Welcome to The Cutter Edge. In each free biweekly edition you'll benefit from insight and business technology advice designed to help you further your organization's mission.

Featured Article

Identifying the Right Sourcing Strategy for Your Business

by Steve Andriole, Fellow, Cutter Consortium

The trends are clear. There will be more and more outsourcing as we proceed through the 21st century. On-demand, "pay-by-the-drink," and related models will dominate technology delivery for the foreseeable future -- and very likely permanently. Lack of expertise in the US is accelerating this trend. So where does this leave us? With a new requirement: vendor management.

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Popular: Free from the Cutter Edge Archives

Rightplacing Puts Trust in the Right Place

by Vince Kellen, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

As it was two millennia ago, today a decimation of sorts remains a distressing part of our cultural experience.

The word "decimate" comes from the Roman practice of punishing one in 10 of a mutinied army or one showing cowardice in battle. Leaders in the army would draw lots in which the unlucky one was clubbed to death by the remaining nine. While not terribly common, decimation had the intended effect.

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Stat of the Week

Q: Indicate to what extent, in general, the IT organization is producing work of quality and is efficient in performing its work.

According to Geneviève Bassellier, Assistant Professor of IS, McGill University (Canada) and Ron Cenfetelli, Assistant Professor of MIS, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (Canada), "The challenges of providing outcomes on time and on budget are often more important to the IT group than the quality of the services they deliver. Our data confirms this: 69% of the respondents assess the efficiency of their IT groups as average or less, as compared to 52% who assess the quality of the outputs as average or less. On both dimensions, the respondents are not very positive, but clearly the efficiency seems to bother the business clients more. This might remind some of us of the phenomenon of: 'fast, good, cheap: pick only two.'"

*Excerpted from "Life is Service: Even for the IT Shop" Cutter Benchmark Review, Vol. 9, No. 6. ()

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Editor's Pick

Four Express Ways to Put People First

Business leaders can have difficulty maintaining a motivated, dedicated, and satisfied workforce in times of economic uncertainty. Read Senior Consultant Bob Furniss' E-mail Advisor Four Express Ways to Put People First () to learn ways to put your people first and build relationships that will directly affect your success -- and your bottom line.

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New in Cutter Benchmark Review

Mobile Privacy and Security: The Next Frontier of IT Risk Management

Editor Gabriele Piccoli

In this issue of Cutter Benchmark Review the three hot "parts" of mobility, security, and privacy which have been focused on in past issues, will now be discussed as the "whole." Gabe explains, "We do so because we feel that these topics, interesting each on its own, take on renewed relevance when combined. It is undeniable that mobile form factors, from the laptop to the smartphone to the iPad and who knows what next, will continue to gain prominence in the personal and organizational technology arsenal." Check out the introduction to this month's issue to learn more!

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