Blog Postings

CEOs and other senior executives must identify ways to improve their enterprise performance by boosting profitability, raising market share, and leapfrogging competitors. But achieving these objectives is not as simple as just looking at the numbers. What about nonfinancial measures (e.g., customer loyalty and employee satisfaction) that don't show up in financial accounting? How do you quickly and efficiently get the full 360-degree view of your business?

In order to execute their business strategy, business and IT execs need a business-focused, strategic, and pragmatic way to measure their finances and operations -- popularly referred to as business intelligence (BI). Without such measurements -- supported by enterprisewide BI deployments -- businesses can't link operational results to strategy. Organizations will also find it difficult to get a coherent view of their internal and external processes, customers, logistics, operations, and finances.

However, most firms struggle with BI strategies and programs because turning data into information is an open-ended concept. They frequently go in the wrong direction because of traditional (and often outdated) views and approaches and a focus on technology instead of business, which results in BI programs that are tactical and only project-based. What these firms need is an approach to BI that, while staying true to the importance of long-term vision and looking across silos, provides the flexibility to accommodate varying levels of resource commitment and the political, historical, and cultural obstacles that BI programs often face. Think of Forrester's new business intelligence playbook as your BI bible; it should guide your BI decisions every step of the way.

Gadi Ben-Yehuda

This week: Superlatives! Big ideas! Great Quotes! Newest releases!

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Gadi Ben-Yehuda

This week: Superlatives! Big ideas! Great Quotes! Newest releases!

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This all started back in January 2009 and 718 posts latter with more than 3,700 comments it is time to conclude this blog.   During the past four years, the blog has sought to present and share ideas about technology in the enterprise, the role of the CIO and the changing nature of IT leadership.   During that time we have explored a range of issues from  digital technology to management practices and even the introduction of a magic quadrant covering magic.

It has been great fun and I have learned much from all of the smart people who have taken the time to read, comment and contribute to the blog.  My deepest apologies as the blog often featured grammar that would make an English teacher cringe.  I will admit to not really proofreading every post all the time as the ideas and the desire to publish them got ahead of prudent respect for the reader.  Please accept my apologies.

I have provided a few links below to the posts that garnered the greatest interest, comments or are worth remembering.

Leading in Times of Transition: the 2010 CIO Agenda   - the most links via Bitly

Gartner announces a new magic quadrant – the most comments

The Nature of Change is Changing: A new Pattern — the most comments for a serious post

An IT value sampler for the holidays

Chief Digital Officer, What type does your organization need?

Digitalization creates new dimensions for disruption

Everyone will recall the source of the title of this post from Douglas Adams’ book of the same name.  Part of the Hitchhiker  set of books that should be on everyone’s must read list.  I took his title as the title for this post not because things are ending, but because they are always beginning.   That beginning in 2009 started with a simple question about IT budgets and now I turn the conversation over to my peers at Gartner and to the community in general.

Thank you for your time, attention, energy, knowledge and experience all shared on this blog.  It is not mine; it is ours.  It is also my privilege to share.

NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:

Debra M. Brown, of Mississippi, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi, vice W. Allen Pepper, Jr., deceased.

Carolyn B. McHugh, of Utah, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Tenth Circuit, vice Michael R. Murphy, retired.

Pamela L. Reeves, of Tennessee, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee, vice Thomas W. Phillips, retiring.

Elizabeth A. Wolford, of New York, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of New York, vice Charles J. Siragusa, retired.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama nominated Judge Carolyn B. McHugh to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

“Judge Carolyn B. McHugh has displayed exceptional dedication to the legal profession through her work and I am honored to nominate her to serve the American people as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals,” President Obama said. "She will be a diligent, judicious and esteemed addition to the Tenth Circuit bench."

Judge Carolyn B. McHugh: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Judge Carolyn B. McHugh is the Presiding Judge of the Utah Court of Appeals, a bench on which she has served since her appointment in 2005.  Judge McHugh previously worked at the Salt Lake City law firm of Parr Brown Gee & Loveless for 22 years, joining the firm as an associate in 1983 and becoming a partner in 1987.  Her practice primarily focused on complex civil litigation with an emphasis on environmental matters.  Prior to joining the firm, Judge McHugh served as a law clerk to the Honorable Bruce S. Jenkins of the United States District Court for the District of Utah from 1982 to 1983.  She has also taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Utah College of Law and the University of Utah College of Social and Behavioral Science. Judge McHugh received her B.A. magna cum laude in 1978 from the University of Utah and her J.D. in 1982 from the University of Utah College of Law, where she graduated Order of the Coif and served on the editorial board of the Utah Law Review. 

