Absolutely fascinating!  And, please, let me count the ways!

First, I find the choice of words by Mr. Garling particularly revealing.  To be clear, having read the report cover-to-cover a few times, there is nowhere in the report the word “Ignorant.”  Perhaps Mr. Garling is projecting a bit of his experience? Or is it vitriol?

Second, in both title and opening line Mr. Garling is emphatic:  It’s the “IT GUY” who’s “ignorant.”  Clearly, at Mr. Garling’s place of employment IT must be the exclusive dominon of male ignorant technologists!  How sad! I don’t even want to know how the editorial offices look like!

But, let’s skip past the blatant insults to a whole class of professionals and the blatant sexism and get to the crux of the issue, shall we?

What the study did quite correctly point out is that there is a significant skill gap among technologists across various segments of business.  The study also pointed out the primary reasons as to why.  The top two are:

1. Ever-shifting technology landscape (46%).
2. Lack of resources for IT skill development (43%)

Hmm… No “ignorant IT guys” listed.  Yet.  Moving right along…

The study further points out that “…80% (of) organizations indicate that their IT skills gap affects at least one business area such as staff productivity (41%), customer service/customer engagement (32%), and security (31%).”

Another interesting tidbit from the study is that there is an over 20% differential on staff productivity impact between “Very Tech Savvy Firms” and “Non Tech Savvy.”  That distinction alone is enough to raise alarms about the state of technology literacy in our corporations and to perhaps refrain from casting aspersions to IT guys and gals that continuously swim upstream, in an ever-changing river, while being beaten over the head by the ignorant natives in the canoes!  Like… you know…

There is another reason for the suffering skill sets, one that we have seen quite a lot:   More often than not, even in the best-intentioned organizations, the IT staff is overwhelmed and under-resourced with a dedicated focus on “being in touch with the business.”  That becomes the main focus of IT and a constant uphill climb to prove their value and integrate with the business.

Unfortunately, if your core business is not IT, then expecting your in-house IT people to “be one with the mother ship” and stay in touch with the even expanding technical universe is a fantasy – an expensive one at that!

Our core business is IT.  We breathe it, live it, and run it 24x7x365.  And, we have in place both training programs and rigorous certification requirements for all our professionals.  I have to be honest and tell you though, that even we, the most dedicated and passionate about IT people, have found ourselves hard-pressed to stay ahead of the curve.  We have succeeded in part because it is an actual corporate mandate and in part because that is our core business.

Is that the answer across all businesses?  Doubtful.  In an the new and permanent age of budget cuts and belt-tightening, training and education budgets are the first to go.

We believe that the answer lies in the right mix of training and outside skill augmentation.

How do I know?

I checked with my “IT Girl:” Maria Aksentyan, our Managing Partner, IT Services.

The issue is – of course – complex.  Not only is there a pure technology matter (What’s the frequency, Kenneth?) but one of standards (CDMA, GSM, etc.).  And then, there is greed.

Yes. Pure and simple.  Greed at its best.  If there is an opportunity to fleece the consumer, then why not do it?  And in the cellular world opportunity abounds!  The minute you cross borders the local operator wants his cut, while the home operator still wants his.  The result?  Bring your wallet, and it best be thick.

Many have accepted this outrageous fleecing as “cost of doing business” and move on.  Of course it is just that.  It is cost of doing business, and that makes business overhead go up, which makes deals more expensive, which makes… you get the drift.  Market economics 101.  And, don’t even get me started on the lack of cross-operability between standards.  And, it is the same operators that are fleecing us that tell us how expensive and difficult it is to establish cross-operability.  Hogwash!

The European Union legislature is one of the bodies that has been looking at this, and there are several proposed laws to curb what boils down to abuse by the cellular providers (in Europe crossing borders is easier than crossing state lines in the U.S.)  If and when this legislation passes, it will still be a long way from solving a world-wide problem.  So, what’s a business person to do?

