L’amélioration de l’expérience client et la simplification du parcours client au cœur des enjeux des entreprises d’ici fin 2016

A lire sur: http://www.relationclient-infos.com/info_article/m/9541/lamelioration-de-lexperience-client-et-la-simplification-du-parcours-client-au-c%C2%9Cur-des-enjeux-des-entreprises-dici-fin-2016.html

10/04/2014 
La société d'étude et spécialisée dans l’analyse des marchés des technologies du numérique et des stratégies de modernisation des entreprises et administrations, MARKESS, publie sa nouvelle étude multi-clients intitulée : « Stratégies clients digitales et CRM face aux enjeux des médias sociaux : approches, solutions et ROI ».

Pour plus d’un décideur sur deux interrogés par MARKESS dans son étude, l’amélioration de l’expérience client et la simplification du parcours client seront au cœur des enjeux prioritaires de leur entreprise d’ici fin 2016. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, ces décideurs mettent en avant des leviers étroitement liés à une meilleure connaissance de leurs clients qu’il s’agisse d’en avoir une vue à 360°, Saint Graal dont la quête est toujours d’actualité, de mieux comprendre leur parcours d’un canal à l’autre, de gérer de façon unifiée les interactions clients, et de mieux intégrer la dimension sociale dans leurs actions.

D’ici 2016, des actions renforcées et ciblées en matière d'interactions clients digitales
En matière plus spécifiquement d'interactions clients digitales, près de 50 % des 150 décideurs interrogés par MARKESS porteront leurs efforts d'ici 2016 sur deux grands domaines. La mobilité et surtout sur les actions innovantes exploitant les usages spécifiques qui peuvent être développés sur des smartphones et tablettes numériques, et qui changent les approches de vente et de relation avec les clients : applications mobiles, QR code ou tag 2D, géolocalisation, percée du sans contact via des technologies de type NFC... Ces actions concernent non seulement les clients mais aussi les acteurs de la vente qu’il s’agisse de commerciaux nomades ou de vendeurs en magasin.

De même, l’emphase devrait être mise sur l’amélioration des fonctionnalités et des services accessibles via ces terminaux pour une meilleure expérience client. Dans cette optique, le développement de sites web adaptifs (« Responsive Web Design ») devrait s’accélérer.

L’étude de MARKESS conforte par ailleurs l’idée que l’e-mailing n’est pas mort mais change de modèle. Les pratiques évoluent et s’orientent vers plus de contextualisation et de personnalisation des messages ainsi qu’un ciblage plus précis. Les campagnes s’automatisent, intègrent une dimension interactive, favorisent des contenus pertinents et s’adaptent à tous les médias.

Parmi les autres actions prioritaires mises en avant par les décideurs interrogés, des tendances fortes devraient marquer les deux prochaines années.
Le bien-fondé de l’intégration de la dimension vocale dans le parcours digital des clients avec des solutions de click-to-call et de web-call-back. C’est aussi la volonté de replacer de l’interactivité humaine dans les relations digitales avec, par exemple, le recours à du chat dans les sites web.

La différenciation par le contenu afin d’optimiser le référencement et la visibilité sur les moteurs de recherche via des techniques de SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ou SEM (Search Engine Marketing).

La montée en puissance des échanges sociaux : au-delà des médias sociaux du grand public, les décideurs interrogés portent de plus en plus leur attention sur les communautés de marque et les communautés professionnelles. De nouvelles pratiques se développent aussi avec le crowdsourcing.

« Ces données montrent que les décideurs adoptent des stratégies différenciées et pointues en matière de relation client et de marketing digital, orientées vers la mobilité, la réactivité et le temps réel, l’interactivité sociale sous toutes ses formes, soutenues par une pertinence accrue des contenus » souligne Emmanuelle Olivié-Paul, Directrice Associée de MARKESS.

Une faible intégration des médias sociaux aux solutions en place
Sur le volet des communautés et médias sociaux, l’étude montre qu’ils sont encore peu intégrés aux solutions en place dans les entreprises. En effet, début 2014, sur l’échantillon de 150 décideurs interrogés, seuls 29 % indiquent que leur entreprise a intégré les communautés et les médias sociaux qu’elle a investis à son ou ses site(s) web, 19 % aux outils de CRM et 17 % aux outils et solutions utilisés par les centres de contacts ! La permanence de silos entre communautés gérées et avec les autres outils de connaissance client de l’entreprise multiplie les coûts de gestion associés. Cette faible intégration crée par ailleurs des points de rupture et d’insatisfaction préjudiciables aux bénéfices attendus.

Les entreprises de ces décideurs font face à des enjeux de diverses natures dans leur processus d'intégration des communautés et médias sociaux à leurs logiciels et solutions en place. Par ordre décroissant et pour plus de 30 % des décideurs interrogés (données plus détaillées dans l’étude), ils portent sur l’identification des clients (les identifiants sont le plus souvent anonymes ou reposent sur des pseudonymes), la multiplication des communautés et médias sociaux, l’historisation des données et des échanges, ou encore le passage du canal social aux autres canaux d'interactions (e-mail, chat...).

