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I wish I got paid by the acronym….

Written by on March 1, 2013 · 1 Comment

As a consultant that old quip is used often in my daily vernacular.  Or, “I wish I got paid by the number of pages I produce!”

As a CIO, CTO or Director of I.T. you’ve joked about the same – you’ve known for a long time now that part of your job is actually to lessen the over-use of acronyms with your executive staff.  Let’s be honest, we’re human and we’re proud of what we do, our deep knowledge of systems and how to make them work for us.  It’s only natural that SaaS flows off of our tongue “as smooth as silk” flows at home.

As an independent consultant for the last several years I guess I’ve really always known that over use of technical language has side effects – they  include:

  • Confusion
  • Loss of the central point
  • An “abstract of perceived separation” between I.T. and the core of what makes the business tick

Did you like the last one?  It was a good one if I do say so myself – I should get paid for it!  What I meant was, the more techno mumbo jumbo we deliver to the business the more likely we are to be perceived as caught up in our weeds and not so much in understanding how the business makes money.

Whether you are a W2 CIO or a 1099 consultant, we will always provide much more value to the business by translating our technical jungle openly to the business as a process, without the acronyms.  We should be communicating our inputs, our general process flow and our outputs – or, our VALUE to the business.  If we’re not doing that it’s only a matter of time that the business will become frustrated, even if you know in your heart that your group is doing a bang-up job.

I encourage you all to think about how you can start drawing rectangles around your functions and turn them into processes that can readily attributed to supporting the revenue.  Don’t forget the metrics!!  Did I say, don’t forget the metrics?  Laurie Grace interviewed me about that subject.  Check out the two videos in a four part series at http://www.RunThisProject.com .

 

Categories: Management

On “Renting Amazon’s Cloud”

Written by on October 3, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I’ve had many conversations from I.T. executive leadership concerning the pressure to look at “cloud” for better I.T. ROI.  Often the President is under pressure from the board to “get into this cloud thing because it means you can cut down on all the growing number of I.T. staff?”  Or maybe the pressure is more subtle.  Maybe the same familiar vibes, similar to the ones that forced many of us into off-shore app dev when we really didn’t know if it would cost less?  Cloud Computing, it’s the “cool” trend of the time.  Will we just jump in so you we say we’re open minded or will most of us look at it objectively and make the decision based on the facts?

In the coming weeks I’m going to publish some information regarding the PRACTICAL use of deploying cloud offerings – serious ones.  So much hype, right?  I have a friend who is now working at Amazon, selling EC2, or “Elastic Cloud Computing”.  This cloud is much more fundamental though, it’s selling “hardware as a service”.  You pay for what servers you use.  Indeed, you use an interface to “lease” X number of servers for various purposes and put them to work.  You can take them out of service as you need to, and you’re charged only when they’re in service.

It’s a very interesting offering and frankly the BEST case for cloud offerings that I can imagine to date.  Think of it this way – we’re now comparing that $10 million data center running at your corporate office to hardware running in the Amazon cloud.

My approach for this article series will be to sift through various articles and first-hand accounts, including reports of cost savings (or not).  In other words, let’s find out if there is a true reason to do this!  Let’s keep our goal simple – yes we’ll review the technical, then move the technical stuff aside and move the business case front and center.

I’ve already studied the Trip Advisor story.  Thank you, Jeff Crawford for sending this third party (non-Amazon) article to me this week.  I am VERY impressed with Trip Advisor’s testing and analysis.  Let’s give them credit for putting some very well thought out material together, and also pointing out many of the remaining unanswered questions.  How can my I.T. leadership friends (YOU) help?  Please respond to this article as to what cloud services you are using and whether you can share some metrics (cost savings, overhead, performance, whatever).  Let’s consolidate some information and cut to chase!!

On my next blog I hope to have about 20 questions I’ve saved up for the TripAdvisor and also the Amazon boys.  They did great work and I’d like to really put the business case in perspective for us.  Hopefully we can merge in your experiences into some really useful consolidated cloud ROI information.

Thanks,
Patrick

Categories: Cloud Computing - Tags: , , , , ,

“Chill out!” – Good advice in a stressful world!

Written by on July 10, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I read a really good blog today and had to pass it on. It was written by Peter Bregman, read it here:

http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2012/07/the-best-strategy-for-reducing.html?awid=8718275407801744399-3270

The cliff’s notes version is something you probably intuitively already know, but the examples he gives are golden. When deciding at work or play to become angry, try to give it a little analysis first. How does the situation rate on a scale of 1 to 10? Maybe before-hand, like now for instance when you’re calm – come up with some real situations that you would consider real stress, and put a number on those. Maybe even memorize your relative scale. Then when a situation smacks you simply line it up on the scale.

