Featured Advisory Papers
Workplace Innovation
As a Service
Security Leadership
Governance & Planning
Infrastructure
Applications
Sourcing & Staffing
Operations & Service Delivery
Workplace Innovation
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Digital Strategy Part 1: What are the traits of digital leaders?
Conclusion:CEOs need their CIOs to be out on the cutting edge to decide which technology to incorporate so that the organisation can adapt and transform in a rapidly changing landscape. As the...
- Karen Scott Davie -
Leadership is critical to innovation
Conclusion:It is difficult to plan when innovation will occur. It is particularly difficult for established organisations to be innovative – they have been successful through sound business...
- Sue Johnston -
Considering Chromebooks Part 2: Use cases
Conclusion:Unless an organisation has made a decision to go “all-in” with Google’s G Suite, Chromebooks (plus Chromeboxes and related Chrome devices) are best viewed as an adjunct to traditional...
- Joseph Sweeney -
Considering Chromebooks Part 1: Show me the money!
Conclusion:Chromebooks continue to be viewed mostly as a low-cost alternative to Windows devices. While it is true a Google G Suite/Chromebook only workspace is a considerably lower cost compared...
- Joseph Sweeney -
Deciding between Google G Suite and Microsoft Office 365
Conclusion:The decision to adopt Microsoft Office 365 or Google G Suite rarely comes down to cost. The decision is more often based on the speed at which an organisation wishes to change from “the...
- Joseph Sweeney
As a Service
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Running IT-as-a-Service Part 40: Aligning business continuity and IT disaster recovery plans
Conclusion: Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are largely developed in isolation. The result is ineffective recovery arrangements that do not meet the fundamental business needs. With the...
- Wissam Raffoul -
Running IT-as-a-Service Part 39: Keeping digital transformation alive
Conclusion: Many IT organisations have adopted business transformation1 strategies to help their businesses increase revenue. However, while digital transformation has succeeded in making the...
- Wissam Raffoul -
Running IT-as-a-Service Part 38: Successful hybrid Cloud requires multi-provider governance framework
Conclusion:Many Cloud service providers manage their own systems but do not take any responsibility for working with other providers in a multi-sourced environment. As a result, IT organisations...
- Wissam Raffoul -
Running IT-as-a-Service Part 37: The business efficiency improvement option
Conclusion:One strategy to implement IT-as-a-Service models is to focus on business efficiency improvement. This requires shifting focus from addressing IT internal issues (e. g. operating system...
- Wissam Raffoul -
Running IT-as-a-Service Part 36: The IT efficiency improvement option
Conclusion:One strategy to implement IT-as-a-Service models is to focus on efficiency improvement. This requires shifting focus from control to service improvement. The outcome will be end-user...
- Wissam Raffoul
Security Leadership
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Hot cyber security vendors for your shortlist Part 3 – more Aussies
Conclusion: UpGuard, Nuix and WithYouWithMe each have a proven capability to address an important aspect of the cyber defences of Australian organisations. WithYouWithMe is about people, UpGuard is...
- James Turner -
Maersk and NotPetya – a case study on business impact and cyber risk management
Conclusion: The foreseeability of cyber incidents is widely accepted, but many organisations still have not done the work to identify their own exposures and ascertain what they would do in a...
- James Turner -
Train your staff in esafety
Conclusion:Security awareness campaigns are essential for educating staff on security behaviours. However without staff engagement, these campaigns can fail to change behaviour – and behavioural change is...
- James Turner -
Managed crowdsourcing for vulnerability assessments
Conclusion:Third party bug bounty programs can be an effective way of incentivising security researchers around the world to share a discovered vulnerability. Third party bug bounty programs are...
- James Turner -
AWS, Google and Microsoft setting the pace for security by design
Conclusion:The security capabilities of Cloud vendors have evolved rapidly since 2008. Specifically, the three big Cloud vendors Microsoft, Google and AWS understand the importance of trust and...
- James Turner
Governance & Planning
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Agile: The other considerations
Conclusion: Organisations everywhere are implementing Agile as a dynamic approach to speed up the creation of value and improve development of new and improved services and products. Adopting a best practice...
- Sue Johnston -
Change management: What “not to do” when leading change
Conclusion: Driving cultural change and managing the impact of change across an organisation when implementing a new business application is a key challenge for the leadership, including the CIO. By...
- Karen Scott Davie -
Understanding GDPR requirements: Part 2
Conclusion: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation being introduced by the European Union (EU) in May has ramifications to organisations worldwide. Australian organisations that...
- Peter Hall -
The top business technology priorities for 2018
Conclusion: While there was significant media attention on artificial intelligence and blockchain in 2017, the primary concerns of Australia’s CIOs remain focused on the more pressing issues of...
- Joseph Sweeney -
Tick all the boxes before merging IT assets
Conclusion: Consolidating information systems after a MoG change or a company acquisition is not only risky but also likely to be expensive. The problem is compounded when the benefits expected from the...
