Back to basics Enterprise Resource Planning

Last week, my article back to basics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) was featured by CIO UK. The full article is reproduced below or to go direct to the CIO UK Back to basics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) article, click here.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software attempts to link all internal business processes into a common set of applications that share a common database. It is the common database that allows an ERP system to serve as a source for a robust data warehouse that can support sophisticated decision support and analysis. Top suppliers include SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Dynamics.

Data warehouse design can also involve a process of extract, transform and load (ETL) that allows business intelligence software to perform its queries and predictive analysis of your organisation’s data.

Business intelligence (BI) systems have the ability to sit on top of a data warehouse and perform intelligent querying of data through data mining, online analytical processing (OLAP) and business performance management (BPM). In particular, it is the BPM aspect that MDs/CEOs utilise the most as it becomes a decision support system, providing dashboards for all sorts of performance indicators allowing management quick synopsis of any given situation, allowing quicker decision making.

Market trends: Current Consolidation, who owns who and how it will affect the future of ERP

The IT market is undergoing significant reshuffle and consolidation. This has led to a great deal of confusion on who owns who, especially if your CEO does not actively follow the IT industry. ERP system supplier consolidation has meant that Microsoft has bought Navision and Great Plains. SAP now owns BI vendor Business Objects . Oracle is the supplier that is the most influential as far as acquisitions are concerned as it has bought, Sun Microsystems, PeopleSoft, which already owned JD Edwards, Siebel, Primavera and Hyperion. Also IBM bought Cognos as it is software for BI.

Lessons learnt that allow future successful implementations

Project leadership can mitigate ERP implementation risks with a strong plan that remains focused on the organisation’s goals and objectives. A spirit of cooperation between the vendor and buyer for mutual benefit is often quoted as the single most important factor for success. It is interesting that on average an ERP implementation takes approx 20 months and that only seven per cent of projects finish on time while 68 per cent took “much longer” than expected.

A new ERP implementation is best done by splitting the project into three discrete areas: Planning, Change and Review. The areas below will on occasion be conducted in parallel.

Planning:
The business needs to appoint a steering committee to conduct a thorough SWOT and STEP (PEST) analysis with a view to setting up an ERP capability. It can then be used to identify gaps that need to be addressed. For example, if the STEP analysis highlights that politically, many departments aren’t interested or do not know about the new ERP implementation, it needs to be addressed. It also needs to be recorded in the SWOT analysis as a threat. This will highlight how prepared the business is for the required change and the next step can take these findings and ensure:

1. A senior Executive is appointed to ensure the project is top driven (Senior exec – CEO etc) and not bottom up (IT driven)
2. Business strategy is clearly defined.
3. ERP system fits within that strategy.
4. Definition of goals/objectives of introducing the ERP system Ensure questions such as what do we hope to achieve at the end? How will we know that we have arrived? – are answered, i.e. clearly define business requirements in detail and set realistic business benefits to manage expectations better.
5. Processes in 6, 7 and 8 need to be aligned to the overall business/IT strategy by involvement from both senior managers of functions and experienced users who understand the processes.
6. Processes are analysed for alignment to business vision and business/IT strategy and fixed accordingly.
7. Processes that are not captured by existing systems are captured.
8. Processed are improved.
9. Resources both human and technical – ensure miscalculation of time/effort is minimised, manage delivery timeframe expectations.
10. The above steps have been completed and a realistic budget is assigned.
11. ERP package selection is according to business requirements/process mapping.
12. ERP software is aligned to user procedures (May require new procedures)

Change:
1. Ensure that all interested parties are engaged and feel involved (business buy in) and that resistance to change is reduced and addressed accordingly. (This can be accomplished by creating a steering committee that has reps from both senior management from every function involved; and a super user who understands current processes. The super user needs to have taken the time to create his/her steering committee to analyse current processes and suggest improvements (See item 5 under planning).
2. How do we communicate that this change is required? – On going communications with all stakeholders.
3. How will training elements be addressed? What is the current process (Manual/IT based system and if it is an IT system, are there any problems in the way that the system is used?
4. Reviews, for example, Gateway Reviews should be conducted to deliver a “peer review” where independent practitioners from outside the programme/project use their experience and expertise to examine the progress and likelihood of successful delivery of the programme or project.

Review:
Once the project has been delivered successfully, a yearly review should be conducted to enhance or improve the system allowing for continuous improvement. Minor modifications, tweaks and fixes can be performed as business as usual.

Social Media Primer – Succeed by using LinkedIn and blogs

Social Media fascinates me and I am leveraging this medium to succeed in my career while taking this opportunity to share my learning and experience with all my readers. My objective is to start a discussion where my readers can also share their learning and experience with all of us to build our success together. So, without further ado…

 Here are a few resources to succeed on LinkedIn:

1. On the menu bar for LinkedIn (LI) at the top, click on MORE and from the drop down, select LEARNING CENTER. Learn and sharpen your skills in areas where you lack understanding.

