Application
Portfolio Management
by Ari J. Salonen, PhD, CellExchange,
Inc.
Capital projects are crucial to organization
growth as they are investments for the
future. Critical questions arise when
investments are to be made – how
much should be invested and in which
projects? In most organizations, it
is difficult to know if these decisions
are being answered correctly. Capital
project funding among business units
tends to be tied to traditions or revenue
generation, instead of organization
needs, leading to local optimization
of investments, and perhaps leaving
the organization unprepared for the
future. |
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Innovation
and Collaboration
by Business Innovation Services, CellExchange,
Inc.
Innovation and collaboration are essential
endeavors for any organization that
seeks to remain competitive in a progressive
marketplace to undertake. As technological
and process-based advancements are made
and adopted by rivals, a static organization
loses its competitive advantage. Indeed,
as new processes, products, and technologies
are introduced over time, the organization
faces the potential of assuming both
an aura and reality of obsolescence.
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IT
Risk Management
by Ari J. Salonen, PhD, CellExchange,
Inc.
There are many providers of security
products, assessment services, and training
that follow standard security best practices.
These types of activities are necessary
to reduce the risks related to information
technologies. However, improving the
quality of risk management requires
improvement the quality of the decisions
that can be made surrounding the trade-offs
between technologies and operations.
Risk management is performed to enable
business; to be effective any solution
that is developed will need to focus
on supporting the business needs and
goals of the organization. Ultimately,
the best solution for the management
of IT security and operational risks
will include the integration of best
of breed elements of technology and
processes from several vendors along
with the culture and goals of a client.
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Left
Hand-Right Hand Framework
by Ari J. Salonen, PhD, CellExchange,
Inc.
Every day senior executives face a schizophrenic
set of challenges. On one hand, they
constantly struggle to manage current
business more efficiently from day to
day and quarter to quarter. At the same
time, they must prepare for the long-term
success of the organization by pushing
into new, unproven business areas. In
the following, we describe a framework
to manage these seemingly contradicting
goals. We use the model and our observations
to illustrate how selected organizations
have successfully tackled these operational
and strategic challenges with solutions
that build on their plain vanilla IT
and organizational capabilities. |
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The
Rapid Application Development Process
by Issam J Zeinoun, CellExchange, Inc.
This paper introduces the Rapid Application
Development process for software development
and summarizes its advantages and limitations.
A description of the goals of the process
is given before presenting the various
components that make up a RAD project.
The team structure is also shown and
the roles of each member are described.
The RAD phases are defined by specifying
their deliverables and the deliverables,
in-turn, are detailed with recommendations
on their use and content. Examples are
given throughout the reading and some
diagrams are presented as clarification
tools. |
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Unlocking
Enterprise Data
by Business Innovation Services, CellExchange,
Inc.
Although most companies maintain vast
databases of customer, supplier and
internal information, very little of
this information is ever utilized. Revenue
and market position can be greatly improved
by unlocking enterprise data. Indeed,
a major locomotive company that pursued
this endeavor succeeded in lowering
downtime due to repairs, saving $4000
per hour. Similarly, a large value-added
reseller succeeded in turning widely
varying and often negative margins into
consistent profits at contract-mandated
levels. |
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