CIOs must take a different approach than they have in the past. There's a growing need to build coalitions, persuade peers and collaborate with other executives.

As enterprises continue to expand globally, the significance of diversity hiring and promoting practices cannot be undervalued. Businesses that fail to grasp this will find themselves at a significant competitive disadvantage as they attempt to win over new international markets. With this in mind, DiversityInc has come out with its annual "Top 50 Companies for Diversity" list. More than 890 organizations took part in the survey, from which DiversityInc compiled its rankings. At the top of the list is Sodexo, the high-profile provider of integrated food and facilities management services. However, as an exclusive for Baseline, DiversityInc has also produced the following list of the top 10 technology companies for diverse hiring and leadership representation practices. (Important note: DiversityInc uses the term "black" in its reporting rather than "African American" because of the wealth of professionals from international nations who benefit from the included companies' diversity initiatives.)

Enabling geographically dispersed employees and partners to view the same document at the same time facilitates discussions, saves time and eliminates confusion.

Companies often talk a good game when it comes to clarifying and prioritizing IT's role with the business side of the house, but many organizations are falling short on actually delivering, according to the "2013 Cisco Global IT Impact Survey." Sure, business executives are happy to meet with IT leaders, but then they turn around and launch major apps without telling IT, or they bring the technology organization into the process far too late, survey findings reveal. The report also sheds light on the need for tech professionals to bring themselves up to speed on emerging trends. Despite the fact that nearly half of the survey respondents appreciate prospects of new business opportunities with the "Internet of Things," many confess that they don't have a firm grasp of what this term actually means. And while there are plans to deploy software defined networking (SDN) solutions this year, such deployments are pretty much nonexistent at the moment. As a bonus, you may find it interesting to learn how technology workers believe their role is viewed by business executives. An estimated 1,300 IT employees in 13 countries took part in the research.

Over the last few years, big data has emerged on enterprise radar screens. Everyone from President Obama to major corporations and government agencies are looking for ways to put the concept to work effectively. But somewhere between the buzz and achieving real-world results is the somewhat overwhelming task of transforming countless bits and bytes into actionable information. Humans now produce upward of 1,800 exabytes of data annually, and that figure is accelerating. This massive stream of unstructured data, along with conventional databases, presents enormous and mounting challenges for business and IT executives. A new MeriTalk report sponsored by NetApp, "Big Data, Big Brains," delves into this topic and offers a variety of insights and opinions from visionary big data leaders. Together, they discuss how government and private sector organizations can confront emerging big data challenges and opportunities. Here are 10 notable ideas that could help your organization frame an effective big data strategy.

Crisis management will get you through the initial impact of a disaster, but you need a comprehensive business continuity program to sustain you beyond 48 hours.

The line between marketing and IT continues to blur, according to a recent survey from Ifbyphone, which specializes in voice-based marketing automation solutions. Credit the very top of the corporate chain for this development: CEOs are asking for "more, more, more" when it comes to data that accurately captures marketing's impact on business. Given this, marketing departments are hiring more full-time tech positions, spurring the emergence of what's called a "growth hacker": a professional who brings to the table marketing, product and tech experience and skills. "This reflects the innovation that is taking place in marketing measurement and the rapid pace of evolving measurement strategies," says Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone. "It's clear that growth hackers are championing innovative ways to measure marketing. [As a result], marketing leaders can take credit directly for revenue and new customers, and confidently answer the CEO's tough ROI questions." More than 400 marketing executives took part in the research.

An effective executive risk council can help reduce the impact of a potentially devastating cyber-attack, and maintain that ever-important bond of trust.

Here's a not-so-well-kept secret about bosses that every worker should know: They suffer from the same human failings that everyone else does. Sometimes, these flaws emerge because there is so much about department success or failure that they can't control, and they feel helpless. At other times, there are inner impulses that lead them away from core qualities that respected leaders exhibit. Either way, these traits will drag down your team's performance. The book, HeadTrash: Cleaning Out the Junk that Stands Between You and Success (Emerald Book Company/Available in May), examines the following six "sins" of managers—specifically, how bosses convey them to the staff and the resulting damage they cause. Every action triggers a reaction, after all. In this case, co-authors Tish Squillaro and Tim Thomas illustrate how these sins hurt employee performance, which may eventually derail the career of the boss. Squillaro is an executive coach and CEO of Candor Consulting. Thomas is a leadership coach and founding partner at Makarios Consulting.

Are you and your tech team members out of sync? Perhaps it's the classic "right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" trap. Or maybe a colleague or two has an agenda that conflicts with the greater mission of the group or your enterprise. Unfortunately, these issues surface all the time at companies. However, a section of the book 9 Powerful Practices of Really Great Teams (Career Press/available now) provides an in-depth perspective on how teams can incorporate norms that set best-practices guidelines and policies to ensure that all individual team members are working for the good of the whole. Authors Stephen Kohn and Vincent O'Connell indicate that team successes do not require an iron-fist approach, and that each norm is adaptable to changing circumstances and business conditions. But they do stress that teams must establish a foundation of working processes and protocols to fuel success. Kohn is president of Work and People Solutions, specializing in executive coaching, management, training and organizational development. O'Connell is the Asia regional director for the Globecon Institute, which also focuses on training and performance management.

If you had the chance to pick the brain of the executive chairman of Google, you'd leap at the opportunity, wouldn't you? What about a consultant who's worked with leaders from organizations such as Ernst & Young, DuPont and BMW USA? Or a Harvard Business School professor who has designed a company evaluation tool that has been praised by business giants such as Mobil and Sears? Because our goal is to help you in your career, we're happy to get you "in the room" with these and other business leaders—in a figurative sense, of course—with this spring books preview. This collection covers a vast range of topics and skills that will help you step up your game in terms of day-to-day job performance and overall career accomplishments and satisfaction. You can discover more about the tech innovations that are bringing the world closer together, and how a sense of purpose can eliminate "bad karma" in the office. You can also find out how to improve your professional network, lead IT teams more effectively, increase project focus and remove what one author refers to as "headtrash." (Publication dates are subject to change, so please check the site links we've provided for every book.)

The vast majority of IT administrators are so stressed that they are facing personal consequences with respect to health issues and other woes, according to a recent survey from GFI Software. And clueless and sometimes outrageous behavior on the part of users is contributing to the problem. On the bright side, the number of IT admins who are considering leaving their job due to workplace stress has declined to 57 percent, compared to 67 percent last year. Still, that's a lot of talented tech workers who are on the fence about whether to stick around. As for leading stress contributors outside of user-caused issues, survey participants cite a lack of staffing (24 percent) and tight deadlines (20 percent). "The increasing importance of IT in the workplace and the 24/7 availability paradigm obviously create a stressful atmosphere for many IT administrators," says Phil Bousfield, general manager of IT operations at GFI Software. "Companies are more reliant than ever on IT for innovation, uptime and speed of deployment. Thus, IT staff members are under extreme pressure to deliver for the benefit of the whole business." More than 200 U.S. IT administrators took part in the research.

 To deal with latency and performance issues, SafeAuto deployed a Wide Area Application Service for WAN optimization. It now has effectively zero latency.

A new study reveals that innovative business models depend on a strong foundation of IT monitoring.

Businesses and government agencies are increasingly turning to telework to create a more flexible and employee-friendly work environment.