Des besoins spécifiques en solutions
En regard des enjeux évoqués, les décideurs interviewés privilégient certains outils et solutions applicatives. Bien sûr, suivant la maturité de leur entreprise, les projets déjà conduits, leurs contextes métier et sectoriel…, les besoins sont différents. Pour plus de 25 % d’entre eux, les besoins portent sur des solutions de gestion des interactions cross-canal, de qualité des données clients, de gestion des réseaux sociaux, de campagnes marketing, d’analyse de données web (« web analytics ») et de gestion des interactions sociales via le CRM.

In fine, il faut garder en tête que toutes ces actions et solutions tendent vers un seul et même objectif client : l’amélioration de son expérience et la simplification de son parcours. L’étude aborde plus dans le détail ces aspects et les remet en perspective des stratégies digitales et CRM adoptées, face notamment à l’essor des interactions sociales. Pour aller plus loin, l’analyse des réponses à plus d’une trentaine de questions permet d’identifier des approches et tendances clés par typologie d’entreprise. Les entretiens conduits en parallèle auprès d’une soixantaine de prestataires complètent ces données et permettent de mieux appréhender et de positionner les acteurs qui accompagnent les entreprises dans ces projets.

9 Ways to Be as Productive as a Navy SEAL

A lire sur:  http://www.inc.com/brent-gleeson/9-ways-to-be-as-productive-as-a-navy-seal.html

BY BRENT GLEESON

The best teams in the world practice specific behaviors to ensure maximum efficiency.

When performing capture-or-kill missions in Iraq, we often used Humvees as insert platforms. It didn't take long to see the difficulty of getting out of a Humvee and over a six-foot wall while wearing nearly 70 pounds of gear. It was taking us too long to get into the yard and breach the target. So we worked together to improve the existing strategy. We removed the doors, welded running boards along the side to stand on, and built ladders out of two-by-fours. By getting creative and working together, we cut our target entry time in half.

The elite nature of Navy SEAL culture is in large part driven by the creativity and organizational capabilities of its team members. Every single team member practiceshabits that enforce productivity. The same principles apply to startups, medium-size businesses, and global corporations. As an entrepreneur, I have diligently attempted to replicate this type of culture in my own organizations.

Here are nine ways that team leaders, and members, can ensure high productivity. 

1. Get the right team members. Without self-discipline and accountability, no process will work. First and foremost, your team members must embrace the organization's values. You must recruit, train, and promote people on the basis of those values.

2. Clearly define roles. Once you have the right team, you need to make sure each person is sitting in the right seat, by clearly defining each person’s role and leaving some room for evolution. When people know exactly what is expected of them and how they will be judged, your team's efficiency and morale will improve.   

3. Eliminate overlap. Inefficiencies are created when resources aren't allocated properly and overlap exists between internal teams. If you're overstaffed or have poorly defined roles creating these inefficiencies, do something about it.

4. Demand transparent communication. Move. Shoot. Communicate. That’s how we break down the essential capabilities of a great SEAL operator. Communication is the most important element. The culture has to promote honesty and the importance of constructive feedback between teams and individuals. One of our core values at our company is "Everyone has a voice." And believe me, everyone does! When you know you have the right people on your team, it's foolish not to want their input.

5. Always improve processes. SEALs constantly adapt their combat tactics. If you fight the same enemy long enough, it will adapt to your strategies. So you must adapt as well. Owing to growth, economic shifts, or industry changes, every company has to evolve. To do this well, the team must regularly audit its systems and identify what needs improving. 

6. Fill the gaps. When an efficient team has a rhythm for auditing the way it does things, gaps will be revealed. If this occurs, make the necessary changes quickly. Doing so will have an immediate positive impact. 

7. Remove obstacles. When we found a more efficient way to get out of the Humvee, it was a team of enlisted operators that provided the concepts and execution for improving our efficiency. In the corporate world, removing obstacles usually costs money, and that means approvals from above are needed. Productive team members at ground level are usually in the best position to understand what's not working. Leadership has to trust and empower them to make change.

8. Problem-solve creatively. Imagination played a key role in improving the operational capabilities in SEAL teams over the years. At our company, working in an industry that is constantly changing has forced us to be always evaluating and changing the ways we provide our services to clients. This requires organizational restructuring, recruiting new talent, and constant training. We get the team involved, get creative, and adapt.

9. Embrace adaptability. We often fail to change soon enough to avoid problems. One of my favorite quotes is "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." And I can assure you that is true. You can do all of the planning you want, but having the capability to truly be dynamic and flexible is what sets apart the best organizations. 

Take the time now to ensure that your company is set up for success.

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES

LAST UPDATED: APR 16, 2014

Neuf méthodes des forces spéciales de la marine américaine appliquées en entreprise

A lire sur: http://www.usinenouvelle.com/article/neuf-methodes-des-forces-speciales-de-la-marine-americaine-appliquees-en-entreprise.N256321#xtor=EPR-169

Par Julien Bonnet - Publié le 17 avril 2014, à 13h59

 

© US Navy - Wikimedia commons

VU SUR LE WEB  Dans un article publié par le magazine américain "Inc.", le créateur de start-up et vétéran des Navy Seals, Brent Gleeson, donne 9 bonnes pratiques pour améliorer la productivité en entreprises, inspirées de son passage dans les forces spéciales américaines.

