The End of the Hit Parade

Once upon a time, if it was on the web, it was good. If it did tricks, so much the better. And how did a company know if its website was really good? Of course, by measuring traffic. The more traffic, the better, right?

Jaleshgari, Ramin. CIO Magazine (2000). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Log Analysis

The Hidden Costs of Offshore Outsourcing

The current stampede toward offshore outsourcing should come as no surprise. For months now, the business press has been regurgitating claims from offshore vendors that IT work costing $100 an hour in the United States can be done for $20 an hour in Bangalore or Beijing. If those figures sound too good to be true, that's because they are.

Overby, Stephanie. CIO Magazine (2003). Careers>TC>Outsourcing>Offshoring

How to Play to Your Audience

Is your website easy for Maude to use? Or, for that matter, Tiffany or Raul? Here's how to sync up your website with your audience.

Levinson, Meredith. CIO Magazine (2003). Design>Web Design>Redesign>Rhetoric

It's Raining Code! (Hallelujah?)

As open-source development options proliferate, CIOs are finding ways to make it work for their organizations.

Lindquist, Christopher. CIO Magazine (2005). Articles>Documentation>Open Source

The Knowledge Crunch

The Frito-Lay portal has also been an invaluable tool for helping him assess employee skill sets, because each salesperson is required to catalog his or her strengths and areas of expertise.

Shein, Esther. CIO Magazine (2001). Articles>Knowledge Management>Case Studies

Law in Order

One law firm strives to transform scattered file cabinets into an online knowledge-management system.

Mitchell, Meg. CIO Magazine (2000). Articles>Knowledge Management>Case Studies

Manual Labor

Back when having a website was more important than having a sound business plan, Web content management systems were a must-have for large companies. IT managers bought into the idea that they needed an all-in-one system that would help them generate content, structure it, design it and publish it. But new research suggests these systems largely failed to live up to their promise. According to a recent report by Jupiter Research, 61 percent of companies that have deployed Web content management software still update their websites manually.

Surmacz, Jon. CIO Magazine (2003). Design>Content Management>Management>Web Design

Mazed and Confused

You ask the Web jockeys to pull the latest stats. Hits are growing. Page turns per visit are up. The search button has been getting lots of action too. But before you pass those numbers on to the CEO, think again: The search button's popularity could be a sign that customers can't tell where the site's navigation buttons will take them. Those hits and page turns could be a sign that customers are lost, testing link after link. You don't know because at your company, as at most companies, no one has ever asked customers whether your Web site is easy to use. And what you don't know can cost you.

Kalin, Sari. CIO Magazine (1999). Design>Web Design>Usability>Log Analysis

Needle in a Haystack

In most organizations, data is piling up by the minute: e-mails, names, addresses, transactions, you name it. As a result, finding what you need when you need it is becoming increasingly complicated, which is why more companies are deploying enterprise search tools. According to a recent report by Boston-based Yankee Group, 75 percent of businesses with more than 100 employees have some sort of enterprise search technology in place. The study also found that the bigger the organization, the more likely it is to invest in search technologies, as 91 percent of companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue report having enterprise search capability. In 2001, a similar Yankee Group survey found that 63 percent of businesses employed search technology. In that year, enterprise search vendors generated $400 million in revenues.

Surmacz, Jon. CIO Magazine (2003). Design>Content Management>Usability

Putting Content in Context

Digital asset management (DAM) software stores and organizes images, audio, video and other digital objects, making them easier to find, transform and reuse. And many companies are using DAM to provide a centralized way for employees and partners to locate and manipulate content-a big time-saver for all.

Kalin, Sari. CIO Magazine (2002). Design>Content Management>Usability

The Key Isn't ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

For finance organizations, process and organization matter more than vendor.

Surmacz, Jon. CIO Magazine (2004). Articles>Knowledge Management>Management

A Useful Investment

Proper usability design commonly cuts training costs by 50 percent and increases productivity by 25 percent.

Nielsen, Jakob and Kara Pernice Coyne. CIO Magazine (2001). Articles>Project Management>Usability