Stories by Mary K. Pratt

An estimated 400 million Indians cannot prove their identity. As a result, they're shut out of countless opportunities. They cannot access educational programs, open a bank account, apply for welfare benefits or seek higher-level employment. Lack of identification is also problematic for the government, because as much as 40% of the $40 billion it directs yearly toward helping these individuals doesn't reach the intended beneficiaries.

Paul Lucidi, CIO at Insulet, focuses on assessing and developing his employees, and giving them the tools to be successful.

Jim Turnbull, CIO at University of Utah Health Care, says mobile technology as the next big opportunity for getting patients more involved in managing their healthcare.

Just about anyone in the office can introduce open-source code into the company's IT infrastructure. Yet CIOs face real dangers if they're not properly managing their open-source assets.

Working as an interim 'retained' CIO for multiple clients, Laura Pettit Rusick leads IT departments at various small and midsize companies, and that experience gives her insight into the technology challenges and opportunities that exist in a wide swath of U.S. businesses. Insider (registration required)

As tech infiltrates every corner of the business, it's only natural that some IT departments are producing revenue-generating products and services.

PricewaterhouseCoopers principal Chris Curran says CIOs must be ready to harness the power of a slew of technologies if they want to say competitive. Here Curran offers insight into his vision for IT through 2013 and beyond.

No more counting lines of code: Managers look for new ways to assess IT employee performance.

Emmile Brack leads the IT department at Aspire Public Schools, a nonprofit organization that manages 34 public charter schools throughout California. The system serves 12,000 mostly low-income students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and its goal is to get all graduating seniors accepted into four-year colleges. Brack is Aspire's vice president of technology. She says her department's task is to make sure Aspire's 1,500 employees and its students have the technology needed to transform the students' educational experiences. Brack says one way her team is meeting this goal is by deploying analytics tools. Here she talks about the lessons she has learned from that project.

As any CIO knows, an executive position is enough to fill up one's time. But Greg Taffet, CIO at U.S. Gas & Electric, felt a need to contribute his time and skills to another important IT endeavor: expanding access to technology in his Florida community. Taffet volunteers with the South Florida Digital Alliance, a group of area businesses and charitable organizations working to provide technology and Internet access to people who can't afford them. Here he talks about the digital divide, his work to bridge it, and what he has learned about leadership.

CIO George M. Brenckle has to balance access to information with ensuring security, but he acknowledges that information can't always be locked down, particularly in a healthcare organization like his. Doctors need access to data wherever they are to deliver the best care in the most efficient and effective way possible. So Brenckle and his team at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Mass., spent the past year developing a virtual desktop architecture to do just that.

Kevin Chase has three objectives as CIO and senior vice president at Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings. He wants IT to do the following: understand the business units' top priorities and deliver systems that allow them to achieve those goals, continue its drive for operational excellence and system reliability, and consistently and constantly evaluate and minimize risk.

Inspiration struck JR Gamez at a city council meeting. As the Redwood City, Calif., police chief listened to a developer tell the councilors that he could get more done if he didn't have to come into City Hall for everything, he wondered whether his officers could be more efficient if they had more flexibility with when and where they meet citizens.

The co-CIOs at Pershing have to juggle the demands of the Jersey City, N.J-based company's 1,500 clients, for whom they provide IT services. Those clients -- global financial services firms, investment advisers, banks and insurance companies -- must comply with a variety of laws and regulations. But they also need tools that enable them to operate efficiently and give them competitive advantages.

Delivering a competitive advantage is a matter of national security for Henry J. Sienkiewicz, vice chief information assurance executive at the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).