Podcasts about most it

Carolyn and Seth give a preview of CompTIA's upcoming IT Industry Outlook report, focusing on the prospects for IT pros. Most IT pros are optimistic about the future of their career, driven by a high demand for technical skills, opportunities for flexibility, and the chance to build things that benefit business and society. However, the environment around IT work may be challenging in some ways, as companies adda a degree of caution to their spending plans and look for more justification for technology investment.

On this episode of "Take the Leap Management", we're tackling a bold claim: "Most IT projects are useless and deliver no value." Why do so many IT projects fail to meet expectations? And more importantly, how can they avoid this fate? Join us as we break down common pitfalls, explore real-world examples, and share key strategies to ensure your IT projects drive real value. Don't miss this deep dive into the world of IT project success!

Generative AI (GenAI) and AI will significantly transform industries in Ireland, according to 70% of respondents to the Dell Technologies Innovation Catalyst Research. Based on responses from 6,600 IT and business decision-makers across 40 countries, including 100 in Ireland, the research suggests that while there is broad optimism for AI and GenAI, the extent to which organisations are prepared for the rapid pace of change varies greatly. 71% say they are well positioned competitively and have a solid strategy in place to harness the power of AI. Moreover, nine in 10 (92%) think organisations can use GenAI responsibly. At the same time, over half (56%) of the respondents are uncertain what their industry will look like in the next three to five years, and forty-nine per cent report struggling to keep pace with advancements in GenAI and other technologies. They cite the lack of the right talent (43%), lack of budget (33%) and an outdated technology environment (32%) as challenges they face in driving innovation. To help overcome some of the challenges, fifty-nine per cent of organisations are training or upskilling employees to use GenAI, while six in 10 (62%) are providing AI-optimised technology to improve the work experience. GenAI Moving from Ideation to Implementation Respondents cite GenAI's transformative or significant potential to deliver value in improving IT security posture (48%), enhancing the customer experience (47%) and unlocking productivity gains (42%). More broadly, responses suggest that organisations are working through GenAI practicalities as they transition from ideation to implementation, with 75% saying they have begun implementing GenAI. As organisations increase adoption, concern centres around understanding where risks reside and who is responsible for them. Sixty-six per cent agree that the organisation, rather than the machine, the user or the public, is responsible for any AI malfunction or undesired behaviour. Catherine Doyle, Managing Director at Dell Technologies Ireland, said: "In today's rapidly evolving landscape, the power of Generative AI and other emerging technologies cannot be understated. Our research underscores the transformative potential of GenAI to drive innovation in every industry across Ireland. Businesses are now harnessing the power of AI to unlock the value hidden within their data, propelling growth and driving innovation forward. "However, it's clear that while optimism abounds, many organisations are struggling to keep pace with rapid advancements in technology. It's vital for leaders to not only recognise the potential of GenAI but also to act swiftly in using its potential to turn ideas into tangible innovation. By leveraging the capabilities of Generative AI and investing in the right technology infrastructure, businesses can position themselves for success in this era of unprecedented change." The Right Technology Infrastructure will help Organisations to Succeed The research also reveals modern data infrastructure's critical role as technologies like GenAI gather pace and data volumes increase. Investing in a modern, scalable infrastructure was cited as the number one area of improvement for businesses to accelerate innovation. Most IT decision makers (66%) say they prefer an on-prem or hybrid model to address the challenges they foresee with implementing GenAI. The ability to share data across the business is also a key part of the innovation puzzle, with only 1 in 3 (33%) saying they can turn data into real-time insights today to support innovation efforts. Moreover, 95% face data management challenges. However, responses suggest organisations are acting on this challenge, with 64% saying that data is the differentiator and their GenAI strategy must involve using and protecting that data. More about Irish Tech News Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too. You can find hundreds of fantastic previous e...

Most IT executives know that, despite taking all prudent measures, breaches are going to happen. And these days those breaches are sometimes followed by lawsuits (recently reaching class-action status). Even short of lawsuits, OCR or another entity could always come calling for one reason or another, demanding an intense look around. So what's a CIO or CISO to do? Skate to the puck, that's what. In this timely webinar, we'll hear from leaders who have put time and energy into understanding the complexities of securing patient data as well as running the kind of IT shop that can respond to audit inquiries while continuing to protect the enterprise. Source: Keys to Running an Audit-Ready IT Shop on healthsystemcio.com - healthsystemCIO.com is the sole online-only publication dedicated to exclusively and comprehensively serving the information needs of healthcare CIOs.