Que vous soyez une start-up, une entreprise de taille moyenne ou un grand groupe, Brent Gleeson, vétéran des forces spéciales américaines, a quelques conseils à vous donner pour améliorer votre productivité.

Après cinq ans passés au sein des célèbres Navy Seals, cet entrepreneur a créé sa société de marketing en ligne et s'inspire, pour mener ses équipes, des techniques d'entraînement et de l'état d'esprit des soldats d'élites américains. Voici ces neuf recommandations pour bien sélectionner et motiver ses collaborateurs :

1 - S'entourer des bonnes personnes, en insistant sur l'auto-discipline et le partage des valeurs de l'entreprise.

2 - Définir clairement les rôles de chacun. Si un collaborateur sait ce qu'on attend de lui et la façon dont il sera évalué, il gagnera en efficacité et en bien-être dans sa vie professionnelle.

3 - Eviter les doublons. Une mauvaise attribution des ressouces de l'entreprise nuit à son activité.

4 - Promouvoir une communication transparente. Vos collaborateurs, bien choisis, ont leur mot à dire, laissez-les s'exprimer.

5 - Miser sur l'amélioration continue. Dans les combats militaires, l'ennemi s'adapte à votre stratégie. Il en va de même pour vos concurrents. Il faut constamment se remettre en question pour identifier les principaux points à améliorer.

6 - Réagir rapidement face à un problème. En procédant régulièrement à des évaluations sur le processus de production, vous pouvez identifier les points qui posent problème et ainsi y répondre en temps voulu.

7 - Se débarrasser des obstacles. Le management doit écouter les personnes directement confrontées aux problèmes, les équipes de production par exemple, pour les résoudre de manière efficace.

8 - Faire preuve de créativité. Résoudre les problèmes par l'inventivité en s'entourant de nouveaux talents et en n'hésitant pas à bouleverser son organisation.

9 - Développer sa capacité d'adaptation. Il faut mettre en place une organisation flexible pour faire preuve de dynamisme face aux grands changements de contexte économique. 

A lire sur Inc. : "9 Ways to Be as Productive as a Navy SEAL"

Calculating ROI for CRM

A lire sur: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/calculating-roi-for-crm-59280

What if Jerry Maguire had used a customer relationship management (CRM) system? Let’s hop in the time machine as we go back to that infamous Tom Cruise movie. Remember how Tom—I mean Jerry—gets fired by Bob Sugar, and then both men run to their offices to secure as many clients as possible? Jerry starts his own firm with the one and only client he could save. After many months of “help me, help you,” his business finally gets its legs. Would CRM have made a difference?

As the late, great, Dicky Fox said in the movie, “The key to this business is personal relationships.” Yes, CRM is good at tracking vast amounts of contacts and everyone’s interaction with them. And yes, CRM can help a good sales person like Jerry turn what would normally be “cold and corporate” into “warm and personal.” But what’s the business case behind warm and personal? Would CRM have been a wise purchase for Jerry’s old employer or for Jerry in his new startup? How can one measure the return on investment (ROI) from the purchase of a CRM system?

First, Consider the Total Costs

The easiest place to start is in calculating the cost. Be sure to consider the following annual cost components for a new system (and current, if applicable)—fees for new licenses; maintenance fees on existing licenses; hardware purchase as well as maintenance and hosting costs; associated software costs (server operating systems, database licenses, etc.); ongoing training; IT staffing costs; and any premiums on data import, new development, and upgrades. Also include one-time costs such as setup and configuration.

Be sure to include all relevant applications. For example, if the company currently uses one application for CRM and another for email marketing, but the new CRM will replace both of these applications, then be sure to include that.

If the firm has an existing system, calculating annual expenses for the current and proposed CRM will reveal amounts that, when multiplied by 5 years to represent a system’s life, might easily reveal the better value.

Next, Investigate Potential Savings

In calculating ROI, however, we must look not only at costs but also at potential gains. Begin with process improvements around a particular task. If the new system can shave x minutes off a task and those minutes cost $y in headcount with the task repeated z times annually, then multiplying these numbers will produce an annual savings that could be realized.

Many CRM vendors tout enabling productivity improvements in the sales force of at least 30 percent. Multiply the company’s annual new sales by the number of sales reps, and this possible improvement percentage will provide an annual gain one can use, as well.

A potential upside can also be found in other areas within the firm. Identify and analyze the burning issues in the company—specifically, in marketing, sales, and customer service. Look at customer churn rates, lead-to-close time, conversion rates, and other metrics in these areas. If a new system could improve any of those key performance indicators, what would it do to the company’s bottom line?

Here’s a favorite question of mine: Could using the new CRM system result in at least one new client that we wouldn’t have closed had we not had it? How many of these new clients is it reasonable to assume? This could potentially be yet another number for the possible gain.

Beware of the Risks 

Knowledge is an asset. Call notes, emails, activities, contacts on a customer’s site. . . it may not seem like critical information until it winds up in the wrong hands. What if after Jerry’s lunch with Bob Sugar—the one during which he’s fired—he had simply logged into the company’s CRM system through his smartphone and deleted all of his customers’ information from the company’s database? He then strolled away, having already downloaded all of this information into his own database. He hits a button, and an email goes out to all of these contacts announcing his new firm. In today’s world, that scenario is very much a possibility. What’s that potential liability worth to the bottom line?

