Social networking players in China
If you wanted my best guess as to who we would see as the next generation of 'Apples, IBMs and Microsofts' - I would say it's likely to be one of the companies on this list. Bear in mind the size of the Chinese domestic market. If these products achieve the same levels of adoption as Facebook then they would create larger online communities than both Facebook and Google!
Better get used to these names ;-)
Friday, 12 November 2010
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Business Websites - Still a Competitive Differentiator?
There was a time when businesses could hope to differentiate themselves through their website design to bring a competitive advantage. Not anymore.
A decade ago websites were seen to have the power to wow site visitors and bring them to your door. Promises made by website designers suggested that new online marketing, powered by search engines, would result in a train of new prospects and business opportunities. For most small businesses this promise has not materialized. They continue to generate more business through word-of-mouth contacts, partner referrals and direct marketing methods.
Visitors of websites today want to see a predictable structure and format. This makes it easier to know where the information is they're trying to find. It's no fun crawling around websites to find out what a business does. In an ideal world, everything a site visitor wants to find out should be on the front page. And technologies like streaming video mean that persuasive arguments don't need to fill pages of content. Just like newspapers (news on the front, sports on the back etc.) designs of websites have to tell their stories in a way that visitors don't find irritating. Over time the information design inherits dictated rules.
The idea that a website is a great source of leads thanks to search engines has proved untrue for many micro businesses and SMEs. Bottom line - Unless your business can get into the top 10 hits on a search engine, chances are you're not going to get that call. And most organizations don't have the marketing funds to make that happen. So the website often becomes the second point of contact, not the first.
After three decades of Internet marketing experiences, business leaders are more aware of the return they can expect to get from their web presence. Current sourcing options - either building a DIY site or paying a web designer to build it - don't satisfy this required mix of affordability, control and return on investment. In short, for the level of opportunity business websites bring, they are generally too expensive to design and too costly to maintain. Nevertheless, they are a necessary component of a marketing mix in the digital economy. They have largely replaced the business card as a medium of contact and they have replaced the office reception as the first place to meet and greet new prospects.
A website isn't a good replacement for a salesperson but it IS a good way of welcoming and engaging customers that visit your website. True, your business needs a professional web presence but it has to be easily maintained and deliver on its promises of professional standards of appearance, accessibility and performance - and it has to deliver more value than it costs annually.
The launch of services like Google Sites, Microsoft Office 365, Webs.com,Yola and Squork WebSpace mean that creating a professional website isn't difficult even for people with no IT background. The role and expectations of websites used for the purpose of giving an organization a web presence are changing. No longer can sites be static, show signs of home-made design or unimaginative construction.
They must be living components of the digital communications network of which every organization and business professional is a part of - like it or not. Websites today are expected to provide rich media content, such as video, and social networking features like twitter feeds, blogs and news feeds. They're also required to be transactional (i.e. To offer the capability to capture and publish data normally held in a database to support customer enquiries and process requests).
Websites started as the shop window of businesses, they have moved to become the reception room too (greeting visitors and welcoming them in) and in the next decade we can expect them to become the meeting rooms and general office of enterprises.
Cloud-based offerings like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and Squork are continuously adding service components - file management, collaborative tools, timetabling tools, project and task activity management, business intelligence, performance management, contact management etc. - that are turning business websites into online business spaces.
Websites are losing their design differentiation because of the need to conform to the way people want and expect to work. Competitive differentiation is no longer about design flair, it's about how well platforms deliver the communications and productivity enablement that businesses need.
A decade ago websites were seen to have the power to wow site visitors and bring them to your door. Promises made by website designers suggested that new online marketing, powered by search engines, would result in a train of new prospects and business opportunities. For most small businesses this promise has not materialized. They continue to generate more business through word-of-mouth contacts, partner referrals and direct marketing methods.
Visitors of websites today want to see a predictable structure and format. This makes it easier to know where the information is they're trying to find. It's no fun crawling around websites to find out what a business does. In an ideal world, everything a site visitor wants to find out should be on the front page. And technologies like streaming video mean that persuasive arguments don't need to fill pages of content. Just like newspapers (news on the front, sports on the back etc.) designs of websites have to tell their stories in a way that visitors don't find irritating. Over time the information design inherits dictated rules.
The idea that a website is a great source of leads thanks to search engines has proved untrue for many micro businesses and SMEs. Bottom line - Unless your business can get into the top 10 hits on a search engine, chances are you're not going to get that call. And most organizations don't have the marketing funds to make that happen. So the website often becomes the second point of contact, not the first.
After three decades of Internet marketing experiences, business leaders are more aware of the return they can expect to get from their web presence. Current sourcing options - either building a DIY site or paying a web designer to build it - don't satisfy this required mix of affordability, control and return on investment. In short, for the level of opportunity business websites bring, they are generally too expensive to design and too costly to maintain. Nevertheless, they are a necessary component of a marketing mix in the digital economy. They have largely replaced the business card as a medium of contact and they have replaced the office reception as the first place to meet and greet new prospects.
A website isn't a good replacement for a salesperson but it IS a good way of welcoming and engaging customers that visit your website. True, your business needs a professional web presence but it has to be easily maintained and deliver on its promises of professional standards of appearance, accessibility and performance - and it has to deliver more value than it costs annually.
The launch of services like Google Sites, Microsoft Office 365, Webs.com,Yola and Squork WebSpace mean that creating a professional website isn't difficult even for people with no IT background. The role and expectations of websites used for the purpose of giving an organization a web presence are changing. No longer can sites be static, show signs of home-made design or unimaginative construction.
They must be living components of the digital communications network of which every organization and business professional is a part of - like it or not. Websites today are expected to provide rich media content, such as video, and social networking features like twitter feeds, blogs and news feeds. They're also required to be transactional (i.e. To offer the capability to capture and publish data normally held in a database to support customer enquiries and process requests).
Websites started as the shop window of businesses, they have moved to become the reception room too (greeting visitors and welcoming them in) and in the next decade we can expect them to become the meeting rooms and general office of enterprises.
Cloud-based offerings like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and Squork are continuously adding service components - file management, collaborative tools, timetabling tools, project and task activity management, business intelligence, performance management, contact management etc. - that are turning business websites into online business spaces.
Websites are losing their design differentiation because of the need to conform to the way people want and expect to work. Competitive differentiation is no longer about design flair, it's about how well platforms deliver the communications and productivity enablement that businesses need.
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Cloud Security market to hit $1.5 billion by 2015
It's always interesting to read analyst forecasts of market size and growth - but I actually think this one is pretty well grounded.
Cloud security is going to be a hot topic in IT over the next few years.
I think many people think cloud technology is less secure that traditional systems but actually that doesn't have to be the case. Cloud platforms can make corporate IT more secure by adopting an inclusive security model, federated identity management and providing the ability for users to serve themselves with robust IT solutions that serve the long-tail of applications rather than turning a blind eye to shadow systems developed on Excel, Access and PowerPoint. Perhaps the biggest issue though is enabling organizations to cascade duties of data security to departmental managers rather than IT and giving them the tools to do it. Departmental managers often know more about the risk of using data for new apps (and the context of use) compared to IT.
Cloud security is going to be a hot topic in IT over the next few years.
I think many people think cloud technology is less secure that traditional systems but actually that doesn't have to be the case. Cloud platforms can make corporate IT more secure by adopting an inclusive security model, federated identity management and providing the ability for users to serve themselves with robust IT solutions that serve the long-tail of applications rather than turning a blind eye to shadow systems developed on Excel, Access and PowerPoint. Perhaps the biggest issue though is enabling organizations to cascade duties of data security to departmental managers rather than IT and giving them the tools to do it. Departmental managers often know more about the risk of using data for new apps (and the context of use) compared to IT.
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Cloud 9. Nine Reasons Why the Cloud is Worth Taking Seriously
For those business professionals who are keen to get a handle on what cloud computing is and why it might be relevant to their business I've put together a very crude list in this most basic of white papers produced for US Tech Solutions to help start the process of deciphering the business case for cloud computing.
For technologists please don't read it because the oversimplification of arguments will drive you crazy;-).
Ian.
For technologists please don't read it because the oversimplification of arguments will drive you crazy;-).
Ian.
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Delivering the most economically advantageous software apps
At times when organizations need to find smarter ways of working to cut costs, they're often frustrated by the lack of effective software applications to support these new ways of working.
The long-tail of demand for new applications created by middle-managers that are working hard to optimize their departments and core processes is not something that should be ignored. Without this innovation, sub-optimal processes continue to under perform and add unnecessary operating costs.
Organizations going through change need adaptive IT solutions that can be shaped to support new processes. Of course, there are huge pressures to reduce IT expenditure too - so how do organizations source the new applications they need to create leaner processes?
Current approaches to sourcing software applications fall into three main categories:
1. Purchasing ready-to-use software applications - This isn't a very cost effective way to source business applications because of the high cost of acquiring pre-shaped applications and the fact that it introduces additional costs for integration, maintenance fees - and creates new 'IT silos' into the organization.
2. Custom coding of a new solution - The most common solution is to instigate a custom coding project - either internally (tying up scarce IT resources) or externally through contractors (necessitating procurement procedures and the high cost IT development).
3. Outsourcing of systems - The view held by many today is that outsourcing IT systems or particular process disciplines are better outsourced and placed in the hands of 'experts'. The downside of this approach is that control is lost over the resources and systems outsourced causing the organization to be less able to adapt to changing business requirements. It also means that costs of contracts soar.
Thanks to innovations in rich internet web technologies and cloud computing, there are new options now open to organizations that want to support process improvement without having to jump into an expensive IT procurement or complex project.