Do good people make for good novels? In this episode, the author Lydia Millet, best known for The Children's Bible, a National Book Award Finalist, talks about her latest novel, Dinosaurs,  the story of Gil, an unambiguously good man who is determined to make the world a better place.  “I think books should have an agenda, but I don't think you should be able to deliver a one-liner about what that agenda is,” she has said. “It should be an agenda felt by the reader, sensed by the reader, but not fully known. In my work, often there's a sort of agenda of empathy.” Later in the show we'll discuss what agenda might be lurking between the lines of two of Lydia Millet's favorite books - the short, tight prose pieces in Mary Ruefle's collection, The Most of It, and in Mary Robinson's 2001 novel, Why Did I Ever. And we'll hear from Mary Ruefle herself, as she reads from one of the pieces in The Most It.

Most IT leaders know the value of AIOps investments, but what about the C-suite? Tune in as Sean and Bill discuss how to get past the common roadblocks to AIOps innovation in an enterprise.  This week, we're talking about: A clear path to innovation. IT leaders see the vision of AIOps. Here's how to make it reality. Unlock the full capacity of AIOps. A new approach to organizational data management brings even bigger efficiency gains.

Facing record levels of attrition, India's second-largest software services firm Infosys is reportedly invoking the non-compete clause in the employment agreements to curb attrition. A Pune-based IT union, The Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), has written to the Union Labour Ministry seeking the removal of the clause, calling it “arbitrary, unethical and illegal”.  While Infosys has had the clause for a long time, the union claimed that the company is now enforcing it and that it has received 65-70 complaints from employees. The non-compete clause bars employees from accepting offers from any of the named rival companies for a period of six months after leaving Infosys, if the new job involves working with a client with whom the employee had worked during the last 12 months of their stint with Infosys. For the said duration, the employee also cannot accept a job offer from any customer with whom they had worked in the 12 months immediately preceding the termination of their employment with Infosys.   According to reports, Infosys has named five competitors including TCS, Accenture, IBM, Cognizant, and Wipro for IT services employees and nine companies including Tech Mahindra, Genpact, WNS, TCS, Accenture, IBM, Cognizant, Wipro and HCL for business processing management (BPM) staff.  Non-compete clauses are not valid in India as per Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act, which states that any agreement that restrains anyone from practising a lawful profession, trade or business is to that extent void.   The courts have time and again trashed such clauses and held that post-termination non-compete clauses are not enforceable.  Infosys, on its part, said that it is a “standard business practice” for employment contracts to include “controls of reasonable scope and duration to protect the confidentiality of information, customer connection and other legitimate business interests” It denied that the clause prevents employees from joining other organizations. The attrition rate at Infosys touched a record high of 27.7% in the March quarter on a last twelve months basis. In FY22, Infosys hired around 85,000 freshers and has planned a fresher intake of more than 50,000 in the current fiscal. As of March 31, Infosys had 3.14 lakh total employees, while TCS had 5.92 lakh people on its rolls. Most IT firms are jostling to hire employees and retain existing ones in a tight job market. Employees have previously opposed the long 90-day notice period standard in India's IT industry. Invocation of the controversial non-compete clause despite its legal validity being under question can bring down employee morale, restrict the movement of labour between companies and dent the growth prospects of employees.  After all, there are only so many large employers in the IT services and BPM sectors and most employees tend to switch between this limited set of companies. 

