In the IT world, challenges always exist, whether we can currently identify the challenge or not, one will always arise. Rest assured, when an IT challenge becomes apparent, there is also usually a solution in existence. Often enough it’s the problem solving techniques that reach the end of the challenge, and delineates the solution.

In a world where the industry standard is always changing and methods for these changes are conjointly working together, one can’t help but feel like they’re always falling behind the curve. Welcome to the world of Information Technology (IT), where changes typically come in 12 to 15 month increments and the last 10 years has been one of the greatest technology booms in the last century. Over the last decade, IT businesses and users have seen innovations of all sorts of technologies such as the iPod, new Operating Systems, and massive changes in IT management. For example, as Microsoft Windows ends support for Windows XP this April, organizations will find themselves migrating and attempting to the stay ahead of IT to continue their business operations. At this point, you may be asking “How can I stay ahead of all these IT changes and learn about what challenges all these different technologies can solve?” In a World Where IT is Always Changing, How Can we Keep Up? The answer arrived with a benchmark idea called information exchange. Information exchange is loosely defined as “a bidirectional information transfer” in related topics such as telecommunications, computer science (IT) and other communication systems. You can find this exchange and sharing of ideas occurs between IT leaders at conferences and events around the world. This avenue of communication allows IT specialists to return to their coworkers and peers with greater knowledge of the leading IT innovations and transformations. Every year, new IT discoveries are released with new models and advancements for the future. IT specialists gather and attend conferences to share their insights and learn about the ever-changing advancements that require their understanding to stay ahead. These idea exchanging events continue to improve and provide vast benefits to attendees, but not just to simply discuss new technological advancements, but to reach the core of IT and how to enable IT in the most effective manner. A focus area that is becoming more prominent to the IT and business industries today is the emergence of IT Service and Asset Management (ITSM/ITAM). A very valuable event that addresses this core component of IT is the BMC Exchange. This event gathers in various locations around the world to encourage and promote information exchange and idea sharing with leading IT organizations and leaders. The next upcoming BMC Exchange is the BMC DC Exchange being held in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Attending the BMC DC Exchange on February 20th at the Ritz Carlton Pentagon City will be a great resource for learning about how ITSM and ITAM are changing the surface of the IT world. Among the many distinguished speakers there, James Staten from Forrester Research will be discussing the transformations of IT in his keynote. Attendees will also connect with IT leaders and share IT ideas to learn how properly enabling IT can provide the best means for effective business growth.

When assessing the IT competency of organizations, many executives tend to believe their IT sectors are meeting their organizational objectives. The majority of executives believe that simply possessing an IT service is the key to reaching those objectives. This misconception could not be further from the truth, as a study found that less than half of the respondents rate their IT management processes as “excellent” or “good.”

Every year, organizations assess their inefficiencies and find outstanding problems from the previous year as well as determine where there is room for improvement in the next year. As 2013 has recently passed, many organizations have reviewed their previous glitches and find that their IT Service Management (ITSM) processes need to be improved.

Expiring government contracts are a great way for government contractors to compete for government business. These are viable opportunities that are currently being funded. When reviewing an expiring contract, make sure to review and understand six specific contract areas:

On December 10, 2013 the congressional budget negotiators reached a compromise on 2014 Defense spending. The compromise allows for more clarity in defense spending for the current and next fiscal years (FY2014 and FY2015).