If your desktop environment is littered with unnecessary icons or apps then dig deeper. Apply the Van Halen M&M test.  

"Why won't the help desk just help us?" says many an office worker about their internal IT support. Yet, IT is similarly lamenting, "Why can't the user just log a ticket properly?". Never before has "help us help you" seemed so strained. Let me break away the tension and reveal just what your IT department wish you knew about logging a support request.

If you are like me you espouse a view that a good IT department should not be seen as a cost to the business, and that it ought rightly be considered a strategic and operational division. Yet, at the end of the day it is all about numbers. The smart and forward-thinking IT leader will get a grip on the concepts that matter, and knowing these will help your own agenda.

You may not have considered it, but much of IT - from ad-hoc help-desk support to large-scale projects - follows a similar value chain. Understanding your value chain is a first step to enhancing your own productivity and performance.  

A few weeks ago I spruiked the many reasons why IT must keep its company address book in top shape, as a single source of truth for many purposes. Today I'll bring the how, with several automated tools to do the job.

Social media is an ever-increasing buzzword in the business world of today, and while some may consider it mollycoddling to generation Y, it is becoming apparent to CIOs and IT leaders that 'none' is no longer an acceptable answer to the question 'What is your social media strategy?'    

Chances are your company has begun work on budgets and strategy for the next financial year. Although IT is largely ethereal, although many execs do not understand it and although the world of technology is fast changing, you can be a world-class CIO that uses this process to articulate a clear strategy.  

Information Technology is often denigrated as being an expensive cost. If so, something is wrong, both inside the IT camp and within the wider company. A new outlook on modern business is required.

Is your GAL, AD or LDAP address book fully populated? Does it contain position titles, street addresses, phone, fax and mobile numbers? If not, you fail one of my yardsticks for a quality systems administrator and you are missing out on recognition from your executive management. Here is why.

As an IT leader, like any manager, you are only as good as your employees. Whether you have inherited a team, are in the middle of hiring or are trying to justify creating a new role I can teach you how to determine the skills you need.

Welcome to iTWire's new enterprise IT blog, The Wired CIO. First up, what is the function of your IT department? Is it merely a commodity or is it a commercial differentiator? If not the latter then something is seriously wrong.