News & Views

June 2011 from CAmagazine and written by Michael Burns – “In honour of CAmagazine’s 100th birthday, I thought it would be a good idea to look at the evolution in information technology over the past few decades. Of course, IT didn’t exist 100 years ago — and neither did I. Still, looking back, I feel like I lived with the dinosaurs. The following shows just how far we have come…”

May 19, 2011 from Baseline – “Microsoft beat out the competition to nab a 23,000-user cloud email deal with the City of San Francisco… City executives on a May 18 conference call suggested that the initiative would cost $1.2 million per year, which breaks down to $6 per month per user…”

180 View – There will be a lot more wins by Microsoft in the clouds as organizations would rather keep the office products they know.

May 18, 2011 from Forbes – “On the surface Microsoft’s $8.5 billion deal to buy the Internet phone company Skype sounds loopy. But don’t be deceived: This just might be the smartest move Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has ever made…

But the deal is really about “unified communications,” in which Microsoft is competing with Cisco and others. The theory is that by adding Skype’s audio, video, conferencing and telepresence features to the mix Microsoft will offer an unbeatable combination of features that every enterprise will want…”

180 View – Microsoft is trying to win back customers who have embraced other internet technologies. They tried it with Bing that competes with Google. They are trying it again with Skype. Microsoft does have a history of entering into a market late and by the force of their R&D and marketing, obliterate the competition. But this was done in the relative early days of computing when they crushed the likes of WordPerfect and Lotus 123.

2011 from PwC’s Technology Forecast – “D7, a construction consulting firm in Southern California, threw its hat in the ring when it heard that Box.net, a cloud storage provider, was seeking a partner to test business applications on the Apple iPad. Before long, about 20 field workers at D7 were using smart tablets to diagnose quality assurance issues on-site; to relay audio, documents, and digital photos; and to store and share the material via Box.net.

By using this approach, D7 has accomplished something that had previously eluded it: digital workflow from customer sites. In the past, workflow involved paper documents “that weren’t very usable,” says Aaron Levie, CEO of cloud collaboration company Box.net. Joseph Daniels, D7 president, says tasks that took a week or longer can now be done the same day. “That’s what people want. They want it now or yesterday,” he says. With a mobile digital workflow, the D7 team eliminated a major bottleneck…”

180 View – I have always appreciated PwC’s technology forecast which is something PwC has been doing for a long time – even when I was a PwC employee many years ago.

June, 2010 from Profit Magazine – “Maybe they have a God complex, but entrepreneurs tend to create companies in their own image — an extension of their personalities, skill sets, values, work ethics and (mostly) egos. This works through the startup phase, the early growth phase and even the what-initially-looks-like-maturity phase. But this creation inevitably hits a ceiling when, suddenly, the company no longer looks like its founders at all. It has outgrown them.…”

180 View by Cleo Chmielinski – The author is CEO of one of Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies for 2 years running, Inbox Marketer.  What struck me about the article was that it reminded me of several owner/manager companies I’ve worked with in the past, where the entrepreneurial founder eventually comes to terms with the fact that growth requires investment in external help, HR policies, systems and optimized business processes.

2010 from IBM – “How are today’s CEOs leading? See for yourself. The videos below feature CEOs from companies around the globe (Amgen, Banco Galicia, Energy Australia, Getinge, Kao Corporation) discussing their challenges and lessons learned as leaders.

Hear in their own words how they approach leadership challenges such as innovation, meeting customer requirements, balancing public and private concerns, global versus local requirements, product development, and motivating your organization to drive your leadership agenda.”

180 View – I did not have time to listen to all the videos. I do recommend Kevin Sharer on Managing Complexity and Andrew G. Ray on Align Strategy and Structure to Meet Your Customers’ Requirements.

You might be wondering why IBM did this. “CEOs are telling us (IBM) that the complexity of operating in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world is their primary challenge. And, a surprising number of them told us that they feel ill-equipped to succeed in this drastically different world.” IBM can help. IBM targets the CEO, which in part explains their success.

June 14, 2010 from TechRepublic – “I’ve hit Microsoft pretty hard recently for its Windows debacle, its failed mobile strategy, and its missed opportunities in the enterprise space. I continue to believe that the company is in the midst of an identity crisis that it refuses to acknowledge.

Still, not everything Microsoft is doing is a disaster. There are plenty of smart people who work for the Redmond, Washington colossus and there are several useful Microsoft products that are worth noting for those who follow business technology. I’ve put together a quick list of five things Microsoft is doing right that may have slipped under your radar…”

180 View – I think there are lots more than five things that Microsoft is doing right but the ones in the article may be news to you.

