Productivity Suite

Just read a recent Burton Group research that shows the Productivity Suite market is heating up again.

I find it surprising that Microsoft Office is becoming less dominant, when Windows market share is still almost 90%, and Microsoft Office market share itself is often quoted at 95%

I doubt if factors such as simpler product functionality, pricing, and SaaS delivery model will appeal to the bulk of business users. Even a small/medium company will need to exchange documents extensively with the rest of the Microsoft-dominated world.

Then again, a well planned Data Lifecycle and in fact, coherent Enterprise Architecture will ensure IT solutions that fits in business needs without compromising on extraneous features or compatibility issues. For instance, once you have defined Architectural Principles such as "Open Source Platforms" and "Interoperable and Open standards" , together with well defined interfaces (how exactly is data exchanged from an internal system/process such as Sales Tracking with external entities) will ensure the IT systems will always be fit-for-business.

The Bane of PowerPoint?

There is an active discussion going on in my company's internal web forum on PowerPoint misuse. Once upon a time, a presentation requires meticulous preparation, drawing some charts and graphs on to transparency slides and a well rehearsed speech.

Every since Windows and Microsoft Office gained widespread usage, PowerPoint became the de-fact presentation, or even meeting "tool". There is no doubt about the usefulness of presentation information in a series of bullet points, but this has gone into overdrive, where each presentation is expected to be in this format.

Here is a very good article on how badly formatted slides caused the Columbia space shuttle to crash.

Remember to always find the most effective way to get the point across; if a photograph or a 2-page document is more useful, then use them.

There are very good examples at Slideshare. Here are 2 articles that help with presentation.
Presentation Zen
Art of Making Effective Presentations the Steve Jobs Way

Hosted Services and Cloud Computing

These business models have been hot topics for the past 3-5 years. Alas I have been too focused with daily work to investigate in more detail. That said, I am excited and hoping to see these models truly maturing. I am in an organization where the IT services is just piss poor (in my opinion and experience), and the only thing World Class about it is the price we are charged, or shall I say extorted?

There's an interesting article on Microsoft's Hosted Services. Interesting highlights include:

• Exchange Online + Sharepoint + Office Communications Online (IM) + LiveMeeeting = US$15 per license per month
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online = $44 per user per month

I wonder if there is some additional catches. I was a happy user of Livemeeting, until I found out the tariff, something like 13+ cents per minute per user. For a simple collaborative tool, I find that to be ridiculously expensive. However, I must admit Livemeeting hit the sweet spot with its ease of use and seamless integration into the Windows / Office environment.


There is also another interesting summary of the pros and cons of Cloud Computing. Has anyone used a Cloud Computing service before? I wonder what is the experience, and how flexible the pricing and scaling options are.

Agile or Enterprise Architecture

Having been neck-deep into Enterprise Architecture recently, I must say some of the concepts and principles are opposite of the Agile Methodologies which I have been familiar with. Even a simple need such as do we need to design, and do we really need the role of IT architects keep popping up.

Agile development simply works. It has been proven successful, it has many benefits. So why are some companies still sticking to the older methodologies? Why do we need those reams and reams of documentation, and creating software by phases?

In a large enterprise, control is of essence. One needs to know where the cash is going, for what purposes, and how is it being executed. Therefore, an enterprise architecture will give you a top-down view, understanding the inter-relationship of all components.

While theoretically you can live without an architect or software design, how is the implicit design going to be shared across business units, if not through diagrams and documents? How can we standardize interfaces, fields and other specifications in an organization that spans many countries and have tens of thousands of IT staff?

On the other hand, the argument against agile methodologies in a corporate environment is that requirements are well defined. In practice, that is never the case. People are often confused, and no one person has a complete, end-to-end view of everything.

The same goes for commercial software as opposed to open source software. Paying a software vendor gives you control, or at least the illusion of control. Unless you are actively taking part in the development of the software, and able to expend effort to create new features to meet your business needs, oft-times open source software is much too chaotic to be acceptable to most people in large corporations. However, this is slowly changing as some open source software community begins to understand business needs better and responds in a much more helpful manner: as opposed to "RTFM" whenever someone asks a valid question.

I am still trying to find the balance, and to convince the powers-to-be that just with a slight change of our viewpoint, we can possibly gain so much more out of software and IT staff. Its a long and challenging journey ahead, and I am looking forward to it ;)

Filtering Facebook

Facebook is probably the most popular social networking at the moment. You can find an interesting comparison here; you can even get detailed geographic breakdown.


