Agility Competing and Winning in a Tech-Savvy Marketplace

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

CHAPTER 1: Leading into the future.

Current Landscape.

Key Forecast of it Trends and Spends.

Leading by Example.

CHAPTER 2: Maximum Ride: Owning Technology versus just Using IT.

How the World Is Changing.

Current Research in Enterprise Architecture.

Making Quantum Leaps and Not Just Incremental Changes.

Microsoft's Structured Approach.

Infrastructure Maturity and the Impact on Core Business Performance.

Trends.

A Note about Case Studies and the Infrastructure Optimization model.

CHAPTER 3: Optimizing for Agility: A Different Way to View Your Business.

Individual, Organizaton or Information Technology: Where Do You Start?

Role of Place, People, and Technology.

Infrastructure Optimization.

Capabilities: The Areas of Optimization.

CHAPTER 4: Technology as the Competitive Edge.

Why Benchmarking?

Auto, Finance, Healthcare, Public Sector View Comparison.

CHAPTER 5: Business Impact: Technology Solutions from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor.

IT as Business Enabler Instead of Cost Center.

Creating Business Intelligence from Data Overload.

Improving Customer Contact through Web Site Design and Database Magic.

Streamlining the Product Development Cycle.

Retaining Confidentiality while Operating “in a Cloud”.

Managing Suppliers and Inventory.

Security,Security, and More Security.

Working Anywhere, Any Time.

Making Sustainability Part of the Bottom Line.

CHAPTER 6: Assessing Your Situation.

Where Is Your Starting Position?

Analyzing Where You Want to Go.

Define Where You Want to Be.

Where to Begin?

CHAPTER 7: Makint It Happen.

The Big Picture Goals During Change.

Optimizing for Simplicity and Agility.

Off-the-Shelf Solutions versus Customization.

Building Your A Team.

Ongoing Upgrades: Moving from “Old” to “Always Fresh”.

Adoption Made Easier: Moving Data, Training People.

CHAPTER 8: Optimizing Your Workforce:  Leveraging the New with the Old.

Technology Immigrants and Digital Natives.

Getting Everyone Across the Chasm.

Social Networking: A Tool from Home Goes to Work.

Sector Influence on Change.

Old Dogs, New Kids, and the Naysayers.

CHAPTER 9: Starting Over to Stay Ahead.

Index.

MARK MUELLER-EBERSTEIN is founder and CEO of Adgetec, whose mission is to help organizations and their leaders realize value globally. He is a recognized thought leader, speaker, mentor, and coach. He also advises start-ups, sometimes hands-on as their COO on business strategy and IP management. Agility was written based on his over fifteen years of global experience in the IT industry working with companies and governments to choose, adopt, roll out, and measure the impact of new technologies. In his responsibility as the director of deployment and adoption at Microsoft, he was responsible for the customers' value realization and deployment experience of Microsoft's Office and collaboration products; the customer and partner engagement during Microsoft's software development process; and joint research with leading academic institutions on technology adoption and its impact on business results. During his career with Microsoft and as the company's advisor, he coached Microsoft employees, customers, and partners across the globe on this and other topics. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mueller-Eberstein was at Hewlett-Packard in leadership positions in business development, marketing, and product management. He received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Technology Berlin and studied at the University of Marburg, both in his native country of Germany.