Think Globally, and Act Locally!  Get yourself an unlocked phone, and as soon as your feet touch the ground of your destination walk into a cellular store and buy a local SIM card with a local number, and all the features you want.  Sounds complicated?  Not if you can figure out the working end of a toothbrush.  Trust me!  The local store knows the best deals and they will be happy to help you.  In English!  And your card will work forever.  Visit, after visit, after visit.

Sure, you end up with half a dozen international numbers.  Letting your associates know the number is trivial.  Takes one e-mail.  You can even add the local number to your signature!  Personally, I have saved hundreds of dollars in fees by doing exactly this.  A small inconvenience for big savings.

Because, if you are expecting any of the cellular providers to “hear you now” about your complaints… You’ll get nothing but a busy signal.

Not a word!

As my colleague Marla used to say: “Crickets!”

That’s what we got from Verizon when on December 6th their 4G service went out.  As of this writing, December 7th, it is still out.  Possibly nation-wide.  Possibly across all 4G devices.  With no “fall-back” to 3G or Any-G!  Thousands, perhaps millions, of customers with no data.

And, no answers.

Calling support, one was given conflicting reports.  First, it was localized and on a few devices.  Then, it was nation-wide, across the board.  Bottom line:  No one really knew.  And, in the absence of the truth, in the absence of good communications, one is left to speculate:

“I know! Is it aliens?”
“How about a government conspiracy?”
“How about a foreign government/terrorist attack?”
“How about hackers stealing *our* private information and credit cards?”
“How about little Jimmy playing with his dad’s computer?”

Who knows?  Certainly Verizon isn’t telling!

Which brings us to something we’ve faced at different client sites:  More than once, when managers have to communicate bad news, they “sit” on them.  They hope the news will get better with time.  They hope the problem will go away.  It rarely does.

Our advice has always been the same:  Get in front of the issue, now!  Communicate as soon as possible, as clearly as possible, and keep doing that until the issue is resolved.  Otherwise the problem is multiplied – not only do you have the issue to begin with, but now you have no credibility and you’ve lost your cohorts’ faith in your ability to resolve it.

The blatant mishandling of this outage by Verizon is but one example.  I am sure you can think of many more… (Really? Let me get this straight: You thought if you ran for President, a 13-year-old-affair wouldn’t come out? Really?)

So, as we all wait for news on the solar flare that ate Verizon’s network, we can at least take this silent, data-free moment to reflect and to promise ourselves that we will not be as stupid!  We promise to be proactive, honest, and forthcoming in the new year.  How is that for a New Year’s Resolution?

Happy and healthy holidays to all, and a prosperous 2012!

My team’s job was to evaluate IT and Interactive.  That meant a thorough analysis of everything in technology, starting with a Strategic Review, Hardware Assessment, Software assessment, Services assessment, and Interactive Review – everything from on-line strategies, social, mobile, and web presence to e-commerce, integration, and application development.  A lot of work, but work we’ve done many times.  Work we’re very good at.

Then, an executive from the seller’s side smiled and asked a very simple question:

“What makes for a good IT due diligence?”

For a moment I was taken aback!  Scrambling for time as I collected my thoughts to respond, it struck me!

“A good due diligence is like the X-Files,” I said.  “A combination of ‘I Want to Believe,’ ‘The Truth is Out There,’ and ‘Trust No One!’”

It was my turn to smile.  And hope that this due diligence will not be like an x-files episode, and that we wouldn’t uncover any monsters. I hate monsters…

Since then, I had a bit more time to think my answer through.  I’m sticking to it, but I do want to elaborate.

First – “I Want to Believe!”  This is a classic problem with acquisitions.  People fall in love with the deal.  They want it.  They must have it.  They believe it is a good deal – facts be damned!  Experienced and successful acquirers know how to temper this, but even they sometimes fall to the siren of the deal.  So, our job is to very carefully draw the curtain back. Let them see all that’s there.  It may still be a good deal, but it becomes better when your eyes are wide open.

