy. There is a lot of trial and error. But while monetizing social media is...

In today’s tough marketing times, developing a strong fan base on sites like Facebook should be the key concern for online businesses. Many old school techniques like SEO no longer work as a growth engine and it seems that only by building a community around your business are you able to...

This great advice came from my father, I suspect that he started conveying it to me early on in my childhood though I first became aware of it in 1980s as a teenager living in France, I asked my dad why he was paying for two daily newspapers and would watch two other news shows on...

Fingerprint scanning on the iPhone 5s and an activation lock in iOS7 open new doors to enterprise security. I belive the next big thing in security is Touch ID for security and biometric-based security. My take is that consumers are right to be paranoid about their personal data being...

Have you driven in E. Berlin, Paris, Tokyo or Mexico city? Well I have!!!!! and I do not travel internationally without some of these gadgets.  The following will help your ride Nationally and Internationally to find a destination, talk over a speakerphone, and diagnose problems with your...

Forward-thinking CIOs and IT leaders are linking IT to business outcomes like top-line growth, bottom-line savings, return on invested capital, reputation – demonstrating tangible business outcomes and results from IT investment. Information technology is playing an increasingly critical role...

We all know that there is a root cause for almost all issues in organizations and one of the major root causes is, not following correct change management processes in IT. Specifically, Change management controls we use to measure, the dependencies of all technologies used in the business....

The CIO should be fired if he/she is not a customer service oriented individual. In the Age Of The Customer service, technology shapes every touch point, either directly through the customer using technology at the touch point or indirectly in supporting employees engaging with the customer...

I have been asked number of times about data visualization, thus I thought I might not be bad idea to write a small piece about DV. Today, digital information that flows through networks is not data-aware. To networks, data is just represented as bits and bytes. There’s no built-in...

I believe that technology would be in a commonplace and readily available via the cloud that a company’s ability to set itself apart via technology would be fleeting at best, however, I think that systems of engagement and other technologies would be differentiating. I think most technology...

While some enterprises will invest in a range of mobility products and services, here are five key areas in particular which I am going to concentrate as a CIO on enterprise mobility in 2014.  Business consulting services. Specifically for defining a formal enterprise mobility...

The single European currency was expected to smooth the functioning of the European economy. By fixing the nominal exchange rate and eliminating currency risk, the euro would achieve convergence between the euro area’s stronger and weaker economies — the so-called core and periphery....

  DevOps (a portmanteau of development and operations) is a software development method that stresses communication, collaboration and integration between software developers and information technology (IT) professionals.[1] DevOps is a response to the interdependence of software...

I have had number of questions on Hadoop, thus I though write this article on explaining what Hadoop is.  Hadoop is a free, Java-based programming framework that supports the processing of large data sets in a distributed computing environment. It is part of the Apache project sponsored by...

Why the U.S. should want to increase its exposure to Europe, paralyzed by a financial and debt crisis, isn’t immediately obvious. Most economists nowadays tend to focus on how to boost trade with the fast-growing emerging economies, such as Brazil, Mexico and China. Yet trade between...

Too many of us like to say that we keep an open mind when we really don’t. In order to be an effective CIO both today and tomorrow, we’re going to need to make sure that we work very hard to make good decisions. This means that we’ve got to realize that we will never have complete...

CIO is the most important senior leader in driving or supporting a business transformation; why is the CIO asked to do so much in what is essentially a business initiative? I have helped and gone thru five stages of a business transformation — discovery, strategy, road map, implementation,...

Once you get past all the jargon and sometimes conflicting job descriptions, your enterprise architect is basically the person who understands what the business needs, where it is headed and finds technology to match those needs. They’re the ones in charge of abolishing silos, enhancing...

A CIO is only as effective as his or her IT department will allow him to be. What this means for you is that you can’t leave who gets hired to your HR department. As the person in the CIO position, you are going to have to make sure that you’ve built the IT department that the best and the...

Your business is complex. Big data promises to manage this complexity to make better decisions. But the technology services that run your business are also complex. Many are too complex to manage easily, fueling more complexity, delays, and downtime. I predict this will inevitably get worse....

All too often the rest of the company views the IT department as being a gigantic black hole when it comes to funding. More and more money gets poured into IT every year and yet at the same time the rest of the firm probably feels that they are getting less and less value for that money. The...

The ideal business model is one that makes the project self-sustaining either through revenue generation or through cost reduction. Performance-contracting, as one example, embraces the latter. These business models are based on creating efficiencies in enterprise applications and IT...

The other day I read the financial reports for Netflix (NFLX) and I think Netflix has clearly reached its top value, due to the fact that, the company is burning through cash and its financial health continues to worsen. Moreover, I believe things will continue to get worse since it is...

There is a new approach that leading enterprises and governments are taking today that is significantly simpler, more manageable and empowers companies to share their key data more freely, opening up massive new market opportunities for all. Here’s how American Airline is taking...

Recently I read a great article in that talked about some of issues SAP has had in China, however, after extensive research I applaud SAP, as is taking the right steps to integrate local requirements and deliver product capabilities that address the some of its issues in China: Solutions...

What do your direct reports say about you! In my career as an executive / CIO and a global technology consultant to C level executives, I have never met an executive who was too intellectually slow to be successful. Most executives have more than enough skill and intelligence to be wildly...