Archive for June, 2009

Right out of the real news:

• Ayatollah says, ‘I’m following all of you on Twitter…’ Shows he’s following over 65 million people. Nice.
• Ayatollah, Supreme Leader, says, “…Green avatars are the country’s greatest threat [ever].”
• Iran decides to block unsupportive internet access (e.g. to Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest services like Twitter (and more abstractly the ‘internet’) are fueling Iran’s revolution right now. It is interesting the ‘Supreme Leader’ is scared of a service like Twitter.

And, he should be scared. Read the rest of this entry »

In the past few weeks, I have had three different conversations circling around CEOs and their relationship to the technology at their disposal. For many organizations, the CEO simply does not have a good grasp of all the different technologies employed in their business. And, to be honest, that is perhaps as it should be.

The CEO’s role is that of an extrovert, focused on the key value proposition(s) of his or her business. For instance, the CEO for a computer superstore chain may be focused on profit per region; a bank managing risk relative to fluctuation in interest rates; or, increasing customer profitability as a function of customer service offerings. What the CEO should not have to Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, Seth Godin wrote an interesting post, “Two ways to build trust.” It’ll take you about 90 seconds to read and is worth the short trip over to read. The notion is simple: The people (or businesses) he chose to work with are straight-forward in their business, and their web sites reflect the same. In some ways, one might think these are also businesses that are hedgehog-like in their approach: we know our business (and keep it simple); we’re focused on our business (and not fox-like, busy trying umpteen ‘intriguing’ strategies); and we are (or can be) the best at it.

Developing your trust is a large part of why my blog exists. My business is helping yours with effective application of technology; I’m not all-over-the-map; and, as my recommendations on LinkedIn (for instance) attest, I’m good at it. I’ll prefer to let others decide whether I’m the best or not…let me just say working toward being ‘the best’ is a never-ending journey from my perspective.

So, if you have thoughts on my approach, comments on the site design (I’m considering refacing it sometime), feel free to leave a comment.

As a computer-software-web oriented Technology Leader, I’ve heard this basic phrase innumerable times over the years. I’m sure you have too. It’s often like letting someone know you ride motorcycles: Oh, they’re so dangerous, and I have a friend of a friend of a…who…

Like motorcycling, ‘IT’ has a stigma around it. If you touch a computer, software, or develop things for the web, for a living, you frequently get tucked into a pigeon hole somewhere never to be let out. Read the rest of this entry »

Along the path I have followed, there are a few things I’ve discovered when selecting a vendor (or business partner). A few of the ‘popular’ ones I’ve discussed below. To help lend credence to my comments, you may appreciate my roles have included being a P&L head, product manager for a SaaS/BPO unit, global technical account manager, and doing joint-venture assessments involving some multi-$B concerns.

References
Requests for references create love/hate feelings, depending on whether you’re the one receiving the request. If you are making a major decision, such as outsourcing a key business process, you will be keenly interested in talking to others about their experiences with the given vendor. Any experienced vendor

Read the rest of this entry »

Who Goes First?

A lot has been said already regarding BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), SaaS (Software as a Service), and ‘Cloud’ computing.  The ‘cloud‘ remains somewhat dubious for folks because it is a term whose definition continues to evolve.  Most of what is written seems to talk to those ‘in the know’ or from a perspective of ‘everyone’ already doing it.  But what about those of you who have yet to take the plunge? Who have yet to outsource their first application and/or business process?

The odds are, Read the rest of this entry »

For years, when I thought of the ‘wave’ in a marketing context, I thought of Coca-Cola. Well, the old wave is about to be trumped by a New Wave. And it isn’t from Coke.

May 28, Google provided developers with an introduction to a new product due yet this year, called Google Wave. You can learn more at wave.google.com.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to watch the first ~40 minutes of the presentation, here:

My roles have typically involved multi-party coordination, including a broad mix of data type exchanges during collaboration. Wave has the potential of
Read the rest of this entry »