Second – “The Truth is Out There!”  The one thing you need to do is listen.  Better yet, shut up and listen!  People will tell you the truth.  In subtle (and not so subtle ways) people ultimately need to heard.  A successful due diligence is less about detective work and more about listening, observing, and checking off all your questions from your list.  And always, always have a list.

Finally – “Trust No One!”  No matter how charming, how outwardly capable, how accommodating, etc., etc. always trust two things and two things only:  The facts, and your instincts.  Especially in technology due diligence where all too frequently byers get starry-eyed with such romantic words like “ecosystem,” “scalability,” “cloud,” “virtualization,” “social,” “mobile,” and of course “extensible!” A pig still smells like a pig no matter how much lipstick, mascara, and perfume they’ve poured on it!  Don’t get caught kissing it, and no matter what, don’t buy it!

Now you’re ready!  Polish your magnifying lens, double-check your list, and get to work!

Here we are sitting around an impressive conference table at the plush headquarters of a multinational manufacturing company (names have been changed, of course, to protect the guilty) when their chief technology guy proclaims:

“I want to make clear one thing from the start.  Our mandate:  Zero Impact to the Business!”

Dramatic pause.   A small bead of cold sweat was starting to form on my forehead.  He continued:

“Meet ‘Project Colossus.’  It is our world-wide enterprise IT initiative to standardize all our technologies into a common platform, a single technology stack, that we can grow on and singularly focus our support and development efforts.”

At this point it took a lot of discipline to a) Not run for the doors screaming, b) Call the authorities, c) Perform a citizen’s arrest, or d) Call CSI and look for drugs in the coffee or air vents.

Our firm has working with one of the verticals of this international behemoth, responsible for only a few hundred million dollars or so worth of revenue.  Peanuts!  Over a period of eleven years we had architected and developed a mission critical application that managed the business workflow from concept to delivery.  Not a trivial application, now on version twelve running on a LAMP stack.

“Our decision,” he continued, “is to move everything to .NET.  We’ll save millions in support costs alone, cross-leverage code and applications, and life will be good, and order will reign in the IT galactic empire.  Any questions?”

This was the first meeting with Enterprise IT from the mother ship.  For eleven years, no one had cared about this tiny one billion dollar division, floating out there in the outskirts.  Not really part of the core business.  But now… Now, we have “Project Colossus” and “cross-leveraging of code and applications?”  Really?

As much as our  .NET architect was salivating, we had to ask the obvious: “Have you considered the cost and time that it would take to re-platform a mature, working, mission-critical, LAMP application with several thousand lines of code over to .NET?”  At this point the division’s president was shaking like a leaf in the fall.  About the same color too…

No answer from the technologist or his team.  A glazed surprised look, and a couple of shrugs.  But, they did promise to get back to us.  God willing, it will be another eleven years for the next meeting.

Hence my point:  Here we have an IT initiative with a “mandate” of “zero impact to the business” and a unilateral decision to “standardize” to a single technology stack.  And this was sold to management?  And they bought it?

At a minimum I see two counts of criminal negligence:

First, as per my earlier post of “Why can’t I get e-mail when e-mail is down” management is criminally negligent in its lack of understanding of the technology universe, the various options, when it makes sense to have a unified standard, and when it makes sense to allow the vertical businesses to use what is appropriate to their needs.

Second, what power hungry, one-platform-to-rule-them-all, controlling technologist comes up with this…”idea?”  And then proceeds to first convince his IT troupers to support it, and then “sell it” to the aforementioned criminally ignorant managers that this “project” will save money and keep them safe from the horrors that lurk in the dark server rooms?

Where is integrated thinking? Where is “business first?” Where is unit enablement?  Where is business empowerment?  But, I digress.

Bottom line:  It always takes two to tango.

Just as managers are responsible and accountable for critical thinking, tech know-how,  and decision making, so are technologists.  They too are responsible and accountable to maintain a view outside of their ordered world of bits and bytes, apply solid management practices, and demonstrate business savvy.

My recommendation to both:  Think! You’ll find it surprisingly refreshing!

And, if anyone, ever, tells you that they’ll do something with “zero impact to the business” keep calm, smile, and discretely call for the padded wagon.