Peter does a great job of presenting some practical knowledge, and I’m going to work on my own list. I may refine it, but I’ll go out on a limb and start out publicly. Ok, here we go…. Stress levels created in order of intensity:

1 – My mandolin is not immediately available for play
2 – My car is not easily accessible
3 – The solicitors attack me at my door
4 – My iPhone battery loses its charge at 4 pm
5 – Sirius/XM radio charges me $15 to remove the account from the car I just sold and transfer to the car I just bought
6 – Go to the doctor for a checkup
7 – Go to the dentist and fill a cavity
8 – Knee surgery because I forgot to slide
9 – Gasoline at $7 a gallon
10 -Home destroyed by Tornado

… oh but wait… what happened here? Where is the apocalyptic event? What about death? What about…

So many bad things and not enough numbers – get the idea? So rewind now to # 1 or # 2, maybe #3 and #4 – I guess now they all seem like 0 or sharing the 1 spot. Sometimes we really don’t realize that all of our modern-day blessings raise the bar of our expectations, and in reality we really shouldn’t expect they will work when they should or that we’re entitled when we’re not. Good advice Peter, keep up the good words!

Categories: Management - Tags: , , , , , , ,

On IPADs for business… (or, “are laptops doomed?”)

Written by on June 25, 2012 · Leave a Comment

 

IPADs in business.  In consulting and I’m sure even as a full time W2 staffer in any I.T. environment you want to be able to pick up your laptop and go, quickly.  It’s common place now to take your laptop to a meeting and seamlessly stay connected with that network based spreadsheet.   On the other hand, people prefer their IPADs in their personal world.  What’s the gap that prevents full business adoption?  I’d like your thoughts.  Please reply or send a message as to what useful business applications you’re finding on the IPAD.   In the meantime, here are some thoughts of mine.

First, the office software for the IPAD is simply not powerful enough.  While programs like Quickoffice allow you create compatible documents and spreadsheets you lose quite a bit of functionality.  I have found that I can use the IPAD to effectively read documents but freely sharing IPAD modified documents is not practical unless you’re simply not using advanced features and graphics.

Second, the human interface to the IPAD is great for the initial intention but not good at all for working long hours or even temporarily at the coffee shop working emails or other collaboration.  However, one peripheral makes this problem totally go away.  A few months ago I bought the Rockfish Bluetooth keyboard and LOVE it.  Below is a picture I took of the one I bought.  It’s not often I am excited about gadgets any more, but this is much more empowering and probably DOUBLES the use of my IPAD. 

Some might say “oh great, yeah he bought a $1k IPAD and then bought a $100.00 keyboard?  Why didn’t he just buy a laptop?”  Fair question, it’s really simple:  PCs have been getting more and more wasteful with storage and memory.  Those of us in I.T. are not fooled by how much “faster” the laptops are getting.  The problem is the operating systems keep piling on junky and wasteful code, consuming resources unnecessarily.  This causes a REQUIREMENT for hardware upgrades, it’s a terrible cycle.  The IPAD-like devices basically hit the RESET button on this nasty trend.  These “mobile” operating systems were designed to operate much more minimally.  Love it!  The apps are designed for those limitations.  The result?  Instant on, instant off, quick adoption and less tension!  THIS is the biggest distinction and is the absolute best case for eliminating laptops.

This device has literally almost removed the business gap.  I can confidently take it most places and only rarely am frustrated about the usability on the road.  I’m still not using it to build complex Visio workflow models yet, but that’s a matter of time.  How long will it take to bridge the software gap?  NOT LONG.  We are demanding it and so it shall be.  So, all this, coupled with the “instant on” nature of IPAD means we’re going to be less and less patient with slow booting, cluttered PCs.  I think we’re going to see a pretty rapid decline in laptop purchases in the next two years.  This is really at the heart of why Microsoft is just now getting in the game, but is it too late?  Maybe not – but it’s cool that the IPAD is forcing the industry to make radical changes for the better.

The IPAD apps are getting more amazing every day.  As an after-hours musician all I can say is WOW!  If you are a musician too you probably know what I’m talking about.  If not, if you have any hobby or special interest there’s probably a cool set of apps written – and not junk either, right?  I mean they really are helpful.  When I’m learning a new hot lick on the mandolin I simply load a song out of Itunes into the IPAD capo app (takes about 2 seconds), then I quickly isolate the lick on the song that I want to learn and play it with a constant loop.  The amount of time to learn that lick is nothing compared to all the work it took before.  Learning pace is way up – and I’m convinced there’s going to be a lot more talented musicians out there than ever before.