Calculating the Magic Number 

Having assembled all of this information, one can calculate the ROI percentage by subtracting the costs from the potential gain, and then dividing the result by the costs. One should also be able to calculate the payback period and a number of other investment metrics with the information gathered above, all of which will help form a solid business case for the new system or help the company decide if evaluating among several potential vendors.

About the Author 

Chad Van Derrick has led scores of successful CRM implementations for global finance and professional services firms. He is managing director of Latitude 76, an international technology consulting firm that grows clients’ revenue through predictive technologies, and has consulted to such blue-chip companies as Fidelity Investments, Cushman & Wakefield, and IBM. He is a contributing writer to Studio B and tweets at @vanderrick.

CIOs need to re-brand themselves as drivers of digital innovation, says EY's David Nichols

A lire sur: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/cios-need-to-re-brand-themselves-as-drivers-of-digital-innovation-says-eys-david-nichols/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

By Brian Taylor April 15, 2014, 7:14 PM PST

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The role of the CIO is starting to look a lot like a business strategist. TechRepublic spoke with David Nichols about EY's recent Born to be digital CIO survey. 

Big Four accounting firm and consultancy EY (known formerly as Ernst & Young) recently published the survey Born to be digital: How leading CIOs are preparing for a digital transformation (PDF).

Disruptive technologies (or digital technologies, in the lingo of the EY report) are creating new ways in which enterprises interact with customers, new definitions of the enterprise, and are changing how the IT organization has traditionally operated.

If CIOs manage the "risk" posed by the digital transformation underway, the "reward" for the proactive IT leader is to have a seat at the C-suite table. This is a strategic advisor who uses information, not data, to drive the business.

From the report:

Digital technologies -- including social media, the cloud, data analytics and mobile -- are rapidly emerging as disruptive forces for businesses across all industries, from retailers and banks through to carmakers and energy companies. They are fundamentally changing the ways in which consumers interact with these companies, while also opening up new business models at the heart of these firms.

EY Partner David Nichols, one of the subject matter experts for the Born to be digital report, said in a recent interview that CIOs need to take a multi-stage view of earning the innovative badge. CIOs are often hired for a specific role at a company and then are branded according to that role. His advice: start re-branding now in your present job so that you can be recognized as a driver of innovation in your next job.

One of my insights from our talk is that, as IT becomes more central to the enterprise, the role of the IT department becomes less inward-facing and more strategic. So to say, the chief tech guy looks less like an engineer in a support function and more like an upwardly-mobile executive.

Q&A with EY's David Nichols

David Nichols: I think "digital" is going to do one of two things. It is either going to bifurcate the way companies view and integrate technology, or it is going to create the linkages to the business and the kind of the respect that IT has always wanted, along with a better look and feel for what you actually have in the business.

We started to see, on the tail of the dot-com explosion in the 90s, functions that were traditionally performed by the IT organization started to happen, with permission, outside of IT, such as updating websites. The IT organization does not have to set up corporate websites anymore, they are not responsible for the content. That is all being done by marketing now.

"Digital" has done the same thing, where you are starting to see revenue-generating business units, completely with permission, taking ownership of technical aspects of the business. And cloud-based technology has made that possible, and that is going to continue to happen, because all the trends in surveys and the analysis that we have done, this is not going to decline, this is going to continue at a pretty good velocity.

Do we split the notion of technology and IT? In the past those two always went together, and had to be housed and performed out of one area. But now we are wondering, is that going to potentially change forever? Have we entered a new dynamic, where infrastructure is considered IT, but technology is driven by other parts of the company?

Because you can now get so much of the functionality you need from elsewhere, you are starting to come up with these notions and these concepts of hardware-centric data centers and software-centric data centers. The software centric data center completely changes the function of the IT organization, because before your hardware was co-located near the majority of your employees, but now a lot of that has changed.

That really leads to more of the union of the business, because you don't have to get so caught up in the operations of the infrastructure. It is more about how do you provide the infrastructure no matter where it operates from. And then using client-facing technology to really drive how you enter the market, and then how your employees interact among themselves and with your trading partners.

So that's kind of the concept of we came up with, given the way in which this is happening, given the trends that we've seen in the comfort level of technology being performed outside of IT, you know this just might be what we have been talking about for a long time.

TechRepublic: How so? That's interesting -- perhaps you could sum up that point of view.

David Nichols: The only time technology has driven what is happening with the company is when that company has been on the cusp of a crisis. When you look at the late 90s and the retail industry, or what happened a few years ago with the media industry, it's usually when things have been led by technology that the role of the CIO, and the role of the CTO has really been brought to the forefront.

There are many companies that look at themselves as technology companies, even though they may be perceived elsewhere as performing a business function, or supplying a good or product. That mentality has made its way into the DNA of most companies that are out there today. The difference is, to whom does the CIO go to provide technology back to the business? And that was handcuffed by what the IT organization had been able to provide. That's not the case anymore.

