In these cash strapped times how can you retain and motivate good IT staff? Before I give my view, let me pose a question: What was the best IT job you ever had? (Hopefully, it's the job you have right now.) What made it the best job you ever had? I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the motivation incentives that made it such a great job were not based solely on your compensation or salary increases? You loved the IT jobs you undertook because they were meaningful and fulfilling, not just because you were highly paid.
One of the best IT job opportunities I ever had was when I was a young business analyst. My employer quickly learned that in addition to good analytical skills I had better-than-average customer relationship management abilities. After a relatively short time on the job, my employer promoted me to manage a number of clients and other analysts. This turned out to be one of the most difficult yet rewarding IT job opportunities in my career. I had to hone my IT management skills quickly. I had to motivate people and get a massive volume of design work done. I had to develop the softer skills I lacked all while being the lowest-paid person in the group.

What are the possible technology implications of New York Governor David A. Patterson's announcement regarding a planned New York Insurance Exchange modeled after Lloyd's of London?
With the governor's announcement still fresh in everyone's mind, it came as no surprise that the subject came up on Tuesday during a 2010 Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum panel discussion that included Hank Watkins, president of Lloyd's North America.

“It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.” This phrase, and numerous variations on it, is not only among the three Godfather films’ many additions to our culture, it also is a guiding principle in the business world. I was reminded (again) of this truism when I learned that another CIO has left their position within a major London Market insurer.

The notion of using a service-oriented architecture (SOA) implementation to align internal software development with the needs of a changing business has attracted plenty of detractors in the decade or so since it was hailed as the new solution for IT and business alignment. The struggling economy, paradoxically, might be just the catalyst for giving SOA a serious look, according to experts who follow the field.