Join us for a conversation with John Marcante, CIO of the mutual fund company the Vanguard Group, about keeping innovation alive; the place of mobile, social, and the cloud; and other hot topics on IE Radio today (Thursday, January 24) at 2:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. PT). Or catch the replay later.
I talked with Marcante Wednesday to get ready for the interview. He told me that IT innovation helps drive Vanguard's success. The company launched an innovation team in 2008, which put out its first native iPhone app the following year. Now, the company has six full-time members on its innovation team, working on a three- to five-year timeframe, Marcante told me. "It's heavily ingrained in what we call practical innovation," he said, quoting a predecessor who used to say, "There's always a fine line between vision and hallucination." Marcante added, "If you go beyond five years, you're hallucinating."
IT works with business sponsors to make sure innovation is practical. Currently, the team is working on responsive mobile design to make the company's websites automatically optimize themselves for either mobile or desktop devices. Vanguard is working on a mix of HTML5 and native mobile clients, and investing in the cloud.
Other issues on Marcante's mind: Integrating business and IT, and the changing role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in regards to technology.
We hope you'll join us for what's sure to be a fascinating discussion at 2:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, January 24 -- that's today. Or listen anytime after the event is over. Find it here:
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
As competition for top technical talent heats up, savvy hiring managers and CIOs are beefing up their internship programs to ensure they build strong relationships with the next generation of IT talent. One surefire way to attract the brightest new minds: Pay them well.
There's good news for IT professionals seeking new jobs: The employment market is looking up, with more companies hiring technology professionals or paying more to retain them.
Looking to improve medical results and enhance collaboration with developers, Kaiser Permanente released its first application programming interface (API) this week.
The media circus -- social and traditional -- will descend on central Florida next month, as lawyers, pundits, and the merely curious follow the state's second degree murder case against George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin.
Almost everyone agrees that data analytics, digital marketing, apps, and APIs will greatly affect their enterprise's results in the next 12 months. But a report suggests that not all large corporations are moving quickly to adopt these enabling technologies -- and that could seriously harm their profitability, customer satisfaction, and chances for ongoing success.
Big-data has become a big point of emphasis for many businesses. While the technology is available to deploy these applications, the needed personnel often is not. As a result, analytic engineers' salaries have blown past the six-figure mark, and hiring these experts has become a challenge for IT managers.
New tools like laptops, tablets, smartphone, and wireless connectivity let us work from San Diego to Katmandu, and anywhere in between. But time management remains a problem.
Showing results is the best way to win over social business doubters, according to Mary Maida, Medtronic lead information solutions manager. Internet Evolution's Mitch Wagner interviewed Maida at the E2 Innovate conference.
Software-defined networks, which deliver virtualization functions to enterprise networks, have the potential to dramatically change network design and significantly reduce costs and maintenance.
Companies need to take advantage of new technologies to simplify interfaces, improve capabilities, and enhance back-office processes. But they can't upgrade their Websites too often.
Wells Fargo uses social software to replace email chains and help its sales team collaborate more effectively to land deals, according to Kelli Carlson-Jagersma, VP Collaboration Strategy for Wells Fargo. Mitch Wagner spoke with Carlson-Jagersma at the E2Innovate conference
Cisco's rumored sale of Linksys suggests we may have problem with innovation and profit at the edge of our Internet, and that could be critical to the evolution of many Internet-delivered services.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Email This