Situational applications development software like Encanvas Secure&Live provide business analysts with the technology tools they need to develop applications without custom coding by adopting architecture similar in concept to LEGO. It means that organizations can embed business analysts into change teams and have them develop new applications solutions as quickly as they emerge.
The advantage of this approach is that organizations typically don't need to go to IT procurement or outsourcing but can serve themselves with 'right-first-time' solutions developed across the table in workshops held by business analysts and project sponsors. The applications produced are deployed on the Microsoft Web Platform and can therefore be operated internally or on the cloud.
Innovations that make Encanvas Secure&Live 'enterprise ready' include advanced security features to manage site access, data, users and groups. It also includes data acquisition and mashup features so that business analysts don't need to do any custom coding or learn many different tools. Everything that business analysts require to deliver professional business applications is in the box.
I was asked by Encanvas to write a business argument for situational applications development so I've provided a link to this document here.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_mCKU7TIXWaNTJmZmJlZGQtNTMyOS00YTFiLWE3MjktMDAyNmY2OWE0NGM0&hl=en
The long-tail of demand for new applications created by middle-managers that are working hard to optimize their departments and core processes is not something that should be ignored. Without this innovation, sub-optimal processes continue to under perform and add unnecessary operating costs.
Organizations going through change need adaptive IT solutions that can be shaped to support new processes. Of course, there are huge pressures to reduce IT expenditure too - so how do organizations source the new applications they need to create leaner processes?
Current approaches to sourcing software applications fall into three main categories:
1. Purchasing ready-to-use software applications - This isn't a very cost effective way to source business applications because of the high cost of acquiring pre-shaped applications and the fact that it introduces additional costs for integration, maintenance fees - and creates new 'IT silos' into the organization.
2. Custom coding of a new solution - The most common solution is to instigate a custom coding project - either internally (tying up scarce IT resources) or externally through contractors (necessitating procurement procedures and the high cost IT development).
3. Outsourcing of systems - The view held by many today is that outsourcing IT systems or particular process disciplines are better outsourced and placed in the hands of 'experts'. The downside of this approach is that control is lost over the resources and systems outsourced causing the organization to be less able to adapt to changing business requirements. It also means that costs of contracts soar.
Thanks to innovations in rich internet web technologies and cloud computing, there are new options now open to organizations that want to support process improvement without having to jump into an expensive IT procurement or complex project.
Situational applications development software like Encanvas Secure&Live provide business analysts with the technology tools they need to develop applications without custom coding by adopting architecture similar in concept to LEGO. It means that organizations can embed business analysts into change teams and have them develop new applications solutions as quickly as they emerge.
The advantage of this approach is that organizations typically don't need to go to IT procurement or outsourcing but can serve themselves with 'right-first-time' solutions developed across the table in workshops held by business analysts and project sponsors. The applications produced are deployed on the Microsoft Web Platform and can therefore be operated internally or on the cloud.
Innovations that make Encanvas Secure&Live 'enterprise ready' include advanced security features to manage site access, data, users and groups. It also includes data acquisition and mashup features so that business analysts don't need to do any custom coding or learn many different tools. Everything that business analysts require to deliver professional business applications is in the box.
I was asked by Encanvas to write a business argument for situational applications development so I've provided a link to this document here.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_mCKU7TIXWaNTJmZmJlZGQtNTMyOS00YTFiLWE3MjktMDAyNmY2OWE0NGM0&hl=en
Monday, 16 August 2010
Map Mashups without APIs: How Squork Maps Changes The Mapping World
Believe it or not, Google Maps has only been around for a decade. It feels like it's always been around. When Google Maps arrived it changed the software world in a number of ways. Firstly, it made digital maps accessible to the masses. What it also did is trail blaze the idea of software applications as services that need no explanation or introduction. My kids can use Google Maps without a manual or any instructions. It's so intuitive they can work it out for themselves. Google Maps raised the question - 'Why can't all software applications be like this?'
With Microsoft Bing Maps, Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps all providing similar services it's perhaps a little surprising that any other supplier would attempt to launch another mapping service - but in September there's going to be another - Squork Maps.
So why would anyone think there's space for ANOTHER mapping service?
Well the design team of Squork Maps take the view that until now, people have had access to maps and finding places, but unless you have expertise in scripting or coding, putting your own data on the map (plotting pins) has been something few people could do by themselves.
What makes Squork Maps different then is that it enables non technical people to upload, publish, edit and download their data on maps. It uses downloadable templates to enable users to organize their content and then upload it on to maps. Users can manage security permissions and also have the ability to share their site URLs with collegues - even embed them into websites and blogs without requiring any coding skills. Unlike Google Maps that doesn't let you manage the data you publish on its maps, the data people use on Squork Maps is always there. Every aspect of the data management life-cycle is managed by the user themselves and it takes no training to do.
While software-as-a-service applications are nothing new, the way that Squork Maps makes complex IT accessible to a broader audience, is something special. It fills the gap between light-weight web mapping services like Google and the more serious geo-spatial intelligence systems like ESRI and Pitney Bowes MapInfo.
Will anyone pay the subscription to use it? That remains to be seen - but if it takes off, it could herald in a new set of user expectations around the ease of use and functionality of online apps.
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With Microsoft Bing Maps, Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps all providing similar services it's perhaps a little surprising that any other supplier would attempt to launch another mapping service - but in September there's going to be another - Squork Maps.
So why would anyone think there's space for ANOTHER mapping service?
Well the design team of Squork Maps take the view that until now, people have had access to maps and finding places, but unless you have expertise in scripting or coding, putting your own data on the map (plotting pins) has been something few people could do by themselves.
What makes Squork Maps different then is that it enables non technical people to upload, publish, edit and download their data on maps. It uses downloadable templates to enable users to organize their content and then upload it on to maps. Users can manage security permissions and also have the ability to share their site URLs with collegues - even embed them into websites and blogs without requiring any coding skills. Unlike Google Maps that doesn't let you manage the data you publish on its maps, the data people use on Squork Maps is always there. Every aspect of the data management life-cycle is managed by the user themselves and it takes no training to do.
While software-as-a-service applications are nothing new, the way that Squork Maps makes complex IT accessible to a broader audience, is something special. It fills the gap between light-weight web mapping services like Google and the more serious geo-spatial intelligence systems like ESRI and Pitney Bowes MapInfo.
Will anyone pay the subscription to use it? That remains to be seen - but if it takes off, it could herald in a new set of user expectations around the ease of use and functionality of online apps.
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Monday, 12 July 2010
Generation Y and the workplace
I'm busy writing a White Paper to explain to organizational change managers what a social office is and why it matters - so I was delighted to come across this research that's been published in May of this year that provides feedback on what matters most to Gen Y entering, or preparing to enter the workplace.
Gen Y is important to employers because, with the baby boomer generation racing towards retirement, this is the community charged with taking over the reigns. But with so many employers seeking such a small supply of brain-power, inevitably the voice of Gen Y matters. And Gen Y has a whole new set of employment expectations; one of which is the work environment. This article does well to capture the workplace environmental expectations of Gen Y workers.
Gen Y is important to employers because, with the baby boomer generation racing towards retirement, this is the community charged with taking over the reigns. But with so many employers seeking such a small supply of brain-power, inevitably the voice of Gen Y matters. And Gen Y has a whole new set of employment expectations; one of which is the work environment. This article does well to capture the workplace environmental expectations of Gen Y workers.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Taking your first step onto the cloud
Why situational applications are the obvious first step into cloud computing for public sector organisations
Faced with depressing predictions of looming budget cuts cloud computing has come to the fore of discussions to uncover relatively short-term economies in IT functions within the public sector. But how much of the cloud story is hype? How different are cloud architectures to the web-server farms that organisations have had the means to access for well over a decade? And how realistic is it that core business systems will move out of the data centre into the cloudspace?
Most of the CIOs I speak to are sceptical of the real-world practicality of large-scale porting of business critical apps to the cloud. They site concerns over data security, business continuity, administration and the realistic challenges of running a relationship with a vendor that will need to provide robust administrative tools to manage day-to-day support activities. Even those CIOs who brush through all of these concerns with optimistic verve, there are still huge issues to take onboard about the scalability of databases and commercial structures supporting cloud platforms. And what about the proprietary nature of the various cloud platforms? It’s a very new industry and the entire market is experiencing a sharp learning curve.
What’s the difference between cloud computing and web hosting?
Experts of cloud computing will allude to a small number of very pointy differences between cloud computing and traditional web server hosting. The first clear difference is the potential for multi-tenancy – the ability for individuals and companies to buy into a share of a computing platform that has a seemingly endless supply of processor and storage capacity. They will site dramatic advances in technology that have made possible new levels of virtualization and scaling that is unprecedented in the industry. Other enthusiasts of cloud computing will point to a step-change in the possibilities of deploying virtualized applications made possible by the administrative tools and technologies that the competitive bun-fight for cloud computing has inspired by the major vendors. Whilst these advances in the framework of tools for applications design, deployment and administration might not be exclusively the domain of cloud computing, this is most definitely the ‘flag’ that these new innovations fly under.
Having stepped through the minutia of the cloud debate I conclude that it doesn’t really matter whether cloud architectures are fundamentally different; or whether the software tools that cloud computing has levered to the surface are part of the cloud computing story or not. What matters to hard-pressed IT leaders in the public sector is that – thanks to cloud computing - more opportunities exist for virtualizing server platforms, and achieving economies by adopting smarter means of running key processes including the design, deployment and operation of business applications than ever before. Cloud computing provides a greater ability to leverage the competencies and resources of third party vendors (with smarter technology) while organizations only pay for what they use.
But with so many concerns over the robustness, database scalability, administrative tools etc. of cloud computing, what is the first step that IT leaders should take on this journey?
