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This week's article:
Two great IT manager resources
This week's article highlights two excellent IT manager resources I discovered that can help any level of manager. Actually, they both discovered me for different reasons, and I'm sure glad they did.
The first is an excellent free web site and newsletter resource that you should know about. This is a very young company that is destined for great things. I have been subscribing to it for about six months and have been very impressed. The original founders of TechRepublic have come up with a new formula certain to be a winner.
The second resource is a book I was asked to review just last week. I get lots of these requests and for the most part, they aren't all that good (at least for my taste). This one addresses a topic that I've been thinking about writing for some time. It is an excellent resource for any level IT manager or executive. Even non-IT people will find this publication useful as our world becomes more and more technology dependent.
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First, a question for you:
Have you considered attending the next IT Manager Institute?
The Institute is structured like no other to absolutely guarantee each and every participant achieves more success upon returning to your company. It is truly the most comprehensive IT manager development program around and loaded with extra "take home" products and support services to insure your success.
The mission: Provide insight to help you make a real difference in your company, have you recoup the program's total expense quickly, and include benefits for years by becoming a member of MDE's IT Manager Round Table.
Take a look at http://www.mde.net/training to see why we believe this to be the best IT manager development program in the industry.
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Now for this week's article:
Two great IT manager resources
As you probably know, I have devoted my time and energy for the past three years to document the processes, insights, and tools that have helped me succeed as an IT manager and CIO for over 20 years. I've always been a proponent of taking advantage of those who have experience to minimize my learning curve. I'm also a big believer in constantly learning from outside resources.
Learning is a continual process that makes you stronger and contributes mightily to success.
You may also know that I've been writing articles for online newsletters such as TechRepublic and HP plus my own newsletter since April 2001. The Internet is giving us access to resources more than ever before.
Enough about me; let me tell you about the two great resources I discovered.
In reality, they found me.
Resource #1
First, there is IT Business Edge. One of their freelance writers, Carl Weinschenk,
conducted an interview with me in writing an article about six months ago. In our conversation, I learned of the IT Business Edge newsletters and web site.
I was immediately impressed and have received lots of great insight from their newsletters.
There are currently six different newsletters and other resources available from their web site.
- Maximizing IT Investments (my 2nd favorite)
- Fortifying Network Security
- Integrating the Enterprise
- Aligning IT and Business Goals (my favorite)
- Empowering a Mobile Workforce
- Optimizing Infrastructure
The format of each of these newsletters is crisp and professional. Plus, there are "snippet" sections like "In the Numbers" that are both interesting and informative.
A special is offered as of this writing. New subscribers receive a free Gartner Report, IT Spending: How Do You Stack Up?
The founders of IT Business Edge are also the original founders of TechRepublic so they have significant experience in providing meaningful material to the IT Manager and other technology resources. They have a great new look and approach, plus it's free. I think you will like what you see.
Click here to take a look at the free IT Business Edge offerings.
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Resource #2
The second great resource is a book I was asked to review last week titled, The Power of IT - Survival Guide for the CIO. It is written by Jan De Sutter from Belgium. Jan is a seasoned IT Manager, lecturer, and writer.
I get many requests to review books, white papers, etc. Most do not hit my "hot button" and I didn't expect Jan's work would either. I was pleasantly surprised.
After quickly scanning through it, I decided it was a book I wanted to read more of. Interestingly, it addresses something I've thought for some time needed to be written about. It's a work that does an excellent job of taking the world of information technology and explains the components of IT in an informative, but not overly technical manner. It's a very solid overview of our IT environment.
Written at just the right level (at least for me) to make it interesting as well as informative, it is a publication everyone should consider having in their reference material library. Even non-IT managers would find this work beneficial by better understanding technology quickly.
Jan's approach in writing this book is simple and it is structured in a very logical and way to learn a lot about IT very quickly. A summary of the Table of Contents includes:
- Introduction
- Infrastructure
- Information Systems
- Human Resources
- Financial resources
- Processes
- Projects
- Organization
- Strategy and Business Alignment
- Beyond the Hype
Bottom line: Jan's work helps you put all the pieces together and fill in technology knowledge gaps quickly and easily., something that's a lot easier said than done.
Click here to take a closer look at The Power of IT - Survival Guide for the CIO.
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