IT World Canada

How many IT auditors does it take to change an industry?

Shane Schick — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:05:00 GMT

I must say I’m impressed they managed to get someone to say these words about an IT certification: “It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

But there it is, caught on film, in a video clip produced by the Information Systems and Audit Control Association (ISACA), which today celebrated a major milestone of 75,000 people who have obtained the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) credential. I can’t embed the video in this post, but it features CISAs from Kenya, Chile, Switzerland and elsewhere, all talking about how becoming a CISA gave them better job opportunities, better pay, and respect among their peers. Sure, it comes close to sounding like “I’m a sissy,” when you hear a series of them proudly proclaim, “I’m a CISA,” but 75,000 people can’t be wrong. Right?

At the risk of raining on this particular parade, the fact that so many people are how certified doesn’t mean IT audits have gained any popularity within the corporate enterprise, or that IT departments do anything other than chafe at their very existence. There are still many disputes between what various controls are and how they should be implemented. And despite all those thousands upon thousands, many firms still experience painful security breaches, data loss, and struggle under the poor management of the distributed systems they maintain. We may now have a worldwide base of great auditors, but companies may be failing to capitalize on what those auditors are telling them.

When I bring up COBIT and related frameworks to better deal with the governance issues surrounding IT, I sometimes see a funny look come over the faces of those outside the audit function. They don’t frown, exactly, but they sort of brace themselves against something which they know will tire them. They throw up their hands, figuratively or literally, at the complexity of governance even when the auditors are there to help them. Only once have I actually heard an IT professional say they welcome audits, because it allows her to learn something important.

I am speaking in broad generalizations, of course. I’m sure there are stories of good auditors, and good auditors. It’s just that no one tells them, because, much like IT security, you don’t pay attention to it until something has gone wrong. I’d like to suggest we begin to change that. Let’s have some of those 75,000 CISAs begin to share their experiences outside their peer group, in compelling ways that capture how their work actually makes businesses successful, rather than a necessary part of compliance. If there is strength in numbers, CISAs should start exercising some marketing muscle.

Billionaires club includes two current and one former Research in Motion executive

Greg Meckbach — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:02:00 GMT

Research in Motion Inc.'s co-chief executive officers, plus co-founder Douglas Fregin, made Forbes magazine's billionaire's list.

The American magazine this week published a list of the world's nearly thousand billionaires, with Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates taking second place.

Jim Balsillie, who joined RIM in 1992 and is now co-CEO, was listed has having $2.3 billion. Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, who founded the Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry manufacturer in 1984, is the poorer of the pair, with only $2.2 billion to his name. We presume those figures are in U.S. funds, but if they were in Canadian dollars, Balsillie and Lazaridiswould probably stillbe reasonably well off.

Lazaridis would be richer if he hadn’t donated $170 million to the Perimeter Institute, a theoretical physics centre he founded in Waterloo in 1999.

Using pricing information from the Internet auto guide, Network World Canada calculated Balsillie can afford 6,000 Lamborghini 2010 Murcielago LP640 Roadsters, though it’s not clear whether they would all fit in his driveway.

Balsillie was tied in 421st place with other tycoons such as Wallace McCain, vice-chairman of his family's frozen food business and father of Maple Leaf foods CEO Michael McCain.

Fregin, who co-founded RIM and retired in 2007, has $1 billion.

Other notable technology names on the list include Google Inc. co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who each have $17.5 billion.

Due to high apartment rent ratesin the city of Toronto and other factors, no one from Network World Canada’s editorial staff made Forbes' list this year.

New eHealth Ontario CEO Inherits a Heavy Investment, Mandate, Expectations and an Unclear Path to Success

Aaron Blair — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:53:00 GMT

With the recent announcement of a new eHealth CEO as well as Federal blunders when it comes to eHealth oversight it is important to understand what the new CEO is inheriting as well as where eHealth has delivered against the CHI roadmap.

The recent criticism of CHI and their lack of oversight in Ontario and British Columbia is not just a result of faulty management or control mechanisms, but is symptomatic of a larger problem. The direction is ambiguous and lofty. It is difficult to apply controls on something that is more academic than actual.

The CHI EHR has been divided into a number of categories, below is a list of categories as well as where Ontario is in relation to the road map.

