Brian Zaugg Information Technology Consultant

In the 2003 book, “Leading Geeks: How to Manage and Lead People Who Deliver Technology,” author Paul Glen states, “Because technology has permeated all functional areas of organizations, every manager must now know how to lead geeks” (p. 18). Glen’s assertion begs two important questions: has technology permeated all functional areas of the modern business and do managers need specialized leadership techniques for handling knowledge workers? An evaluation of Glen’s statement in context with an example company provides a means for determining if the assertions are correct.

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Outsourcing is a critical tool for business managers to control costs and maximize return on the IT investment. Service level agreements have long been a standard for managing the performance of outsourcing agreements. However, service level agreements often fail to provide satisfying results due to offsets and burdensome requirements related to penalties. Balanced scorecard provides a more attractive option for managing the outsourcer. A built-in alignment with business strategy and an orientation towards incentivizing desired behaviors make balanced scorecard a more effective and more satisfying methodology for managing outsourcers. A review of scholarly literature on the subjects of outsourcing, service level agreements, and balanced scorecard elucidates the relative benefits of balanced scorecard compared to service level agreements for managing outsourcing. Balanced scorecard is found to be a beneficial method for managing outsourcing suppliers. However, analyzing the literature identifies a research gap and determines that further research is needed in the areas of outsourcing and supplier management.

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Management of the information technology (IT) applications portfolio is an important undertaking for businesses that seek to optimize the IT investment. As Ward and Peppard (2002) state, “The applications portfolio concept, […] is a means of bringing together existing, planned and potential information systems and assessing their business contribution” (Ward & Peppard, 2002). Managing the [...]

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The value chain views an organization as a series of input, transformation and output stages, where at each stage it may be possible to enhance an organization’s competitive position. Over the last 25 years, value chain analysis has evolved and matured from an analytical technique first introduced in the mid-eighties into an engineering and management methodology, known as value engineering, that enables more efficient and effective business and IT alignment.

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The alignment of the information technology and information systems (IT/IS) portfolio with business strategy is a recurring activity for modern enterprises.

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Ward and Peppard (2002) define strategy as, “an integrated set of actions aimed at increasing the long-term well-being and strength of the enterprise.” (p. 276) Ward and Peppard further explain that information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) strategies, “must be integrated not only in terms of information, systems, and technology via a coherent set [...]

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