Sign Up for Salesforce Business Analyst Training: http://sfbatraining.com/ the top 4 careers I recommend can all be started with ANY college degree. This list isn't just about the highest-paying entry level jobs, but also job security, future career growth opportunities, and finding interesting work. However, you'll see below that many of the jobs listed below ARE some of the best-paid jobs, because the higher-paying, in-demand jobs also tend to have better job security and more options/choices in the future. So let's get started! In no particular order, these are the absolute BEST jobs and careers for recent college graduates in my opinion. 1. IT consultant This is one of the best jobs for recent college graduates interested in technology and software. IT consultant is hands-down one of the best fields you can get into right now in terms of salary, demand for your skills, and future career growth. These positions pay extremely well. And demand is rising as more of the world's businesses rely on software. (Even businesses that have been around forever like UPS). There are many “bootcamps” and schools teaching this skill set in a matter of weeks, rather than years. And some of them help you find a job after graduating as well. Most IT consulting jobs require you to learn some type of coding but you have positions such as Business analyst, data analyst, QA analyst where coding is not required. I personally recommend these position to people that do not want to get into coding. They make around the same salary or even more in some cases. For example a salesforce business analyst makes $100k to $200K per year and they are salesforce consultant making $400 each year. If you are looking to become a salesforce business analyst, SFbatraining.com offers one of the best training available in the market. You can click the link in the description below to sign up for their 4 weeks tutorial. For those that are into coding, here are a couple of the top programs for learning software development: General Assembly – a coding bootcamp with physical locations in many major cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Denver, and many more. Plus international cities including London, Sydney, Melbourne, Paris and Singapore. They also offer online courses as well in cases you are not in one of the cities they operate in. Lambda School – a 9-month immersive program teaching you modern programming skills, with no upfront cost. According to their website, “Instead of paying tuition, students can agree to pay a percentage of their income after they're employed, and only if they're making more than $50k per year” 2. Digital Marketing At this point, every company knows they need a digital presence, even the very old-fashioned companies that traditionally relied on off-line marketing. (Go try to find a single large brand without social media accounts. You can't). And as companies get on-board, they're realizing they need a lot of help in this area. Specific work in this field includes creating and managing online advertisements (on Facebook, Google, Instagram and more)… managing “organic” social media posts (non-paid ads – regular posts that companies put out to their followers. There are many other areas as well, including website optimization, email marketing, and much more. It's also a relatively new field so you won't be competing against people who have 20-30 years of experience. Some of the most knowledgeable digital marketers are in their 20's right now. So you can earn a great salary ($50-60K within one or two years, and much more over time) in this field.

Windows 11 Ships! So now what? Richard chats with Mary Jo Foley about her thoughts around the release of Windows 11. Mary Jo talks about how quiet the conversation has been around Windows 11, other than a few bits of outrage like the TPM requirements - which, as it turns out, aren't actually required. Is there a reason to move to Windows 11? Most IT folks seem happy to wait for further updates - there's nothing wrong with Windows 10. Maybe operating system releases just aren't as exciting as they used to be?Links:Upgrading to Windows 11Windows WeeklyAll About MicrosoftRecorded October 22, 2021

A Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) misconfiguration is what took out Facebook on 4 October.  Most IT folks don't understand how BGP works.  This episode helps you gain a better understanding of the protocol that creates routing tables to move information from one end of the Internet to the other.  We'll explain how Autonomous Systems (AS) share BGP route information, what should happen when things go right, and then examine what likely went wrong at Facebook and how you might be able to prepare for potential problems in advance before they occur.

Most IT and MSP business owners find the topic of business performance less than exciting, BUT, if you want to take your business to YOUR next level, you need to take this bull by the horns and you'll soon realise the power of this exercise and how important and interesting this can be.     We run this exercise in our IT Experts Mastermind and I encourage members to do the same every 3 months. It really makes you think about what has happened and also get ready for the next period.     Today, we will dissect your business according to three metrics, the 3 Ps: Business Performance, Business Process, and People Planning.      Business Performance - you need to know your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), KRAs (Key Results Areas), and see how your business is doing.     In this area, we cover 8 easy steps, which are:     Step 1: List Down Your Biggest Successes in the Last 3 Months  Step 2: What Did You Learn in the Past 3 Months?  Step 3: What are Your Biggest Internal Strengths?  Step 4: What are Your Biggest Internal Weaknesses?  Step 5: What are Your Biggest External Opportunities?  Step 6: List Down Your External Threats  Step 7: What are Your Priorities for the Next 3 Months?  Step 8: Assign Accountabilities.     Next, you need to review your processes. You need a tangible and measurable way of doing things in your organisation. To better understand and see whether you have your processes in place, you need to think of the following:     Step 1: Are they documented? If you weren't there, would people have a reference guide on what to do?  Step 2: Who owns each process? You will have to delegate these processes.  Step 3: How do you know it works? How are you reporting on your processes?  Step 4: How does your escalation process looks like? What do you do when things go wrong?  Step 5: Review Process Regularly     Lastly, you need to look at your people's performance. Is your people adding value to your business? In this section, let's take a look at these steps:     Step 1: Align your objectives and targets to your KPIs.   Step 2: Departmental objectives. Set a target for each department.  Step 3: Review your leadership team's performance.  Step 4: Measure your team's performance, i.e.. appraisal system.  Step 5: Peer Review. When you're doing your appraisal schemes, involve the team, and the other departments.    I hope you start implementing these steps and you'll find how these can help you improve your overall business performance.     You can access the other IT Experts Podcasts here –  https://innovatetosuccess.com/itega-podcast/       If you haven’t seen it yet, go and check out our App and take the IT Experts Test you can download by clicking here –  https://bit.ly/ITE-APP       If we’re not connected already, let’s connect on LinkedIn, YouTube and over our website at innovatetosuccess.com        Alternatively, you can drop me an email at Ian@innovatetosuccess.com       Till next time, you look after yourself and I’ll catch up with you soon! 

