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Knowing the Role of Business: Chief Information Officer (CIO)

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A Chief Information Officer (CIO) by definition is an executive job title commonly given to the person at an enterprise in charge of information technology (IT) strategy and the computer systems required to support an enterprise’s objectives and goals. With the evolution of technology, this role has become more and more important in business, making the CIO’s job ever more crucial. CIO’s are usually very high up in a business due to their high stake responsibilities for the company. It’s hard, specifically, to outline the responsibilities of a CIO due to the constant change in technology. As well, a CIO’s responsibilities can range from company to company.

The CIO of a company is very important as they are responsible for: strategic planning of the business growth objectives, creating a business value through technology, and ensure the tech systems and procedures lead to success for the business, as well as other management responsibilities such as Supplier Management and Information Risk Management (IRM). The CIO contributes greatly towards the organization of analytics and storage of electric information for of a business. To fulfill the responsibilities of a CIO, a team is constructed to complete tasks that are well thought out.

The CIO works hand-in-hand with the businesses IT department and in some cases the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of their company. Depending on the size and or success of the business, CIO’s can also be an executive. Although, these responsibilities are a base since in many cases their responsibilities vary depending on the company.

Now, how can you become one? There are many requirements for becoming a CIO of a company. It is required to have at least a bachelor degree in business administration and is strongly recommended to have a bachelor degree in computer science or a related area. Next, you will need experience with project management. This can be done through internships, previous jobs, and online or in-class courses. Building your technical credibility is very important as it will help strengthen your portfolio in our technological business world. Choosing the right area to specialize in and certificates that are offered will help with your technical credibility. After you earn your bachelor you need to go out and gain real experience in the IT department and risk management. This is crucial since CIO’s need to know these areas well; in order to succeed for the company. Lastly, receiving a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) will connect the world of technology and business together which is what a strong CIO needs. Working on leadership skills is also crucial as CIO’s lead and manage an organized team through many different jobs every day. However, this job does take time and a lot of effort to fulfill, needing a lot of experience and promotions to reach a C- level in a business.

CIO’s are very crucial for companies nowadays as the world becomes more dependent on technology. This career carries many responsibilities that require technology and business education, alongside great leadership and communication skills. All in all, with the vast increase in our world today through technology the demand for this job will increase as well, which may be a good job to consider for the future.

Importance of Properly Setting Project Milestones

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The importance of setting project milestones

Every project manager knows the importance of keeping a project on track. When a project falls behind, the team needs to put in a great deal of effort to put ensure it is back on track because of the time-sensitive stages of a project; most of the time it leads to the project being delayed or cancelled entirely. Keeping employees motivated to complete a project can be difficult, the easiest way is with the use of project milestones.

Project milestones are important points on a project’s timeline that employees can look at for the visual progression of the project. The thought behind making milestones is to categorize the parts of a project into digestible sections as opposed to viewing the whole project at once; this should motivate your team to complete tasks on time. However, it is important to understand there is more to making project milestones than just setting them. Setting meaningful milestones will motivate your project team members more than setting frequent or unreachable milestones. Here are some things to consider when deciding your project milestones.

Tip #1: Frequency and Timing

As a project manager, you may be tempted to overuse milestones as a motivational tool to keep the team moving along the ladder to reach the surface of success. Don’t fall into the trap of labelling every task completion as a milestone. With more milestones, each one becomes less momentous, inadvertently taking away from the motivation of work. On the other hand, don’t adopt the other extreme approach by ignoring or not recognizing significant and relevant events as milestones. A good compromise is to consistently designate important deliverables as milestones.

Tip #2: Visibility

Milestones need to be placed prominently in the project’s schedule and tracked periodically. Make sure that your milestones have been incorporated into your project scheduling, calendar, or another project-tracking software program. This promotes positive work productivity closer to the goal; similar to a runner getting closer to the end of a marathon.

Tip #3: Accountability

Milestones are commitments that must be met on time. If a milestone is missed, it needs to be addressed immediately by re-examining the resources to determine if they are properly matched to the objectives. This reinforces the meaning behind each milestone and the importance of the impact when achieving each milestone.

Tip #4: Fallibility

It may sound counter-intuitive, but you should select challenging milestones that carry a degree of risk for failure. Treat milestones as learning experiences and opportunities to make adjustments, so the final product can be flawless. People learn from mistakes; applying this philosophy to your projects will assist you to do your best work.

Understand project milestone management and reporting. Contact Entry Software for more information.

Biggest Workplace Pet Peeves

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Workplaces, for most, can be a place where a vast majority of your time is spent. However, it can be very easy for workers to become annoyed with co-workers in the workplace, regarding their actions. People want to keep their workplace as an enjoyable/tolerable environment since they spend a significant amount of time there. Time management and organization are common areas employees lack. This can lead to late assignments, messy work areas and lost files down the road, which is not the “ideal” employee managers and owners want. Pet peeves are always rising issues within the workplace, although with simple solutions it can be fixed

Procrastinating is a rising cause of poor time management these days, from the rise in technology and social media. Time management is an area many people struggle with, especially in the workplace. For instance, imagine you are working on a project that has a short timeline with a co-worker, and as the due date approaches you realize that your partner has little to nothing done. This can become quite frustrating in workplaces, as it not only hurts the worker that can’t manage their time but also has a negative effect on co-workers and the company.