Now they are naming people with other technology responsibilities, like the digital officer or the data officer, people who have large pieces of the technology within an enterprise. That itself to me is pretty much of a sea change. You go back 10 years, the hot thing was to have a CTO report the CIO. More and more that's not the case anymore. They are reporting in a lot of cases directly to the CEO, and they own all aspects of the technology. So that creates the opportunity to bring the spaces much closer together.

TechRepublic: What does that mean for the role of a CIO in an enterprise?

David Nichols: I think one of two things will to happen. I think that the CIO is going to be the person that provisions most of their services; they are going to be viewed as maintainers of infrastructure, or the broker of services.

And you're going to get other C-suite designations that are going to drive technology, such as the CMO, the CTO, or the CDO (chief data officer). Those are the ones that are going to be the providers and the innovators of technology throughout the enterprise.

And the CIO's role is going to evolve to either the provider of services or the broker of services that they get from other places, or the providers of infrastructure, the core infrastructure that companies need. But I think that the role as it stands today is slowly dissolving, and it's going to go away.

TechRepublic: What's the take-home message of the survey?

David Nichols: The big news is that most CIOs are going to have to reinvent themselves.

Usually when a CIO comes in, they're coming in with a particular skill set or background. So for example, a company is in the midst of a large multiyear ERP transformation, and this individual has done this before, and we're going to spend $400 million on this, and this person knows how to get it done. Or somebody who had a particular understanding of an industry, that kind of thing.

But once that purpose has been fulfilled, they are already branded as being able to do one thing, or they shy way from taking risks. Driving transformation is not really the kind of thing that's going to help them keep their job long-term.

At that point the clock really starts ticking on that individual. It is rare that the CIO survives two or three major initiatives at a company. They are brought in for one, they make it through the second one, and then there is a review and a CIO change comes with it.

The opportunity here is for those CIOs who eventually want to wind up at other companies. To reinvent themselves they will have to start that at their current jobs, which means they won't be able to finish that at their current jobs.

A "digital" CIO is going to be that individual who has made a name for themselves on the technology side, or they are going to be a reinvented CIO was never given the opportunity to be digital at their old job. But it's rare that you're going to find the CIO that is going to be able to invent themselves on their current job and survive that. I don't see that happening, given the kind of trends that we've seen.

TechRepublic: The EY survey talks about best practices that "leading" CIOs do to promote their careers. What you are talking about doesn't seem quite as optimistic about the future of CIOs -- am I getting the right impression?

David Nichols: Actually, I think I'm saying just the opposite. The role the technology is going to play how CIOs will view themselves is as high now as it has ever been. And therefore these roles are going to be much more important going forward.

I guess it depends on how you look at it. The bad news is, and again this is David talking, we look at how the CIO role evolves and what companies typically look for. Businesses are often going to go outside of their organization to have that function provided back within their business. Because a CIO that is looked at as a major program, ERP-driven CIO -- they are really not going to look at that person as someone to drive innovation in digital.

But that doesn't mean the person is not oriented to do that, they're just being perceived a certain way. It is hard to rebrand internally.

But the role of the CIO and what individuals can do who are currently CIOs -- I don't think it's ever been more optimistic than it has been right now. Because before it was come in and try to deliver whatever they're asking me to do to survive. Now, it is come in and try to innovate change and drive the business. And that's something that they've never really been asked to do in the past.

TechRepublic: How does the upwardly mobile track for the information executive differ from other functions, such as HR or accounting?

David Nichols: Historically, in the IT organization, people had to take one of a couple tracks. Are you on the infrastructure side, are you on the software side, or are you on the hardware side? And then we kind of evolved to aligning people by major application functions. So, people would be part of the SAP team, the Oracle team, or the Microsoft team. They kind of did the same thing except it was based on software or hardware alignment.

Now, going forward, it will be more like what happens in the business. It's going to be more based on the function that you play. Over the course of their careers, people are going to be able to play different functions, because you don't have to be as hard-core specialized. That's going to allow people to get a variety of experiences over time, and have careers that look more like other business people.

TechRepublic: What I'm hearing is that the information role is becoming less distinct, it's going to be more like a business executive.

David Nichols: Absolutely, because you're going to stop looking at it as data, and start looking at it as information that drives the business. Data sounds highly technical, but that's not the issue anymore. The issue is how you use it to drive your business, and the person who has to understand both -- data and information -- is going to be in more of the business context. Because it's really not about how do I hold the data, but what do I do with the data? That's a skill that's going to be needed, that's all focused around business. And that's the path that the IT executive will have going forward, which to me is extremely encouraging, because that puts you at the table. It's not about how we hold the data, it's what we do with it.

