CIO weekly wrap-up: Help Haiti using technology, IT outsourcing deals

To our readers in the U.S., happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! I’m guessing some of you have the day off and won’t see this post until later in the week, but I wanted to catch you up on the buzz on the Web, as well as our latest content from SearchCIO.com.

Of course, the overriding story around the globe this week was the 7.0 earthquake just off the coast of Haiti, which has devastated the small island nation, particularly its capital, Port-au-Prince. The role of technology and the Internet in sending aid Haiti’s way has been very well documented, from the role of social media such as Twitter lists in keeping the world up-to-date on the latest condition to a techie summit to discuss solutions and text messaging campaigns that have raised millions of dollars for the relief effort (although, sadly, there are questions about how quickly these funds will actually reach the victims).

A slew of IT outsourcing deals inked in the past week, including Virgin Atlantic’s five-year, multimillion-dollar IT support contract consolidating more than 40 contracts from previous suppliers, and New York, officials announced that they are streamlining IT, in part by migrating more than 40 agencies to a single email platform, which they expect to save the state at least $4 million annually.

Here on SearchCIO.com this past week, we looked at SaaS, BI, IT pessimism heading in 2010, and whether tactical concerns overwhelmed strategy for CIOs last year. Read the stories linked below and please share your thoughts on our coverage.

IT salary survey: More pessimism than optimism in IT outlook for 2010 — The IT outlook in 2010 for many enterprises is one of pessimism, although, surprisingly, some hard-hit industries report optimism in their IT shops. Get a 2010 outlook with our breakdown by industry here.

SaaS BI helps boost Welch’s efficiency, data retention — Welch’s uses business intelligence Software as a Service to retain data during an ERP implementation and gain operational efficiencies and savings. Talk about juiced-up BI!

SaaS applications help Bosley consolidate apps, cut maintenance costs — SaaS applications are helping the hair restoration provider cut maintenance costs, consolidate applications and centralize data for business intelligence.

Tactical decisions outweighed IT strategic planning for CIOs in 2009 – Talking with our enterprise CIOs, we found that many of them spent more time on tactical decisions over IT strategic planning in 2009 — which ended up being a good strategy to drive business value during the Great Recession. Read our interviews and get our survey data here.