Information Technology careers will be no different.  Imagine the utility tools that can be employed.  How about service level alarms and triggers?  Or, maybe an “administrator interface” to all your SQL servers?  I think once this starts happening it’s the old “Katy bar the door”.  The interesting thing is, I’m sure it’s already happening, it’s one of those obvious things, kind of like watching a train coming from afar… you know it’ll be here soon, and there’s no doubt about it.  This will be fun!

Will the IPAD or IPAD-like devices replace PCs?  YES!   Thank goodness!  Or, if an IPAD doesn’t replace the PC it will be something similar, and pretty soon.  One of the most exciting things will be the fall of the “near monopolistic” software products.  There will be so much innovation and job creation it will be a fun time – this time though, it’s global, in a big way.

Categories: New Media

Buying used oil….

Written by on June 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment

As I was preparing for my breakfast last week with Mark Stone, Chief Information Officer of Safety Kleen, I decided to do a little research on the company itself.  While I knew they were involved in “disposing” of petroleum products and chemicals I had no idea they were so involved in green earth technology.  This local Dallas / Fort Worth company “re”refines used motor oil.  Here are some really interesting statistics:  Last year there were 200 million gallons of used oil and oil products improperly disposed of and introduced into the environment.  The report indicated that’s about 20 times the amount spilled by Exxon Valdez!  Think about that, it sure makes the re-refining proposition pretty compelling.  There are 3.7 billion gallons of used oil each year, and plenty of impact on our environment,  plenty of opportunity for entrepreneurs to make money helping Mother Earth.

Safety Kleen has a “closed loop” motor oil “re” refiner that produces one quart of certified oil out of one quart of used oil – yes, 100% reuse!  Compare that against 42 gallons of raw crude producing only 1 gallon of newly refined oil!  They collect used oil for 1/4 of a million oil changing and service outlets.  The oil is tested and meets or exceeds the North American standards.  Wow, I felt that was pretty impressive for a company, deep in the heart of petroleum Texas :)  It does make you wonder, can you not use motor oil up?  We’re so used to “consuming” products, one would think you could not just keep re-refining, but hey, smart people out there figure this stuff out.  Safety Kleen calls their re-refined motor oil “ECO POWER” – good name.  I have to admit it has compelled me to try it out – let’s find out!

Categories: Social Responsibility - Tags: , , , , , , ,

The incredible revolution!

Written by on April 24, 2012 · Leave a Comment

Oh how excited I am!  “Digital Media” is now a common term, but I bet if you ask a hundred people what it means you’ll get a hundred answers.  For my oldest son, Tyler Bouldin, digital media means opportunity.  It means an “infant” world that he’ll be incredibly woven into on a professional and personal basis.  Tyler will graduate from the University of North Texas in just a few short weeks.  This kid is bright.  No, not a “chip off the ol’ block”.  What I mean is that he was the FIRST generation on the globe to be born with an electronic game in his hand.  He thinks, communicates and advances with technology.  He’s a power user and he’s a “game changer”.  The generation right behind him is even more interwoven.  Those kids are walking robots.  There are significant gains and significant social concerns.  For me, I think the threat to cultural diversity is huge.  The world is a very small place now and we should be careful to avoid trying to assimilate people everywhere.   But the positives are far greater than the negatives.  We have entire industries that operate in essentially a monopolistic state dissolving before our eyes and being replaced with a wealth of diverse talent.

Back to Tyler.  Tyler is a new age media rock star.  He was the sports manager of a radio station at the ripe young age of 19.  He’s only 21 years old and has worked for the Dallas Stars and the Rough Riders.  He’s announced “play by play”, he’s done well as the “color commentator” – really impressive.  But to me, just as important, his biggest asset to the professional world is his vast knowledge of new media.  He not only knows how to report the news, but his value to a sports team will be how to use new media to build a stronger market.  It’s incredible to see his sports blogs and how plugged in he’s become.  When a sports team comes knocking on his door will they need an interview?  Will they need to see his work?  I doubt it, they’ve already been seeing it and they want a piece of the action.

Ok that’s interesting, but it’s not just the “media” where this knowledge is important, it’s just about EVERY job in less than ten years.  My value, your value, anybody’s value to an employer will have a heavy emphasis on how well you know the networks.  How “connected” are you?  It’s not “what you know”, it’s “how fast can get to what you need”!  So, ask yourself, are you out front of technology and can you put the puzzle pieces together?  Watch out though, because if you ever stop becoming a student you’ll be out of the game.  Embrace new media, learn to use it and then be sure to make it a daily part of your professional diet.

Categories: New Media - Tags: ,

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