“It’s one more instance of how consumer technology trends, like the use of tablet computers, are crossing into office life. Because of Facebook, most people are already comfortable with the idea of “following” their colleagues. But in the business world, the connections are between colleagues, not personal friends or family, and the communications are meant to be about work matters — like team projects, production flaws and other routine business issues.”

The article goes on to explain the challenges of corporate social networks.  The usual suspects are drummed up: Security, Compliance, Clients…  And of course, who wants to know about the leftover pie in the kitchen.  Again.

Unfortunately, in my view, what’s missing is the most important thing that a corporate social network brings to the table:  A way to foster, harvest, and manage innovation.

Client after client ask us about ways to do exactly that:  How do we encourage innovation? How do we promote conversation.  How do new ideas bubble-up through the rigid organizational frameworks?  Almost all have a way:  From “ideation days” to “innovation rooms” to “revolution committees” etc.  Some are more successful than others as so much depends on the culture of the organization, the management’s temperament, and the ability to channel all the new ideas that come up.  Which ones are worth it?  Which ones to discard?  Who evaluates?  How do you test?  How do you fund?  And so on.

Innovation is serious business.  As a matter of fact, it’s life-and-death business.  It has been studied exhaustively by scholars far wiser than me, and their works are required reading, especially in this environment.  Run, do not walk, to the Harvard Business Publishing offerings and stock up.  It will be some of the best investments you ever made.  That’s my first recommendation.

My second is to install and promote a corporate social network as soon as possible.  Issues of governance, security, and access will immediately be suggested as barriers to doing this. Don’t let them be.  Where there is a will, there is a way.  Now, once installed, promote your social network as the place for idea generation.  The place for uncensored, public, dialogue across all fronts.  Create threads of topics – from Human Resources to Operations to Innovation.  Stay active.  Engage with your people.  Tell them “I’ll see you on the net!”  Then harvest the “likes!” It will be one of the most crucial barometers of your people’s thinking– their contribution and how their peers think of them and their idea.  Dozens and dozens “like” Mary’s idea?  I’d pay attention!  Nobody cares about Tom’s? You’re probably safe to skip.

Innovation is not an exercise for a committee.  I like to think of innovation and the ideas behind it as a spark.  A spark that can set things ablaze! To do that it needs fuel.  People are the fuel.  Your people!  Your job is to make sure they operate in a fertile ground, with the right tools, and with your total support and commitment.

Like?

First, he is fighting a war of business survival.  Day in, day out, he needs to figure out how to position his business for tomorrow; he must try to predict what the markets will do, what will they demand of him and his team, what the competition will do, and what new competitors may do to surprise him.

And, day in and day out he has to make sure that those inside his “castle” are fed, are safe, can continue to produce, and are ready to adapt to the next challenge.

Like everyone in a leadership role today, he is being pulled by two opposing demands:  The demand to be forward thinking, innovative, and strategic and the demand to be grounded in today’s reality, manage tight resources, be tactical and constantly execute.  Sound familiar?

You might think that the last thing in his mind is IT.  After all, his business is not in technology or interactive.  But Information Technology is at the center of his thinking.  Not a day goes by that he doesn’t challenge himself and those around him on what technology can do for his business, or how it can give him an operational edge.

I remember telling him how much I appreciated his abilities and focus on IT.  He just looked at me dumbfounded.  “What do you mean?” he asked, “Doesn’t everyone?  How can you possibly survive, much less thrive, unless you know how to navigate these shifting waters?”  I tried to explain that executives do try to navigate but they either tend to be too strategic or to operational when it comes to the integration of technology into their business.  That’s when he came up with a great line.  He said, “That’s impossible, if you really think about it.  When we’re talking about IT we’re really talking about a magnet.  No matter how much you cut it in two, you always have two poles: north and south.  You can’t just have one, but you can recognize that what you’re holding is a compass. It always points you to true north.”

