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If you think you've seen everything from this author, you were wrong. Re-charged and irreverant, Staley's black-humored muse is back with new fiction and fiction-based columns. Part chapbook / part magazine, this unique series is sure to please fans of his past work and collect a legion of new followers. Cover artwork by R. S. Connett and interior artwork by Sean Madden. "Eye-blistering, soul-searing stories. Staley's deft blend of humorous hardcore horror fiction will make you think, make you cringe, and make you laugh out loud. Not to be missed." Brian Keene, bestselling author of The Rising & City of the Dead ~ ~1st edition, 1/150 signed numbered cloth copies. Out-of-Print before publication. ... Read more

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Drive More Business Value from IT…

and Bridge the Gap Between IT and Business Leadership

• Apply business practices throughout IT to optimize budgets and improve ROI
• Create higher satisfaction and more realistic expectations for IT throughout the business
• Written by two leading IBM experts on bringing business discipline to IT

IT organizations have achieved outstanding technological maturity, but many have been slower to adopt world-class business practices. This book provides IT and business executives with methods to achieve greater business discipline throughout IT, collaborate more effectively, sharpen focus on the customer, and drive greater value from IT investment. The book focuses on four specific areas of business practices related to improving IT service management, managing services’ cost and value, measuring IT performance with a goal of improving service and lowering cost, and improving customer alignment. Drawing on their experience consulting with leading IT organizations, Robert Ryan and Tim Raducha-Grace help IT leaders make sense of alternative ways to improve IT service and lower cost, including ITIL, IT financial management, balanced scorecards, and business cases. You’ll learn how to choose the best approaches to improve IT business practices for your environment and use these practices to improve service quality, reduce costs, and drive top-line revenue growth.

Customer Reviews (4)

More Business Gobbledygook
I've been a practicing network engineer for over 20 years, but admittedly have little experience with the business end of IT or networking.Also I have very little business training in general and find most of the business literature a mix of common sense (at best) and meaningless jargon (at worst).I'm about 30 pages into this book, so maybe it will improve, and I will keep with it because the selection of rigorous materials on this topic seems limited and I have to learn more about ITIL.But when I encounter diagrams such as Figure 2-4 on page 29, I can't help but have a sinking feeling.The figure is a hodgepodge of ovals, curly braces, arrows, and text labels.On the left side of the diagram, underneath a horizontal brace labeled "Service Pipeline," there are four ovals, one large and shaded and the others small and unshaded.There are also three horizontal arrows pointing right, one vertical arrow pointing down, and six individual text labels.One text label appears clearly associated with a dashed line to the extreme left of the figure.Two of the others are in the large oval but neither is in the center, or bolded, or otherwise clearly indicated as identifying the big oval; what does the big oval represent? The other three labels are in white space not clearly referring to anything.What do the small unfilled ovals represent?Are they representative of "market spaces," one of the text labels?Are they "customers," another text label?Or are they services which are transiting the Service Pipeline?What are the arrows supposed to show?The overwhelming sensation is that text labels and graphics are thrown together in a stewpot comprising a vaguely evocative blend: we mix these ingredients together and presto, we have the ITIL Service Portfolio.Another example, this of the rudderless directionality of the book's argument: at the beginning of chapter 2, the authors note that they are focusing their discussion of ITIL on a subset of the total framework: "We specifically focus on how to use elements of service strategy, service design, and continual service improvement" (p. 18), and then print a list of eight ITIL processes they focus on, consisting of Service Strategy, Service portfolio management, Demand management, Service catalog management, Service level management, Change management, Request Fulfillment, and Continual Service Improvement.Well, according to "An Introductory Overview of ITIL®V3," published by the IT Service Management Forum, Service portfolio management and Demand management are two of the three key processes of Service Strategy, Service Catalog management and Service level management are just two of the seven key processes of Service Design, Change management is one of several processes belonging to Service Transition, Request Fulfillment is one of five key processes of Service Operation.Why is this not noted in a book with such a large emphasis on ITIL?If Service Design is a focus of the ITIL approach to improving service and lowering cost, why are only two of the seven key Service Design processes included?Isn't Supplier Management (another of the key Service Design processes) also important to lowering cost?How about IT Service Continuity Management's role in improving (or at least maintaining) service?We should expect at least a comprehensive introduction of the entire ITIL framework, followed by some justification for the claim that these processes are the keys to lowering costs and improving service.Well, 260 pages more to go...