2. On the menu bar to the right of MORE, click the drop down, and select GROUPS and search for any groups that you are interested in. The secret is to become a member of groups within your professional field that are either building pretty fast or are the largest groups. Become a member of, for example, Executive Suite , Linked:HR (#1 Human Resources Group) , Star:Candidate for Hire , Linked Strategies , Future Social Media , Social Media Today, Twitter Strategies , Top Recommended People  and any other groups that benefit you in your professional field. 

In the example above, if an executive was looking for a job, these would be good groups to join – Executive Suite, Linked: HR and Star: Candidate for Hire (Two have in excess of 150K members and Star candidate is growing quite fast ). The groups, Linked Strategies, Future Social Media, Social Media Today and Twitter Strategies cover a wide spectrum of social media. I personally found, Top Recommended People one of the best groups for thought provoking and active discussions.

The following post by Sean is a good resource to get started.

(Blog-Off II Entry) Are You a LION, Turtle, HoundDog, or Alley Cat? What’s Your LinkedIn Strategy?

3. Go to Flyn Penoyer’s blog, The Online Business Networker . (This site is a mine of information on LinkedIn).

4. Go to: The Online Business Networker Success kit and The Online Business Networker Membership site and download all the FREE resources and videos and study them.

5. Read the Linkedin Starter Guide To Success by Randy Schrum

6. Keep visiting Randy’s new Corporate Media site for the latest in social media.

 Building your LI network:

For LI to work effectively, build your network to a min of 250 people. Participate in Group activity, Q&A sessions, become actively involved in the social media groups and that will not only build your expertise within that area but will also build your network. Once you participate in discussions and get to know people, send a personal message rather than the default LI one of:

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

- Mubbisher Ahmed

With, for example:

Hi xyz,

We worked together on the xyz project together at xyz and I would like to invite you to join my network.

PS: if not interested I would be grateful if you would click “archive” and not “I don’t know this person”.

Mubbisher Ahmed

The text in BOLD is very important, as if you get 5 IDK’s (I don’t knows), you can’t send invites out at random and have to know the recipient’s email address!

Blogging and becoming a thought leader:

Start a blog and publicise your blog articles using LinkedIn. The best way is to become a member of relevant groups to you. Each group has a NEWS section. This is where you can share new blogs with LinkedIn users and is an acceptable way to promote your blog by both LI and its users.

You should be able to spot many new blog postings there. Once you have done that, try and come up with a question that you want answered based around your blog and post it in DISCUSSIONS with a link to your blog. You can also use the DISCUSSIONS section to get feedback on areas that you need assistance with etc. The NEWS and DISCUSSIONS section is a great way to generate interest and traffic to your blog.

The idea is for you to be recognised as a thought leader within your field and then build your network.

Use this quick introduction/primer and it will help you succeed in the world of social media.

Please share with me your successes, failures and top tips on using social media effectively. I welcome all comments and once moderated, comments will be available on the blog for the benefit of everyone.

International and UK Law and how it relates to IT and Computers

Even when I was in university, I used to be both fascinated and confused by law. It was just as well that I had to contend with just one module of law as I made a conscientious decision that when I embarked on my career, I would leave the law and related computer crime etc to lawyers. As most of my regular readers know by now, I am usually sat around subconsciously searching for a topic. I don’t usually have a list of topics lying around and usually during the week something happens that leads to an article being posted. Well, it’s either that or on the weekend, I have a sudden panic attack that leads to me writing or babbling on about something. A few days ago, something similar happened that has led all of us to this post.

While researching, I came across an intriguing paper by Warren B. Chik, titled Challenges to Criminal Law Making in the New Global Information Society: A Critical Comparative Study of the Adequacies of Computer-Related Criminal Legislation in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore. This led me to find another interesting paper released by the UK home office on The police recording of computer crime that seeked to contribute to the Home Office and law enforcement efforts in tackling the lack of visibility of computer crime offending, a situation that was hampering efforts to assess and tackle the problem.

Let me clarify a few things first before we go international. British law is based on common law. The underlying principle of common law is the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. IT and computers are not likely to be governed by common law, unless there is a case precedent.

The next one is Tort law concerns civil wrong doings and is used as a civil action by one citizen against another. Tort law may be used in some cases of IT/Computers, for example under the Tort of negligence and copyright infringement.

The last one that I want to discuss is statutory law. This is the law that has been passed by parliament. ‘Statute’ is generic and collective, while ‘act’ is specific and singular. An act is thus a statute, and the acts generated by a legislative body are collectively referred to as satutes, but ‘act’ is normally used in the formal title of a statute. You could thus talk about ‘the statute on rural land use planning’ or ‘the statutes regarding rural land use planning’, but the title(s) of the actual statute(s) would be something such as ‘Rural Land Use Planning Act’.

As the UK is part of the European Union, the UK is subject to the Law of the European Union. That means that EU law has direct affect within the member states and overrules any other existent law.