Seven Key Components of a Cost Management Plan

A lire sur: Method123

The Cost Management Plan describes the process that will be used to manage the project budget including tracking current expenditures, upcoming expenses, identifying potential budget overruns and evaluating overall project spending against the budget. The components of the Cost Management Plan can include:

• Roles and responsibilities. You can describe different roles and their ability to access the project budget. For example:
  • Who is the budget owner. This is probably the project manager. (The project sponsor owns the money from a business perspective, but the project manager owns it from a budget perspective.)
  • Who can approve expenses? This is important to identify up-front. It is possible that only the project manager can approve project expenses, but in some instances this can be delegated to someone closer to the expense. For instance, if you have contractors working within project teams, it is possible that the team leader will be authorized to approve the timesheets for these contractors.
  • Who can read? The budget numbers may or may not be sensitive information. You should decide who else can have access to the actual expenditures and budget information.
• Frequency. You should describe the timing of budget analysis. On many projects this may be monthly since that is the frequency most General Ledger reports are available. On some projects, the expenses may need to be tracked weekly, even if it is a manual process.
• Feedback. This describes how the budget feedback will be delivered. This is probably going to be automated reports from your financial system or a manual tracking process, or both.
• Budget change review and approval. This is where you define the process required to evaluate and approve proposed budget changes. It defines the authority for accepting and approving changes to the budget. This process does not include approving individual expenses during the project. It applies to changes in the overall project budget. It is possible that the project manager may have some discretion to exceed the budget by a certain percentage, but after that threshold some formal body may need to approve the change.
• Tools. Describe about any budgeting tool that will be used on this project, who will have access to the tool and what various people can do with the tool (read the budget, update numbers, etc.)
• Reports. Comment here on the types and names of reports you are using to manage the budget, who will receive them, the frequency, etc.
• Budget integration. Normally each project keeps an independent budget, but in some instances your master budget is the result of a roll-up of other underlying budgets. It is also possible that your budget could be integrated and rolled up to a higher-level program or portfolio budget.

The Cost Management Plan is not needed for all projects. However, if you have a large project and large budget, you might want to plan ahead for how the budget will be allocated and managed. Think through and complete a Cost Management Plan if it provides value to your project. 

Internet of Things security: Who is responsible and how is it done?

A lire sur: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/news/2240218840/Internet-of-Things-security-Who-is-responsible-and-how-is-it-done

Shamus McGillicuddyPublished: 14 Apr 2014

Advocates say the Internet of Things is a multitrillion dollar business opportunity, but it's also a potential disaster for privacy and safety. Before we connect everything around us to the Internet, we need to think about security.

Internet of Things security is difficult to discuss because the concept is so immense. When you make "everything" IP-connected, how do you lock all of that down? Cars, cows, oil rigs, medical devices, refrigerators. There is no perimeter that can encircle all of that.

What if your microwave was taken over and it kept telling your fridge to shut down?

Dipto Chakravarty,
EVP of engineering and products, ThreatTrack Security Inc.

"The challenge we have is that each of those areas is really pretty separate," said Bret Hartman, vice president and chief technology officer for the security and government group at Cisco. "The technologies working in those areas tend to focus specifically on their own area. It's not going to be one-size-fits-all for [Internet of Things] security."

Companies and individuals will also find that they lose a lot of control over where their data is and where it is going. When consumerization struck the enterprise, power and control over data and connectivity shifted from IT to the user. IT is still adapting to that shock. Now another shift is coming.

"Power is shifting from the user to machines," said Dipto Chakravarty, executive vice president of engineering and products at ThreatTrack Security Inc. "And when it shifts to machines, connectivity is the inverse to security. The more connectivity you have, the less security you have -- unless you can layer it in properly."

Internet of Things security: It's not easy

Locking down the so-called "things" on the Internet of Things is a daunting task because security takes computing power, and many things have only the bare minimum -- if that.

"Usually these endpoint devices aren't very big. They don't have a lot of compute power to do much, especially around security," Hartman said. "There are IP-addressable light bulbs. There's not a whole lot of processing power left in there for security."

Furthermore, wherever you have an IP-connected thing, you also have an operating system. Operating systems need to be patched. When they aren't, hackers find vulnerabilities.Botnets will find millions of new recruits in the form of zombie appliances and other "things."

These things are all communicating with each other, too. And they influence each other.

"How much is going to go wrong if someone hacks a cow's monitoring system?" asked Eric Hanselman, chief analyst for New York-based 451 Research. It's all just passive data collection. It's not a big deal." But data about a cow's health might go to another "thing" on a farm that crunches that data and spits out new data. Then that data goes elsewhere, all across IP networks.

"These are typically paths that are poorly protected. The bigger problem is not so much the endpoints, but the fact that the data paths themselves create a new attack platform."

"What if your microwave was taken over and it kept telling your fridge to shut down?" said Chakravarty of ThreatTrack. "You wouldn't know there was something wrong with your microwave. The user is slowly stepping out of the equation. We may be carrying a phone, but it's not just a phone. It's a transmitter and receiver that can propagate information exactly like a router would on a network."

Internet of Things security: How do you do it?

Some engineers say network monitoring is the way to solve the problem.

"It's much more about using the network fabric to watch traffic across all these devices and limit [that traffic] where there appears to be some abuse or potential attack happening, " Cisco's Hartman said. "In an industrial control system, you might change [a robot's] settings with a management console, but you wouldn't expect two robotic arms to reprogram each other. So you can look at that kind of traffic and say this shouldn't be happening. You can control and limit the traffic that goes among these [robots]."

Internet of Things security will also require encryption key management infrastructure and identity management systems that can scale into the billions, said Earl Perkins, research vice president for Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc.

