4 Tips for Building a Productive Relationship with Marketing

"The steps to create an effective relationship with the marketing group aren't radically different from those you'd take with another department. 

Stop talking about tech. Want to win over a marketer? Forget the campaign-management software and ask about her brand marketing plan. Putting the project work aside to find out what keeps the marketing group up at night gives IT credibility to use later. 

Be a hero. Biogen's marketers have a huge appetite for analytics. What they don't have are data scientists. Guess who does? "Our IT people have those analytical skill sets naturally," says Meyers.

Instead of hiring consultants, marketing now turns to IT's business analysts, one of whom recently designed marketing's suite of analytics tools for campaign management.

Be the heavy. Marketers work with tons of outside agencies. But Meyers--who has worked at an interactive marketing agency--knows that agencies may not put marketing's best interests first.

Meyers is the voice of reason when marketing might otherwise cave in to an agency that wants to build a smartphone app that doesn't meet the company's needs. "We're in the room so that marketing gets the most from its investments," says Meyers.

Don't be a know-it-all. "Marketing people are used to being the smartest people in the room," says Meyers. Let them be. If you have a good idea, make it seem like theirs. That is, don't present a five-page social media plan. Instead, stroll in with an idea you had in the shower and ask for input. "They need to be part of the ideation and creative process," Meyers says. "

http://www.itnews.com/business-issues/60933/4-tips-building-productive-relationship-marketing

This is a great article. I agree with every point of it. I like the last point specifically. Nobody can be as smart as anybody! This is the essence of open innovation. Involve them!!

Should your business start accepting Bitcoins?

"Bitcoins are, in the words of the Bitcoin Project, open-source, peer-to-peer digital currency. For those accustomed to dollars and cents, almost none of that makes any sense at all. Boiling it down: Bitcoins are a synthetic currency that are kept in a "digital wallet" on your PC or mobile phone. Payments are sent from one wallet to another--similar to Paypal--and an in-depth cryptographic system verifies that transactions (such as purchases) are legitimate. These transactions are verified by other Bitcoin users (part of the P2P aspect of the currency), and as a reward, those transaction processors are eligible to receive newly minted Bitcoins. (These amount to free money, but they are exceedingly difficult to obtain. This has led to sophisticated Bitcoin mining operations sprouting up, as well as an entire industry based on supporting of those operations.) 

On the other hand, working with Bitcoins isn't easy. Pricing is the biggest challenge: With a currency this volatile, you must either update prices daily (or multiple times daily) or, as Josh Tordsen of Gigastrand does, let the shopping cart manage exchange rates in real time. And once you have Bitcoins, what do you do with them? Exchange them for dollars or hold on to them in the hopes the rollercoaster ride keeps getting better? (Most seem to be keeping them because they just want to see what happens.) "

http://www.itnews.com/business-issues/60534/should-your-business-start-accepting-bitcoins

I did not know about Bitcoint, but this is a very interesting project. I would not start accepting Bitcoins because the market is not mature enough and the currency is volatile. You have to be an expert in this field otherwise should wait until the waves disappear and you can sail out without taking huge risks for small reward.

How to Evaluate the Risk of Outsourcing Locations

"The Classic Way to Assess Geographic Risk of an Outsourcing Location

The classic criteria for assessing geographic risk in an outsourcing location have been geopolitical stability, the general business environment, the quality of human capital, the legislative and regulatory environment, and the broader IT landscape. That's a good starting point, says Green. But it's too simple. The location analysis needs to feed into an analysis of specific vendor risk to be truly useful, according to Green.

The Right Way to Assess Geographic Risk of an Outsourcing Location

By combining location-based risk analysis with vendor viability information -- and weighing that against internal needs, tolerances, and capabilities, companies can make better overall offshoring decisions, says Green. "For example, if a location is evaluated as having high risk, there may be mitigating factors such as whether you already have a local presence in the country, the importance of the engagement (and whether it will touch your customers), as well as your vendor management capabilities," he says. "The concept acknowledges that there is a healthy degree of risk which companies should be willing to take depending on the engagement, rather than taking an approach where the lowest risk is the best option."

In addition, many IT service providers are now multinational with the ability to shift work between delivery centers, so looking at location in conjunction with supplier specifics provides a clearer picture of overall risk.

IT leaders can't afford to continue to look at location-based risk in a vacuum, according to Green. While every service provider is, in part, dependent on its local environment, "the quality and maturity of the provider will work to mitigate or exacerbate location dynamics," says Green. "Providers can take a number of actions to help mitigate the influence of geography, whether it is cultural training, process expertise, to having a network of delivery centers and partners so work can be shifted from one destination to another."

In addition, many IT service providers are now multinational with the ability to shift work between delivery centers, so looking at location in conjunction with supplier specifics provides a clearer picture of overall risk.