Situational and departmental applications – the first step into the clouds
While some private sector organizations like easyJet are taking the lead in cloud computing by adopting policies whereby all future application should be considered for deployment on the cloud before any other justification is considered, the majority of public sector organisations are adopting a more cautious approach. The first applications most organisations are considering for cloud deployment are the departmental and so-called ‘situational applications’ that I describe below.
For departmental managers and executives, IT budgets have always been a bit of a lottery. There are so many business processes that occur in any public sector organization, and their operation is to tangentially different to the private sector, that most departments have to make do with the majority of users gaining access to a core administrative system while workers that need a bigger bag of different systems are required to make do with spreadsheets, PowerPoints and Access databases to fill in the cracks in their information management. The gap between information needs and information systems capability is forever growing while IT teams lack the resources or budgets to respond to every need with a shrink-wrapped software tool. Even today, most middle managers report they lack the information they need to discharge their roles and the information they do get is often not in the format (or completeness) to make it useful.
Developments in Rich Internet portals technology spearheaded by investments into cloud computing are now reaching the market. They provide users with the level of user interface experience and responsiveness to queries comparable (if not better) than the systems resident applications they’re used to using. Rich Internet portal platforms like Encanvas engineer a new marriage between data mashups technology, building block applications design and pain-free deployment and operation needed to support near infinite numbers of secure and live community spaces in the cloud.
Rich Internet portal solutions for the Microsoft Azure cloud like Encanvas Secure&Live™ are purposely designed to meet enterprise requirements for situational applications; described by thought-leader Luca Cherbakov of IBM as “applications developed by small teams in response to new business situations that possess the economics that mean once used they can be discarded”.
Experience gained in the last decade on the use and deployment of situational applications suggests that while situational applications start simply as a robust IT answer to a business problem, generally these solutions mature into business critical IT systems as users and stakeholders benefit from their use and start to mature their use cases. And many of these applications start within a department – to serve a departmental need – and grow because of their usefulness and practical rewards.
The way communities and teams tend to mature their situational applications takes on a common roadmap:
(1) Applications start with the need for ‘secure and live’ community spaces providing access to collaboration and participant interaction.
(2) Then the need to acquire data from different data sources emerges.
(3) Next, users call for more enquiry and analysis screens and capabilities.
(4) Then the need for more formalized business processes materialises.
(5) Finally, (and only in some cases) requirements for predictive engines emerge – providing the ability to anticipate the likelihood of events and impacting scenarios that might impact on the community.
While the majority of IT users are adequately supplied by a small number of systems (such as sales administrators that will spend all of their time on a CRM system, or an accounting clerk who will live in their SAP or Oracle portals) there are a smaller number of department managers, marketers, R&D and creatives that demand robust IT solutions to serve themselves with richer sources of insights and smarter tools to rationalise the information overload of the digital age.
Situational applications are seen as the remedy to the ‘long tail of demand’ for business applications coming from this very important minority community of IT users scattered across the enterprise that make innovation happen and spark competitive advantage. Unfortunately, at the outset of these departmental and situational software development projects, it’s often not clear what the return-on-investment might be for investing in the development of a robust IT solution. Equally, there can be relationship and organisational pressures surrounding a software development project that mean cooperation is not assured and data acquisition and aggregation may be prohibited by practical IT roadblocks or the unwillingness of parties to play ball.
It’s in this complex arena of information change management that the unique blend of economics and functionality manifested in cloud computing platforms like Encanvas comes to the fore; where the cloud represents a more neutral zone for cooperation (with each contributing party owning its own data and ability to regulate access permissions while sharing the same technology platform).
Why are situational applications the obvious start-point for cloud computing initiatives?
The main reasons are these:
• Most organisations have too many software products and supplier relationships. Reducing the number of discrete software applications through harmonisation offers a direct route to savings in IT expenditure while the ability to deliver more applications right first time through situational applications is assured.
• Cloud architectures provide a faster and more painless means of designing, deploying and operating custom built applications. They’re more economic and can scale to whatever size they need to grow so there’s no risk of outgrowing the hardware platform.
• The cloud is seen to be a secure and live ‘neutral territory’ for organisations seeking to share data and collaborate with their communities – there is less of an emotional issue towards where data resides.
• Making a start on the cloud journey with situational applications addresses the ‘long-tail of demand’ for business applications so IT teams can be seen to deliver responsive IT solutions to emergent business needs by serving up robust IT solutions at very low cost.
• While situational applications can grow to become business critical, there’s a big difference between starting from day one with new applications on the cloud and attempting to port the much less numerous core transactional platforms that are critical to business continuity.
Use case examples of situational applications
Here are three use case examples that show how situational applications can mature into best-fit business critical information systems; ideal early stage candidates for cloud computing.
1. Streetworks (local government department)
At the introduction of the Traffic Management Act in 2004, the Traffic Manager of West Sussex County Council identified that the current information management of the department was unworkable if all aspects of the new legislation (calling for improved cooperation with streetworks undertakers and demonstration of parity on planning decisions) were to be met. With the current IT systems, no mapping functionality existed that could provide a single page view of all planning aspects. Engineers were required to reference six different internal systems to build a clear picture of the planning considerations – and even then mistakes could be easily made. Another major challenge was the impact of TMA legislation on the administrative overheads of the department demanding that the Council input all of its own streetwork assets, activities and events in order to demonstrate parity with other streetworks undertakers (before TMA 2004 this information was not reported). An urgent solution was needed to comply with the TMA requirements – otherwise the Traffic Manager estimated that at least 2 additional FTEs would be required simply to keep up with the administrative overheads (at a time when skilled staff with appropriate qualifications were scarce due to demand driven by the new legislator framework). An interim situational application was developed by IS consultants NDMC and West Sussex County Council to provide a bridging solution to respond to the new information demands of the TMA 2004 legislation in advance of core business systems being brought up to date. The project team identified the sources of data from across the department and mapped out a requirements specification. Samples of each of the data sources were gathered and a ‘start-point’ proof of concept was developed. This application was presented to a workshop of users and stakeholders who spent a day discussing the format and operation of the system. By the end of this one-day workshop, the majority of the systems design was completed and a fully functioning test system was deployed onto the Encanvas system within 2 days. As the result of this project, the WSCC streetworks team was comfortably able to service the anticipated peak in demand for noticing of works without needing to create new posts and West Sussex County Council became the first local authority in the southeast, outside London, to operate and full EToN3 compliant system.
2. Credentials Management (professional services)
A global professional services organisation found that it was unable to satisfactorily provide credentials of past projects in support of new client engagement bids owing to the lack of retained information. While some detail of contact information was held on a Lotus Notes intranet, project information was either not captured or was to be found in different systems. The current situation meant that evidencing capabilities was proving to be difficult and was risking future business growth. In response to this business challenge, the organisation worked with IS consultants NDMC to create a situational application using Encanvas. The application was created during the course of six days with the project team working in a workshop environment. Data mashup technology, incumbent in the Encanvas platform, was used to acquire data from disparate sources – including the Lotus Notes Intranet, a third party database (held in .CSV format) and project systems. User search and enquiry forms were created that used drop-down filters and free-text weighted search to simplify the enquiry process. Once filtered queries were returned, the resulting records could be downloaded in a templated form for instant inclusion into bid documents and proposals. As the result of the situational applications deployment, senior partners were instantly able to harness the credentials of the global knowledge center operations in support of future bids. Whilst this system achieved an ROI within the first 6-weeks of use, it continued to be used on a daily basis for over three years before an integrated platform solution was developed to displace it.
3. Compliance Management (electronics sector)
A global electronics company found that in order to comply with new regulatory demands from its parent in Japan, it needed to install a license management and reporting solution. The European operation was given scant notice of this new requirement and were challenged to get a system in-place within 6-weeks! The project manager elected to work with IS consultants NDMC to design and deploy an interim situational application using the Encanvas Rich Internet platform. Through a one-day workshop the project team devised a data model and website design. Taking advantage of the data connectors provided by the Encanvas platform, the project team was able to import historical licensing data held in MS Access and spreadsheet files to deploy a working solution within five days. Following a period of user testing, a second workshop was initiated to recommend iterative changes that were subsequently implemented using the code-free design environment of Encanvas; changes that took only a ½ day to implement. Having the license management system on a web hosted environment meant that the Japanese parent company is now able to access report data for compliance purposes directly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This interim solution has now been running since 2005 and continues to satisfactorily meet compliance reporting requirements.
In conclusion
The idea that IT functions will achieve step-change reductions in operational costs is unlikely to happen without a harmonisation agenda where the hundreds of software applications that organisations use are trimmed down to a manageable number – perhaps to less than 10 core applications platforms. Migrating the many homemade and discrete applications and spreadsheet systems to a common secure and live architecture present a real and immediate opportunity for short-term cashable economies.
Cloud-borne Rich Internet Portal architectures like Encanvas Secure&Live deployed on Microsoft Azure present IT leaders with the opportunity to not only ‘test’ the economics and viability of cloud computing as their first-step to cloud computing, solutions such as this also provide a mechanism to economically serve the long-tail of applications demand that exists within all organisations today (improving internal customer satisfaction towards IT).
So if you’re considering making the move to cloud computing, why not consider taking baby steps first with situational and departmental applications - and just make sure you’re able to reach the cloud before you leap.
Faced with depressing predictions of looming budget cuts cloud computing has come to the fore of discussions to uncover relatively short-term economies in IT functions within the public sector. But how much of the cloud story is hype? How different are cloud architectures to the web-server farms that organisations have had the means to access for well over a decade? And how realistic is it that core business systems will move out of the data centre into the cloudspace?