In addition to the measures above, internationally, many governments assist each other through Extradition treaties. This is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal. In the UK, the Extradition Act 2003 underpins the high profile case of Gary McKinnon.

As I said in a previous post, the ugly side of social media, UK’s national law is adequate for dealing with national social media abuse but there are no international agreements/treaties in place where a cross border offence happens, for example, significant online abuse is concerned involving two individuals in two different countries. The encouraging factor I found during the investigation of that post was that even countries such as Pakistan have produced legislation to combat electronic crimes. The main act to combat computer crime within the UK is the Computer misuse act 1990

The scope of Computer law is to protect individuals and liberty, so these are the current laws applicable within the UK:

Human Rights

• Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 (not enforced in UK until November 2000)
• UK Human Rights Act 1998
• Consumer protection act 1987

Freedom of Information

• UK Freedom of Information Act 2000

Data Protection

• Data Protection Act 1998 (extended the scope of data protection beyond automatically processed data)
• The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 – EC Directive

Health and safety

• UK Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, supplemented by
• UK Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992

Rights of disabled  people

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 2004

Intellectual property rights

• Registered Designs Act 1949
• Design Rights (Semiconductor) Regulations 1989
• Patents Act 1977
• Trade Marks Act 1994
• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 amended by:
• Copyright (Computer Programmes) Regulations 1992
• Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997
• EC Directive  on  the  Harmonisation  of  certain  aspects  of  copyright  and  related  rights  in  the  information  society  2001 (should  have  been  implemented  in  EC  countries  in  2002;  is  proving  controversial  and  has  not  yet  been  implemented  in  UK  law)

Contracts  for  computer  systems  and  software

• Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 (Software)
• Sale of Goods Act 1979 (Hardware)
• Misrepresentation Act 1967 (Hardware)
• Unfair contract terms act 1977

Electronic  commerce  and  contracting

• Consumer protection – Distance Selling Regulations 2000

Torts

• Civil liability may attach to a person independently of the existence of a contract; I.e. negligence, defamation, malicious falsehood and nuisance
• Computer  Misuse  Act  1990  is  now  in  urgent  need  of  reform,  but
• Computer  Misuse  (Amendment)  Bill  2002  was  not  passed  by  parliament

Unlawful  data  use  and  data  publication, Obscenity  and  pornography

• Obscene  Publications  Act  1959
• Protection  of  Children  Act  1978
• Criminal  Justice  Act  1988 e.g.  Harassment
• Telecommunications  Act  1984
• Protection  from  Harassment  Act  1997

Mobile Payments – Coming to a phone near you

At the end of August 2009, I wrote a post – The future is bright but is it mobile? In that post, I mentioned the fact that in the developing countries mobile phones were increasingly used for a wide variety of tasks, including banking. Meanwhile in the developed world affluent consumers were purchasing increasingly powerful mobile phones, including smarut phones and were looking for more ways in which to use them. Mobile commerce hadn’t taken off in the developed world due to the availability of other payment methods available to the relatively affluent customers such as credit cards and contactless cards. The move to using mobile phones for commerce is akin to where we find ourselves in terms of laptops morphing to smart phones, as this is where traditional wallets will be replaced with electronic digital wallets operated by mobile phones.

Let’s first take a look at the history behind the scenes to understand where we are today and the importance of the latest report released on 14/1/10 on this new technology, Near Field Communications (NFC). NFC happened as a result of the NFC Forum and its members, founded in 2004, recognising that evolution meant a new, short-range wireless connectivity technology had to be created. This article on the Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation’s website (ITSO) provides a good introduction and will bring the reader to where we are currently and the new NFC adoption by the mobile industry for mobile payments in the future. In the UK, the movement towards contactless cards was initiated by ITSO in 1998, a non profit sharing organisation owned by its members. This led to the first contactless RFID Oyster cards being issued to the public in 2003 for the London Underground by TFL. As we moved closer to mobile phone NFC, other initiatives such as prepaid cards and prepaid contactless cards used by retailers such as Pret a Manger and coffee republic were developed.

Over the last few years, banks and payment vendors have tried different technologies with a varied success rate, including the latest contactless cards. The reason that mobile phones can be used with NFC now is because finally different standards have come together to support one another and make these payments secure. So, what we now see is that ITSO supports NFC as even the UK government is prepared to fund the switch to NFC compatible transport ticketing and the various card issuers have agreed the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Trials of NFC technology in London revealed that Londoners wanted to use their mobiles to travel and shop. Mobiles will start replacing cash as the technology is rolled out within the UK from 2011. “Decisions made in 2010 will be critical in determining which mobile network operators, which banks, which industry suppliers and which service providers become the leaders in the field,” says Sarah Clark. “Ultimately, only two or three companies in each country will succeed in building a major new business providing NFC services to businesses and consumers. The winners could be banks or mobile operators, or even a new entrant to the market.” As the technology becomes widely adopted, NFC based payments could reach $30 billion by 2012. 

