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05/01/2008 How should a CIO be compensated? -
When CIOs start to think about compensation for their staffs, they need to consider their own compensation. Some of the questions that they should ask themselves are:

What are the basics of the annual wage package for CIOs of other companies?

What is the preferred method for manifesting the compensation package into a time specific contract?

Which elements of the equity compensation are most favored by CIOs? Why?

How do CIOs value the different components of the compensation offer? What emphasis is placed on bonuses? Stocks? Wages?

How does the CIO package set the tone for the other compensation programs offered to other Information Technology management team members?

What language is important when it comes to the compensation in the employment contract?

What are the 5-7 most important components of the employment contract to a CIO?

Which components are the most challenging to negotiate? Why?

Which components can be bargained away in favor of other, more important contract terms?

What system is most effective when trying to update a CIO compensation package?

What is the most common compensation structure for members of the management team? Why?

What method is used to analyze the compensation structure for each CIO?

What industry standards are applied to the compensation and employment contracts?

What calculations and metrics are used to structure the CIO compensation?

Which structural elements constitute the greatest amount of CIO pay?

How is performance measurements detailed in the employment contract and compensation agreement?

Which Information Technology positions are most closely tied to performance measurements? Why?

How are complicated elements of the compensation plan analyzed and monitored?

What procedure is used to peg compensation to other organization goals?

What schedule is outlined for reviewing compensation against performance goals?

Which incentive based elements of the package are preferred by CIOs?

Which elements of the employment contract are most important to CIOs? Why?

What negotiating strategies and techniques are most successful?

What are the most difficult terms to negotiate? What can the CIO do to prepare for these hot topics?

What language must the CIO or CIO insist upon when it comes to the employment agreement?

What are the non-financial aspects of the contract? Why are these important to CIO level management?

What must CIOs be careful about when it comes to date specific terms of the compensation and employment contract?

How much time and money should a CIO budget for negotiating?

What is the impact of poor negotiations on CIO performance?

When is it best to work through a third party?

What process is used to facilitate stalled negotiations?

How are CIO level employment contracts changing? Why?

What is the impact of these changes directly on the contracts? Which trends do you expect to benefit the CIO?

What terms or issues can CIOs expect to deal with in the future, in light of recent trends?

What techniques can management use to get a better compensation package?

When does it make sense to go to the Board of Directors regarding pay? Why?

Why is it important for both parties to be satisfied with the contract? How is this accomplished?

What methods are CIOs using to keep their contracts progressive?

How do the current tax laws influence changes to CIO employment contracts?

What impact do corporate rules or policies have on the CIO compensation?

Who is most actively involved in developing company policies that impact compensation? What is the trend?

What are the challenges to CIOs who are looking to improve their package?

What is the current thinking companies regarding deferred compensation? Why?

How can the Board of Directors guide the employment contract process?

What is the typical timeline for completing an agreement once the process has started?

Who is most instrumental in facilitating the negotiations? Why?

Which deadlines are most important in the employment contract?

What are the biggest mistakes CIOs make when negotiating employment contracts?

How consistent are the agreements across members of the management team?

When is it allowable to operate without an employment contract? What are the risks?
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04/25/2008 Google Tags Morgan Stanley For its CIO -
(CNET News.com) Google has found its new chief information officer, a programmer who rose through the ranks to run much of Morgan Stanley's computing infrastructure.

The new CIO was a managing director who led the Morgan Stanley Application Infrastructure group.

According to an internal Morgan Stanley memo, the new CIO will leave Morgan Stanley at the end of the month to pursue opportunities outside the firm.

The memo also indicated that the new CIO is no stranger to Google. While at Morgan Stanley, one of his projects was working on initial public offering of Google in 2004, the memo.

The last CIO at Google, left to become president of the EMI digital unit. Earlier this month, rumors surfaced that Morgan Stanley executive would be the new Google new CIO.

Running the Google computing infrastructure is a daunting challenge on which the companys success hinges. Google not only has thousands of servers housed in at least 36 data centers scattered around the globe, but also a build-it-yourself culture that means the company is responsible for maintaining much of its own technology.

The CIO worked for Morgan Stanley computing operations for nearly 14 years including having worked on first Morgan Stanley Web site, its workstation software, and its intranet.
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04/22/2008 H-1B visa program is not working -
H-1B visa program is not working as it should be based on the statistics that have been given to congress:

65,000 H-1B visas are issued each year

3,117 H-1B visas were issued to Microsoft in 2006 and the average wage for those holders was $100,000 including benefits.

19,000 H-1B visas were issued to companies based in India in 2006

$50,000 was the median compensation paid for H-1B visa holders in 2006
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04/21/2008 Baby boomer retirements will impact IT -
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says one in four workers will be 55 or older. And particularly in IT, there is not a big influx of new talent. According to the Computing Research Association, computer science enrollments dropped 14% each year between 2004 and 2006.

Although IT organizations certainly understand these workforce trends, many are not taking significant measures to mitigate the risks that the loss of intellectual capital seems to portend. Even outside of IT, many companies seem unconcerned by boomer retirements. In a 2006 survey of 488 companies only 42% of the respondents said that the aging workforce was a significant issue, and 29% said it had little or no significance.

And in a nationwide study of 550 human resources managers conducted by Monster.com last summer (view PDF), only 12% of the respondents said they consider knowledge retention a high priority within their companies, even though one-third said they expect at least 20% of their workforce to retire in the next decade.

The inescapable conclusion seems to be that many businesses are perfectly content to see their boomers walk out the door. And because so few organizations have taken the retirement issue seriously, companies that want to transfer knowledge from older to younger workers have few models to follow. As a result, those that are attempting to get ahead of the retirement wave are finding themselves pretty much on their own.
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04/18/2008 AT&T Layoffs Will Impact 4,500 -
(IDG News Service) AT&T Inc. plans to lay off 1.5% of its employees, primarily in management, in an effort to streamline its operations, the company said today.

AT&T had about 310,000 employees at the end of 2007, meaning the layoffs would affect about 4,650 workers. The layoffs are the "next step" in streamlining company operations in an effort to operate more efficiently after recent mergers between parent company SBC, the old AT&T and BellSouth, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

AT&T expects its total number of employees to remain stable in 2008 as the company hires additional employees to support growth areas, AT&T said in the filing. In 2007, the company added about 7,000 employees, said an AT&T spokesman.

This initiative is part of the companys move from a collection of regional companies to one AT&T focused on customers, AT&T said in the filing.

The layoffs mean AT&T will take a one-time charge of $374 million during the first quarter of 2008. AT&T is scheduled to announce its first-quarter earnings Tuesday.

AT&T reported a net income of $3.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007. It's revenue for the quarter was $30.3 billion.
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