I was reading a whitepaper from MessageLabs about the security and economic impact of Facebook in a corporate environment, titled Facebook: Networking or
Notworking . Again it is a question of how much control and access should we allow for IT users in an organization. This is a question of the principle and/or culture of a company, and how policies are applied. That is where the question lies, rather than finding a the best tool to solve the problem.

I have heard of so many horror stories where almost all incoming and outgoing traffic are blocked, thus hindering productivity. What is the point of procuring the latest and greatest technology, when most of the functionality is disabled and so crippled as to not working at all? On the other hand, mostly unintentional abuse of IT services can also cause a lot of damages to the company. Staff productivity is probably your least concern: issues such as company reputation, IT security, information theft etc will cost the company much more.

Therefore, cultivating the correct behaviour using both soft (culture) and hard (policy, enforcement) approach is the more appropriate approach, rather than buying into these thinly veiled marketing brochure.



P/S: Note that everytime there is a hot trend, software vendors will quickly provide a "solution" by taking a different angle. Web filtering can surely be configured in many existing tools.

Delver - Social Search Engine

Delver is a very interesting concept: it returns search results based on your social graph.

The main drawback is that the result will be very biased against your interests, and you may find it difficult to go out of your current circle. Follow the insightful discussion here at Slashdot.

Symantec Internet Security Thread Report

There's a post at Slashdot on Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report for July-Dec 2007 [ Executive Summary | Full Report ] . Some interesting facts:

• A person's full identity is worth $1 - $15
• Bank accounts $10 - $1000
• Email password $4 - $30
• Web is rapidly gaining ground as a preferred attack vector
  
• 89% of web browser vulnerability comes from ActiveX compared to 1% for Mozilla extensions
• Trojan (71%) and Worm (22%) are still the top potential infection types
• Phishing is mainly targeted at Financial (66%) and ISP (18%)
• Underground economy consolidates and matures
• More than double malicious code threats from Jan - Jun 2007 (212,101) to Jul - Dec 2007 (499,811)
  

IT Budget Reduction

The current sentiment with IT budget is further reduction due to the unfavourable economic condictions. One of the latest article I have read is this TechTarget article. The gist of it:

• On the whole budget remains the same, with minimal reduction
• Most reduction is company-wide, not focused on IT
• There is budget growth in Europe (3.9%) and Asia Pacific (6%)
• Budgets are better-managed, in a proactive manner, and more aligned to business needs
• Reductions - postponing IT investment, IT operations cost-cutting
• Lack of contingency budget plan

I think budget reduction is not necessarily a bad thing; it is a good opportunity to Re-Align, Re-Focus and Revitalize.

Re-Align : Since projects will be "sacrificed", and operational costs reduced, it is a good opportunity to look at the issues which impact the business the most (i.e. Pareto analysis) and make sure what IT is doing is fully aligned with the business direction.

Benefits:

• More effective results to the business
• Increased influenced through interaction with CFO / CEO

Re-Focus : As the IT landscape changes rapidly overnight, IT management is always looking at ways to leverage technology to meet business needs - sometimes implementing new solutions just to keep up with the competition (!).

When there is a budget reduction, it is a good opportunity to take a long, hard look at the core competency, and outsource / eliminate the peripheral services.


Re-Vitalize : A respite from the head-long rush to create business-enablers, consolidation and aiming at excellence. Time to focus on the really important issues, and focus on the soft side of leadership, i.e. staff development and motivation, building up the culture.



Additional interesting reports by Gartner:

Findings: Preliminary Survey Data Suggests Healthy IT Budget Growth for 2008

• Overall IT spending increase between 4.8% and 6.4%
• Largest organizations expect the smallest increases in their IT budgets
• Could be a beginning of a multi-year cycle of renewed growth in IT spending
• Spending fueled by
  
• IT infrastructure upgrades
• Business intelligence
• Enterprise Content Management
• Caution on (lack of) contingency budget
  

Findings: Poll Shows Budget Reductions in 50% of Application Organizations

Responses to 'Have You Been Asked to Reduce Your Application Budget?'


No, and I don't expect to 38.3%
No, but I expect to 13.0%
Yes, by 10% or less 26.1%
Yes, by more than 10% 22.6%


Clients Should Prepare a 'Recession Budget' for 2008

(title says it all)