The following excerpt courtesy of Sourcewire. “NFC technology will be used to replace everything from credit cards and loyalty cards to bus and train tickets, library cards, door keys and even cash,” says Sarah Clark, author of ‘NFC: The Road to Commercial Deployment‘. “What hasn’t yet been decided, however, is who will win the battle to provide consumers with their new hi-tech mobile wallets.”

Consumers with NFC-enabled phones will be able to simply touch their phone to a ’smart’ poster or product label containing a RFID chip to sign up for a loyalty programme, collect a money-off coupon, download a trailer for a new movie, access the latest travel information or go straight to a product’s website to read customer ratings and reviews and compare prices.

Social networks will also get a major boost as with a NFC phone, you can exchange details of someone befriended online by simply touching your phones together when you meet them in the real world. Or touch your phone to a smart poster as you go into a restaurant to automatically update your Facebook status and get an offer coupon from the venue as a thank you for telling your friends you’re there.

Commuters will be able to store their travel pass on their phone and mobile versions of airline boarding cards, hotel room keys and even passports will make it quicker and easier to get from place to place. Paying bills will become much simpler, too. Simply touch two NFC phones together to transfer money to a friend, buy a drink or pay for a service.

“No more rummaging around for the right change, card, keys or paperwork and no more texting your location to your friends — with NFC everything can be handled by your mobile device,” says Clark. “And, of course, NFC is a highly secure technology. Consumers will be able to instantly lock all the mobile wallet services on their phone if it is lost or stolen and then get them automatically transferred onto a new phone as soon as it arrives. They will also be able to use their phone to make payments even when the battery is flat.”

Mind Mapping – The guru fights the web

Welcome back to all my readers and I that hope 2010 proves to be as good as you expect it to be!

I first came across mind mapping when I read, “The principles of success”. Mind mapping as we know it today has been developed by Tony Buzan. I consider Tony Buzan to be the guru of mind mapping as he has been the main proponent and driver behind mind mapping. Obviously, there will always be the debate that Tony Buzan did not invent mind mapping. I became aware of mind mapping a few years ago. Coincidentally, around the same time, one day, I was sat with my daughter and she appeared to be drawing a diagram. Initially, I did not pay much attention but as I continued to peer over my shoulder, it increasingly looked like a mind map. As I curiously asked her whether she was drawing a mind map, she confirmed that she was (She was 13). So, schools have started to teach mind mapping and people of my age (early 40s) have only just started to learn it! Another reason for this post – To build awareness of this wonderful tool.

Anyway, during the Christmas break as I was researching ways of utilising social media to find myself an appropriate position that could utilise my CIO, programme management, leadership and commercial skills, I found myself facing the predicament that I had so many thoughts, articles and action items based on my research that I was starting to drown. I must admit, I don’t use mind mapping regularly (although I should) and I find it the best tool to organise my thoughts, especially when I suffer from information overload. Mind mapping software became the obvious choice as I also wanted to share the mind map with my job search coach.

As is often the case with me and my blogging, I am usually looking for ideas for my next blog posting. The kind of ideas that I look for my blogging posts are usually areas of IT and sometimes even business that I feel would help others by applying my twist of IT knowledge and knowledge gained through research across the Net. Regular readers of my blog know that I tend to shy away from reviewing software myself as that kind of research has usually been conducted elsewhere and all I have to do is provide references to these articles etc.

As I am a fan of Tony Buzan and consider him the guru of mind mapping, naturally I downloaded the trial version of his iMindMap software, even though there is a huge variety of free and subscription based mind mapping software available at the moment. The main reason, I like his software is that I believe that as he is behind mind mapping as we know it today, his software would reflect that. Now you may ask yourself, well, how do I create a mind map – Click here for the answer?

Mind mapping software saves time and there are many reasons why mind mapping software should be utilised including increasing productivity. There are features to look for when purchasing mind mapping software and it can even help with project management. As I had created my mind map, I decided that it made sense to do a post on mind mapping.

The problem, I face now is that even though iMindmap and Mindjet MindManager seem to lead in the reviews, I am not entirely sure that in today’s, Cloud Computing, web connected world these software packages are the correct choice. I would love to use iMindMap as it has been created with Tony Buzan’s involvement but in today’s connected world, it has no application for iPhones/smartphones. Mindjet MindManager is similar, no iPhone/smartphone application either. As I researched, I found mindmeister that was not only web based, had an iPhone application and was considered to be quite an innovative business. This is a real predicament for my choice, as I want Tony Buzan’s iMindMap software but I want it in the cloud so that I don’t have to worry about saving files on my laptop. I want the freedom to access it from anywhere in the world as I now have the fast connectivity available globally, albeit a few places (an minor inconvenience where I can resort to saving files on my laptop). 

Now, we move to question time:

Which software would you have opted for and why? (To help you, I have a list of reviews at the end of the post)

 Further resources:

• Top 10 mind Mapping tools
• Top 10 mind mapping software sites
• Five best Mind Mapping applications
• Web based Mind Mapping applications
• Mind Mapping software review, ratings and voting
• 3 Free Mind Map Web Applications Offering Map Embeds

Search wars – Past, Present and future – Bing, Google or new entrant?

