70% of IT organizations are still viewed as cost centers, not value centers. That must change. Managing IT as an Investment shows IT leaders exactly how to change it. Respected CIO Ken Moskowitz and top IT consultant Harris Kern offer a complete action plan for managing technology as a strategic asset, partnering with the business, building a culture based on shared values, nurturing individuals to new levels of productivity and satisfaction, creating exceptional value - and being recognized for it throughout an organization.

Managing It As an Investment: Partnering for Success

Business & Money

Kern, Harris

Moskowitz, Ken

Management & Leadership

PRENTICE/HALL

It Organization: Building a Worldclass Infrastructure

It is painfully clear that few companies are achieving their goals for client/server reliability, availability, and serviceability. It is becoming equally clear that the problems are not technical, but organizational. How does one structure an IT organization that can achieve today's business goals using today's tools and architectures? This book takes on the challenge, and offers realistic, specific answers based on the experiences of more than 40 leading companies. You'll learn exactly what not to do, which lessons to draw lessons from the success of the traditional data center, and most importantly, how to design for the 21st century paradigm of "any data, anywhere, anytime." Learn what it really means to treat your network like you treat your data center; to organize your enterprise around mission-critical support instead of specific technologies; to maintain both centralized control and decentralized operations; to establish standards without imposing rigidity, and to bring discipline without bureaucracy. The book is concise, but the diagnoses are specific -- and so are the solutions.

Galup, Stuart

Nemiro, Guy

Biography & History

Building Professional Services is the first comprehensive guide to creating professional services organizations, managing them to maturity, and delivering both quality services and superior margins. It covers strategy, tactics, and operations; identifies key success factors; and offers expert guidance on professional services in "product-centric" companies. Coverage includes planning, metrics, solutions development, organization, project delivery, infrastructure, and more.

Building Professional Services: The Sirens' Song

Computers & Technology

Lah, Thomas E.

Peterson, Mitch

O'Connor, Steve

Business Technology

"...describes in practical terms one of the most important functions of an IT infrastructure: that of deploying a well-designed development system into a well-running production system." --Kenneth Moskowitz, CIO, Thomson Financial "The Production Acceptance assessment worksheets are extremely valuable in evaluating the quality of an IT infrastructure..." --Brian Shield, EVP, CIO, The Weather Channel "The Ten Commandments for establishing an ideal IT environment. Should be followed religiously." -- Joe Feiu, VP, NeoDimensions "...presents the critical technical aspects of world-class infrastructure in a very business-like manner." -- Mark Egan, CIO, Symantec Corporation "Hundreds of books describe how to design and develop world-class applications, but few ever describe how to successfully deploy these systems. Until now." -- Rachel Pong, COO, Exonomy Limited, A subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank "...clearly addresses how to effectively deploy and support world-class applications." --Bill Parker, CIO, Agway The best enterprise IT organizations have discovered the secret to high-performance infrastructure management: build a true Production Services function and realistic Production Acceptance processes. By doing so, they've achieved outstanding reliability, availability, and serviceability... transforming themselves from overpriced support centers into world-class service providers. IT Production Services shows you how to do it, too. Drawing on data compiled from 200+ enterprise IT assessments, it's your start-to-finish guide for effective IT infrastructure management in business-critical environments. 
<ul>
<li>Presents "Ten Commandments" for designing cost-effective, efficient IT organizations</li>
<li>Covers all three key ingredients: people, processes, and technology</li>
<li>Shows why transitioning systems straight from development to operations is a recipe for failure</li>
<li>Includes case studies from the authors’ experience consulting with Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies </li>
<li>Answers today's most frequently asked questions about managing IT infrastructure</li>
<li>Shows how to infuse accountability throughout your IT organization</li>
</ul>
 Endorsed by CIOs and senior executives at Symantec, Thomson Financial, The Weather Channel, Agway, and many other leading firms Whether you're a CxO, IT director, manager, or architect, IT Production Services will help you optimize your IT organization -- hands-on.

IT Production Services

Schiesser, Richard

Muniz, Mayra

A guide to implementing Client/Server technologies that covers the people, the processes and the technologies that are critical to making the transition.

Building the New Enterprise: People Processes and Technologies

Johnson, Randy

Horgan, Denis

Pearson

A detailed and comprehensive account of how Sun Microsystems, Inc. actually developed and implemented its rightsizing strategy. This book covers the key infrastructures, the rightsizing tools and management tools required to support UNIX mission-critical applications, and the training/resource issues involved in transitioning from the mainframe to a heterogenous client/server distributed environment.

Rightsizing the New Enterprise: The Proof, Not the Hype

For CEOs, CIOs, VPs of IT, and all levels of IT management and technical staff. Based on the authors' real-life experiences implementing client-server production environments over the past six years, this book gives the "how to" information needed to implement a heterogeneous client-server infrastructure, and deals with the "people issues" of getting everyone to work together.

Managing the New Enterprise: The Proof, Not the Hype

KENNEDY, William

Law, Andrew

Hawkins, Michael

Tackles the information technology questions facing business professionals today, and suggests some solutions. Offers advice on evaluating the cost of networking and planning networking projects. Topics include Internet connectivity, network management and access, security, remote access, and servers and desktop systems. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Networking the New Enterprise: The Proof, Not the Hype

Lyke, Howie

Cappel, Mark

Key Benefit:Production acceptance is where the rubber meets the road: where internal customers, It decision-makers, and support professionals must work together to make sure their mission-critical software is truly ready for prime time. In this book, leading consultant Gary Walker presents systematic, proven methods and guidelines for ensuring that production acceptance works - and that the resulting software delivers the high levels of reliability, availability, and serviceability it promises.Key Topics:Drawing upon his extensive experience working with Fortune 500 clients, Walker presents the most detailed guide to production acceptance available in any book on the market today. Walker covers every step of the process, and all three key elements: technology, people, and process. Walker views production acceptance in the broadest sense, going far beyond quality assurance to include ongoing communications between developers, support professionals, and users. He presents clear definitions of roles and responsibilities, along with written checklists that document every participant's requirements and expectations. It Production Acceptance demonstrates how to develop operations processes that utilize a streamlined set of standards, are user friendly, and sustain high availability. It includes a detailed infrastructure planning workbook, as well as coverage of each key production control function, based on a proven 3-tier support model.Market:For all It executives, senior-level internal customers, and It project team leaders and members, and help desk/support professionals involved with production acceptance.

It Production Services (Harris Kern's Enterprise Computing Institute Series)

Discipline: Six Steps to Unleashing Your Hidden Potential

This book describes how to acquire the most important ingredient in one's lifetime: Discipline. With it, you can achieve everything; without it, you will struggle to exist. Those who do will have no limitations in accomplishing their wildest aspirations. Discipline is unique because it is simple, short, and straightforward. It shows you how to block life's unexpected obstacles by establishing rules and guidelines and, more importantly, adhering to them. It shows you how to complete your goals by setting priorities. And it shows you how to prepare for battle everyday, to pick yourself up mentally, to never become complacent, thus illustrating how to always remain focused no matter what the circumstances.The book describes Harris Kern's interpretation of Discipline, what it meant to him, and what it can mean to your own future. It also challenges the common notion that success can be obtained by simply applying a formula, without having to work hard.

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

1st Book Library

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