A manager’s instinct is to strive to control everything. That’s not just ineffective, it’s a practical impossibility. So, where should managers commit finite resources to achieve their enterprise’s mission? Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (“TOC”), introduced in The Goal, is a great place to start, but a terrible place to stop, as most readers can’t put that knowledge to use.Constraints hold organizations in check. Without them, productivity would be easy, and companies...

“There is no doubt that this is a truly original and groundbreaking work in applying the Theory of Constraints. I run a services company and learned some things about the services business. Anyone involved in large services companies needs to look at what John is proposing. I will definitely quote this material frequently.”Chad Smith, Managing Partner, Constraints Management Group“The information presented in this book is badly needed by service providers ...

About a year ago, we published the Cloud Academy primer "Shedding Light on Cloud Computing". Since then, interest in cloud computing has blossomed and I have had the opportunity to present our Cloud Academy content at cloud computing events around the world. This new book encapsulates the insights and knowledge gathered from the conversations at these events. That includes the dialogue with cloud practitioners, vendors, customers and the considerable number of cloud computing gurus this in...

A growing number of senior executives are coming to realize that strategic supply management can be a significant driver of improved corporate performance and better risk management. Spend analysis is the most critical component, and the starting point, of strategic supply management and is essential to achieving world-class performance. If you cant analyze your spend data, many opportunities for improvement beyond the low-hanging fruit are without doubt being missed. There is a lot of con...

The latest techniques for building a customer-focused enterprise environment"The authors have appreciated that MDM is a complex multidimensional area, and have set out to cover each of these dimensions in sufficient detail to provide adequate practical guidance to anyone implementing MDM. While this necessarily makes the book rather long, it means that the authors achieve a comprehensive treatment of MDM that is lacking in previous works." -- Malcolm Chisholm, Ph.D., Pre...

CISA Exam PrepCertified Information Systems AuditorMichael GreggYour Complete Certification Solution!The Smart Way to Study™In This Book You’ll Learn How To:Approach the IS audit process from ISACA’s view of IS auditing best practicesRelate and apply information security and systems audit best practices to the six CISA job practice areasUnderstand the IS audit process and learn how to apply best practices to secure a...

Identity theft and other confidential information theft have now topped the charts as the leading cybercrime. In particular, credit card data is preferred by cybercriminals. Is your payment processing secure and compliant? The new Fourth Edition of PCI Compliance has been revised to follow the new PCI DSS standard version 3.0, which is the official version beginning in January 2014. Also new to the Fourth Edition: additional case studies and clear guidelines and instructions for maintainin...

Is your IT system an asset or a hindrance to your organization's success?More important, can you tell the difference?Unlike other well-recognized professions, information technology is still in its infancy. Organizations have little hesitation in paying attorneys, accountants, or business strategists for their expertise. As individuals, we don't blink an eye while paying for a physician's opinion of our health. Yet business executives rarely think to request a professional ...

Information technology supports efficient operations, enterprise integration, and seamless value delivery, yet itself is too often inefficient, un-integrated, and of unclear value. This completely rewritten version of the bestselling Architecture and Patterns for IT Service Management, Resource Planning and Governance retains the original (and still unique) approach: apply the discipline of enterprise architecture to the business of large scale IT management itself. Author Charles Betz app...

Plan, execute, and sustain a successful IT campaign with Sam Bansal's perfect scorecard approachFirst came the dot.com bust, then the IT squeeze. Despite software being the tail that wags the dog in most corporations, the cham-pions of IT, the CIOs, are constantly under fire to justify and maximize their IT investments—past, present, and future.Learn how to establish Key Performance Indicators and Value Scorecards for IT to ensure maximum value in your corp...

The Practitioner's Guide to Data Quality Improvement offers a comprehensive look at data quality for business and IT, encompassing people, process, and technology. It shares the fundamentals for understanding the impacts of poor data quality, and guides practitioners and managers alike in socializing, gaining sponsorship for, planning, and establishing a data quality program. It demonstrates how to institute and run a data quality program, from first thoughts and justifications to maintena...

The best-practice guide to managing IT infrastructures–now fully updated!IT Systems Management is an up-to-the-minute guide to maintaining stable, responsive IT production environments. Top IT systems management expert Rich Schiesser illuminatesboth the theoretical and practical aspects of systems management, using methods and examples drawn from decades of experience leading and consulting with the world’s most complex enterprise IT organizations.This thoroughly upd...