My favourite quote of the year, interestingly, was about Bing. In June 2009, The Onion asked the question, “Microsoft has announced the launch of a new search engine it calls “Bing.” What do you think?” George Wade replied, “Bing? Interesting. I’ll have to Google that when I get home.” 

As the year, 2009, draws to a close and I write my last blog of the year (I will return, Insha’Allah, in the New Year). I wanted to write about, ‘Search’ that will have the greatest impact on our Internet lives, not only now but well into the future.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, as we have all realised as life progresses. Why am I mentioning this? Internet and indeed Web Search Engine history is fascinating as the pace of IT continues akin to a Ferrari in the fast lane, as a branch of IT, the web’s pace has been analogous to that. Even before, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, searches were conducted using Archie (Inspired by Archie comics), Veronica etc. This was eventually followed up by the acceptance of Netscape Navigator as the world’s first leader of web browsing software. In the early 90s, Microsoft (MS), did not think that the Internet would really take off, and even their boss said, “The Internet? We are not interested in it”- Bill Gates, 1993. That soon changed when they went head to head with Netscape and launched Internet Explorer, in the first browser war that MS eventually won. At the time, even I thought that MS could not win and that Netscape would retain its title and the majority of its market share.

As I was becoming comfortable with Yahoo, along came Google and swept us all away. The ever evolving pace of technology seems to catch most of us off guard. Who could have known, even a few years ago, that the iPhone would give established players like Nokia a run for their money.

So, we arrive in the present, just before Christmas 2009 and are left to wander whether the razzmatazz with which MS launched, its new search engine, Bing, has actually made a dent to Google’s popularity or not. After all, inspite of being in denial in June that it was not competing with Google, we all knew that MS was after Google’s crown. 

If we take into account, the first browser wars, the battle was simple as it was just between two browsers. Forward to the future, today and it is a completely new and different arena and era. It is a complicated affair as it is not simply a battle between Google and Microsoft for the, ‘search’, crown anymore. Both MS and Google thrive on innovation. Technological history has taught us that innovative businesses do not always get things right, as witnessed by Nokia losing to Apples’s iPhone, MS Zune to iPod/iPhone and Google’s failed products.

So, anyone sense where I am going with all of this? Well, firstly, in the true sense of innovation, Google acknowledges and accepts when it has brought a product to market that fails to capture the imagination of that market and withdraws such products, whereas, others haven’t done that. What is the secret to Google’s success? It’s simple, no, really it is. The secret to Apple’s and Google’s success is that they listen to us, the customer. They are finely attuned to what, we, the consumer want and need, just as my previous article, has alluded to. Secondly, this battle is not just about the search functionality anymore, as Google is now providing Cloud Computing - MS has Azure now, the Chrome browser, Android mobile phone Operating System (OS) – MS has Windows Mobile, Chrome Desktop OS, YouTube , Google Wave - MS has no equivalent as far as I know, Google Docs  (MS equivalent version in Office 2010, free for home/students) and many more. Microsoft is still innovating, albeit, not so successfully. It is therefore clear that wherever Google/MS innovate, the other is forced to follow. This is the problem as it is becoming increasingly blurry on whether Google is a search engine or whether MS is a OS/Apps provider.

2010 will be very interesting as the search arena witnesses some significant changes, such as, news channels paying for inclusion within searches, Yahoo using Bing as its engine to take on Google and perhaps even the search for the holy grail of corporate data mining using search engine technology, as let’s face it, Google has been in the business intelligence business for many years now! MS is getting serious and judging by its recent release of Bing’s iPhone app, as always, will take the fight to Google. 

In terms of current market share, where are these two behemoths, well, again, it depends who you talk to. This article puts MS Bing with 10%, while this article reckons that the previous article is all baloney and that MS Bing has 3.49%. Will we have a completely new entrant? Who knows? 

For those, who want to use Google side by side, click here. 

Let the wars begin! 

Let me finish by wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Leveraging IT for Competitive Advantage – Myth or Reality?

I have recently been researching the realm of competitive advantage and whether IT can still assist in creating or sustaining it. During my research, I came across an article published in 2003 by Nicholas Carr in the Harvard Business Review entitled “IT Doesn’t Matter“. This was subsequently printed as a book as, “Does IT Matter?”. This book sparked quite a debate as even Bill Gates, at Microsoft’s CEO Summit on May 21 2003, said, “And so when somebody says, to take the extreme quote from the Harvard Business Review article, they say IT doesn’t matter, they must be saying that with all this information flow, we’ve either achieved a limit where it’s just perfect, everybody sees exactly what they want, or we’ve gotten to a point where it simply can’t be improved – and that’s where we’d object very strenuously.“