Lack of organization is yet another pet peeve that highly occurs in the workplace. Why? Organization and time management go hand-to-hand with each other if someone is unable to manage their time it can lead to poor organization. This adds a negative, unwanted weight to the company that isn’t helping them. From a manager’s perspective, they are responsible for making sure their employees are productive with completing the required work. If employees are not being efficient with their time, it can become very annoying for the manager. Failing to manage time can raise many problems down the road, creating unhappy managers, owners and customers. Easily enough there are many tactics for both employees and managers to help ease their “annoying” traits in their workplace.

Create a List

Keeping track of what you have to do for either a day or month can help remind you about important deadlines or tasks that are coming up. Seeing visually all the tasks that need to be done can help you organize the importance of each task; helping you accomplish each in time. Now, having forty tasks jotted down on a piece of paper is too overwhelming and can cause you to fully ignore the list entirely. The key to a list is keeping it very simple so that you can instantly see what needs to be done.

Set Reminders

Nowadays technology has become very popular, and with this, we are able to do many things on just one device. Setting reminders on your phone, about important projects or jobs that need to be completed for work, is a great way to keep yourself on track with meeting deadlines; keeping your manager happy.

Set Deadlines/Goals

Set a deadline for a project or task you have been assigned to, and try to stick with it. To help you from being late on projects, set your deadlines a couple of days before it is actually due, so that if any unexpected circumstance arises you have extra time to ensure it will be completed on time.

Project Management Systems (PMS)

As an owner or manager, you may find it very beneficial to invest in a good project management solution, to help boost your time management. These solutions are usually always, easy to use and extremely useful when it comes to keeping businesses on track. PMS’s organize and display tasks and assignments that need to be done and what employees are working on what. With this, managers can assign employees different tasks and delegate tasks efficiently. PMS’s can also help identify the areas employees or the company is lacking, which allows managers to add extra time or help to make sure the work is getting completed on time. PMS’s come with many strong benefits that can assist managers with their time management in a much easier and more organized way. This saves crucial time, that can be used in other areas maximizing the work efficiency, leading to an increase in success for a business.

All in all, there are many pet peeves like time management and organization that occur within a workplace irritating co-workers, making their work environment unenjoyable. In addition, having poor time skills can lead to problems that may hurt the company down the road, with unhappy customers, partners or clients. It also does nothing towards your reputation but bring it down. However, not to worry, because there are many easy solutions previously mentioned, that can help you stay on top of your assignments at work!

How to Streamline Your Workplace Scheduling

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Traditionally, workplace scheduling has been done by creating a timetable that was given to employees or displayed at work, so employees could record their shifts as they come into work. Specific schedules were made for employees that outline their duties during their shifts. This system works, however, it is sloppy and has much room for error. Centralized schedules make it difficult to track employees unavailable days, unexpected sick days or changing project outlines. This system has grown to be simply outdated, with the many other beneficial systems now available.

With the strong tech-based society we live in, there is no surprise that tech companies have found a solution to the outdated scheduling issues for businesses small and large. Scheduling solutions provide a hub that gives employees a visual playground of the individual tasks designated to each person. Tasks can be added or removed by the employee and their superiors and can easily be adjusted if any unforeseen events occur. Additionally, any important events that need to be noticed, like meetings or interviews, can be scheduled in notifying everyone involved over email or text message. The beauty of using scheduling solutions is that it simplifies the work that needs to be done by the business! 

Still not convinced? Here are some more benefits of using an online scheduling solution:

Wide Selection

Online scheduling solutions come in various shapes and sizes. With the wide expanse of the internet, there are many scheduling systems out there; one is bound to best suit your business. Some scheduling solutions are built with certain users in mind ( e.g. TeamHeadquarters for IT Managers and CIOs). With a wide selection, this means solutions will fit in your price range. By researching you can find a scheduling solution that offers you exactly what you need, for the price you want.

Easy to Maintain

One of the biggest issues with the traditional method for scheduling is that it takes added time and effort from a business. However, an online software solution does most of the busy work for you! When you input information into the schedule, it will automatically notify each employee about their shifts or new update. Additionally, some scheduling software integrates with other known software, where they can notify you as well. Scheduling solutions reduce some of the workloads off your back, so you can redirect it towards building a better business.

Accessible Wherever, Whenever

About one-third of meetings scheduled online were scheduled during closed hours of the business. This statement shows how important online scheduling software can be to a business. With a traditional system, it would be difficult to notify everyone, that a meeting was scheduled for a certain time. With an online scheduling solution, you can access the database from home to input meetings easily notifying everyone involved!