Most of the CIOs I speak to are sceptical of the real-world practicality of large-scale porting of business critical apps to the cloud. They site concerns over data security, business continuity, administration and the realistic challenges of running a relationship with a vendor that will need to provide robust administrative tools to manage day-to-day support activities. Even those CIOs who brush through all of these concerns with optimistic verve, there are still huge issues to take onboard about the scalability of databases and commercial structures supporting cloud platforms. And what about the proprietary nature of the various cloud platforms? It’s a very new industry and the entire market is experiencing a sharp learning curve.
What’s the difference between cloud computing and web hosting?
Experts of cloud computing will allude to a small number of very pointy differences between cloud computing and traditional web server hosting. The first clear difference is the potential for multi-tenancy – the ability for individuals and companies to buy into a share of a computing platform that has a seemingly endless supply of processor and storage capacity. They will site dramatic advances in technology that have made possible new levels of virtualization and scaling that is unprecedented in the industry. Other enthusiasts of cloud computing will point to a step-change in the possibilities of deploying virtualized applications made possible by the administrative tools and technologies that the competitive bun-fight for cloud computing has inspired by the major vendors. Whilst these advances in the framework of tools for applications design, deployment and administration might not be exclusively the domain of cloud computing, this is most definitely the ‘flag’ that these new innovations fly under.
Having stepped through the minutia of the cloud debate I conclude that it doesn’t really matter whether cloud architectures are fundamentally different; or whether the software tools that cloud computing has levered to the surface are part of the cloud computing story or not. What matters to hard-pressed IT leaders in the public sector is that – thanks to cloud computing - more opportunities exist for virtualizing server platforms, and achieving economies by adopting smarter means of running key processes including the design, deployment and operation of business applications than ever before. Cloud computing provides a greater ability to leverage the competencies and resources of third party vendors (with smarter technology) while organizations only pay for what they use.
But with so many concerns over the robustness, database scalability, administrative tools etc. of cloud computing, what is the first step that IT leaders should take on this journey?
Situational and departmental applications – the first step into the clouds
While some private sector organizations like easyJet are taking the lead in cloud computing by adopting policies whereby all future application should be considered for deployment on the cloud before any other justification is considered, the majority of public sector organisations are adopting a more cautious approach. The first applications most organisations are considering for cloud deployment are the departmental and so-called ‘situational applications’ that I describe below.
For departmental managers and executives, IT budgets have always been a bit of a lottery. There are so many business processes that occur in any public sector organization, and their operation is to tangentially different to the private sector, that most departments have to make do with the majority of users gaining access to a core administrative system while workers that need a bigger bag of different systems are required to make do with spreadsheets, PowerPoints and Access databases to fill in the cracks in their information management. The gap between information needs and information systems capability is forever growing while IT teams lack the resources or budgets to respond to every need with a shrink-wrapped software tool. Even today, most middle managers report they lack the information they need to discharge their roles and the information they do get is often not in the format (or completeness) to make it useful.
Developments in Rich Internet portals technology spearheaded by investments into cloud computing are now reaching the market. They provide users with the level of user interface experience and responsiveness to queries comparable (if not better) than the systems resident applications they’re used to using. Rich Internet portal platforms like Encanvas engineer a new marriage between data mashups technology, building block applications design and pain-free deployment and operation needed to support near infinite numbers of secure and live community spaces in the cloud.
Rich Internet portal solutions for the Microsoft Azure cloud like Encanvas Secure&Live™ are purposely designed to meet enterprise requirements for situational applications; described by thought-leader Luca Cherbakov of IBM as “applications developed by small teams in response to new business situations that possess the economics that mean once used they can be discarded”.
Experience gained in the last decade on the use and deployment of situational applications suggests that while situational applications start simply as a robust IT answer to a business problem, generally these solutions mature into business critical IT systems as users and stakeholders benefit from their use and start to mature their use cases. And many of these applications start within a department – to serve a departmental need – and grow because of their usefulness and practical rewards.
The way communities and teams tend to mature their situational applications takes on a common roadmap:
(1) Applications start with the need for ‘secure and live’ community spaces providing access to collaboration and participant interaction.
(2) Then the need to acquire data from different data sources emerges.
(3) Next, users call for more enquiry and analysis screens and capabilities.
(4) Then the need for more formalized business processes materialises.
(5) Finally, (and only in some cases) requirements for predictive engines emerge – providing the ability to anticipate the likelihood of events and impacting scenarios that might impact on the community.
While the majority of IT users are adequately supplied by a small number of systems (such as sales administrators that will spend all of their time on a CRM system, or an accounting clerk who will live in their SAP or Oracle portals) there are a smaller number of department managers, marketers, R&D and creatives that demand robust IT solutions to serve themselves with richer sources of insights and smarter tools to rationalise the information overload of the digital age.
Situational applications are seen as the remedy to the ‘long tail of demand’ for business applications coming from this very important minority community of IT users scattered across the enterprise that make innovation happen and spark competitive advantage. Unfortunately, at the outset of these departmental and situational software development projects, it’s often not clear what the return-on-investment might be for investing in the development of a robust IT solution. Equally, there can be relationship and organisational pressures surrounding a software development project that mean cooperation is not assured and data acquisition and aggregation may be prohibited by practical IT roadblocks or the unwillingness of parties to play ball.
It’s in this complex arena of information change management that the unique blend of economics and functionality manifested in cloud computing platforms like Encanvas comes to the fore; where the cloud represents a more neutral zone for cooperation (with each contributing party owning its own data and ability to regulate access permissions while sharing the same technology platform).
Why are situational applications the obvious start-point for cloud computing initiatives?
The main reasons are these:
• Most organisations have too many software products and supplier relationships. Reducing the number of discrete software applications through harmonisation offers a direct route to savings in IT expenditure while the ability to deliver more applications right first time through situational applications is assured.
• Cloud architectures provide a faster and more painless means of designing, deploying and operating custom built applications. They’re more economic and can scale to whatever size they need to grow so there’s no risk of outgrowing the hardware platform.
• The cloud is seen to be a secure and live ‘neutral territory’ for organisations seeking to share data and collaborate with their communities – there is less of an emotional issue towards where data resides.
• Making a start on the cloud journey with situational applications addresses the ‘long-tail of demand’ for business applications so IT teams can be seen to deliver responsive IT solutions to emergent business needs by serving up robust IT solutions at very low cost.
• While situational applications can grow to become business critical, there’s a big difference between starting from day one with new applications on the cloud and attempting to port the much less numerous core transactional platforms that are critical to business continuity.
Use case examples of situational applications
Here are three use case examples that show how situational applications can mature into best-fit business critical information systems; ideal early stage candidates for cloud computing.
1. Streetworks (local government department)
At the introduction of the Traffic Management Act in 2004, the Traffic Manager of West Sussex County Council identified that the current information management of the department was unworkable if all aspects of the new legislation (calling for improved cooperation with streetworks undertakers and demonstration of parity on planning decisions) were to be met. With the current IT systems, no mapping functionality existed that could provide a single page view of all planning aspects. Engineers were required to reference six different internal systems to build a clear picture of the planning considerations – and even then mistakes could be easily made. Another major challenge was the impact of TMA legislation on the administrative overheads of the department demanding that the Council input all of its own streetwork assets, activities and events in order to demonstrate parity with other streetworks undertakers (before TMA 2004 this information was not reported). An urgent solution was needed to comply with the TMA requirements – otherwise the Traffic Manager estimated that at least 2 additional FTEs would be required simply to keep up with the administrative overheads (at a time when skilled staff with appropriate qualifications were scarce due to demand driven by the new legislator framework). An interim situational application was developed by IS consultants NDMC and West Sussex County Council to provide a bridging solution to respond to the new information demands of the TMA 2004 legislation in advance of core business systems being brought up to date. The project team identified the sources of data from across the department and mapped out a requirements specification. Samples of each of the data sources were gathered and a ‘start-point’ proof of concept was developed. This application was presented to a workshop of users and stakeholders who spent a day discussing the format and operation of the system. By the end of this one-day workshop, the majority of the systems design was completed and a fully functioning test system was deployed onto the Encanvas system within 2 days. As the result of this project, the WSCC streetworks team was comfortably able to service the anticipated peak in demand for noticing of works without needing to create new posts and West Sussex County Council became the first local authority in the southeast, outside London, to operate and full EToN3 compliant system.
2. Credentials Management (professional services)
A global professional services organisation found that it was unable to satisfactorily provide credentials of past projects in support of new client engagement bids owing to the lack of retained information. While some detail of contact information was held on a Lotus Notes intranet, project information was either not captured or was to be found in different systems. The current situation meant that evidencing capabilities was proving to be difficult and was risking future business growth. In response to this business challenge, the organisation worked with IS consultants NDMC to create a situational application using Encanvas. The application was created during the course of six days with the project team working in a workshop environment. Data mashup technology, incumbent in the Encanvas platform, was used to acquire data from disparate sources – including the Lotus Notes Intranet, a third party database (held in .CSV format) and project systems. User search and enquiry forms were created that used drop-down filters and free-text weighted search to simplify the enquiry process. Once filtered queries were returned, the resulting records could be downloaded in a templated form for instant inclusion into bid documents and proposals. As the result of the situational applications deployment, senior partners were instantly able to harness the credentials of the global knowledge center operations in support of future bids. Whilst this system achieved an ROI within the first 6-weeks of use, it continued to be used on a daily basis for over three years before an integrated platform solution was developed to displace it.