As this article and book has made so many think about whether IT can create competitive advantage or not, it seemed apt that I take the main argument of his book and add to it. The main point of the book is that IT is now a commodity, akin to energy —a commonly available infrastructure at the end of the S-curve of adoption. All firms have access to IT and any system can be instantly replicated. Therefore companies should treat IT like electrical power—make sure it works, but spend as little as possible on it. I then came across, two articles by Don Tapscott that took this debate further. To read, these articles, please click on the links – Rethinking Information Technology in Competitive Advantage – Part I: The Debate and Rethinking Information Technology and Competitive Advantage – Part II: Strategy in the Age of Collaboration

I am firmly in the camp that believes that IT can, currently, provide competitive advantage. Organisations just need to know/learn how to do it. I believe that competitive advantage through IT can be applied by utilising the following approach:

1. Leadership and its structure
2. Know your business
3. Create a culture of innovation
4. Leverage existing systems
5. Create a tipping point for your product (Non IT)
6. Utilising business partnerships
7. Ubiquitous acceptance of technology

1. Leadership and its structure

To create competitive advantage, requires two leaders within an organisation to believe in the transformational capability of IT. Firstly, it requires a visionary CEO and board. This board MUST already have or appoint a board level Chief Information Officer (CIO). This is a pre-requisite as without direct board level representation, firstly, IT is not taken seriously enough and secondly, the Head of IT only receives information from the board, second hand. Secondly, a visionary CIO is required who believes that IT can create competitive advantage and is encouraged and supported by the board to make that happen.

2. Know your business

Once appointed, the CIO has to learn how the business operates and MUST proceed to spend a reasonable amount of time working within the various functions that will allow the CIO to formulate a complete understanding of the business. This MUST entail a period of working in the field and interacting with customers.

3. Create a culture of Innovation

Once an understanding of the business has been achieved, ideally the board will go about creating a culture of Innovation within the business or at least the CIO can create a culture of innovation within the IT team. Tesco and 3M have done this very successfully and have created competitive advantage not just through technology but its people as well.

4. Leverage existing systems

Sometimes, existing systems are overlooked because they have never been tapped fully for their potential. It pays dividends to look at your existing investments to ascertain whether there is something of value that could be tapped for competitive advantage. Argos, within the UK has continued to leverage existing systems for competitive advantage and in 2008 done it again. The gambling industry continues to look at their existing systems for competitive advantage, as this interview with Dr Martin Smith of GameAccount Global proves.

5.         Create a tipping point for your product (Non IT)

The tipping point for a product is that moment when an idea or social behaviour has reached a level where it “tips” and spreads like crazy. In 2004, after 18 months of loyal service, the battery in Casey Neistat’s first generation iPod died for good. At the time Apple did not have a battery replacement program, so its customer service representative explained the disappointing news that Casey’s only recourse was to purchase a new iPod. Casey and his older brother Van chose to respond in guerilla fashion to Apple’s non-solution to this obvious problem. The rest, as they say is history. Apple was eventually forced to issue replacement batteries. Another example is that of hush puppies. They became very successful selling items as a result of young people using them as fashion items and the word of mouth then spread the rest and tipped the balance in their favour. Many successful companies now employ scouts to see how they can leverage any potential, “tipping points”.

6.         Utilising business partnerships

Successful businesses leverage their IT systems through effective business partnerships with its suppliers. Both Tesco and Argos are prime examples of utilising these business partnerships that have been cultivated into very successful relationships

7.         Ubiquitous acceptance of technology

Leveraging IT for competitive advantage also requires universal acceptance by its users to succeed. Very often, users are not engaged in product development that often leads to products that are not what users want. Typical of that in recent years are products by Nokia and their telephones. Nokia have lost huge market to share to iphones, not because iphones are technically superior but because the iphones are what consumers want and need. The Nintendo Wii is another example of being in touch with people and ubiquitous acceptance of a product. Businesses need to make their technology easy to use by their end users, so acceptance happens. If we look back at all of my examples used in this article, all of them made technology easy to use for their intended markets from Tesco’s self serve tills to Argos online reservation systems allowing customers to collect at their nearest store.

Microsoft and Apple Tablets, pens and swords

It doesn’t really matter whether I take a look at Microsoft’s (MS) Courier dual screen booklet/tablet or Apple’s itablet; I quickly arrive at the same conclusion. I will explain as I go through this article. Obviously, an official statement has not been made by either camp and nor have the names for both products been released as yet.

It was in 2001 when I enthusiastically unwrapped my Windows tablet complete with stylus. I was enthused as I had imagined my world to be free of paper and totally digital. The price I paid for the tablet was probably equivalent to 2500 paper notebooks but I didn’t really care as I was too tunnel visioned by the allure of the future promised by this technology and the MS marketing hype.

I spent some time mastering the stylus functionality and went to my first board meeting. This was the first time I felt a misfit. It suddenly dawned on me that I was the only one in the room with a tablet. The meeting started while I was being scanned by all these eyes that seemed to be under a trance by the tablet. It was just great, I was writing notes and didn’t have to retype them either as the handwriting to type function would quickly create a document for me when I needed it. Then it happened. The tablet crashed. The meeting continued and as I started taking notes on my paper notebook, I realised the trance had been broken, replaced by bewilderment. The tablet rebooted but it was too late, I decided to continue to write on paper.

