The Daily News is brought to you by George Spafford, Principal Consultant at Pepperweed Consulting, LLC.  Pepperweed is nationally recognized as a leader in IT Management and was recently recognized as one of the Inc. 500 fastest growing privately-held companies.  For more information, check out our website at www.pepperweed.com or call 888 229-0145. Please let us know if you see stories you think should be included in the next issue of the Daily News, and feel free to forward this email on to others.

 

Do you need a public speaker at your next IT-related event?  If so, please contact me at george.spafford@....  A number of programs are available including one hour presentations, keynotes, executive awareness sessions and so on all revolving around technology business, the management of IT, ITIL, and risk management.

 

"My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.” – Ronald Reagan

 

The Picks of the Day

Thoughts on Information Logistics – Part 1

“Information technology professionals frequently feel challenged about how to communicate with business people and senior management. Social psychologists estimate that anywhere from 40-60% of intended meaning is lost during the communication process. If you take this and factor in that 75% of the average person’s day is spent in some form of communication, be it speaking, writing or reading, then we have some very real lost productivity not to mention potential consequences arising from misunderstandings. If we look at communication, we can define it as the exchange of information for a purpose. To create a baseline of understanding about communication we need to define some base terms around the lifecycle of information.”

http://www.spaffordconsulting.com/Thoughts%20on%20Information%20Logistics%20Part%201.html

 

IT Process Improvement / Quality Management

ITIL Strategies for CIOs

“ITIL isn't just for large enterprises. Midsized companies are also adopting the standards at a very fast pace, and there's a lot to consider. This supercast, featuring magazine articles, online articles, webcasts and podcasts, examines decision points for CIOs when evaluating ITIL, as well as advice on change management, training and certification options, executive support strategies and common pitfalls -- just the beginning of the vast offerings in IT service management best practices.”

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/general/0,295582,sid19_gci1243897,00.html?track=NL-545&ad=586263USCA&asrc=EM_NLN_1315517&uid=3121061

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Internal Control Seminars

Several of my colleagues have been presenting compliance-related seminars across the country for the past five years:  Sarbanes-Oxley Act Compliance, Corporate Governance, Internal Controls, IT Auditing, Fraud Prevention and Detection, and Information Security.  Cost effective best practices for internal control over financial reporting are presented in one-day seminars that offer 8 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) credit.  The seminars are as entertaining as they are informative.

http://www.compliance-seminars.com

 

PCAOB Identifies Flaws in AS2 Use

“Auditors could do a better job of integrating audits, applying a focused top-down approach, testing risk-level assertions, and using the work of others, according to a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board study of the second year of implementation of Auditing Standard No. 2.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/9033500?f=alerts

 

Sarbanes-Oxley audits more efficient in '06-PCAOB

“The U.S. panel that polices corporate auditors said on Wednesday that auditing firms conducted internal-controls audits more efficiently in 2006 but still had room to improve.  After conducting inspections of 275 internal-controls audits, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) said many of the changes were due to more experienced auditors and the easing of time pressures auditors had faced in the first year of applying Sarbanes-Oxley.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN1826979420070418

 

Security and Risk Management

Free Webinar:  A Review of Business Continuity Planning

April 19, 2007at 2pm Eastern

In these turbulent times, IT and business groups need to work together to ensure the organization can continue to operate. To this end, organizations need to develop ongoing business continuity planning processes to ensure business survival. This webcast will explore the objective of BCP, the risks to prepare for, how to conduct a Business Impact Assessment (BIA) and testing your business continuity plan.

http://cp.jupiterweb.com/index.php/3536_default/

 

Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)

D.C. starts digitizing patient records with $5M grant

“D.C. health care leaders are switching on a $5 million, six-clinic electronic network that they expect will eventually stretch across all the city's hospitals, medical practices, clinics and pharmacies. “

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2007/04/16/story4.html?f=et163&b=1176696000%5e1446182&hbx=e_vert

 

Health care 2.0

“New Web tools promise to tear down barriers to health care information sharing, but will they pass the test for privacy and accuracy?”

http://www.govhealthit.com/article98195-04-16-07-Print

 

Perspective: A business model for RHIOs

“One of the more interesting ones involves a collaboration between two competitive laboratories in Nebraska. They deployed a Web-based system to integrate their two businesses. But this system also has the potential to provide the needed business case for providers to participate in a regional health information organization (RHIO).”

http://www.nhinwatch.com/news.cms?newsId=2358

s

Human Error / Safety / Environment

The Business Case for Going Green

“Are corporations experiencing a sudden rash of social consciousness? Not exactly. Instead, companies are increasingly realizing that going green could be a new way for companies to save — or even make — more green, as in money.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17969124/

 

Global Warming May Put U.S. in Hot Water

“As the world warms, water — either too little or too much of it — is going to be the major problem for the United States, scientists and military experts said Monday. It will be a domestic problem, with states clashing over controls of rivers, and a national security problem as water shortages and floods worsen conflicts and terrorism elsewhere in the world, they said.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=3046652&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

GM exec: India to be 2nd-largest auto market in decade

“Indian manufacturing costs are extremely competitive and among the lowest in the world, even as this country is poised to become the world's second-largest market in less than a decade, a top executive of General Motors declared April 17 in New Delhi.”

http://www.reliableplant.com/article.asp?pagetitle=GM%20exec:%20India%20to%20be%202nd-largest%20auto%20market%20in%20decade&articleid=5889

 

China: Calling All Project Managers

“The set of skills generally known as project management is becoming more and more important in a China. Rising economic growth has created higher commercial expectations.”

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2007/gb20070418_435349.htm?chan=globalbiz_asia_more+of+today%27s+top+stories

 

How Accenture One-Upped Bangalore

“Accenture adapted quickly by combining the best aspects of the Indian offshoring approach with the company's primary activity, business consulting. By the end of Accenture's fiscal year this August, 35,000 of its 160,000 employees will be in India, where labor costs are less than half those in the U.S., up from only a handful in 2000.”

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_17/b4031098.htm?chan=globalbiz_asia_more+of+today%27s+top+stories

 

 

End Notes

Titles and links to articles written by George Spafford are listed at:  http://spaffordconsulting.com/articles.html

 

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Pepperweed Consulting, LLC, was founded by IT professionals who recognized a need for quality IT Management tools and specialists peaked in their implementation and use. Today, Pepperweed is nationally recognized for its unique ability to provide optimal infrastructure and process designs and to deliver on the promise of those designs through hands-on implementation of selected technologies. Recently listed as one of the Inc. 500 fastest growing, privately held companies, Pepperweed is one of the largest IT Management practices in the U.S.

 

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George Spafford Principal Consultant Pepperweed Consulting, LLC® Office:  269-556-9597 Mobile:  269-208-1832 FAX:  208-978-6295 George.Spafford@...

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