3. Compliance Management (electronics sector)
A global electronics company found that in order to comply with new regulatory demands from its parent in Japan, it needed to install a license management and reporting solution. The European operation was given scant notice of this new requirement and were challenged to get a system in-place within 6-weeks! The project manager elected to work with IS consultants NDMC to design and deploy an interim situational application using the Encanvas Rich Internet platform. Through a one-day workshop the project team devised a data model and website design. Taking advantage of the data connectors provided by the Encanvas platform, the project team was able to import historical licensing data held in MS Access and spreadsheet files to deploy a working solution within five days. Following a period of user testing, a second workshop was initiated to recommend iterative changes that were subsequently implemented using the code-free design environment of Encanvas; changes that took only a ½ day to implement. Having the license management system on a web hosted environment meant that the Japanese parent company is now able to access report data for compliance purposes directly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This interim solution has now been running since 2005 and continues to satisfactorily meet compliance reporting requirements.
In conclusion
The idea that IT functions will achieve step-change reductions in operational costs is unlikely to happen without a harmonisation agenda where the hundreds of software applications that organisations use are trimmed down to a manageable number – perhaps to less than 10 core applications platforms. Migrating the many homemade and discrete applications and spreadsheet systems to a common secure and live architecture present a real and immediate opportunity for short-term cashable economies.
Cloud-borne Rich Internet Portal architectures like Encanvas Secure&Live deployed on Microsoft Azure present IT leaders with the opportunity to not only ‘test’ the economics and viability of cloud computing as their first-step to cloud computing, solutions such as this also provide a mechanism to economically serve the long-tail of applications demand that exists within all organisations today (improving internal customer satisfaction towards IT).
So if you’re considering making the move to cloud computing, why not consider taking baby steps first with situational and departmental applications - and just make sure you’re able to reach the cloud before you leap.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Why Enterprise Mashups and Social Media will make India successful
It was a great joy for myself and the Encanvas team to launch our 'Squork' secure and live business social networking technology in Lucknow, India this month with our partners US Tech. We were cheerfully surprised by the enthusiasm that exists in India for new technology - even when it's technology that changes the paradigm of business computing and asks people to consider new ways of working. (A big thanks to the IIM-L team for making us so welcome!).
Through a series of meetings with leaders of academia and business around the purpose and opportunities offered by Squork business social networking, surfaced the fundamental reason why I believe India will be the powerhouse of world markets in the next decade.
You see, here's my point:
In Europe and the USA, I see IT leaders playing a game of 'got, not got' over the building blocks of IT technology in support of their enterprise computing stacks that always reminds me of the game we used to play as kids swapping football player cards with our friends at the school gate. It seems every IT leader has to have at least one of every technology genre whether it achieves a business outcome or not. So I'm always being quizzed by CIOs about 'what Encanvas displaces' and 'where does Encanvas (and Squork) fit' in the enterprise IT stack? This focus on innovation is firmly pinned to their NOW, and the norms of understanding and behavior as they see them today. They are focused too much on DOING THINGS BETTER and think too little about DOING BETTER THINGS.
Never once did I have that schoolyard conversation in India. The most common question was this: "How will Encanvas help me to achieve 100% growth in the next 2 to 3 years?"
This is a much more relevant business conversation.
It's not secret that companies around the world have spent millions on IT, and yet - with an average of 15 business intelligence tools, tens (sometimes hundreds) of shrink-wrapped software products, workflow tools, search tools, mapping tools etc. - most middle managers and C-level execs. still complain about the fit between IT and their business information needs. Nomatter how we measure it, IT has not, does not, deliver agile information systems that always stay in tune with the way organizations want to work.
In Indian I found businessmen and women who aren't shackled by the IT investment they've already made. Instead, they're interested in the potential of IT to be a competitive differentiator. The question they want answering is how technology can deliver the growth they want to see.I'm convinced that, as long as new innovation delivers on its promises, they will happily throw out their current IT - AND ITS ASSOCIATED NORMS OF BEHAVIOR - without a thought.
And that's why Encanvas is in India.
I don't mind so much sitting in meetings with IT leaders in Western Europe and the USA evidencing how the world of Web 2.0 - with its enterprise mashups, drag and drop mapping, agile business intelligence, instant mobile apps and business social networking solutions - can make a step-change difference to business growth. I don't mind because I know that for every stick in the mud corporate gate-keeper there are other IT leaders who are thinking about business outcomes and it's always fun to help any and all of these people to find their own reasons to change their perspectives on the potential of IT to bring about a competitive advantage.
New web 2.0 technology platforms like Encanvas that are built for cloud computing and a new generation of IT savvy business people are unstoppable in the hands of entrepreneurs and creative people with uncluttered minds. And today, there are more of those people in India.
If we are to see economies in the USA and Western Europe remain as major players in global business markets, somehow we need to get more business people (and particularly IT leaders) thinking more about the 100% growth of their organizations, and less about the completeness of their IT stack. The 'got, not got' game of corporate IT procurement has got to come to an end.
How? Beats me.
Through a series of meetings with leaders of academia and business around the purpose and opportunities offered by Squork business social networking, surfaced the fundamental reason why I believe India will be the powerhouse of world markets in the next decade.
You see, here's my point:
In Europe and the USA, I see IT leaders playing a game of 'got, not got' over the building blocks of IT technology in support of their enterprise computing stacks that always reminds me of the game we used to play as kids swapping football player cards with our friends at the school gate. It seems every IT leader has to have at least one of every technology genre whether it achieves a business outcome or not. So I'm always being quizzed by CIOs about 'what Encanvas displaces' and 'where does Encanvas (and Squork) fit' in the enterprise IT stack? This focus on innovation is firmly pinned to their NOW, and the norms of understanding and behavior as they see them today. They are focused too much on DOING THINGS BETTER and think too little about DOING BETTER THINGS.
Never once did I have that schoolyard conversation in India. The most common question was this: "How will Encanvas help me to achieve 100% growth in the next 2 to 3 years?"
This is a much more relevant business conversation.
It's not secret that companies around the world have spent millions on IT, and yet - with an average of 15 business intelligence tools, tens (sometimes hundreds) of shrink-wrapped software products, workflow tools, search tools, mapping tools etc. - most middle managers and C-level execs. still complain about the fit between IT and their business information needs. Nomatter how we measure it, IT has not, does not, deliver agile information systems that always stay in tune with the way organizations want to work.
In Indian I found businessmen and women who aren't shackled by the IT investment they've already made. Instead, they're interested in the potential of IT to be a competitive differentiator. The question they want answering is how technology can deliver the growth they want to see.I'm convinced that, as long as new innovation delivers on its promises, they will happily throw out their current IT - AND ITS ASSOCIATED NORMS OF BEHAVIOR - without a thought.
And that's why Encanvas is in India.
I don't mind so much sitting in meetings with IT leaders in Western Europe and the USA evidencing how the world of Web 2.0 - with its enterprise mashups, drag and drop mapping, agile business intelligence, instant mobile apps and business social networking solutions - can make a step-change difference to business growth. I don't mind because I know that for every stick in the mud corporate gate-keeper there are other IT leaders who are thinking about business outcomes and it's always fun to help any and all of these people to find their own reasons to change their perspectives on the potential of IT to bring about a competitive advantage.
New web 2.0 technology platforms like Encanvas that are built for cloud computing and a new generation of IT savvy business people are unstoppable in the hands of entrepreneurs and creative people with uncluttered minds. And today, there are more of those people in India.
If we are to see economies in the USA and Western Europe remain as major players in global business markets, somehow we need to get more business people (and particularly IT leaders) thinking more about the 100% growth of their organizations, and less about the completeness of their IT stack. The 'got, not got' game of corporate IT procurement has got to come to an end.
How? Beats me.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Why Enterprise mashups are more than a 'nice to have' for business leaders
Today I’m re-authoring the Action Framework system. It reminded me that in 2002, the Action Framework was the reason why I started on the journey to producing a better way of working with data that has since become known as enterprise mashups.
Under any other description, an Action Framework is a performance management system but unlike traditional performance management systems that focus too much on strategies and plans and not enough on reality, the currency of an Action Framework are the actions that happen across an organization on a daily basis.
When I started NDMC I was keen to find a better way of managing organizations because I’ve seen so many good and enthusiastic people find themselves in middle-management positions, not knowing why they’re doing what they’ve been asked to do. All too often, enthusiasm and effort does not translate into results and rewards because of poor instruction or poor alignment between the actions of these key people and the required outcomes of the organization. Another issue that I was keen to resolve was how organizations listen to their customers and learn what matters most to them. Normally organizations get this wrong because they have sales people doing the asking or they rely on satisfaction surveys with their ‘yes’ and ‘no’ black and white responses. So it made sense to me that a performance management framework needed to have installed mechanisms to listen to the outside world and adjust plans based on its ability to learn.
From these fragments of logic, my colleagues at NDMC and I created the first Action Framework in 2004. Initially our first attempt was built on spreadsheets that I used to capture strategic plans, budgets and actions and insights. Aligning all of these elements was not easy on a spreadsheet (I wasn’t convinced we were helping anyone see the woods for the trees with such a complicated landscape of data) so a year on we turned to the use of an SQL relational database and built a series of data capture and analysis applications in dotnet.
But there was a fundamental problem. Whatever we did to create ‘the perfect system’ for every organization, there were too many variables and far too many repositories and sources of data. In consequence, the cost of ‘feeding’ the Action Framework with up-to-the-minute data proved too expensive. We had a good model but not a good ‘system’.
What we needed was a method of creating Action Frameworks that would be different for every organization; that could capture data from pretty much any data source from across the enterprise and present insights in new and useful ways without the traditional overheads and burdens of IT projects.
It was with this fragment of common sense that we embarked on the production of such a system. Initially we went to all of the major suspects to see if we could use an existing tool but it didn’t take long for us to realize that our vision was at odds with what the IT industry believed to be possible.
Enterprise mashups are a very different concept in IT that requires a fresh perspective in the way such a technology can be applied. Unfortunately, most people in business apply the role of enterprise mashups into the current ways of working and uses of IT. They try to fit Enterprise Mashups into the present day landscape of IT and ask the question ‘ so what does it replace?’
