Baseline Issue March 2009

FEATURES

Beyond Green: Building An Energy-efficient IT Infrastructure
As the nation?s IT infrastructures continue to gobble up energy at an alarming rate, a growing number of companies are beginning to take action. Faced with rising power costs and societal pressure to deal with environmental challenges, these organizations are turning to energy monitoring and measurement tools, virtualization and consolidation, and asset and life cycle management. Some are even redesigning their data centers and training their employees in power management.

Analyze This
Faced with a challenging year, many insurance companies are deploying information technology to improve customer service and business processes, manage risk, reduce costs and increase agility. The tools? Business intelligence and analytics, enterprise risk management and virtualization.

Web 2.0 Building Blocks
Web 2.0 technologies can speed, simplify and reduce the cost of software development, but to take full advantage of the benefits provided by Web services, companies must understand the new principles of development engagement. Learn how MasterCard established its four guiding principles for application development that involves Web services.

Due Diligence
Organizations today must deal with corporate governance, information security and privacy, and identity theft. The key drivers are an ever-growing number of laws and regulations around the world, the increasing use of outsourcing, the growing value of knowledge-based assets, the introduction of new and faster technologies, and the pressure to remain competitive in a tough economy.


GAMEPLAN

The Next IT Frontier
Better decision making is one of the last?and most significant?frontiers in business performance management today.

The First 100 Days on the Job
Here are four key things a CIO should do?and avoid?during the first 100 days on the job.

Developing a Values-Driven Culture
A company?s value system supports both business strategies and personal development.


JOB SITE

Transforming IT
Elavon?s integrated approach to IT management has facilitated business change, regulatory compliance and cost control.

Keeping Track in a Hyper-paced World
A project management system helps digital agency imc2 track staff resources, estimate budgets and deliver exceptional work.


BASELINE 500

Avnet Plugs into Wireless
This distributor uses mobile and wireless technologies to provide superior service to customers and real-time information to staff.


TECHKNOW

Deploying In-building Wireless Coverage
To function properly, wireless applications require proper antenna placement and access point design.


WORKBOOK

Building an Agile Organization
Business agility and strategic exploration are essential to establishing and sustaining a company?s competitive position.


OUT OF SCOPE

A mix of stories about programmers and caffeine, people who e-mail in their sleep and a dream job that crashes a Web site.


OPINION

Starting Point
Eileen Feretic: Missed Opportunities
Why don?t senior executives think IT contributes to innovation?

Tech Track
Michael Vizard: A Day of IT Reckoning
We should rethink our approach to enterprise computing.