Well, why am I sharing this with you? I am not at all convinced that these new technologies will be as successful as the iphone or can convince people to part with our love for writing on paper. That said, I would love to be proven wrong as there is a big part of me that wants to use a digital equivalent, if it is indeed practical enough.

Here is my list of reasons why I think these technologies can’t replace our love for paper and why the pen will remain mightier than the tablet and sword: 

1. I don’t need to start the pen and paper.
2. If I drop the pen/paper, it doesn’t break or stop working.
3. Paper does not need to be rebooted.
4. It is considerably cheaper.
5. The next version of paper is always the same.
6. The next version of paper does not require retraining.
7. Nobody wants to steal my paper notebook.
8. I know how to locate my information contained within my paper notebook.
9. I don’t need to migrate my entries in the paper notebook to the next version.
10. My paper notebook seems at home in any boardroom (for now, anyway).

I could probably go on but you get the picture.

Would you like to add to my list or defend the new technology? Feel free to add your comments; I do look forward to reading them.

The wonderful world of FREE Windows 7 applications.

I know I said last week that I would be covering Microsoft’s Courier dual screen booklet OR How an organisation can leverage IT to create competitive advantage and I promise that I will cover these in the near future. As you know, recently, I wrote a blog on Houston, Windows is counting down 10,9,8,7 and as I became aware of applications that are either free/considerably lower cost than their mainstream rivals, I decided to cover them now, rather than later. That way, readers can be equipped with the knowledge that there are more FREE/ Cost effective versions for usage with Windows 7.

The following software is usually free (utilises the GNU LGPL or equivalent licence) and/or open source. The distinction between free and open source software can sometimes be quite blurry and I would urge users, especially, organisations of any size to check the licensing terms for usage. Some software may seem free but many software applications can sometimes expect the users to pay a token amount for usage of the software (seems fair, after all they developed it). These applications will mostly be completely free for private users and for organisations will cost considerably less, if they aren’t free.

The first area that everyone, regardless of whether they are office users or private individuals, need to address once they have bought Windows 7 are applications that they rely on to do their everyday job:

Desktop applications:

1. OpenOffice (Free GNU LGPL Licence). This is a free equivalent to Microsoft (MS) Office, offered by Oracle and offers word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It started life as StarOffice in 1999 and is quite a mature product now that allows documents to be saved in MS formats.
2. Firefox web browsing, software is provided by Mozilla and again is an established provider with a mature product.
3. An alternative to MS Outlook (email/contacts/calendar) is Mozilla’s colurful offering, Sunbird.
4. There are a variety of free email offerings but I will recommend, GoogleMail.
5. For free PDF readers, use Adobe or Foxit FREE Readers.
6. For times when you need to reduce the size of documents and bundle them together, for example, for emailing, use   7-Zip (WinZip/WinRaR equivalent)
7. CD burning can be accomplished by CDBurningXP .
8. Home movie and photo slideshows can be created well with, DVD Flick .
9. For equivalent to Google Earth/Maps and MS Bing maps platform, use Marble
10. You can even store your documents online and retrieve them from anywhere in the world, courtesy of MS Skydrive

Desktop (Graphical) applications:

1. At the top, I have to place GIMP (Photoshop/PaintShop Pro equivalent). No matter where I have gone on the Internet, the reviews for this application have always been outstanding, again, a mature product and one of the best.
2. Vector graphics applications can be created with the assistance of, Inkscape.
3. For 3D graphics, Blender is a good alternative to applications such as AutoCAD.
4. For diagram creation use the tool, DIA (MS Visio equivalent).
5. For multimedia player equivalents to Windows media/Real’s Real players use, SM Player or VLC Media players.

Computer Security:

Windows 7, just as Vista, provides free spyware in the form of Windows Defender and a pretty good firewall, Windows Firewall. Essentially, this means that your computer should be well protected. That just leaves the question of, which Anti Virus (AV) package should I install?

1. I use Avast and I rate it as the best free AV package out there currently. I have tested this piece of wonderful AV software and it has always delivered. I even managed to rid a few computers of viruses that I couldn’t eradicate even with the established players and the free providers in general.
2. AVG Free gets a lot of attention in the press but it failed my tests of getting rid of viruses, so I will still mention it as it gets pretty good reviews elsewhere.
3. A new one that I have come across is Avira. It is relatively a newcomer but seems good for the job.
4. Microsoft has also jumped on the free Anti Virus bandwagon, as part of its security essentials.

Communications:

1. Free VOIP communications including teleconferencing is available via Skype .
2. Chatting can be enabled via XChat and Pidgin (Allows to integrate the popular ones into it, such as MSN, Yahoo and others).
3. Instant messaging, including twitter, is available by using AIM
4. For web conferencing (see David vs. Goliath clash on web communications technologies), use Dimdim , Yugma or Ekiga .