People that do this miss the point.
The envisioned role of Enterprise Mashups is to provide a system and mechanism for creating an information management that is always in consort with the information needs of the community they serve. Any effective Action Framework cannot be affordably deployed (and therefore can not exist) without this level of agility in IT systems.
Anyway, back to re-building that Action Framework;-)
Under any other description, an Action Framework is a performance management system but unlike traditional performance management systems that focus too much on strategies and plans and not enough on reality, the currency of an Action Framework are the actions that happen across an organization on a daily basis.
When I started NDMC I was keen to find a better way of managing organizations because I’ve seen so many good and enthusiastic people find themselves in middle-management positions, not knowing why they’re doing what they’ve been asked to do. All too often, enthusiasm and effort does not translate into results and rewards because of poor instruction or poor alignment between the actions of these key people and the required outcomes of the organization. Another issue that I was keen to resolve was how organizations listen to their customers and learn what matters most to them. Normally organizations get this wrong because they have sales people doing the asking or they rely on satisfaction surveys with their ‘yes’ and ‘no’ black and white responses. So it made sense to me that a performance management framework needed to have installed mechanisms to listen to the outside world and adjust plans based on its ability to learn.
From these fragments of logic, my colleagues at NDMC and I created the first Action Framework in 2004. Initially our first attempt was built on spreadsheets that I used to capture strategic plans, budgets and actions and insights. Aligning all of these elements was not easy on a spreadsheet (I wasn’t convinced we were helping anyone see the woods for the trees with such a complicated landscape of data) so a year on we turned to the use of an SQL relational database and built a series of data capture and analysis applications in dotnet.
But there was a fundamental problem. Whatever we did to create ‘the perfect system’ for every organization, there were too many variables and far too many repositories and sources of data. In consequence, the cost of ‘feeding’ the Action Framework with up-to-the-minute data proved too expensive. We had a good model but not a good ‘system’.
What we needed was a method of creating Action Frameworks that would be different for every organization; that could capture data from pretty much any data source from across the enterprise and present insights in new and useful ways without the traditional overheads and burdens of IT projects.
It was with this fragment of common sense that we embarked on the production of such a system. Initially we went to all of the major suspects to see if we could use an existing tool but it didn’t take long for us to realize that our vision was at odds with what the IT industry believed to be possible.
Enterprise mashups are a very different concept in IT that requires a fresh perspective in the way such a technology can be applied. Unfortunately, most people in business apply the role of enterprise mashups into the current ways of working and uses of IT. They try to fit Enterprise Mashups into the present day landscape of IT and ask the question ‘ so what does it replace?’
People that do this miss the point.
The envisioned role of Enterprise Mashups is to provide a system and mechanism for creating an information management that is always in consort with the information needs of the community they serve. Any effective Action Framework cannot be affordably deployed (and therefore can not exist) without this level of agility in IT systems.
Anyway, back to re-building that Action Framework;-)
Friday, 26 February 2010
Why is Squork better than Google Wave? ..and other good questions
YOUTUBE videos on Squork are getting some attention and the first few bits of feedback we’ve received ask some very pointy questions on what makes Squork better than Google Wave and free source software.
Rather than answer the same questions a hundred times a day I thought it probably a good idea to answer them here;-). My thanks to Aravind for summarizing the key questions!
QUESTION – “What is Squork?”
Squork is a secure and live business social operating system. It enables communities to develop and operate virtual social network operating spaces for their business or community of interest.
QUESTION – “Where has Squork come from?”
ANSWER - Squork is a deployment of the Encanvas Secure&Live Integrated Software Platform (which itself can take some explaining). With Encanvas people can design, deploy and operate their business applications using a single integrated platform without needing programming or scripting skills. It obviates the need for traditional enterprise portal platforms and means people can publish directly to their favored cloud computing platform or web server (although at the moment we’re only supporting Microsoft Azure). Encanvas produces ASP.NET web spaces.
Because Squork is built on Encanvas, organizations benefit from what we call ‘frictionless IT’ – i.e. Once they’ve deployed the Encanvas platform they don’t need to buy any more applications as it becomes easier and more cost effective to build applications than purchase them. Using Encanvas also means organizations no longer have to suffer with upgrade costs.
The fact that Encanvas underpins Squork means that organizations (and communities) can use Squork to extend their networks and processes beyond the boundaries of the enterprise without compromising security.
QUESTION - “I could understand that you deliver data security, aggregating information, making everyone work on the same page...but my question is how is that different from existing stand alone usage of social media. What advantage will it provide me as a customer ahead of ones who aren't using squork?”
ANSWER – While most social media tools are ‘applications’, Squork is a complete Social Operating System.
Here’s what I mean: Social media technologies like twitter and YouTube represent exciting new forms of communication but like the telephone, email or letter, they don’t organize data for you or integrate together in a common environment. What Squork does is provide users with access to the communications tools they want to use in a trusted environment that they can tailor precisely to how they want to work. Users own and manage their data on Squork - not Google, Facebook, Skype or Microsoft.
Squork provides users with the tools they need to create secure user groups and communities. Within these communities, users can serve themselves with the collaborative tools and applications they need to meet the needs of the community (or project). Today, users are coming to realize that social media isn’t architected to provide a trusted workspace that enables organizations to manage their social ties, their intellectual property, business applications, or govern projects but you can find out more by reading my book ‘Cloud Coffee House’ ;-)
“It would be of great help if you could explain why someone should go with your product ahead of using free source software. Tell precisely the differentiation factor that your product delivers and how it could be an added value as a customer for me.”
ANSWER – The Encanvas community is about helping individuals to lever their talents and skills by applying technology in new ways, so we don’t want to discourage people from using their own flavors of social media. It's great to experiment so please try out these new ways of communicating and sharing ideas. The role of Squork is to provide the best user experience and the best way of creating a virtual workplace where people want to spend their time. Our plan is to integrate with as many social media tools as we can (including Google Wave) but Squork will also include its own embedded functionality – so users don’t need to go anywhere else for the different forms of communication (such as live webchat or RSS feeds) unless they want to.
There are many benefits of a thoughtfully designed architecture as opposed to creating sites by mashing together multiple tools where the designer does not have full control over the components. Because Squork is built on Encanvas, it uses the same ‘LEGO brick’ approach to integration and deployment, so there’s no need for scripting or coding skills and all of the capabilities you might want to add to your site – such as dashboarding, charts, visualizations, maps, data entry forms etc. – can be easily added.
And what’s its advantage over Google Wave?
In fairness to Google, that’s not a fair question at the moment because the clever people at Google have already got Wave ‘out there’ while we’re still working on the first version of Squork but I would say adopters of Squork will like that its architected on Encanvas Secure&Live and leverages the Microsoft ASP.NET platform while users will love the usability, integration of different communications vehicles and ability to bring everyone together on the same page. I guess the best answer is ‘try it and see’.
“When will Squork be available? (Wasn’t it meant to be out already?)
ANSWER – We expected to launch Squork in October 2009 but we delayed the launch because we had some fundamental learning lessons from the initial beta that we wanted to apply prior to launch in order to make the technology more adaptable and easier to use. We’re expecting to make Squork available to people who are interested in trialing it some time mid 2010 but we won’t have a release date confirmed for a few weeks yet.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Google takes another step towards turning into Microsoft - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source
Google takes another step towards turning into Microsoft - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-14-google-takes-another-step-towards-turning-into-microsoft
There are occasions when the true colors of corporate arrogance show themselves and it's not pretty. Google has done well to steer clear of being tarnished with the image as an uncaring 'corporate giant' that has hit so many other large corporations that only do things for money.
That's why I found this article so interesting to read. Google isn't a charitable organization and its willingness to try to cut off smaller players at the ankles by using its market penetration shows what happens when youthful exuberance turns into a cruel corporate game. Fortunately, cloud computing is opening the doors to European and Asian innovators and it is in these far flung parts of the planet that innovation is taking hold.
Perhaps we should all think a little more about the negative consequences of Google's dominance over the Web.
Well done John Naughton for presenting this thoughtful perspective.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-14-google-takes-another-step-towards-turning-into-microsoft
There are occasions when the true colors of corporate arrogance show themselves and it's not pretty. Google has done well to steer clear of being tarnished with the image as an uncaring 'corporate giant' that has hit so many other large corporations that only do things for money.
That's why I found this article so interesting to read. Google isn't a charitable organization and its willingness to try to cut off smaller players at the ankles by using its market penetration shows what happens when youthful exuberance turns into a cruel corporate game. Fortunately, cloud computing is opening the doors to European and Asian innovators and it is in these far flung parts of the planet that innovation is taking hold.
Perhaps we should all think a little more about the negative consequences of Google's dominance over the Web.
Well done John Naughton for presenting this thoughtful perspective.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Enterprise mashups and de-risking software development projects
One of the main uses of Encanvas and other enterprise mashup platforms is in custom software development.
Traditionally, business software applications have been purchased as shrink-wrapped products that serve a specific process or functional business area. The fundamental problem of this approach is there are so many processes in a business. Attempting to purchase a shrink-wrapped solution for every one of them is hugely expensive. Another problem is there's no guarantee that each of the shrink-wrapped packages is architected to use the same building block components of technology - so organizations have to contend with supporting a variety of different database engines, workflow engines and reporting tools (that all work differently).