It will be incumbent on the incoming CEO to decide whether to continue along the path of CHI, or start focusing on outcomes. The challenge is investment vs. reward. The investment in the CHI roadmap does not necessarily result in immediate outcome, which is partially the reason for the inappropriately labelled ‘boondoggle’ that has dogged eHealth in recent months. Without being able to site immediate improvement to patient outcomes it will take a strong willed visionary to stay the course and hope that the CHI roadmap can achieve its utopia.

The other option is to start to focus on projects that have more direct link to patient outcomes. The result might not be a fully operational EHR by 2012, but improving the delivery of care should be able to combat critics. When looking at the list below it may be debateable whether a fully operational EHR is even possible in Ontario’s current healthcare structure. But that is for a separate debate.

Registries

Description:

Registries have been divided into two categories by CHI:

Client Registry: A directory that lists all patients and their relevant personal information (names, addresses, etc.).

Provider Registry: A comprehensive directory of participating authorized health care providers; each authorized health care provider will be authenticated to ensure that he or she is authorized to access electronic health records.

Challenges:

The primary challenge delivering registries is the participation at the provider levels. Each hospital has their own complex IT infrastructure. This infrastructure was built to support the hospital, not exchange information with other entities. Historically these infrastructures were set up to inhibit the exchange of information and be as secure as possible. Attempting to integrate with all healthcare providers requires considerable investment both at the hospital level and the centralized service provider level.

A secondary challenge with registries is the overall vision. Currently Ontario is working on a registry that doesn’t fall within either category and is more specialized. The insinuation of a client registry is that it is all encompassing and subsequent modules can be build upon it. If this is not the case then what is the intrinsic value? The diabetes registry project will certainly improve the quality of care, but it seems to be diverting from the overall roadmap that CHI has produced.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: A client registry has been implemented. This registry contains all records and their personal information. It has been integrated with the majority of hospitals in Ontario

Coming: The diabetes registry. This is a form of client registry that tracks all individuals with diabetes their interactions with the health care system in Ontario and the care they have received.

Diagnostic Imaging Systems

Description:

DI Systems will electronically collect, store, manage, distribute and display patient radiology images and reports – such as X-rays, ultrasounds, MRI and CT images – entirely in digital format, without the need for film. To be fully effective, CHI recommends that DI Systems be supported by modern digital archiving technologies, known as Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS). As a result they are proponents of hospitals acting as hubs for smaller facilities.

Challenges:

With a transformation activity so large the major challenge will primarily be time and cost. There is considerable effort associated to digitizing the large amount of records that exist. In addition there is a large cost to enable the secure storage of these images. These two don’t even consider the logistical issues associated to transferring data from film to digital media, or centralizing existing digital media which might require change in standards. Finally the transport of such data and applications that they interact with provides another layer of complexity.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: there are no current provincial sanctioned systems or standards associated to DIS. That said many hospitals have some DIS capabilities.

Coming: DIPACS to act as a central repository for digital images.

Drug Information Systems

Description:

For each prescription, a DIS will check for allergy alerts and drug-to-drug interactions against a complete medication profile. These systems will dramatically reduce the number of adverse drug reactions by providing physicians and pharmacists with information to support appropriate and accurate prescribing and dispensing.

Challenges:

Much progress has actually been made on this front. Some of the key challenges have been integrating with pharmacies and various client systems. Although there is significant functionality available it hasn’t been integrated with an EHR. There is no current integration with client registries. This latter step could be a costly endeavour if true application integration is sought both from a custom development and timing persepctive.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: Drug Profile Viewer a system that enables ERs to ensure that conflicting medications are not prescribed. The DPV has been used in emergency departments in 177 hospitals, so health professionals can quickly access information for seniors. In September, the system was used to view drug information more than 95,000 times

Network connectivity between eHealth and pharmacies enabling the secure exchange of patient data.

Coming: Provide pharmacists with access to Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) to view pending prescriptions and a subset of clinically-relevant information. This will contribute to the quality of care that Ontarians receive. They can expect to get their prescriptions quicker, without conflict and less errors.

Laboratory Information Systems

When a patient is tested, whether at a clinic, hospital or other facility, Laboratory Information Systems will enable laboratory technicians to enter the results into a database accessible to authorized health care providers. Test results will be linked to individuals’ electronic health records, providing additional resources for diagnosing and treating patients.