The traditional system of scheduling, although it can be effective, is not “the best” for the modern tech-based business world. There is a variety of software available that will fit your business’s wants and needs. Online scheduling solutions are simple to use and maintain because they do all the “heavy lifting” of scheduling for you! Best of all, it is accessible from mobile devices or personal computers which will help organize your business better! It is worth the time and money to invest in an online solution of scheduling.

See how TeamHeadquarters can help with resource scheduling.

Help Desk’s Place in the eCommerce Industry

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Originally, the “help desk” was the area of an establishment with a desk designated for answering any questions or concerns the customer may have about their experience. This was, and still is, a common practice for hotels or other experience-based services like aquariums or museums. While help desks were great for keeping customers happy about their experience, it is a big expense to have employees onsite at all times to answer customer questions. This can become problematic because there could be a high influx of customer questions at sometimes, while other times could have no traffic at all.

With technology becoming more accessible, anytime and anywhere, businesses moved online to form how modern business is conducted; it is known as eCommerce. Many business operations have moved to an online space where goods or services can be purchased and accessible all over the world. However, when customers have questions, they often have to reach out to the business directly, which can become sloppy if mass quantities of questions appear at once. As a solution, eCommerce businesses have returned again, to help desks; this time, however, help desks have become an industry standard.

A “help desk” became the term used to describe online software that manages an online business’s customer service. The most common way in which it does this is allowing the customer to get a “ticket” which categorizes their question or concern. Using this ticket, the customer can write and submit their problem, then have it entered into the business’s database. It is then sent to the customer service department of the business and they can address the customers question in an organized fashion. If customers ask similar questions regarding a certain aspect of the service, it can be more beneficial to have a “frequently asked questions” section, which addresses these types of questions. Moreover, if customers have frequent concerns about a discrepancy in the experience, the business can prioritize to resolutions to these issues thanks to customer feedback. There are different types of help desks that a business can use to best suit their business; the most common being a web help desk described above. It is important to know which help desk works best with your business. Other forms of help desks can come be:

The benefits of using a help desk are it provides an organized avenue to manage customer issues. Helping customers with their questions reliably and swiftly will also increase your customer’s overall satisfaction. Additionally, purchasing a web help desk software won’t hurt your wallet and allows you t be one step ahead with your customers. Although help desks started as a niche method of dealing with customers for experience-based businesses, they have evolved and has become the main way to provide customer support. Today, help desks are now seen as a mainstay in the eCommerce industry.

Key Agreements to Include In Your SLA

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Agreements in SLA

A service level agreement (SLA) is an official agreement between a service provider and their customers that specify what level of service will be delivered as it relates to response and resolution times. It is important for companies to have SLA’s since these agreements set well-defined boundaries and expectations for the service provider to meet. Imagine you run a business and you work with a service provider in which expectations you have are not being reached. The problem here is a miscommunication between the client and service provider, where the expectations were not clearly made. An SLA allows for limited confusion on either the service provider or endpoint client’s part, as long as all the requirements are met throughout the contract. Also, if any conflicts arise during the service period, both companies can turn to the SLA to determine the outcome of their feud. An SLA can range from simple to complex agreements. However, there are key agreements to include in your SLA.

Description of Services

The first necessary agreement is created by the service provider, pinpointing exactly what services and products the business offers; alongside a very detailed description of each one. The description must be honest, including the company’s weaknesses and strengths, that highlight to the client what you are capable of, so that no unexpected surprises come up in the future. Having this aspect of writing clearly defines to the client what products you do and do not offer. These descriptions must be as specific as they can be, no assumptions are to be made and clients remain happy.

Context Setting Information

This can be seen as the original “purpose” of the SLA. Identifying the overall purpose for signing with your clients sets the bar for the service provider and highlights the criteria that should be met for the agreement.

Service Standards

It is very easy for either party involved, to become confused about what is required from the service provider. Having both parties acknowledge the conditions under which the service will be provided assists in keeping the agreement clear and successful. Agreeing upon unique service standards, between both the service provider and the client, will help clear up any confusion regarding duties.

Service Reports

As the service provider, it is on you to make sure you are pinpointing to your clients the progress and impact the service has. Service reports should include the main aspects made above, that clearly show the effectiveness of your service to the client. This should include metrics that distinctively demonstrate your performance.

Regular Reviews

It is very important for both parties to meet regularly to communicate and review the performance of the service that the agreement made was built on. Service reports are good representations of progress to present during these reviews to show the overall effect made so far. If the relationship is going well between the provider and client, continue maintaining good communication, no matter how well the performance is, to continue executing the standards.

Being specific on the key requirements and standards is the most important aspect when forming an SLA. When all aspects and service descriptions are made clear early on, it can reduce confusion and future conflicts between both parties. Incorporating the key aspects referenced earlier can help set goals and expectations early on, clarifying the calibre of the service being offered and the standards that should be met. SLAs are not set in stone and can be modified throughout the time period if expectations or services want to be changed. In order to be a successful service provider, SLAs are a very important key. With this, your service will be delivered to its greatest potential to the client while keeping your customers or clients happy.

Contact Entry Software to get a demo of an SLA tool.