The alternative to buying read-made software solutions of course is to build your own. The problem in doing this is the high cost and risk of project failure. Developing bespoke software applications has traditionally been performed by programmers and IT professionals in back-rooms working on a common plan that's been drafted as the 'best guess' of what the outcome should look like. Programmers find themselves working in parallel on different parts of the same system. No surprise, when the project team tries to bring all of these development strands together and present it to the users and stakeholders, it's not uncommon for lots of re-working to be needed. Primarily for this reason, organizations make do with buying shrink-wrapped software and coping with the high expense of operating a plethora of different software applications that still don't really fit their business need or how they want to work.
Encanvas, and other composite applications design products, overcome these issues by providing IT leaders with a common toolkit of ready-to-use technology components so they can develop applications across the enterprise as the need arises. What makes Encanvas particularly unique is that it doesn't require coding or scripting skills. Its design environment is completely 'point-and-click'. Even its data integration and mashup features and logic building features are created using drag and drop methods. Another feature is that unlike other Enterprise Mashup products, Encanvas is supplied with ready-made design elements for mapping, forms capture, social networking, reporting, file transfer, dashboards etc. - so there's no need to rely on third party components. This is important for developers because they can see developoment projects all the way through to delivery of a robust and scalable system in the knowledge they have full control over design components and can modify every aspect of the user interface design and application functionality.
By removing the time and complexity of coding in development, Encanvas reduces project risk by enabling business analysts to develop their applications in real-time with stakeholders in workshop environments. With everyone on the same page, it's possible to architect right-first-time deployable solutions.
Time to value on Encanvas is greatly reduced by it use of existing data resources (with its ability to mashup data from existing IT systems) and its ready-made building blocks for complex technology components like geo-spatial mapping. It means that IT leaders can embed IT-centric business analysts into process improvement teams and provide these individuals with a single design, deployment and operational environment with the dexterity to cope with all of their enterprise information management challenges.
Traditionally, business software applications have been purchased as shrink-wrapped products that serve a specific process or functional business area. The fundamental problem of this approach is there are so many processes in a business. Attempting to purchase a shrink-wrapped solution for every one of them is hugely expensive. Another problem is there's no guarantee that each of the shrink-wrapped packages is architected to use the same building block components of technology - so organizations have to contend with supporting a variety of different database engines, workflow engines and reporting tools (that all work differently).
The alternative to buying read-made software solutions of course is to build your own. The problem in doing this is the high cost and risk of project failure. Developing bespoke software applications has traditionally been performed by programmers and IT professionals in back-rooms working on a common plan that's been drafted as the 'best guess' of what the outcome should look like. Programmers find themselves working in parallel on different parts of the same system. No surprise, when the project team tries to bring all of these development strands together and present it to the users and stakeholders, it's not uncommon for lots of re-working to be needed. Primarily for this reason, organizations make do with buying shrink-wrapped software and coping with the high expense of operating a plethora of different software applications that still don't really fit their business need or how they want to work.
Encanvas, and other composite applications design products, overcome these issues by providing IT leaders with a common toolkit of ready-to-use technology components so they can develop applications across the enterprise as the need arises. What makes Encanvas particularly unique is that it doesn't require coding or scripting skills. Its design environment is completely 'point-and-click'. Even its data integration and mashup features and logic building features are created using drag and drop methods. Another feature is that unlike other Enterprise Mashup products, Encanvas is supplied with ready-made design elements for mapping, forms capture, social networking, reporting, file transfer, dashboards etc. - so there's no need to rely on third party components. This is important for developers because they can see developoment projects all the way through to delivery of a robust and scalable system in the knowledge they have full control over design components and can modify every aspect of the user interface design and application functionality.
By removing the time and complexity of coding in development, Encanvas reduces project risk by enabling business analysts to develop their applications in real-time with stakeholders in workshop environments. With everyone on the same page, it's possible to architect right-first-time deployable solutions.
Time to value on Encanvas is greatly reduced by it use of existing data resources (with its ability to mashup data from existing IT systems) and its ready-made building blocks for complex technology components like geo-spatial mapping. It means that IT leaders can embed IT-centric business analysts into process improvement teams and provide these individuals with a single design, deployment and operational environment with the dexterity to cope with all of their enterprise information management challenges.
Monday, 18 January 2010
Social Operating Systems: The rise of social oriented architecture
As the term suggests, a social operating system is a computing platform that supports the formation, management and use of social relationship ties. In my opinion, social operating systems will have a fundamental impact on both society and business - but my interest is how they change the way people work and are empowered in their roles.
My next business book is due out in October 2010 and studies the growing influence of social operating systems in computing and considers their impact on the business world. I'm hoping to add a few early examples of how early adopter organizations are going about developing their social operating systems, the challenges they're encountering and the benefits they're seeing.
(So, to the big question!!!) Do you have a great example of an organization that has implemented (or is in the process of implementing) a social operating system. If you do, then I'd love to hear from you.
The more I get involved in IT modernization, the more I see a close relationship between the new 'social oriented architectures' on the technology horizon and the 'services oriented computing architectures' now in the throws of adoption by many corporations. In fact, social oriented computing and services oriented computing are two ends of the same subject.
Here's what I'm getting at:
There's a great deal written about Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). This term describes an approach to business information management and computing that opens up the 'information fibers' of tightly matted corporate computing systems so that business people - and cross cutting processes - can serve themselves with applications that access the rich silos of data held within the enterprise (and also from public sites on the Web).
Sounds great doesn't it? Hmmm - but then I'm thinking, for me, when it comes to business value the point of emphasis in this IT architectural vision is on serving data rather than consuming it to bring real value to business people and the organizations they serve.
It is quite easy when working with IT to start with the answer rather than the question. People interested in IT are normallly pro-technology and want to find good reasons to do more with it. Sometimes this means doing 'clever stuff' in advance of any real demand for IT from consumers. But IT projects without strong sponsorship normally topple over at some point. Now, as I understand it, the idea of services-oriented computing is to serve up data from back office systems (and other such sources) in such a way that it can be made useful to lots of people (and processes) for many different reasons. If not properly thought through it's a bit like creating your own library of books without working out who wants to read them and why.
Social operating systems - on the other hand - start with 'what matters most' to the consumers of information, and giving these people the capability to form and support their social relationship ties, develop interest groups, share insights and applications - and one day I'm sure these workspaces will be sufficiently secure and trusted that organizations will run their business processes through them too.
If you're interested in social operating systems or social oriented architecture and have a story to tell, do please get in touch. I'd welcome your perspectives, thoughts, experiences and ideas! I'll even take predictions;-)
My next business book is due out in October 2010 and studies the growing influence of social operating systems in computing and considers their impact on the business world. I'm hoping to add a few early examples of how early adopter organizations are going about developing their social operating systems, the challenges they're encountering and the benefits they're seeing.
(So, to the big question!!!) Do you have a great example of an organization that has implemented (or is in the process of implementing) a social operating system. If you do, then I'd love to hear from you.
The more I get involved in IT modernization, the more I see a close relationship between the new 'social oriented architectures' on the technology horizon and the 'services oriented computing architectures' now in the throws of adoption by many corporations. In fact, social oriented computing and services oriented computing are two ends of the same subject.
Here's what I'm getting at:
There's a great deal written about Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). This term describes an approach to business information management and computing that opens up the 'information fibers' of tightly matted corporate computing systems so that business people - and cross cutting processes - can serve themselves with applications that access the rich silos of data held within the enterprise (and also from public sites on the Web).
Sounds great doesn't it? Hmmm - but then I'm thinking, for me, when it comes to business value the point of emphasis in this IT architectural vision is on serving data rather than consuming it to bring real value to business people and the organizations they serve.
It is quite easy when working with IT to start with the answer rather than the question. People interested in IT are normallly pro-technology and want to find good reasons to do more with it. Sometimes this means doing 'clever stuff' in advance of any real demand for IT from consumers. But IT projects without strong sponsorship normally topple over at some point. Now, as I understand it, the idea of services-oriented computing is to serve up data from back office systems (and other such sources) in such a way that it can be made useful to lots of people (and processes) for many different reasons. If not properly thought through it's a bit like creating your own library of books without working out who wants to read them and why.
Social operating systems - on the other hand - start with 'what matters most' to the consumers of information, and giving these people the capability to form and support their social relationship ties, develop interest groups, share insights and applications - and one day I'm sure these workspaces will be sufficiently secure and trusted that organizations will run their business processes through them too.
If you're interested in social operating systems or social oriented architecture and have a story to tell, do please get in touch. I'd welcome your perspectives, thoughts, experiences and ideas! I'll even take predictions;-)
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Why CRM Systems Drive Sales People Crazy
When they first came on the scene with SIEBEL, Customer Relationship Management systems were supposed to grow your business 'one customer at a time'. Like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems they promised a rosy future for business people of being able to deliver a 'single view' of customers - so that all of the systems in an enterprise could work together to serve up a coherent appreciation of customer conversations, account history - and most importantly, what mattered most to them (to understand 'customer value').
After decades of CRM implementations, most sales and marketing people are left cold by the impact of CRM. It simply hasn't delivered on its promises.
An agile enterprise can only achieve greater customer value - and therefore more potential to grow - if it understands what customers actually want. This insight can not be gathered OFFLINE by market research because it creates a false picture of the real-world. The only way to really understand customers and their needs is to gather insights progressively through day-to-day interactions.
In most businesses, it is the CRM system that is meant to perform this role. And CRM systems are meant to increase revenues through higher sales. That means to get the right CRM solution, the stakeholders you need to convince first of its value are the sales people.
In this document I've summarized the main underperforming feature areas of CRM systems that drive sales people (and sales managers) crazy. Next to each subject I've crudely marked the performance of CRM systems today (out of 10 when 10 is high) to show where in my experience underperformance normally exists.
WHAT SALES PEOPLE WANT
Time. Sales people are short of it and they're keen to maximize it. That means not investing time on sales opportunities unlikely to close, not spending time on unnecessary travel and not keying data into databases without good reason. Sales people want to know how best to prioritize their time to get maximum return. They know that CRM software SHOULD help them to achieve this.
