Risky Business and Five Areas to De-Risk

By Stephen Sweeney on October 29, 2009

In the past year, most businesses have taken steps to "hunker down" and be a survivor. Many businesses are taking the opportunity to strengthen themselves to emerge stronger when the economy fully recovers. De-risking your business is a simple framework that can be used to analyze your business and adjust your ...

It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s CIO Superman!?

By Stephen Sweeney on October 13, 2009

Technology executives are key business strategy players in today's mid-market companies. In recent years, we've raised the bar for the qualifications for the ideal CIO. But, are our expectations realistic? Are we looking for a superman or superwoman? I had to chuckle while reading Chris Curran's analysis, "CIO Background Check: IT ...

How to Translate Technology into Business Value

By 3coast on August 10, 2009

Small and medium businesses face challenges with evaluating, implementing and supporting the technologies required by their growing companies. They often turn to an IT partner to address these challenges. Just like an author tells a story, so should an IT partner translate technology into business value. However, many partners try ...

A Method to Vendor Madness

By 3coast on August 5, 2009

Most businesses rely on 5-10 core technology vendors to keep business running smoothly. Any miscues in communication or coordination between vendors can result in downtime, wasted efforts and loss of productivity. This is a common occurrence among SMBs because the person managing vendors is usually juggling day-to-day operations and lacks ...

Seven Arguments Against DIY Server & Network Monitoring

By Stephen Sweeney on July 21, 2009

Midmarket companies should consider a remote monitoring service for their networks and servers, especially in a down economy. Viewed holistically, remote monitoring not only serves as an insurance policy for business operations but also creates real business value. Unfortunately, the incremental spend often causes businesses to overlook the tangible returns ...

Tomorrow’s CIO and the Implications for SMBs

By Stephen Sweeney on July 16, 2009

“Tomorrow’s CIO" is the subject of an opinion piece on sandhill.com. The author, Ashwin Rangan of MarketShare Partners, contrasts the characteristics of Tomorrow’s CIO and Yesterday’s CIO. He identifies three key areas of difference: Goal orientation toward business values and objectives (read, measurable return on investment) instead of a check-the-box approach ...

Broken ERP Implementations: Putting Business Back Together

By 3coast on April 14, 2009

Remediating a failed ERP implementation may be the answer to salvaging a broken, stalled or underperforming enterprise system. Each type of implementation failure and subsequent remediation project is approached with a different strategy. The goal is to economically get business operations and technology back in sync, quickly and effectively. Broken implementations are ERP systems ...

Business Process Interruption…Could it be your ERP? (Part 1)

By George Black on April 2, 2009

Companies with complex business processes have come to rely on technology to automate, digitize and streamline operations. In many instances, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system – SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, Microsoft Dynamics – has been implemented to provide this support. ERP systems were designed to automate and integrate disparate ...

Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Considering ERP Remediation

By 3coast on January 28, 2009

As we push through into 2009, businesses will be forced to run lean and mean. During uncertain economic times like these, competitive advantage stems from the ability to anticipate and respond to change quickly and intelligently. This level of response requires organizations to have implemented metrics that allow for decision ...

Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Your IT Budget

By 3coast on January 19, 2009

Businesses are always looking for alternative ways to cut costs, increase value and streamline operations without disrupting output of future growth. Traditional cost-cutting strategies such as canceling or postponing projects and reducing headcount can offer immediate relief of financial obligations associated with budget. However, these methods often fail to ultimately ...

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