Since becoming a judge on the Utah Court of Appeals, Judge McHugh has handled more than 1,100 criminal and civil cases and issued 285 opinions.  Throughout her career, Judge McHugh has been actively involved in community service organizations, and participated in local and national bar activities.  For her work, Judge McHugh has received awards including the Christine M. Durham Woman Lawyer of the Year Award from Women Lawyers of Utah, and the Utah State Bar’s Dorathy Merrill Brothers Award for the Advancement of Women in the Legal Profession.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama nominated Debra M. Brown,  Pamela L. Reeves and Elizabeth A. Wolford for District Court judgeships.

"These individuals have demonstrated the talent, expertise, and fair-mindedness Americans expect and deserve from their judicial system," said President Obama.  "I am grateful for their willingness to serve and confident that they will apply the law with the utmost impartiality and integrity."

Debra M. Brown:  Nominee for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi
Debra M. Brown has been a shareholder at the law firm of Wise Carter Child & Caraway, P.A. in Jackson since 2012, where she handles a wide variety of commercial litigation matters before both federal and state courts.  Previously, she worked at Phelps Dunbar LLP for more than 14 years.  Brown received her J.D. in 1997 from the University of Mississippi School of Law and her B.Arch. in 1987 from Mississippi State University.  Between college and law school, Brown worked as an architect in the Washington, D.C. area.  From 2003 to 2004, she served as President of the Mississippi Women Lawyers Association.         

Pamela L. Reeves:  Nominee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
Pamela L. Reeves has worked at the law firm of Reeves, Herbert & Anderson, P.A. in Knoxville since 2002, where she has both mediation and litigation practices concentrating on employment and contract matters.  Prior to forming Reeves, Herbert & Anderson, she spent approximately 14 years at the law firm previously known as Watson, Hollow & Reeves.  She began her legal career as an associate attorney at the law firms Morrison, Morrison, Tyree & Dickinson, from 1985 to 1987, and Griffin, Burkhalter, Cooper & Reeves, from 1979 to 1985.  Reeves received her J.D. in 1979 from the George C. Taylor College of Law at the University of Tennessee and her B.A. with highest honors in 1976 from the University of Tennessee.  From 1998 to 1999, she was the first woman to serve as President of the Tennessee Bar Association. 

Elizabeth A. Wolford:  Nominee for the United States District Court for the Western District of New York
Elizabeth A. Wolford is a partner at The Wolford Law Firm LLP in Rochester, New York, where she concentrates her practice in the areas of commercial, employment, and personal injury litigation before both federal and state courts.  Wolford joined the law firm upon graduating from law school.  She received her J.D. in 1992 from the University of Notre Dame Law School and her B.A. in 1989 from Colgate University.  Throughout her legal career, Wolford has been actively involved in the Rochester legal community, including serving as President of the Foundation of the Monroe County Bar from 2010 to 2012 and as President of the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys from 2003 to 2004.

Cabinet Room

4:53 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  I appreciate all of you coming in just for a second.  We have gathered here all the top people in not just our military but our entire national security operation.  And I want to start off by thanking all the people sitting around this table and in this room for the extraordinary service that they’ve rendered this country. 

And I want to also remind everybody that we have folks active in theater right now -- men and women in uniform -- who are making heroic sacrifices on behalf of our security.  And our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families because they are dealing with a whole lot to make sure that we are safe.

We have focused this conversation, though, on something that is at the core of our effectiveness as a military.  I told all these people that one of the great honors of my life is serving as Commander-in-Chief to what I consider to be the best military in the history of the world.  And I am in awe of the work that the vast majority of our men and women in uniform do. 

But the reason we are so good is not because of the fancy equipment.  It’s not because of our incredible weapon systems and technology.  It’s because of our people.  And the capacity for our men and women in uniform to work as a team, a disciplined unit looking out for each other in the most severe of circumstances, is premised, as Ray Odierno said, on trust.  It comes down to do people trust each other and do they understand that they’re all part of a single system that has to operate under whatever circumstances effectively.

The issue of sexual assault in our armed forces undermines that trust.  So not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful, but it also is going to make and has made the military less effective than it can be.  And as such, it is dangerous to our national security.  So this is not a sideshow.  This is not sort of a second-order problem that we’re experiencing.  This goes to the heart and the core of who we are and how effective we’re going to be.