7 Recording contact activities
Sales people speak to a large number of people and they need help to remember and record the detail. They want to know who they spoke to, when and why so they can always find the contacts they've spoken to and they're armed with what was discussed and what outcomes were agreed. It's normally very difficult with CRM systems to obtain a timeline view of activities that brings together all of the actions and activities of the salesperson - which is extremely helpful for the salesperson to audit their personal productivity.
7 Scheduling and coordinating meetings and events
Sales people are normally responsible for managing events and meetings so they are big users of time management and calendaring tools. Having the ability to easily schedule meetings and add custom calendar items like events, tasks, to-dos, conferences etc. is very important to them.
6 Qualifying and grouping contacts
Every contact in a sales contact database is different: Different in terms of their potential as a prospect, their degree of influence on a sales process, the nature of the relationship with the sales person, the strength of the relationship with the salesperson, the reason why the relationship exists in the first place. These nuances of relationship ties means that sales people need to categorize contacts in ways that make sense to them (in addition to the typical demographic and industry sector views that marketing people want). Therefore, tagging systems are a useful vehicle to add richer context to contact records.
[Take a typical example of a salesperson wanting to select a group of contacts with common needs. Perhaps they want to send a quick email to this group - and afterwards, perhaps they want to follow-up the emails to progress discussions. With a typical CRM system that integrates with email, they can create a group of contacts as a category perhaps but all of the contact and progress information of this micro-canvassing activity is held on each of the contact records - so it doesn't provide any 'group' view of activities. Should the salesperson wish to report on these activities to a supervisor, a cut-and-paste activity is required, probably into a spreadsheet or word processor document.]
6 Notifications and alerts
Most CRM systems are good at alerting sales people to contact activities they should perform (this is after-all the main motivator for procuring most CRM systems). The better systems will enable sales people to create customizable hotlists and custom flags. Even so, CRM systems aren't very good at altering sales people to what they don't already know. The notifications you receive as a user are normally those that you've created yourself.
5 Setting the right balance between minimal data entry with maximum productivity
Sales people want fast data entry of 'business card' information on the prospects and contacts they meet. They want a system that enables them to plan next actions and reminders to progress sales. Most CRM systems seem to demand a high level of effort to capture data and then fail to deliver the helpful 'prompts' and productivity enablers that sales people value. So, for a salesperson, the obvious question is "Does this CRM system make me more productive or less productive?" More advanced CRM systems require data about accounts, organizations groups etc. to be entered before contacts can be added to create relationships between the contacts, their organizations, organization groups and accounts - all very sensible, but all of this complexity can make it impossible for sales people to simply add a simple contact with the smallest effort. [Features like auto scanning of business cards are very helpful to minimize data entry overheads. It's also helpful that every salesperson is able to access and use a common database system and have the opportunity to check to see if a contact already exists before they add another one to avoid double-entry of contacts - or worst case two sales people contacting the same contact.]
5 Making the task of working with data easier
When salespeople are at their laptop calling and communicating, desk space comes at a premium. They need a 'cockpit' view of everything they need to see in a single view at any point in time. Very often an editable table view is preferred to lots of forms. Most sales people want a series of views at different stages of a sales engagement process - contact card, editable list view, filtered search views, contact record profile views.
4 Account management
There are different types of sales people. Some are responsible for only a handful of major accounts and need to know everything about the accounts they manage. Today there are some good sales methods for managing accounts but most systems fall short in providing a WORKSPACE that brings together all aspects of account information management into a single cockpit.
4 Pipeline management and forecasting
So many CRM systems are poor at pipeline management and forecasting that results in salespeople and sales managers reverting to spreadsheets to manage their pipeline the way they need to for their business. This is sometimes because the pipeline forecasting requirements of the business demand such a high level of customization that a spreadsheet becomes easier - but as soon as data is entered into a spreadsheet, this insight becomes hidden from the organization.
4 Mobility
Sales people are always on the move and they need to be able to update records and keep in touch no matter where they are. While most CRM solutions will provide the ability to update records locally and then synchronize with server management systems later, online browser based systems afford the possibilities of always on communications.
3 Social networking enablers
The world is moving towards social networking platforms and social operating systems but CRM systems are locked into a world where email is assumed to be the only conduit between salespeople and their contacts. New CRM systems need to harness data insights available from popular social networking systems and aggregate this content in ways that makes it easier for salespeople to harness it. Capturing conversations conducted via online web-chat is also useful in developing richer insights of contact activity without demanding re-keying of conversation content.
3 Access to communications and collaboration enablers
Salespeople are communicators and they want access to the best tools to share their thoughts and ideas from their desktop, to communicate with clients using a mix of communications vehicles - phone, email, SMS, VoIP, web-chat etc. - and all of these communications options need to be available. Sales people also want to make sure that THEY are available to BE contacted should customers or prospects want to make contact.
3 Sales people as 'micro-marketers'
Sales people today have to be micro-marketers. They typically hold the responsibility of organizing their own micro campaigns, managing their own contact lists and follow up their sales leads with sales literature and follow-up correspondence. This means sales people need access to simple campaign list creation, batch label printing, mail merge and email marketing features.
2 Managing tenders and quotation processes
When businesses need to produce tenders and quotations, often this work is done using word processor and spreadsheet systems that are completely offline to the CRM system. The best most CRM systems can offer is to provide a link to a document repository containing this information.
1 Telling sales people things they don't already know about their accounts/territories
Sales people want to know if a major news story breaks on one of their accounts (perhaps a new appointment or the announcement of a merger etc), or when a new company has been created in their designated sales territory. This 'new news' is very helpful for sales people but today most salespeople have to source these insights themselves. Sales people often want to know when contracts are due for renewal or which products any new products are displacing. It's good to know when projects are behind schedule or accounts have a poor credit history or are on stop! Given that much of this content is already known but exists on different systems it's normal for stand-alone CRM systems not to flag this REALLY IMPORTANT information.
In summary, for sales people CRM systems fall short in areas of:
* Time - Giving more sales time than they consume
* Serving up new insights about what customers want or might buy
* Providing the means to always be contactable through mobile connectivity
* Their level of customization and integration (to fit the business/integrate)
* Social networking enablement
* Micro-marketing tools
* Managing the sales lifecycle --> prospect - quote - sell - order process - account manage - new things to sell!
Thursday, 7 January 2010
2010 Tech Forecasts
2010 tech forecasts: What the accurate analysts predict ( - Telecommunication - Internet - Software - Hardware Systems - Security - Consumer Electronics - Virtualization )
I came across this blog that outlined the performance of IDC's predictions. Very interesting!. Ian
I came across this blog that outlined the performance of IDC's predictions. Very interesting!. Ian
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
SOA, Security and Enterprise Mashups
I'd like to dispel a myth - that Enterprise Security is more likely to be compromised or weakened through the adoption of situational applications and enterprise data mashup technologies. If IT leaders were to let users roam free on all of their data through a poorly thought through Enterprise Mashup Platform THEN MAYBE, but then, how likely is that to happen?
The logic behind the argument that 'mashups are a security threat' is usually this: that mashups are about empowering information workers to consume web services (sourced from back office systems and via online public sites) and, if you all this to happen, then several new potential threat areas emerge:
- Poor security regimes mean that users usurp identity management and access control systems so either back-doors are created to data or administrative systems become more complicated with multiple user identity directories emerging that could create errors in monitoring user identities.
- Users (knowingly or unknowingly) gain access to data that they shouldn't be seeing (or in the worst case editing) by giving power users the ability to create their own applications
- Enterprise Mashup Architectures may not be as secure as traditional enterprise portal suites and so by adopting them organizations might be letting their guard down.
Firstly, it's important to remember that in most organizations today, the most widely adopted mashup application is Microsoft Excel. Business professionals use spreadsheets to capture data, gather data, analyze data and share data. The popularity of spreadsheets to still discharge all of these roles after 30 years of faithful service is testament to their invention. But spreadsheet systems are a high risk option. They mean that most organizations have hidden pots of business critical data on laptop and PC hard drives that almost nobody is aware of that can disappear at any moment. They also mean that people can inadvertently add the wrong data to the wrong cell or change a formula that can instantly result in high threat compliance issues.
Secondly, the Enterprise Mashup Platforms I've encountered so far integrate seamlessly with incumbent User Identity Management and Access Control systems like Active Directory used by corporations today. This isn't rocket science; most of these systems rely on a table of UserIDs, email addresses and passwords that are easily inherited by third party systems when properly designed.
Thirdly, it would be wrong to assume that incumbent Enterprise Portal Suites are more secure than the Rich Internet 'Enterprise Mashup' platforms displacing them. To my knowledge, none of the leading portal products can trace the movement of enterprise data from every single field of every single silo to every single portal and every single user - but platforms like Encanvas do.
Debates on the future of Enterprise security have moved away from the concept of protecting the enterprise by keeping everyone on the outside of the Firewall except 'trustworthy employees'. Organizations are slowly realizing that data breaches are most commonly the result of employees activities rather than unknown 'baddies'. It's also dawned on IT leaders that people in business expect to collaborate and share data - subcontractors, outsourcers, customers, channel partners all have very reasonable arguments for being able to access enterprise data. So the future of Enterprise security is about protecting the data and the intellectual property rather than the container that houses it.
In 2010 we're going to see a big push towards the virtualization of enterprise systems and cloud computing. We're going to see lots of business social networking tools entering via the backdoor of organizations to serve 'departmental needs'. And security will become all about monitoring the activities of individuals (and the groups they belong to). What better system to do this than the enterprise mashups portal platform that serves them with the data?
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