The last thing I remember was feeling so lucky that we have clients like him.  Clients that push us to think strategically and clients that expect us to squeeze every drop out of their IT investments.  Clients that understand technology limits, but push against them anyway.  Clients that are not afraid to admit what they don’t know, but use it as an excuse to learn.  Clients that will accept nothing less.

Then my alarm clock went off!

The good news is that we do, in fact, have clients like the one in my dream. Only they’re not very common.  I figure we all head north eventually.  The only thing we need is a good compass.

The New York Times published no less than three very well written pieces on Cloud Computing from April 14^th to April 18^th!  So, everyone knows that something is up in the world of cloud computing.  But is there?  What exactly is going on? The Times articles point out that traditional business models are threatened, and that companies “have concerns” about moving to the cloud, while new innovating startups jump on it immediately.

All true.  So, let’s get a grip on the cloud, shall we?

First of all, what we need to do is define what this cloud thing really is:  It currently is three things:  Infrastructure-as-a-service, Platform-as-a-service, and Software-as-a-service.

Infrastructure-as-a-service is designed to eliminate the need for you to have and maintain data centers.

Platform-as-a-service is designed to provide you with a “place” to develop and run your own applications.

Software-as-a-service is designed to provide you with access to applications that are developed and run on the vendor’s data centers.

Wait a minute! Didn’t we already have all this?  Absolutely.  We called it mainframes, and time-sharing bureaus (service bureaus).  Back in the day before internet (yes, little Timmy, there was a world before Internet) computing was centralized in large data centers.  Clients would use computing resources and pay accordingly.  Similarly, there would be service bureaus that would develop and run applications for specific industries, for example accounting or fulfillment applications.  You would rent the use of this application, send your data over, and get back your reports.  Ahh… those heady days of magnetic tape and printouts.

Hence, Everything Old Is New Again.  So, what’s the big deal?

The difference here is how we are getting back to where we started.  In the beginning, shortly after the “Let there be light” computers were slow, expensive, and difficult to maintain.  Computing had no choice but be centralized.  Then, just as the oceans settled down, the computer evolved and shrunk.  Before you knew it those silicon chips were crawling all over your desk.  Computing became cheap and easily accessible.  No need for centralized data centers and the like.  Evolution killed them.  And, just as you were feeling safe to go back in the water, the Internet connected all those chips.  Having them crawl all over the place became… bothersome.  How about we use the internet and send all the chips to the cloud and have them talk to us from there?  Great thinking!  Off with their clamshells.

Now, no one said that evolution will be easy.  For one, you have the clients that rightfully are paranoid about this clouds availability, reliability, and security.  They are right.  Vendor claims have not always been shall we say “entirely accurate.”  On one hand they’ll sell 99% uptime, and on the other there will be internal memos saying that they’ll staff to 90% uptime because its cheaper to pay the penalty than to actually deliver to the promised service level agreement.  Yeah.  I’d be concerned too!

Then you have the software vendors themselves.  The major players will license you software for a nice seven-digit-number, and then milk you for 20% annual maintenance fees.  Plus, a whole army of implementers and integrators are there to leach off this transaction.  They help you install, customize, train, etc., etc.  Do you for one moment think that these constituencies are jumping up-and-down to move you to some cloud for $19.95 per user?  Think again.  When they do, you can be sure that the number will be substantially larger and that the aforementioned armies will have a special place in the cloud ecosystem.

And I don’t even need to tell you how all these nice people that actually build and sell servers and data centers feel about the cloud, do I?  Good.

Where does this leave you? In the near term, and if you can accept the associated risk, compromises, and vendor growing pains, then move as many non-mission-critical applications to the cloud as possible.  It will save you money and reduce your headache.   In the longer term, start planning for a wholesale migration to the appropriate combination of services for your business.  You still have to accept compromises, but those may be good for you.  Especially if they start saving you those seven digits we talked about earlier.

Now, that’s rain!

Which brings us to a question:

What do the media industry and (some) consumers not grok about TANSTAAFL?

And another:

Why even bother resurrecting this old and beaten down theme?