Both business and computer collections need this specific examination
THE BUSINESS OF IT: HOW TO IMPROVE SERVICE AND LOWER COSTS tells how to bridge the gap between IT and business leadership, using the authors' personal experience consulting with IT professionals to examine four specific areas of business practices related to improving IT service management and costs. Both business and computer collections need this specific examination.

Practical Guidance on IT Transformation!!!
This book provides a wealth of information on proven methodologies and frameworks that can guide IT leadership through the process of transforming its relationship with its customers. It then backs that up with real world, step by step ways to apply them.

This book is especially helpful for those organizations seeking to improve IT business practices such as ITIL, IT financial management, and IT performance management and don't know where to start or would like to improve existing practices. For example, chapter 4 on IT Financial management provides specific guidance on how to better understand IT costs and value, and put an IT Financial management process in place to maximize your IT investments.

This is a must read for any Senior IT Leader or IT processional that is interested in ITIL or IT financial management with the goal of to predictably and repeatedly meet customer objectives, lower costs and have the data to prove it!

Icing on the cake for any serious ITIL practioner...
In my work experience, in working with ITIL related efforts within the public sector, there is very little thought given to advising clients on how to synthesize data output produced by the ITIL version 3 processes.Most consultants attempt to help the client establish Event Management, Incident Management & Configuration Management processes and then move on to other engagements without instructing the client that measuring every task, item or action can be somewhat pointless without organizational context in which each process operates. While establishing these types of processes is important to allow an organization to gain control of itself, these same processes and their resulting outputs can often, in fact, be deleterious to the organization from an efficiency and budgetary standpoint by overburdening those tasked with owning these processes, especially if the dysfunctional organizational culture has not changed post process implementation.

Understanding and synthesizing the process outputs, by subsequently converting those data sets into knowledge, in order to gain a wiser understanding of the human systems that support IT systems is where best practices like ITIL shine and show their true worth.This book sets the reader on a track that will facilitate a better understanding of how to achieve this type of wisdom and perhaps actually give the reader the ability to see the ITIL approach as a pioneering discipline in this industry we call IT.
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Presents a road map to success in small business. Guides you through the bustling marketplace through trends, Target Customers, & promotion; through shopping malls, spreadsheets, & through franchise opportunities,all the way to your own new venture.Paper. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Don't start a business without it
A step by step process leading you to a fail-safe busines

Outstanding start-your-own business book.
In the large world of how-to-do business books, this one stands out.It is logical, uses real-life, fund-limited examples, and provides both a detailed as well as a quick-start guide to beginning your own business.

It is oriented to the small start-up sector, which is always idea rich but fund limited.It includes strategies for breaking through roadblocks, finding financing and partners, and making a clear presentation of your business strategy to outsiders.

Highly recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Wordsworth Circle, published by Wordsworth Circle on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1239 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Darwin's Mentor: John Stevens Henslow, 1796-1861.(Book Review)
Author: Robert M. Ryan
Publication: Wordsworth Circle (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: Wordsworth Circle
Volume: 34Issue: 4Page: 231(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, published by University of Nebraska-Lincoln on March 22, 1999. The length of the article is 6674 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Leverage, ownership structure, and returns to shareholders of target and bidding firms.
Author: Elias Raad
Publication: Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1999
Publisher: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Volume: 38Issue: 2Page: 37(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more