IT leaders can't afford to continue to look at location-based risk in a vacuum, according to Green. While every service provider is, in part, dependent on its local environment, "the quality and maturity of the provider will work to mitigate or exacerbate location dynamics," says Green. "Providers can take a number of actions to help mitigate the influence of geography, whether it is cultural training, process expertise, to having a network of delivery centers and partners so work can be shifted from one destination to another."

http://www.itnews.com/business-issues/63229/how-evaluate-risk-outsourcing-locations

It was a whole new point of view for me. The classic way was obvious and has been taught in school. This era outdated and we have to look at the outsourcing location finding as a more complex thing and associate different risks with different aspects of the business. IT can point out those differences.

Big Data Will Drive the Industrial Internet

"The conversation around big data has largely focused on clickstream data, sentiment analysis and consumer targeting. But behind the scenes, the capabilities enabled by machine-to-machine communication and advanced analytics stand poised to dramatically change the world around us.

Case in point: General Electric (GE) and its vision of the "Industrial Internet," which it suggests may bring about as profound a change to the way we live our lives as the Industrial Revolution and the more recent Internet Revolution.

"The world is on the threshold of a new era of innovation and change with the rise of the industrial Internet," Peter C. Evans, director of Global Strategy and Analytics at GE, and Marco Annunziata, chief economist and executive director of Global Market Insight at GE, writes in a GE whitepaper, Industrial Internet: Pushing the Boundaries of Minds and Machines.

Small Changes Are Big on the Industrial Internet

"The compounding effects of even relatively small changes in efficiency across industries of massive global scale should not be ignored," Evans and Annunziata write:

"As we have noted, even a one percent reduction in costs can lead to significant dollar savings when rolled up across industries and geographies. If the cost savings and efficiency gains of the industrial Internet can boost U.S. productivity growth by 1 to 1.5 percentage points, the benefit in terms of economic growth could be substantial, potentially translating to a gain of 25 to 40 percent of current per capita GDP. The Internet Revolution boosted productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points for a decade--given the evidence detailed in this paper, we believe the industrial Internet has the potential to deliver similar gains and over a longer period.""

http://www.itnews.com/it-management/63442/big-data-will-drive-industrial-internet?page=0,1

Big Data is a very hot and promising topic in IT now. However, I do not have the skillset and knowledge to digest it. Big Data is important at giant companies. To me it is unlikely that I will be a manager in any of them.
I noticed after reading this article that this is interesting but certainly not suitable for me. 

6 Things IT Managers Need to Know About Hiring vs. Training

1. How much time do we have to fill the gap that's been identified? "If we have plenty of time, it makes sense to train someone from the inside. On the other hand, if this is gap that needs to be filled immediately, says Rachel Russell, director of marketing at TEKsystems, "you've got to go the hiring route."

2. Is this a skills problem or a bandwidth problem? For example, says Russell, "I have people with this skill today but I only have three of them and in order to take on the workload the business requires of me I'm going to need 10. Then all the training in the world won't solve your capacity problem, you're going to need to hire."

3. Is it experience that's needed or skills?Sometimes companies just need or want someone in a role who has done this kind of work before and understands the industry at a deeper level.

4. How large is the gap? Does an employee need only a moderate amount of training and grooming to get to the next level or is the gap so large that it might take him a few years to get there.

"If it's a small gap you've got to go the training route. That is what motivates and inspires your people and lets them know that you see where they are at, you support their career efforts and support them as an organization," says Russell.

5. Does the gap represent a short-term or a long-term need? If you only to need a certain skill set to get from point "A" to point "B" then training probably wouldn't make sense.

"If the skill is one that will only be needed for a fixed period of time, and will not be needed long-term, vendor partners are an appropriate stop-gap," says Peter High author of the book, World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs and founder of Metis strategy, a CIO advisory firm.

6. Is the gap valuable only in tandem with institutional knowledge? That is, does this gap require more than skills and experience? "Does it also need an extensive background on your internal systems to apply this skill to the organization? If so, then training makes sense to make sure you get someone with that institutional knowledge," says Russell.

http://www.itnews.com/business-issues/63879/6-things-it-managers-need-know-about-hiring-vs-training

It's been a big debate about this topic for decades. To me the solution is simple in mind. Estimate the cost of hiring and training. Most of the time you can handle the problem in house immediately but in long run you more likely to bring somebody in from outside.

The 4 smartest things you can do every morning

I found this article about the 4 smartest things that you can do every morning. It is basically time management for a complete, healthy, balanced and successful life.
I like reading about time management, i like when i read something useful and new.
https://www.openforum.com/articles/the-4-smartest-things-you-can-do-every-morning/?extlink=of-syndication-dsq-p
This is the article.
What it says is the following:
1. Check your to-do-list
I barely use to-do-list. To me it is like using a gps, while you are driving. Your brain loses it's focus tracking everything that you have to do. Thus before I am going to fall asleep, i think about the next day's schedule. What to do when. Then I wake up and do those things. When I am really buried under stuff, i do write a to-do-list just to give me a reward crossing the task I handled.