Most IT providers can admit that sales and marketing aren’t always our forte. If we ever had the choice, we’d choose to discuss features over budget every time. Alas, the sales and marketing bits are what make businesses grow. They are simply unavoidable. That’s why it’s so helpful when a professional like Erick Simpson joins us on B2B Tech Talk. In this episode, guest host Logan Lyles of Sweet Fish Media catches up with Erick – the creator of the MSP Mastered™ methodology – at Ingram Micro’s ONE event. The two discuss: How to bring up budget with a potential buyer The power in offering three options The three different types of tech buyers Follow us on Twitter @IngramTechSol #B2BTechTalk Sponsored by Cisco and Ingram Micro Financial Solutions Listen to this episode and more like it by subscribing to B2B Tech Talk on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Or, tune in on our website.

GUEST BIO: My guest on today’s show is currently a VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. He is a recognized industry expert on a variety of topics including digital transformation, social collaboration and online business models.  And in 2015 he was identified as one of the top 20 people most mentioned by IT leaders.   EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Dion Hinchliffe is Phil’s guest on today’s show. He is an internationally recognized thought leader, enterprise architect and IT specialist. Dion is also a keynote speaker and the co-author of the best-selling books, Web 2.0 Architectures and Social Business by Design. He is currently a VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. KEY TAKEAWAYS: (1.07) – Please tell us about the things you have been up to, particularly recently. Dion explains that he has always worked on large IT projects. For example, he worked as a lead architect for the Missile Defense Agency on their advance battle manager program. At the time, it was one of the biggest IT projects in the world. As a young man, he was chief architect for Rowe Price. Dion recommends that everyone try to work on a government IT project. He explains that dealing with the red tape, bureaucracy, long lists or requirements and politics really hones your skills. It is challenging, but by the end of it you are far better able to realize change and lead. More recently, Dion has been working with the CIO audience. His main focus is on helping them to apply technology strategically to modernize and transform their businesses. He develops digital strategies, ensures they work and guides firms through the implementation of them. Dion speaks and writes extensively about this and runs CIO workshops. Importantly, he follows up with the people who are implementing his strategies to see how things went. Using their feedback he is able to understand how well each strategy works and tweak them if necessary. (4.21) – Please tell us more about your speaking, blogging and writing. Dion explains that he sees himself as a storyteller who is working to fill a gap in the industry. He likes to go into detail and share in a way that ensures people can actually take action with what they learn from him. These days, people in the industry are more willing to share what they are doing. But, in a way, they are still quite secretive. Their case studies tend to be high level. People end up hydroplaning over the top of subjects they don’t really explain how they got something hard done. So, Dion has tried to break that habit. He writes long-form, detailed pieces that include diagrams to help people to fully understand what he is sharing. (5.29) presumably you get great feedback from doing that. Dion says that is the case. People especially appreciate his use of diagrams. It is something few people do. But, Dion discovered early on that the best way to sell an idea, especially an expensive one, is to use a visual. Somehow showing them a picture makes it real for them. (6.46) – Can you please share a unique career tip with the I.T. career audience? In IT your bedside manner really matters. You need to be able to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and communicate with them in a way that improves their understanding. It is important to remember that this is probably the first time they have been through a technology roll-out. Or, if they have done it before, it was a long time ago. So, the whole thing is completely new and alien to them. They are relying on you to show them the way. It is up to you to help them to understand the process, manage their expectations and make them feel comfortable. Looking at the situation through their eyes will really help you to do this effectively. You will be able to help them to see how their department will run once the technology is in place. When you become more empathetic your relationship with your customers improves drastically. They find it easier to trust you. So, it is far easier for you to convince them of the direction they should take. (8.42) - Is there anything in particular that you do to enable yourself to be in their shoes, as it were? Dion tries to think about the experiences they have gone through with IT departments. Doing this gives him an insight into what the customer is expecting. (9.15) – Can you tell us about your worst career moment? And what you learned from that experience. Dion used to run a boutique consulting firm. They specialized in performance optimization. Often, that means turning failed IT projects around. The first time they let one of their senior people to start an engagement. Unfortunately, the client called them and said they did not think things were going to work out. They did not feel they were a good fit. So, Dion had to let that person go. Basically, because they were no longer a good fit, which meant there was no work for them. It was very difficult for Dion to do this. (11.01) – What was your best career moment? While working on a large government project, Dion and his colleagues came up with a way to apply Agile working principles to a large distributed team. They found a way to do the stand-ups, the user stories and put together