April 21, 2010 from Datamation – “I’ve been talking about the benefits of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for so long it always amazes me when I have to go back to basics to help the uninitiated understand the fundamental benefits of today’s online, on-demand software solutions.  So, here’s my quick list of the top ten reasons why business and IT decision-makers should start taking advantage of today’s leading SaaS solutions…”

180 View – Although the author is clearly biased towards SaaS, he does make good points.

January 29, 2010 from Gartner – “The market in 2009 was defined by the David and Goliathian struggle that occurred between resilient BI pure-play vendors and ostensibly omnipotent megavendors. The frenzy caused by major BI platform market consolidation in 2007 and 2008 gave way to a postacquisition hangover in 2009 in which megavendors’ customers reported greater overall dissatisfaction due, in large part, to the often messy postacquisition “digestion” process. Yet, despite megavendor acquisition “growing pains,” stack-centric buying led by applications and information infrastructure dominated BI platform investment decisions in 2009 with the top five vendors controlling 75% of the market. At the same time, however, based on the research conducted for this report and interactions with Gartner customers over the year, there is significant, if not euphoric, satisfaction with, and accelerated interest in, pure-play BI platforms. This is particularly true for smaller, innovative vendors filling needs left unmet by the larger vendors…”

180 View – If you went to Gartner’s website and tried to purchase this document, it would cost US$1,995.00.  I am not sure why this one was available at no charge. Gartner is a good starting point in the identification of products to consider, but I would not base decisions on it. Gartner’s research as per their website includes but is not limited to:

• Vendor briefings
• Surveys
• Vendor-provided references
• Industry contacts
• Client interviews
• Public sources, such as U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, articles, speeches and published papers
• Input from Gartner analysts

It’s not based on hands on work or demonstrations but mostly on information provided from the vendor or clients that were hand-picked by the vendor. As well, vendors pay Gartner for their analysis. My suggestion is to do your homework and not to rely on the pundits.

February 2010 from eWeek – “Once the neglected stepchild of IBM’s colossal services business and systems unit, IBM Software is now a huge profit driver for Big Blue. Indeed, IBM’s Software Group now competes with IBM Global Services as the top money maker for the company. Over the past decade, IBM has transformed its business model as the company shifted to higher value areas of software, improved efficiencies of its business and invested in long-term opportunities. This slide show identifies 30 reasons why software is big business at IBM…”

180 View – There are some interesting statistics in the slides including IBM has 25,000 software developers building and maintain IBM’s software portfolio. So far IBM has left ERP software out of their portfolio probably because they do very well by selling and implementing other products. It’s also a fragmented ERP market today and it would be just about impossible for IBM to purchase or build all the products they would need in their portfolio. Per their website, “We work with leading companies around the world such as Oracle, SAP, Infor, and Lawson Software to deliver end-to-end, cost-effective solutions that are tailored to the unique needs of each industry. Our experience and methodology include strategy, planning, infrastructure and technical support.”

October 2009 from IBM via ProjectTimes – These are the traps with descriptions and how to avoid them in the linked article:

1. Scope creep
2. Asking customers what they want
3. Inability to adapt to change
4. Failure to communicate effectively
5. Failure to communicate frequently
6. Unwieldy documents and too much information
7. Hidden project artifacts
8. Ambiguous requirements
9. Failure to measure and assess requirements processes
10. Isolating your requirements

180 View – Although the article was written for getting requirements for software development, it also applies to getting requirements for a software selection project. The key difference between requirements definition in software development and software selection is in the level of detail.

One would not expect “asking customers what they want” to be a trap. The article claims that “customers tend to talk about features, not what they truly need. The truth is that people often don’t know what they want.” The article says the solution lies in asking customers why they need a particular solution. I agree with the problem but not the solution. It would be better to ask the customer to describe their existing business process and its problems. In this way, the customer exposes the strengths and weaknesses of the existing system, and the business analyst can suggest alternative ways to solve the problems. The business analyst should know what is possible in software development and what is possible in existing systems but also needs to understand the business impact of a particular problem. There is no point in creating or implementing an expensive solution to a problem that causes a few minutes to be wasted a week for one person even though the customer finds it annoying.

April 1, 2010 from Fast Company– “…During these rough economic times, ask yourself how you can streamline your business without reducing the most important services your clients rely on…”

180 View written by Graeme Booth – In this article the author discusses how the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been urgently struggling with how to adjust to changing market conditions and reduce costs without real or perceived cuts in service by their customers. The author correctly suggests that such reengineering efforts need to be more than just the reconciliation of economic, efficiency and environmental concerns. What is also clear is that IT departments are facing similar challenges (on a smaller scale) to those of the enterprises to which they belong. And the answer may also be the same; when in doubt go back to the customers’ most basic needs.

January 18, 2010 from InfoWorld – “IT should relinquish its increasing stance as an order taker, and earn and advance its intended role as the qualified engineer of what makes a business hum…

Nobody in IT should ever say, “You’re my customer and my job is to make sure you’re satisfied,” or ask, “What do you want me to do?”

Instead, they should say, “My job is to help you and the company succeed,” followed by “Show me how you do things now,” and “Let’s figure out a better way of getting this done…”

180 View – The article assumes that the IT leaders are qualified business engineers, which is a big assumption. However, for those organizations fortunate enough to have this kind of IT department, then putting the head of IT on an equal playing field with the business leaders, makes a lot of sense.

January 25, 2010 from Info-Tech Research Group –“Industry analyst firm Info-Tech Research Group has launched a nationwide contest to recognize and reward both Canada’s smartest and greenest mid-market IT departments. Nominate yourself or a friend to ‘Smart People’ today, or stay tuned to the contest and nominees via Twitter.”

180 View – We just found out about this site from Joel Martin formerly Product Manager for Microsoft’s Dynamics ERP products in Canada. I have a lot of respect for Joel who I once asked to speak at a CICA technology conference when he worked for IDC as a research analyst before Microsoft. The fact that Joel is involved leads me to believe in the Quest. If you know of a great IT project, I suggest you nominate the person responsible.