Top IT Articles of 2019

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season this year. As we reflect on 2019, ITDirections is grateful for all our customers, partners, and friends and for your association throughout the years. You truly make our work rewarding, educational, and fun.

As a helpful resource to you, we have assembled a list of our favorite articles that we have posted during the year. Pick the area and topics of most interest to you, or use the list as a reference guide when you need help. The beginning of the year is a great time to reflect and establish new goals for the year ahead. Please enjoy our gift of continual learning and best wishes for a wonderful 2020!

Barb Zimmerman and Anita Cassidy

 

CIO Priorities & Trends

• What are the top five strategic priorities for CIO’s in 2020?  https://lnkd.in/eHcK_Hz

• What are eight technologies that will disrupt business in 2020?  https://lnkd.in/emAz9SQ

• What are ten future trends, predictions & recommended actions?  https://lnkd.in/dan4jsR

• What are Gartner’s top ten strategic technology trends for 2020?  gartnertrends

• What does Spiceworks say about IT budgets & trends for 2020? spiceworkstrends

• What are IDC’s top tech predictions for 2020?  idcpredict

• What are seven ways to position IT for success in 2020?  https://lnkd.in/eS45DVn   

• How can IT escape the trap of being a bottleneck?  https://lnkd.in/ern2mpR

• What are the steps to transition to an Agile organization?  https://lnkd.in/esM9sUm

• What are eight biggest IT management mistakes?  https://lnkd.in/eKUCYHH

• How can business & technology functions collaborate with a single unified strategy?  https://lnkd.in/eE6YCpZ

• What are ten change management mistakes to avoid?  https://lnkd.in/e7ZamsP

• What are seven steps to revenue-driven IT?   https://lnkd.in/d-XBYDq

• How do you create a transformative IT strategy? ITstrategy

• What are eleven ways to thrive in the years ahead?  https://lnkd.in/e6Rd7Cu

Becoming Customer-Centric

• How can CIO’s become more customer-centric?  https://lnkd.in/e22KWgS

• How can IT drive business growth & get to know your end customers?  https://lnkd.in/ee9C6um

• What does customer-centric IT really look like?  https://lnkd.in/eQRbJrh

• What are differences & examples of customer service versus customer experience?   https://lnkd.in/e76dQy3

• How can you develop a business-driven, customer-obsessed IT strategy?   https://lnkd.in/e2_TeD6

• What are six secrets of customer-facing CIO’s?    https://lnkd.in/emBhgEW

• How can you work with Marketing to understand the customer journey & customer personas?   https://lnkd.in/eywmc9c

Digital Transformation

• What are twelve reasons why digital transformations fail?  https://lnkd.in/eTj4f6i

• What are four tips for creating disruption in your industry?  https://lnkd.in/epgcdqf

• How can you have an “all in” transformation for technology-enabled disruption?  https://lnkd.in/eD_j4UX

• How can you measure performance during a transformation?  https://lnkd.in/eM7jdQw

• What are the processes and practices of top performing companies & how do they move faster at the speed of digital?  https://lnkd.in/ehh3HQf

• What are the four fights you have to win with a Digital Strategy?  https://lnkd.in/e9mG3cr

• How can you gain clarity about your digital vision?  https://lnkd.in/eNGQRwi

• What is a digital transformation?   https://lnkd.in/eSfjehV

• What are five moves to make during a digital transformation?   https://lnkd.in/ehjNWS8

• What are five practices to maximize the chance of extraordinary outcomes in your digital transformation? digitalpractices

• How do you reconstruct your business’s value chain for the digital world?  https://lnkd.in/eS8vH6Z

• How can you restructure IT for the digital age?  https://lnkd.in/exG8MM8

• How can you connect IT to the business strategy and succeed at digital transformation?  https://lnkd.in/eFn7Xta

• What are the seven shifts of the digital CIO? digitalcio

• Should you shift away from big bang digital transformations?  https://lnkd.in/eeUquFd

Innovation

• What sets successful innovative companies apart from others? hbrinnovate 

• How can you disrupt an industry as the role of a CIO and be at the forefront of innovation?  https://lnkd.in/eN8VEx8

• How can you balance risk and innovation?  https://lnkd.in/egseAfC

• What are essentials of innovation according to McKinsey? innovation

• What are seven ways to foster greater IT creativity? itcreativity

• How do you determine IT’s return on innovation?  https://lnkd.in/evaXQPB  

CIO Leadership Development

• What are seven ways IT leaders derail their careers?  https://lnkd.in/eRRDNF6

• What are five ways to improve your soft skills?  https://lnkd.in/e37rQCC

• Thinking about work is burning you out. How can you turn off work thoughts during your free time?  https://lnkd.in/e3PdZSE