Now, the good news is I am absolutely confident that everybody in this room and our leadership, starting with Chuck Hagel and Marty Dempsey and the Joint Chiefs, as well as our top enlisted men and women, they care about this.  And they’re angry about it.  And I heard directly from all of them that they’re ashamed by some of what’s happened.

But it’s not fixed yet, and that’s clear.  So even though I think there’s a level of concern and interest that is appropriate, we haven’t actually been able to ensure that our men and women in uniform are not experiencing this, and if they do experience it, that there’s serious accountability.

So what I’ve done is I’ve asked Secretary of Defense Hagel and Marty Dempsey to help lead a process to continue to get at this.  That starts with accountability, and that means at every level.  And that includes accountability not just for enforcing the law, but also training our personnel effectively, putting our best people on this challenge.

I think Secretary of the Army McHugh made a very good point, which is I’m not sure we’ve incentivized some of our top people to understand this is as core to our mission as anything else.  And we’ve got to reward them, not think of this as a sideline for anything else that they do, but incentivize ambitious folks in the ranks to make sure that they understand this is important.  So that’s part of accountability. 

Empowering victims.  We’ve got to create an environment in which victims feel that they’re comfortable coming forward and they know people have their backs, and that they will work through this process in a way that keeps the focus on justice and make right what’s been wrong as opposed to suddenly they’re on trial, it may weaken their position, it make compromise their ability to advance.  That’s going to be important.  They’ve got to know that they should have no fear of retaliation, no fear of stigma, no damage to their careers, and certainly no protection for criminals. 

Third thing is justice for the victims.  When victims do come forward, they deserve justice.  Perpetrators have to experience consequences.  And I’m pleased that Secretary Hagel has proposed reforms that would restrict the ability of commanders to overturn convictions after trial.  Those reforms have my full support. 

There are a range of ideas that are being proposed on Capitol Hill, and I know that Chuck and Marty are both engaged with those members of Congress.  But what I’ve said to them is I want to leave no stone unturned and I want us to explore every good idea that’s out there in order to fix this problem.  And I’m pleased to say that Secretary Hagel is not only consulting with Congress but is also looking at militaries around the world -- the Canadians or the Israelis or others -- that may have design systems that get at this to see if there are any lessons learned in terms of best practices. 

And Vice President Biden, who has been a champion for issues -- around issues of domestic violence for 20 years or more, he made an important point, which is that we’ve got to make sure that advocates and professionals who are in the civilian system and have been working on this problem for a long time, that we’re listening to them as well; that we don’t assume that the military has to completely recreate the wheel.  And I think that’s a very important point.

So I want to thank all the work that Congress is doing, especially our friends in the Senate.  All of us here are committed to working with them.

The last point I’m going to make, and that is that there is no silver bullet to solving this problem.  This is going to require a sustained effort over a long period of time.  And that’s why I’m very pleased to know that Secretary Hagel is going to be having weekly meetings on this.  And I want us to make sure that we’ve got effective metrics and feedback loops, so that we are continually evaluating how well we’re doing.

And one point that was made around the table is that a sign that we’re actually getting at this problem may initially be increased reporting rather than less reporting.  We may see more reporting of incidents, in part because even outside of our military, traditionally, these problems of sexual assault are vastly underreported.  And so over the next several months and years, if I start seeing data that shows that in fact we are seeing more reports, that may actually indicate to me that people are becoming more confident about moving forward.

On the other hand, I then want those trend lines to start going down because that indicates that we’re also starting to fix the problem and we’ve highlighted it, and people who are engaged in despicable behavior, they get fully punished for it.

So, again, I want to emphasize -- everybody in this room has heard from me directly.  They’ve heard from Secretary Hagel, and they’ve heard from Marty Dempsey.  They all understand this is a priority and we will not stop until we’ve seen this scourge, from what is the greatest military in the world, eliminated. 

Thank you very much, everybody.

END
5:03 P.M. EDT

The recent Executive Order Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum Open Data Policy - Managing Data as an Asset have brought much attention to efforts to promote the use of data by the US Federal Government. In fact, highlights of the US Federal Open Data Project are already impressive. Many agencies already provide their data in machine-readable formats through APIs, or at least downloadable datasets. However, I personally measure "highlights" in terms of the use of the data (not by the number of datasets accessible). And, many organizations already put this data to good uses in health, energy, education, safety and finance. My recent blog, Open Data Isn't Just For Governments Anymore, highlighted several examples of companies built on open data. Think Symcat, Healthgrades, oPower, or even Zillow which has been using public data for a while now. How many of you have "zillowed" your house, your neighbor's house or even a colleague's house? Be honest. I have.

