A light discussion on how to successfully deliver IT solutions in a company dealing with a variety of problems including over-bought tech solutions and poor senior management. Outsourcing vs. not outsourcing argument is touched on briefly as well as cloud computing and business process modelling as he ways to the future.

1. Taming the IT Monster
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

2. How does IT become a monster?
Oversold a big solution when less is more
Organisation design and/or structural issues
The buyer of the solution different from the user
Lack of interoperability
Lack of R&D
Office politics
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

3. Phase 1 - BUYING the system the key questions to
make or break business...
User dictates the purchase not just the IT Manager
Has software been proven/tested with company systems?
Do you really need all of that?
Is the software the issue or is it the business?
Can you afford to wait 5 years and what is the likelihood of timely rollout?
Open source or interoperability capable?
Are all of the gadgets best breed?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

4. Phase 1 - What should happen
Buy or build an IT solution like an audiophile buys a stereo music system
Make sure to test it (or in this case listen to it before buying)
$1000 AUS
$950 AUS
Open Source
$2500 AUS
$2500 AUS Modular
$14000 AUS $8000 AUS Interoperable
$8000 AUS
Upgradable
$9000 AUS
The audiophile system is purchased with separate components, offering best of class in each function, but also allowing each component to be
upgraded or replaced over time. The upshot is not having to replace the whole system all at once. IT product and infrastructure should be no
different, but note that it is not only about modularising systems and technology, but also processes as well.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

5. ...but buying a system won’t fix the business...
CRM got a bad name in the 1990s and beyond where software bought
to cure problem by treating the symptoms and not the cause (process)
Millions of dollars thrown away
Strong management is not optional, it is required
Fix the organisation structure first and get the processes fixed up front to save money before software is purchased. Usability is emerging as
key not just for sites, but for how products, processes and people integrate. Buy or set up solutions afterwards to maximise profit.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

6. ...as poor business management creates a monster
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

7. Phase 2 - Fixing the monster
Workarounds
APIs to the rescue
Business cases and taming the keeper of the beast
This is a case where the business has invested into a bloated and archaic system that requires years before any enhancements can be made.
This is not uncommon in a variety of industries and often results from major CRM software vendors overselling enterprise solutions when
clients do not need all of the features. Many development houses earn money developing workarounds to fix or bypass the original system.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

8. How I fixed the monster
E-Mail platform
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

9. How to overcome politics
Identify operational or process based inefficiencies
Quantify payoff of alternative solutions
3-5 year plans... means how much money being lost per day?
Creative workarounds
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

10. When all else fails - fully outsource the monster
Covisint (Automotive supply chain management)
Worldwide Retail exchange (Retail supply chain management)
Human Genome Project (Scientific reference platform)
Alibaba
When the IT investment fails to deliver and it is time to move on. All of these examples show when outsourcing was done for the right
reasons and businesses correctly identified when controlling the platform was far less important than attaining consistent deliverable results.
In these cases, entire industries obtained remarkable efficiencies through cooperative development -- the social media concept done for B2B.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

11. Buzzwords for 2009
Cloud Computing BPM/CEM Web 2.0 CRM
• Web 2.0 technology and customer experience management are now taking a central role in the way companies look at CRM according to
Gartner's Scott Nelson.
• A renewed focus on business process and CRM -- As the challenges associated with CRM have shifted from technology to processes, more
and more CRM vendors are beginning to offer business process management (BPM) capabilities, merging CRM and BPM. According to Gartner,
BPM is now the key to improving the customer experience
• Software implementations that don’t properly address business requirements are equal failures in both the cloud and on-premise worlds. Although
cloud computing implementations may be faster and less expensive than corresponding on-premise deployments, wrong-headed software purchases
are still…well, wrong. Michael Krigsman - ZDNET
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

12. THE GOOD
One company, Mashery, shared that they were able to build out their IT infrastructure to something like 1000
machines without a single system administrator! Moreover, the CEO indicated that they operated for two years on
a total IT investment of less than US$100,000.
Sharethis (a social media company whose service can be integrated into other websites by merely embedding a
button in the site), ...reported had been picked up by a very popular website and had to scale from something like
100 to 3500 machines in a single day. Using Amazon's EC2 service, that was achieved easily. The next day, when
things had quieted down, they took down many of these instances. Total investment in meeting this transitory
spike was less than US$200.
THE NOT SO GOOD
Cloud Computing “Fear over security and loss of control of data and systems is hindering adoption.”
Regulatory issues - cannot have your data mingling on same server as other sensitive data (ie. Medical insurance) if
you have posted a customer’s financial data and there’s a breach, will they go after the Cloud provider, or you?”
Cloud Stats
Cloud Computing Stats from Pew Internet and American Life Project
56% of internet users use webmail services such as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo! Mail.
34% store personal photos online.
29% use online applications such as Google Documents or Adobe Photoshop Express.
7% store personal videos online.
5% pay to store computer files online.
5% back up hard drive to an online site.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

13. What is cloud Computing?
Software as a service
operating outside of the firewall Way to deliver services
in servers and storage systems independent of physical
shared with other companies. hardware or platforms
What the hell is it? I don’t
see what we do differently with it A bolt of lightening
other than changing our marketing between two clouds that
messages. holds 10 tera petaflops of
Larry Ellison - CEO Oracle information!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

14. Thank You
Rick Speciale
Tuesday, May 12, 2009