2. Do something for yourself
So true! For my mind's health my body has to be in shape too. I don't like working out, because to me it is just wasting time and I don't have that. I work out when I read, work, go to work. It sounds funny but you can work out like that. Think about that. I got a new job 10 miles away, my car is broken, i can take a bus. From door to door it takes more than 70 minutes to get there and it costs me money, have to be in a closed box with not certainly people. So i decided to go to work by bike! 45 minutes ride, it is healthy, it is cheap (free, plus maintenance), fast (i dont have to wait for anything) and it is flexible! All in one. 20 miles riding 90 minutes workout. Nice!
When i am done with 20 pages, i get down to the floor, do 50 push-ups and get back to the book. I do the same until I feel tired. Sometimes I just do 100 push-ups in 1 minute. My muschels are feeling pretty good, i feel refreshed too. Before sleeping i sit couple sit-ups just to remind my belly for being shape. Even the most effective people have deadtime! Just think about your day!
3. Have a routine
True! I am a morning person and am extremely effective in the morning. My mind shines! I can get things done quicker than at any other time. I like getting up early, so by 10am I am done with almost everything. Get up, go to the bathroom, get dressed, eat, hop-on the bike and you are good to go. It is the same at night. Block yourself out on facebook, you just waste so much time on it.
4. Start with something big...or small
The author refers to two scholars. Start with you biggest thing to do on that day and then continue with smaller stuff or vice versa. I go with the second one. I like to get small things done so I have time focusing on the big one knowing that I have only one left all day long.

Take care! Plan and manage and execute!

Coursera

One of my best friend from Hungary recommended this website, especially this course:
https://www.coursera.org/course/publicspeak

I immediately enrolled to this course and I am looking forward to it very much.

Introduction to Public Speaking

Matt McGarrity

A report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that employers want job candidates with strong communication skills. Similarly, educational success also requires the ability to articulate your thoughts clearly. In this class, we will study the principles of public speaking; critically examine our own and others’ speeches through interactive practice.

Workload: 3-5 hours/week 

Watch intro video

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Sessions:

Jun 24th 2013 (10 weeks long) About the Course Unlike many oral communication courses and textbooks, this class spends a fair bit of time working through the unique traits of oral versus written communication in order to help students prepare speeches that are easier to deliver orally and understand aurally. The class’s focus on understanding the key parts of an argument and drafting clear and concise arguments translates directly to other academic assignments. In service of this goal, we will study the principles of argumentation and arrangement; critically examine our own speeches and the speeches of others. By becoming a student of public speaking, you join a long history of rhetorical study dating back to ancient Greece.  Course Syllabus Course Objectives: The overriding goal of this course is to demystify the process of writing, practicing, and performing a clear and engaging speech. In so doing, I hope this course can help each student improve the quality of their speeches and confidence with which they present them.  More specifically, upon successfully completing this course, you should be able to: Design and deliver basic arguments clearly. Design and deliver informative presentations clearly. Design and deliver complex arguments persuasively. Speak confidently with appropriate rate, projection, movement, and vocal variety. Evaluate and critique speeches insightfully. Assignment Overview: In designing this course, I wanted to provide a wide range of activities and assignments for the wide range of student interest and needs.  Some students may want only to watch the video lectures and take the quizzes; others may invest more fully and post sample videos and participate actively in discussion forums. Whatever your path, my goal is that this class can give you the information and space you need to improve your public speaking skills. Here are some of the course assignments and activities:  Video lectures: Most of the course content is delivered through a number of video lectures. Each video runs 10-12 minutes and teaches a specific public speaking ability or concept.  Discussion forums: This class thrives on discussion. There are a number of discussion forums that emerge from the lectures and sample speeches. You will have the ability to articulate your views on public speaking as well as learn from your peers.  Quizzes: Many video lectures have short quizzes embedded that reinforce basic knowledge of certain concepts and argument structures.  Google hangouts: Throughout the course, a few Google hangouts will be hosted for chatting with selected students about their experiences and challenges with speech composition and performance.  Speech Analysis and Modeling: One of the best ways to refine your own speech ability is through a close study of others' speeches.  We will have a number of opportunities to examine and discuss sample speeches and speakers. Growing out of our analysis of speakers, we will discuss who you hold up as a model speaker and analyze what makes that speaker so good.  Peer Assessment Assignments - Speeches and speech outlines: There are three optional speech assignments: an impromptu, informative, and persuasive speech. Students can elect to record and post videos of their speeches. Students can also post and receive peer feedback on their outlines for each speech. Recommended Background Course prerequisite: If you wish to complete the three speech assignments, you must have access to video recording equipment (e.g., digital camera, cell phone, flip camera, web cam, or video camera) and ability to share this digital content via the site youtube. Course Format Week 1: Course overview and key terms  Week 2: Preparing impromptu speeches  Week 3: Delivering impromptu speeches  Week 4: Informative speech basics  Week 5: Preparing informative speeches  Week 6: Delivering informative speeches  Week 7: Persuasive speech basics  Week 8: Preparing persuasive speeches  Week 9: Delivering persuasive speeches  Week 10: Course Conclusion I was looking at the website in details and I was fascinated! You can take as many free courses from top notch universities as you can and want!! It is a non-for-profit organization, they have a vision to provide access to high quality education to everyone. Knowledge without limits. It is just great! I'll let you know how it goes!