- Alan Hansell
Infrastructure
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Keeping your mobile device strategies up to date
Conclusion: BYOD strategies need to be updated regularly to keep pace with the evolving nature of not just the devices themselves but also the increasing challenges and complexity to stay secure;...
- Peter Bickerton -
Volume does not equal value: Use data demographics to set your data storage strategies
Conclusion:Technologists consistently under-estimate the growth of data volumes. The result is tactical actions aimed at increasing capacity achieved by adding storage on-premise using traditional...
- Sam Higgins -
Complexity is costly, risky and unavoidable
Conclusion:Managing large IT environments and provisioning IT services within an organisation is complex and complexity will always exist. However, not all complexity is “bad”. “Good” complexity is the...
- Peter Hall -
Preparing for networking in the Cloud
Conclusion:Preparing the modern business for Cloud requires a common computing and networking infrastructure with new Cloud architectures converging with data centres over a hybrid of both direct...
- Geoff Johnson -
Buying in Cloud Marketplaces
Conclusion:IBRS’ finding is that prominent Cloud marketplaces (CMPs) such as AWS Marketplace1, Microsoft Azure2, Google Cloud Platform3 and IBM Bluemix4 are gaining traction as alternatives to...
- Geoff Johnson
Applications
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Prepare to manage the “evolution” of AI-based solutions with “DataOps”
Conclusion: The development of AI-based solutions is heavily dependent on various types of data input in the form of either: Large data sets used to conduct experiments to develop models and...
- Sam Higgins -
Proactive optical character recognition of incoming content will accelerate AI-enabled automation
Conclusion: Although online digital platforms are in ready supply, organisations remain unable to avoid the receipt of critical information in the form of paper documents or scanned images. Whether...
- Sam Higgins -
Mind Mapping Practitioners Course
Many organisations are wanting to drive innovation, encourage creative thinking skills and boost productivity. Mind Mapping is a proven technique that helps individuals and teams improve their creative...
- Peter Hall -
Machine learning will displace “extract, transform and load” in business intelligence and data integration
Conclusion:Organisations continue to emphasise their competitive differentiation based on the data they hold, and the insights gained from analysing this valuable resource. The rate at which...
- Sam Higgins -
How to succeed with eforms Part 2: The five most common eforms challenges
Conclusion:IBRS has observed that many organisations’ eforms initiatives face five common challenges. To help ensure the best long-term outcomes for an eforms initiative, each of the five...
- Joseph Sweeney
Sourcing & Staffing
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How to select the best candidate using behavioural interview questions and techniques
Conclusion: Selecting the most suitable candidate is a critical responsibility. Take the time upfront to prepare for hiring the person required. Choosing the right person will reap rewards in many...
- Peter Bickerton -
Sourcing Monthly February 2018 – March 2018
Conclusion: This month, the large outsourcing agreement between Thales and the Department of Defence/Airservices Australia has been the subject of discussion. Whilst the contract value is high, more...
- Irene Pimentel -
Sourcing Monthly January 2018 – February 2018
Conclusion: This month, discussions regarding digital transformation efforts have been prominent. Plans to upgrade, improve and modernise internal ICT frameworks are critical for effective value...
- Irene Pimentel -
Helping technical team leaders succeed
Conclusion:One of the least understood contributors in implementing IT projects successfully is the leadership provided by competent TTLs (Technical Team Leads). Their ability to steer projects in...
- Alan Hansell -
Future-proofing your ICT team: Predictions and mitigation
Conclusion:Growth in ICT remains strong in the foreseeable future in a very competitive market. Successful CIOs and ICT leaders responsible for staffing and sourcing need to adopt multiple...
- Peter Bickerton
Operations & Service Delivery
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Canberra-based Azure is about much more than security
Conclusion: On 3rd April 2018, Microsoft announced the availability of its Azure Cloud running within Canberra Data Centres (CDC) facilities, and officially rated for protected workloads....
- Joseph Sweeney -
Workforce transformation Part 1: Disrupting the very idea of paper is an important first step
Conclusion: Current approaches to knowledge management are being disrupted by a wave of new working practices that replace the paper-based metaphor which pre-dates the computer revolution, with a...
- Joseph Sweeney -
Understanding power in stakeholder management
Conclusion:Most organisations today understand that business change requires the effective management of stakeholders. Whether they be internal or external, the inclusion of their opinions, needs...
- Sue Johnston -
Is AWS “Connect” the path to exquisitely automated customer service?
Conclusion:The future of customer service will rely heavily on automating assistance with targeted empathy1. Expect virtual digital assistants to heavily reduce the need for contact centre...
- Geoff Johnson -
Public sector shared services – The next generation
Conclusion:Australian governments at the federal and state levels have been implementing, modifying, discarding or persevering with shared services models for the better part of 15 years. Most of...
- Sue Johnston