Because, just like in any bad horror movie, this monster just won’t die. It’s been a couple of weeks when (finally) the much anticipated pay wall for The New York Times was officially announced in all its glory and detail.

Again, help me understand here… Which part of TANSTAAFL is so hard to grok? I believe that The Times hasn’t raised the pay wall as high as their journalistic bar is. I may betray my age, but it seems to me that the model that has worked for time immemorial still should apply: Walk up to any newsstand, and the experience unfolds: You see the newspaper stacked in its place. You read the headlines (free). You are fascinated/intrigued by the headlines (the high journalistic bar part). You pick the paper up, reach into your pocket, and pay the person behind the counter. That would be the pay part. If you try to abscond without paying, then the nice policeman at the corner would like to have a word or two with you.

Very simple to grok, really. Does it have value? Then it is not free.

Now, how hard was that? And, doesn’t it amaze you in its simplicity and beauty? Works for all sorts of “media.” Same with magazines. Same with books. What on earth makes anyone think that once this content is digital somehow all this goes out the window?

I refuse to go down the “on-line is different” rabbit hole, or “the genie is out of the bottle” argument. There is NO GENIE! There is intellectual property of value. Your choice is to consume it, or not. Your choice is to sponsor it, or not.

And that’s the proverbial pink elephant in the room. This is the fear that’s gripping everyone in Media. That their content is just not good enough, and thank God for those foolish advertisers that keep paying! We’ll just keep delivering traffic (any which way) and problem solved! Seriously? You really, really, think that advertisers are that stupid? Or that the consumers are dumb enough not to be able to distinguish between aggregated junk, crowdsourced “opinions” and high quality content?

The reverse is true. Advertisers are some of the brightest most quantitative minds in the business. For advertisers this has been equivalent to hitting the motherload! Metrics, metrics, metrics! Hardly there before, now they are drowning in them. Already they can tell where the highest return on their investment is down to the penny, and let me assure you, it’s not Bob’s blog straight from his bathroom. Today, advertisers have great choices. And they are exercising them, along with their audience. Choices, choices, choices…

But here is the only choice that no one has: To demand top tier, highest quality content, for free.

Even a 12-year-old groks that!

What’s sad about this is that this executive is not alone. Testimonials of this sort abound. Ask any IT professional, and she’ll give you more examples than are fit to print. And, just as I pointed out in my previous entry “It’s the Technology, Stupid” integrating technology thinking into the daily life of today’s c-suite is not just nice-to-have. It’s a must have. Managing IT will make the difference between prosperous and successful companies, and those that will be made into case studies of “what-could-we-have-done-better?” and “where-did-all-the-money-go?”

Which begs a few practical questions: For instance, exactly how much IT knowledge does a C-level executive need? How much IT expertise is necessary? What constitutes minimum core competency in IT? And, how does one go about mastering this essential skill? Especially since the world of IT is in constant flux.

I like to use the car as an example. I find surprising parallels between the car and IT. For example, they are both inconspicuous in our everyday life. At this point we can’t imagine a world without them. Both are essential. Both take you to your destination. And if you are not careful with either, you can get into very serious trouble.

So, how much do you need to know about your car? I think we can all agree that you need to master a few things: How to select one, start it, stop it, navigate with it, be safe in it, put fuel in it, know when to maintain it, and effect some repairs on it. You don’t need to be a mechanic, but you do need to know how to change tires, and top off the fluids. Also, I’m sure we agree that drinking and driving are a very bad idea, too! I call this the minimum core competency needed to operate and co-exist with this tool: The car.

I propose you treat IT exactly the same way. No more. No less. You only need to master a few things. You don’t need to be a mechanic – that’s why you have a whole IT department. But, you do need to know enough to be able to decide what kind of IT you want, and what to do with it when you have it. Even effect some repairs! It’s not as hard as you think. As a matter of fact, in upcoming blog entries I’ll walk you through the essential IT skills you must have to succeed in your leadership role. And, how to never end up as road kill on the information highway!

Now, please fasten your seatbelts!