fast feedback loops. A way to ship code every week and show customers what they were doing despite the team being huge, fragmented and distributed. Getting there was tough. They had a lot of hard knocks. But, eventually, they were able to greatly speed up the pace at which the project moved forward. They still moved slower than most other agile teams, but it was a massive improvement on what had been happening before. Today, this way of working is common, but it was not back then, so successfully leading the way was exciting and a great achievement. (13.04) – Can you tell us what excites you about the future of the IT industry and careers? The fact that technology budgets are growing is exciting. It will enable companies to move forward at a much faster rate. This extra cash is opening up all sorts of possibilities for exciting, life-changing projects. So, working in IT is certainly not going to be boring. There is no longer any need for IT professionals to spend their life working as drones, in some back office. Unless, of course, that is what they want to do. Today, the IT team is likely to be involved in every aspect of the business. To touch every department and be an important and integral part of every team. If you are a cross-disciplinary technology specialist, now is a very exciting time to be working.    (14.21) - So why do you think that change from a predominantly maintenance function into more of a change delivery function has taken place? This is mainly because the statistics show that those firms that do not digitize will simply disappear. Firms have no choice but to change and they need IT professionals who can deliver that change. (15.04) – What drew you to a career in IT? As an 11-year-old Dion realized that with a computer you can create your own world with its own rules. He found that exciting, so just kept on learning and ended up following his passion and working in IT. (15.39) – What is the best career advice you have ever received? That advice to try new things and push yourself out of your comfort zone is the best advice Dion was given. We all have a tendency to gravitate towards the technologies and platforms that we know. Those times when you try something that is completely unrelated are when you learn the most. It also really broadens your worldview. So, deliberately go out there and try something different. Getting into this habit has turned Dion into a novelty seeker and fueled a lot of his writing. (16.57) - Conversely, what is the worst career advice you've ever received? That advice came from his father. He had been around in the 50s. At that time, there ended up being a glut of engineers and was worried that the same thing would happen with tech professionals. As a result, he questioned whether it was wise for Dion to work in the industry. Fortunately, Dion did not see things in the same way as his father. He felt that the possibilities for tech were endless, which meant there would always be work for IT professionals. So far, he has turned out to be right. The tech industry has negative unemployment and will have for the foreseeable future. (17.41) – If you were to begin your IT career again, right now, what would you do? Dion says that he would probably learn more about business. He focused too much on the technology and not enough on how it would be used. If he had done so at an earlier stage, he feels his career would have progressed even faster. (18/17) – What career objectives are you currently focusing on? Dion says that he wants to write more. It is a hard task and finding the time to write can be difficult, but it is really rewarding. His aim is to publish three or four more notable books. Books that really unpack everything that he has learned in his career to date. One of them will definitely be about digital transformation. (18.54) – What’s the number one non-technical skill that has helped you the most in your IT career? For Dion that has almost certainly been his people skills. Most IT folks are not great with people, but the direction Dion’s career took forced him to develop good people skills. These days, being able to talk to customers is essential for most IT-related jobs. (19.50) - What do you do to keep your own IT career energized? Being excited about new things creates momentum. It keeps you moving forward. (20.51) - What do you do in your spare time away from technology? Dion has 4-year-old twins, who keep him busy. He really enjoys spending time with them. When they are older, he is hoping to get back into rock climbing.  (21.32) – Phil asks Dion to share a final piece of career advice with the audience. In the past, people learned a technology and kept much of that knowledge to themselves. They set themselves up as the gatekeeper of that technology, so people would have to come to them for information. It was a way of creating and holding onto power. Today, setting your information free and sharing what you know is the way forward. When you do that, you get your knowledge working for you 24 hours a day. Even more people realize that you are the go-to person for that technology. They are able to understand how it works and how they can use it. That means that even more people look to you for understanding. Importantly, over time, others absorb your knowledge, explore the tech and become experts. They start to share the load. Sharing your knowledge gets you known and shows you in a favorable light. BEST MOMENTS: (2.05) DION – "I recommend anyone go through some government IT projects. You will learn so much." (4.20) DION – "Speed is really the biggest issue that IT departments and technical teams are having to cope with, right now." (7.03) DION – "It's absolutely critical to be able to put yourself in your customer's place." (13.03) DION – "People going into IT today are not going to be stuck as drones in the back office. Unless they want to be." (21.37) DION – "Learn to set your knowledge free and benefit from doing so." CONTACT DION: Twitter: https://twitter.com/dhinchcliffe   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhinchcliffe   Website: https://dionhinchcliffe.com