"We'll have to figure out a way to protect data in an environment like this, whether it's on [an] Internet of Things 'thing' or in an intermediate location," he said. "We'll have to revamp the way we look at encryption key management and identity management. We'll have to combine capabilities from identity management and asset management, because [people] are going to become [their own] personal cloud networks. The Internet of Things that you carry on your person and that you have at home are like a cloud of devices that surround you. You have an identity and the things have identity, but how do you keep [up] with the relationships between you and the identity of those things?"

The Internet of Things will also require a sophisticated approach to risk management. Not all of the devices on the Internet of Things will be new. Organizations are strapping IP connections onto legacy devices and systems to extract data. Those legacy systems will pose a higher risk than something engineered from the ground up to be an IP endpoint.

"You need to add intelligence to be able to deal with the level of risk [presented] by these older types of data sources," 451 Research's Hanselman said.

Internet of Things Security: Who owns the problem?

Clearly, there is a lot of work to be done in securing the Internet of Things. Before you even tackle the problem, you need to figure out who is responsible for it. Billions of new deviceswill start collecting and sharing data, and a wide assortment of companies will be enabling that. Who owns the problem?

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"The issue is not clear at this point," Hanselman said. It's not even clear who would be held liable for damages associated with Internet of Things security breaches, he said. "If you look at the laws being handed down right now, the loss of privacy doesn't have an established value yet in the U.S."

The law is even murkier when it comes to liability for hacks of things that result in personal injury or real-world property damage, he said. For instance, the law is unclear about liability if someone hacks the braking system of a car, resulting in injury, damage or death. Is the car's manufacturer responsible for the security breach? "There will be case law that will establish this, but right now, they are out on a legal limb," Hanselman said.

In many cases, the manufacturers of the "things" on the Internet of Things won't be responsible for security. Instead, companies that provide the applications or connectivitywill have to take charge.

"The problem of making sure the devices are secure will probably reside with those that provide a service through the device," Gartner's Perkins said. "It could be whoever is providing the application and service itself, or it might be the service provider that provides the network. It may be both. One of the big problems ahead of us is going to be the liability and legal implications of these devices running wild."

CIOs exploit the cloud computing model for business gains

A lire sur: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/feature/CIOs-exploit-the-cloud-computing-model-for-business-gains

Dina Gerdeman

This article can also be found in the Premium Editorial Download "Modern Infrastructure: Cloud computing in business: Find the right model."

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As CIO of video game developer Electronic Arts Inc., Mark Tonnesen could sense the wave of fear that rippled through his IT staff when he made the case for moving the company's on-premises applications to the cloud.

Don Baker,
CIO, Mediaocean LLC

If they wouldn't be maintaining and troubleshooting issues with applications -- tasks that were the day-to-day staples of their jobs, after all -- would they even be needed any longer? The staff needn't have worried. His answer was a resounding "Yes" -- but not for babysitting email.

"We outsourced that and went to the cloud, and instead we could work on things that were going to drive top-line revenue," said Tonnesen, who oversaw about 550 IT employees as well as 700 contract staff during his tenure at Electronic Arts in 2012 and 2013. Tonnesen, now a senior partner with The StrataFusion Group, a consulting firm that advises companies in the midst of major technology transitions, said that adopting a cloud strategy was not about getting rid of the IT organization. "We were not reducing people. We were not reducing budgets. We were just shifting roles."

In fact, Electronic Arts, maker of such blockbuster video games as Battlefield andNeed for Speed, actually increased its investment in IT with the adoption of the cloud computing model, according to Tonnesen.

Cloud computing model catches fire

Cloud computing is ballooning. Cloud-related tech spending by businesses is on course to triple over a six-year period, jumping from $78.2 billion in 2011 to a projected $235.1 billion in 2017, according to research by IHS Technology released in February. In 2014, global business spending for infrastructure and services related to the cloud will reach an estimated $174.2 billion, 20% more than the amount spent in 2013, IHS predicted.

Michael Beckley,
CTO, Appian Corp.

When companies started moving a growing number of applications and infrastructure to the cloud, handing over hosting and maintenance duties to public cloud providers, some industry experts speculated that IT might see widespread layoffs as a result. But as the cloud model has gained a strong foothold in organizations, researchers and IT leaders say those massive layoffs have not come to pass.

"Our research does not show significant layoffs from companies aggressively working in the cloud," said James Staten, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. "We've seen (isolated) cases of a guy saying, 'If I don't get to play with the technology, I won't enjoy myself here,' so sometimes one or two people might self-select out."

IT role shifts from troubleshooting to strategic analysis

CIOs and researchers say what has happened instead is that the cloud has led to a change in the traditional role of IT, shifting the work away from the nitty-gritty maintenance and troubleshooting of the past and toward more business-value activities, such as strategic software development, big data analytics and the creation of enterprise architecture.

Our brightest minds were getting too involved in day-to-day tasks and were not able to be visible players in areas that were adding value to the company.

Don Baker, CIO of Mediaocean

At Electronic Arts, Tonnesen said adopting a cloud computing model meant that IT staff members actually had time to spend an entire day working on developing a new tech strategy. In previous years, they might work on a strategy for an hour here or there in between constant interruptions from departments needing IT to repair breaks in applications.

"We would get fewer calls about tools that were broken, things like 'Fix my email' or 'This system doesn't work.' All of those things were in the cloud and they were working. There was less break-fix, less support and more strategic discussions about where we were going next," Tonnesen said. 