The new machine-readability by default and the directive on how to implement it reinforces and extends previous open data mandates with distinctly new implications for data initiatives. Here are some thoughts on the new policies:

An eye to future use is right - but use of what and by whom?

Today, the President called on Congress to support and fully fund the Administration’s budget request to improve security of our embassies around the world.  In addition, the President called on Congress to support the full implementation of the recommendations of the Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB), including recommendations associated with additional support, authorities, and resources for the State Department.  Finally, the President called on Congress to support our efforts to enhance our Marine Security Guard detachments around the world as a part of our effort to better secure high-risk posts.

Every day, thousands of American men and women are serving our nation overseas – military service members, diplomats, development workers and others. They accept the risks that come with service because they understand that they are making vital contributions to our national interests and national security.  We owe it to all of them to do everything in our power to protect our personnel serving overseas.

In the wake of the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in September 2012, the Department of State reviewed its global security posture and took steps necessary to address security vulnerabilities, including submitting a request to reallocate $1.4 billion in FY 2013 resources to begin work this year that was approved by the Congress.

In addition to the $1.4 billion requested in FY 2013, the FY 2014 budget request provides over $4 billion for the Department of State’s embassy security programs, fully supporting this critical priority.  As part of this effort, the budget includes $2.2 billion to support increased embassy security construction recommend by the Benghazi Accountability Review Board (ARB).

The budget fully supports the resources necessary to address all recommendations made by the Benghazi ARB including increased embassy security construction, expanded Marine Security Guard detachments at US diplomatic facilities, increased security training, and support for a 5% increase in diplomatic security staff.

In addition to resources, the Department of State needs authority to address immediate security concerns.  The Department should have authority to transfer resources that are necessary to provide secure facilities for our personnel overseas.  For instance, in doing so, it should have the authority to draw from other State Department operating accounts.

The President will continue to do everything in his power to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again.  But as the President said, we can’t do this alone and the President will continue to urge members of Congress to work together on behalf of the American people.

¹FY 13 Enacted include the Department of State’s $1.4 billion for embassy security in the wake of the September 11, 2012 Benghazi Attacks

NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:

Robert James Grey, Jr., of Virginia, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation for a term expiring July 13, 2014.  (Reappointment)

Richard T. Metsger, of Oregon, to be a Member of the National Credit Union Administration Board for a term expiring August 2, 2017, vice Gigi Hyland, resigned.

Daniel R. Russel, of New York, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (East Asian and Pacific Affairs), vice Kurt M. Campbell, resigned.

I am pleased that today, by a unanimous vote, the Senate confirmed Ernest Moniz as our next Energy Secretary. Dr. Moniz is a world-class scientist with expertise in a range of energy sources and a leader with a proven record of bringing prominent thinkers and innovators together to advance new energy solutions. He also shares my conviction that the United States must lead the world in developing more sustainable sources of energy that create new jobs and new industries, and in responding to the threat of global climate change. I am thrilled that Ernie is joining my team, and I look forward to his counsel on these issues as my Administration continues to increase our nation’s energy security, strengthen our nuclear security, develop the next-generation of clean energy technologies, and compete for the jobs of the 21^st century.

Today, the Wireline Bureau is seeking comment on a number of issues relating to broadband funding for smaller rural carriers, known as rate-of-return carriers.

One of the problematic results of the Commission’s old Universal Service System was what we called the rural-rural divide: because the system failed to target support where it was needed and provided little accountability, some rural communities received world-leading broadband, while others, often right next door, were left behind.  In part, this problem arose because of the different systems governing smaller, rate-of-return carriers, and larger companies, known as price cap carriers.

About two-thirds of all universal service support for landline service went to rate-of-return carriers, although they serve about 20-30% of the expensive rural areas where no other provider is offering voice and broadband, the areas where support is most likely needed.  In many cases, disparities arose because these smaller carriers serve some of the very hardest areas to reach or because they have been aggressively extending broadband where it wouldn’t otherwise reach.  But to a significant extent, the disparity simply had to do with regulatory distinctions, or arose because the old rules lacked safeguards or accountability. 

In order to help ensure all Americans get access to broadband while increasing efficiency and accountability -- no matter what kind of company serves an area -- we overhauled universal service and created the Connect America Fund.  These reforms required making support for all types of carriers more efficient and accountable. 

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