In this episode we talk to Blake Emal Account Manager at Directive. The future of SEO and SEM is trending heavily toward putting humans before robots. It's great to have the most links, the highest domain authority, the longest article. But what impresses search engines and users the MOST? It all boils down to how well you solve important problems. Want to get a no-fluff email that boils down our 3 biggest takeaways from an entire week of B2B Growth episodes? Sign up today: http://sweetfishmedia.com/big3 We'll never send you more than what you can read in < 1 minute.

As the title says, LastPass and Backblaze rock, but they’re not set and forget. We’re in the operate and optimize phases of the Cisco Network Life-cycle. There are a few gotchas with LastPass and Backblaze. This has nothing to do with the software or the service. This is all about how you use them. Dorothy and I have several unanswered questions to deal with.It’s a good thing we’re doing this now. Most IT departments never have this conversation. Or they talk about this after they’ve lost something in a disaster.LINKS1. LastPass - Password manager2. Backblaze B2 - Cloud storage solution

Most IT professionals would agree that the interest in technology usually starts at an early age and develops throughout the years. Listen to Terry Hartup's story! Terry Hartup, from Flycast Partners, also tells us a little about the new Track-it 2018 changes, hear all about it here!

Happy Monday Motivation! Welcome back to the weekly podcast No More Excuses! I appreciate all of you who have AND WILL SHARE this podcast! Please! I'm also thankful for all of you who took advantage of my book sale on Amazon for Black Friday, Small Biz Saturday and Cyber Monday! You ROCK! I look forward to hearing how you, or the person you bought the book for thinks and how it has helped them! Now onto the podcast. Who helped you the most this year? You may be thankful for many people in your life, but who helped you the MOST? It may have been with actual things you needed, it may have been with advice, it may have been just listening - a sounding board. No matter WHO it was, making sure you take the time to think about it, and how you will thank them. NOT always with a gift. It could be time, it might just be a card, a phone call an email. But making sure you take the time to thank those who helped you achieve YOUR goals is important.  People help in different ways. And you have to take the time to understand who, in 2018, you'll continue to put your energy into. Who you'll be able to depend on vs. be frustrated by.  And... what is your VIBE? Your Vibe does attract your TRIBE! So, what energy are you putting off? What are you carrying with you? How will you start the year and with who?  Listen into this week and then if you didn't tell me WHO last week - who helped you the most, add that to this week's request: I want to know HOW you will THANK this person - email me! Making sure you focus on who you need to thank and for the right reasons, so you can continue to build the relationship!  Have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you! Cheers! Sandi

Most IT leaders don’t take much needed long vacations. The fears are that on one hand, if something happens, they’ll have a mess to fix. On the other hand, if every thing works smoothly in their absence, corporate management may wonder if they are worth the pay. Should/Can a CIO enjoy a long vacation?