Don Baker, CIO of Mediaocean -- a company that provides a software platform for the advertising industry, including cloud computing solutions -- said the cloud has freed up his IT staff members from getting bogged down in the mundane maintenance duties that ate up most of their time in years past.

"There's been a big shift over the last 10 years in what I've been able to do with my staff. Our brightest minds were getting too involved in day-to-day tasks and were not able to be visible players in areas that were adding value to the company," said Baker, noting that Mediaocean's own internal IT applications run mostly on a private cloud.

Now these same IT people are meeting with new vendors, developing new technologies and thinking about how these technologies can be used to help Mediaocean take the next strategic leap into global markets and expanded product lines.

 "We're able to stay ahead now, where in the past we were just keeping up or triaging things," he said.

Appetite for mobile and social apps spurs cloud use

With the explosion of mobile and social platforms, technology is infiltrating every aspect of business today, creating an ever-pressing demand for IT, said Michael Beckley, CTO of Appian Corp., a software company that sells products that work either on premises or in the cloud. Appian hosts both its customers' applications as well as its own internal applications in Amazon's cloud.

 As is true for many companies, Appian's foray into cloud computing was both cautious and prompted by necessity. Internally, the company moved email to the cloud because its Exchange server was constantly going down. When that was met with success, other applications followed. With much of the app maintenance work taken off IT's plate, the staff is now able to respond to a wide variety of employee needs, whether it's building a new system, acclimating a new employee to IT services, or securely connecting an employee's mobile phone service to email, Beckley said.

"As I remember IT from my first job, they very rarely left the basement. Now they're spending a lot less time in some back server room and a lot more time with users at their desks, coaching them on their technology," Beckley said. "It's a different world. The job is more interesting. They're much more in tune with what's happening, and they're not just order-takers."

Go to part two of this SearchCIO feature story to read about the many ways CIOs and their organizations are squeezing more business value from cloud computing, from vetting the cost of public cloud services, to building private clouds to taking on a more strategic role in business operations.

About the author: Dina Gerdeman is a Boston area-based freelance writer and editor covering business news and features.

Seven not-so-obvious roles your analytics pro will have to play

A lire sur: http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/total-cio/seven-not-so-obvious-roles-your-analytics-pro-will-have-to-play/

Posted by: Nicole Laskowski 

What skills do CIOs and IT leaders either need to develop or bring in-house to take on big data and advanced analytics? According to Carol Rozwell, that question isn’t necessarily the best place to start.

“We should begin with the problems we’re trying to solve,” said Rozwell, an analyst for the Stamford, Conn.-based consultancy Gartner Inc., at the recent Gartner Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit.

Phrasing initial questions from a business perspective — such as, “How will the analysis be used once it’s completed?” — can shine a light on both specific skills and soft skills that can help round out a candidate profile. That, in itself, could be a differentiator because, Rozwell said, most companies look for a candidate who can fill vague requirements such as excellent communications skills or works well with others. “Will those types of general statements bring us the people we’ll need?” she asked.

After speaking with vendors, consultants and businesses, Rozwell created a list of seven not-so-obvious roles analytics pros and data scientists will have to play within the enterprise. CIOs looking to draft up a job description might want to take note. They are:

1. Storytellers. The ability to explain analytics to different constituencies across the organization is essential and will “help the business person understand exactly what the information is and … how the analysis can be applied,” Rozwell said.

2. Artisans. Vendors are forging new ground in the world of visual analysis, but they’re also creating what Rozwell called “a blind spot.” Visualizations, she said, aren’t necessarily self-explanatory, and an employee’s ability to consume a visualization “will vary based on the experience and background of the decision maker,” Rozwell said. CIOs and IT leaders should find someone who can bridge the gap.

3. Behaviorists or social anthropologists. People are idiosyncratic, so an analytics pro who is aware that employees do and will react to new information in ways that may not be logical or rational will go a long way. “Regardless of geographic orientation, background, any other dimensions you might cut, we all have instinctive reactions to situations,” Rozwell said.

4. Detectives. Seek out nosiness and someone who is interested in “searching through and ferreting out information that may not be intuitively evident,” she said. Also, find candidates with a passion for finding the truth because, Rozwell said, any data set is inherently biased. CIOs and IT leaders will want to find people who know when “there is enough information, enough analysis, enough modeling to ensure they’re representing at least a facsimile of the truth,” she said.

5. Philosophers. “This was my best label for the person who needs to deal with ambiguity,” Rozwell said. New information, such as unstructured data, will change as the situation does. Analytics pros should take that into consideration and be aware they’re only analyzing “a snapshot of a point in time,” she said.

6. Jazz musicians and improv actors. Find someone who is creative and can build off of others on the team (like a jazz musician). Improv adds another dimension: When improv actors are on stage, rejection is not an option. and they mix every on-the-fly idea into the skit. Rozwell believes the same concept should hold true for analytics professionals. “We’re all contributing,” she said. “We need to keep testing out [ideas] to make sure we’re poking at the right issues for the business.”

7. Conductors. Find someone with the ability to bring different kinds of people together and “help them focus on a single business outcome,” Rozwell said.