George Gorsline’s Action Items George Gorsline is managing director of IT Initiatives in Toronto, where he advises on critical IT issues facing IT and business leaders. This includes advising organizations considering outsourcing, or who are evaluating how to improve and refresh existing vendor relationships.He has developed and managed numerous outsourcing and vendor services arrangements in both the public and private sectors including for Interac, Toronto East General Hospital, a variety of universities, a national service bureau, and a vendor’s national support manager. Besides writing a column for CIO Canada, George is a panelist at CIO conferences, serves as a judge for the CDN Magazine annual Channel Elite Awards program, teaches in the George Brown College Technology program and is an instructor on vendor relationship management for Tech Learning Space.Recent columnsWho’s the real tyrant: The user or the CIO?Senior IT executives suddenly feel they’re under siege by demanding employees who want to dictate how technology will be used in the office. Explore some healthy ways to manage expectationsThe worst CIO excuse: ‘Above my pay grade’ If you want the “C” in chief information officer to be anything more than ceremonial, it’s time to recognize that corporate strategy is everyone’s job. Take this adviceCIOs won’t impress anyone with a data dumpOur columnist suggets that, in attempting to communicate the value of IT, chief information officers risk offering too much information to people who don’t want to hear it. How to change the conversationWhy CIOs shouldn’t choose the dark sideFocusing on the customer perspective of the IT experiences we deliver isn’t easy. Our columnist walks through a real-life example of where deciding to deceive users could lead to dire consequencesTime for IT departments to refocus security policyTechnology professionals have several clear responsibilities relating to protecting their employers. The first is complying with the law. After that, it gets a little more messy.Not seeing red? Maybe you should beThe traffic signal metaphor is useful for summarizing the status of projects, but only if you’re not afraid of the red lightsSLA or CYA? Rebuilding your service level agreementMost SLAs are too detailed and complicated, with dozens or hundreds of metrics, mostly technical measures taken at the IT provisioning end. But these are meaningless to the business userAre you missing hiring the best people?In a buyer’s market, people with experience and qualifications far exceed the job’s needs. It’s a great deal while it lasts, but this is a false economyWe must win the war on PowerPointMany IT managers have fallen into the trap of seeing the world as they present it, but not everything is “bullet-izable.”