• How do you develop IT leaders into future CIO’s?  https://lnkd.in/deATRSU

• What will IT careers look like in five years?  https://lnkd.in/eeZqC3d

• What are four steps for CIO’s to become a strategic adviser & business leader?  https://lnkd.in/eyJmNa6

• How can IT leaders build trust?  https://lnkd.in/eTZdsPh

• What are eight things that leaders do to make employees quit? employeesquit

• What are seven IT leadership surprises, and how should you handle them?  https://lnkd.in/eM8r5qb

• What are essential traits of business-driven IT leaders?  https://lnkd.in/dJ3FGS8

• Are more women making it to the CIO level?   womencio 

• What are the eight toughest decisions IT leaders face?  https://lnkd.in/eGPGe8d

• What are five ways IT still fails its business users? fiveways

• Do you need charisma to be a great speaker?   https://lnkd.in/eq9ewgg

The CEO & Board of Directors

• What are ten tips for moving from CIO to CEO?   https://lnkd.in/e4t4y8M

• What is the CEO’s new technology agenda?  https://lnkd.in/e2c_-MQ 

• How can CIO’s build board relationships and focus on offensive rather than defensive capabilities?  https://lnkd.in/eK88CWB

• What are ten tips for a CIO to get a seat on a board of directors?  https://lnkd.in/eY7UzZc

• What are five questions to ask when creating a tech-savy board? techboard

• Do companies with technical expertise on their board experience higher revenue growth?   https://lnkd.in/e3PAQVq

The Transitioning & New CIO

• What are seven steps for a new CIO?  https://www.cio.com/article/3446858

• What are good questions CIO’s should ask before taking a new job?  https://lnkd.in/e8CvPjk

• What are eight resume mistakes that will make you look old?  https://lnkd.in/eTtzMTJ

• What is a plan for the first 100-days as a new CIO? newcio

IT Organization

• What are nine reasons good employees leave?  https://lnkd.in/eacW_Qy

• What are seven ways to improve the profile & morale of the IT organization?  https://lnkd.in/efBwRh8

• What are ten bad IT hires to avoid?  https://lnkd.in/eVYk_si

• How can you build a next-generation IT workforce? https://lnkd.in/eMw2pgb

• What are trends in CIO reporting structure?  https://lnkd.in/ekMwPiX

• Who should the CIO report to?  cioreport  

• How can IT organizations become better business partners?  https://lnkd.in/djF8Spm 

• What are ten IT-business collaboration mistakes to avoid?  https://lnkd.in/esaTPhf

• What are tips for leading remote IT teams successfully?  https://lnkd.in/ewekgv9

• What are three warning signs of team burnout, and how do you fix it? burnout  

• What are the eleven biggest issues IT faces today?  https://lnkd.in/e_wXPUA

• What are nine key metrics for IT success?  https://lnkd.in/eg7Yy7V

ERP & Software Implementation

• What are ten signs that it may be time to consider an IT system change or software upgrade?  https://lnkd.in/e9G4Ate

• What are tips for communicating the value of IT projects and telling the business story?  https://lnkd.in/eiA4PVp

• How can cross-functional teams improve business agility & success?  https://lnkd.in/e88YxCw

• What are thirteen signs your software project may be doomed?  https://lnkd.in/dzw37CP

• What are seven ways predictive analytics can improve the customer experience?  https://lnkd.in/e2B6Xru

Security

• What are twelve tips for effectively presenting cyber security to the board?  https://lnkd.in/eNupB8n

• What are eleven cyber security trends? securitytrends

• How can you better integrate IT security and your overall IT strategy?  https://lnkd.in/eJX52UB

Cloud

• What are eight ways the cloud is more complex than you think?  https://lnkd.in/eyvzzuF

• What are seven steps to a well-architected cloud environment?  https://lnkd.in/eQp6MwW

IT Automation

• What are ten IT automation mistakes to avoid?    https://lnkd.in/e2k2iC5

• What are seven things IT should have automated?  https://lnkd.in/eMEXi9G

• What are the seven guiding principles of ITIL 4?      https://lnkd.in/eyh5R2N

IoT

• What separates leaders from laggards in the Internet of Things?  https://lnkd.in/eAvREQK

• What are top ten trends shaping the Internet of Things business landscape?  https://lnkd.in/eff86px