Entertainment:

1. If you wanted a way of listening (legally) to music without paying for it, head to Spotify. The only thing that you can’t do is to download it to your hard drive.
2. For TV channel viewing, use the various channel players, such as, BBC , ITV , Channel4 , Five and Sky.
3. Free encyclopaedia, if you don’t know already is available from Wikipedia.
4. How about some free books?

Sources of information:

1. Open source freebies for Windows 7 – ComputerWeekly, 17-23/11/09.
2. Set yourself free – Which? Computing, November 2009.

The CIOs agenda and memberships

Being a CIO is quite a lonely existence. When a CIO starts his/her new role, they are expected to provide an organisation with an IT vision and then have to work towards that vision. The CIO then becomes a salesman and proceeds to sell that vision to his/her own teams, at board level in an easy jargon free language but also to all the internal and external stakeholders of an organisation as well. As he/she drives the team towards that vision, he/she also has to ensure that systems are stable, reliable and maintainable to support business activities with minimal downtime. In addition, he/she has to be aware and ready for emergency situations with disaster recovery/business continuity plans. It is no wonder then that the CIO, as the ultimate IT authority within an organisation can feel isolated and alone at times.

Well, that was the legacy that we all inherited. In 2004, a group of CIOs got together and discussed whether it would be possible to have tools and resources at a CIO’s disposal that could remove this isolation and add real value for not only the CIO but for the organisation as well.

So, how did I get involved and where is the CIO Executive Council (Council hereon) heading? Well, I got involved quite accidentally, to be truthful having, bumped (cyber equivalent of) into a senior executive on a social media site. Once I saw the potential of the membership and knew how helpful the membership was for CIOs, I felt proud and privileged to assist and further the profession by welcoming CIOs within the UK to become active members.

To the CIO, there are many memberships available but there is currently no membership available that is by CIOs, for CIOs. The uniqueness of the CIO Executive Council is that it is comprised of hundreds of leading CIOs globally, who together form a reality-tested peer advisory resource. There are no vendors, consultants, analysts, or hidden agendas, just IT leaders. The common denominator is that they are all committed to helping members save time and money, avoid mistakes and make better leadership decisions.

CIOs don’t have to walk alone anymore as the Council, at the request of a member will instigate and establish a match, with, for example a CIO with “been there” experience to help mitigate risk and share a treasure trove of knowledge and insight. Humans are unique as we like to share the knowledge and experience that we have gained, for the wider good and it is indeed this quality that has allowed mankind to conquer water with dams and to reach for the stars. The CIO Executive Council recognises this and allows CIOs to learn and share knowledge directly with each other to remove the necessity of “reinventing the wheel”. This knowledge sharing is continued by providing members the opportunity to speak at global events and sourcing authoring, if they wish, in CIO magazine. Mojgan LeFebvre, CIO of Biomerieux said, “There’s nothing more reassuring than picking up the phone and calling another CIO who has faced the same challenges and the right solution. The readiness of peers to share their experiences and knowledge is incredibly valuable – more so given the global reach of the Council and access to peers all over the world.”

The Council’s Future-State CIO program was developed by a group of thought leaders from many global companies and the goal was to define the future of the CIO role and then to offer a path forward based on essential executive leadership competencies.

In the past, CIOs have spent the majority of their time managing their time for operational excellence.

Today, most CIOs are expanding their focus to include partnering with business on business transformation.

The future state CIO will spend the majority of his/her time driving business strategy and innovation for competitive advantage.

Finally, I want to take some time to discuss the IT Value Matrix. This was created by dozens of Council members joining forces on a schematic that would highlight the key characteristics and activities that optimise the value of IT to the enterprise. CIOs have used this to influence business stakeholders and explain to their staff how to focus and organise the IT function. I could list other benefits and value for the CIO, such as content/research/whitepapers, suffice to say, the CIO Executive Council membership is as valuable to the CIO, as tools are to a workman.

In summary and to finish with a quote, the CIO Executive Council works for the CIO, as it is by the CIO, for the CIO and the “secret sauce” of the Council is the extensive encrypted database of members’ needs, interests, goals and expertise. David Wright, CIO Europe, Capital One PLC said,” Council resources and peer discussions help us refine our strategies and develop key leaders.

Now, that is a powerful concoction!

I welcome UK CIOs to attend the CIO Executive Council’s next European Regional Meeting, 2 Dec 2009, in London.

Please click here to register your interest to attend (CIOs only, please)  or contact me directly, as below.

For further information and to become a member, please contact me via:

Email: ahmed@itfindit.com

Mobile: 07771 776752

Next week, I’ll be discussing either Microsoft’s Courier dual screen booklet OR How can an organisation leverage IT to create competitive advantage?

Yep, I haven’t actually decided, yet, who knows something else may catch my attention and I may decide to write about something completely different. Why not, after all, it is my blog!