Is Your Company Meeting its Information Technology Goals?

Many factors come into play when determining the correct mixture of success for a large company. There are the basics, like marketing, tax management, accounting, etc. But there are other important components of success besides these basic areas and one of them is covered in this magazine, Baseline, a publication about technology as it applies to corporate America.

Features of This Magazine:

This magazine contains about 70 to 85 pages in each issue with the following departments:

Inside Story- This articles gives the inside scoop on the current issues’ cover story.

Project Planner- This is a fold- out section that includes tables and graphics. It describes a cost calculation for some aspect of corporate technological implementation.

Gotcha!- This is a “how to” section that describes specific problems with technology and how to correct them.

Dossier- This department offers a quick analysis of a company and its business intelligence tools. There are several of these in every issue.

There are also sections of this magazine with department names that remain constant from one month to the next but that vary in what they offer. One such department is “Opinion”, which includes letters to the editor, outlooks on future business, and other opinion pieces. Another is “Community”, which includes hands on information from managers who have ‘been there and done that’.

Cost to Subscribe:

Baseline sells subscriptions for a cost of about $ 35 for twelve monthly issues. This magazine used to be published only once every two months but now it is a monthly magazine. It is difficult to find a cheaper rate than the $35 per year offer, unless you can obtain it free. It is one of small percentage of professional magazines that can be obtained free of charge to qualified individuals. If you are a corporate manager, technology manager, or any of a number of other corporate employees who are directly involved in the decision making process, then you could qualify for a free subscription.

Customer Service:

If you need to contact customer service about an existing subscription (or if you want to see if you qualify for a free subscription), the place to check is the magazine’s web page, baselinemag.com. If you would like to speak directly to a rep, the number to call is 212-503-5423.

Final Thoughts:

Baseline is a magazine published by Ziff Davis Media and it is one of the few professional magazines that I consider valuable enough to recommend to a large segment of the population that has an active interest in business, technology, and/or management. This magazine brings the world of technology and managerial decision making to your fingertips, with smart, timely information on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to corporate technology concerns.

With Baseline, the reader is given several different scenarios in each issue that explain real- life corporate issues with technology and management and how the company responded to the challenge. Companies face difficult situations every day and the people in charge must have the tools and the knowledge necessary to make the best decision possible. Baseline offers suggestions for improving managerial performance through expert advice and through its numerous examples of corporations that were faced with common problems and were forced to act quickly and decisively.

One of the unusual features of Baseline is its use of “Case Numbers” within its articles. What Baseline does is number about three of its company- specific articles each month with a case number. These numbers are in sequential order and they continue to climb each month. I don’t known if/when Baseline resets the numbers, but I know that the most recent issue included case numbers all the way up to #202. Considering there are about three or four of these every month, this would indicate that the last time the numbers were reset was back in either 2000 or 2001.

These case numbers offer valuable insight into corporations and the problems they face and they rank among the magazine’s best articles. With each case, a corporation is given the spotlight. The case provides a quick background on the company followed by a challenge with a specific type of technology. The article then goes on to explain how the company tackled the problem and improved performance. These cases are thorough and they remind me of the case studies I use to work with during graduate school. A managerial challenge is presented along with a solution and an outcome, allowing the reader to discover new techniques and new ways to approach what are often difficult decisions.

Baseline’s primary focus is the implementation of new technology but this magazine can benefit more than just the people who work directly in this field. It can also benefit those who work in any type of managerial realm because the articles deal with the managerial decisions that are involved in changing or enhancing technology. There are even worksheets that step you through a cost- related decision and quizzes that test your technology and management IQ. Everything is designed to help management make the best possible decisions.

Advertisements in this magazine cover about thirty percent of each issue- a level that is lower than the average for this type of magazine. The ads focus on technology products and services and rarely do they include other things. This magazine wants to keep a polished, professional image (note: the image of the magazine cover you see here in Epinions is outdated- it looks more like a real magazine now rather than like an academic journal) so it makes sense that it would stick to ads of this nature.

Overall, Baseline is one of the best magazines of its kind on the market today and it can come in very handy to anyone who works in a managerial role. Actual cases, corporate analysis, charts and graphs, and timely advice make this an excellent magazine for anyone who is in charge of making important corporate decisions.