Challenges:

Labs aren’t a necessarily government run. As a result obtaining participation can be challenging as this component of an EHR doesn’t necessarily improve lab profit margins. In addition building consensus amongst labs has historically been challenging often holding progress hostage. Finally centralizing data is a complex endeavour attempting non-willing participants to modify their existing systems to comply to a standard.

Cost and time have been the major challenges associated to the Ontario Lab Information Systems project/program. Also known as OLIS this project has been in existence for more than 12 years. The good news is there is a working system in place although it isn’t integrated with client/provider registries. Considering the challenges faced to get as where they are now, additional integration could prove very challenging.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: Ontario Lab Information System hosted centrally for labs. This respository enables labs to centralize information and allow subscribing heath care providers the ability to access information.

Coming: Integration with additional systems

Telehealth

In order to access specialized care, residents of remote and rural areas are often forced to travel long distances, which can mean significant cost, inconvenience and, in some cases, aggravation of underlying medical conditions. Telehealth is designed to provide support to remote patients as well as perform some initial triage to alleviate pressures on emergency rooms and physicians.

Challenges:

Telehealth has grown in popularity and application. As a result additional functionality like video conferencing and regional data has placed a growing pressure on system size and capabilities. This translates into additional infrastructure spend to support growing capabilities and demand.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: Fully functional telehealth system.

Public Health Surveillance

In March 2004, taking into account the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak, the federal government assigned Infoway the task of developing a Canada-wide communicable disease surveillance system in partnership with the provinces and territories.

This implement resulted in the application known as iPHIS.

Challenges: Integration with other portals make it challenging to ensure that all health providers and consumers are going to the same resources for accurate information.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: iPHIS the Public Health Information System is used extensively for disease management and communication. Recently used for H1N1 as well as a measles outbreak in mid-2009

Coming: Panorama – a solution that has larger integration and access to systems.

Innovation and Adoption

Canada Health Infoway’s Innovation and Adoption investment program supports projects that can:

Drive the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) across the country
Help achieve an interoperable EHR for more than 50% of Canadians by 2010
Be rapidly deployed

Challenges:

Messaging is a primary challenge. Just looking at the implications associated to all the systems that are required for an EHR is setting up these initiatives for failure in the public eye. Each of these areas have varying degrees of implementation within each hospital. Enforcing standards and compliance has really not been part of the process. Funding is provided but rarely monitored.

This is not to slight the hospitals and providers their primary concern is delivery of care not upgrading an HIS (Hospital Information System) to HL7 3.5 or to be web services compliant. This has impeded the ability to have interoperability in Ontario. In addition rapid deployment is not a realistic expectation. If using bench marking the OLIS application has been underway for over 12 years. How can other areas that have received little attention expect to be done quickly?

The old triple constraint of Project Management dictates that if you need something done quickly it will take more money. There isn’t the workforce in place to be able to achieve this goal in Ontario at all the levels required and still be able to deliver health care.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: Client Registry, Ontario Lab Information System, Telehealth and Drug Profile Viewer.

Coming: Diagnostic Imaging, Diabetes Registry, and Panorama.

Infostructure

Canada Health Infoway's (Infoway's) Infostructure investment program supports jurisdictional projects that will develop common solution standards and architecture, ensuring that Canada’s electronic health record (EHR) systems are interoperable.

Challenges:

Building consensues, monitoring compliance, workforce dedication and broad scope have all been challenges in this area. The Infoway infrastructure is a complex blend of application and infrastructure that requires compliance to set standards to function:

Where is Ontario?

Complete: 2 Data Centres geographically diverse to withstand a disaster.

A dedicated health network connecting all hospitals and many providers to enable the secure transfer of data.

Coming: HIAL - Health Information Access Layer has been long discussed to help interoperability between systems and providers. The challenge is being able to deliver such technology that is interoperable with all existing systems, some of which are quite aged. The result is to enable interoperability investment needs to be made at the provider level before integrating to a centralized structure, which puts conflicting pressure on delivery.

Patient Access to Quality Care

Providing Canadians with timely access to quality care is an important goal of Canada's health care transformation. To address this, Canada Health Infoway’s Patient Access to Quality Care (PAQC) investment program supports innovative jurisdictional projects that will leverage existing electronic health information technologies in order to improve access to quality care and reduced wait times.

PAQC projects which have been selected can demonstrate the potential to accelerate transformation initiatives that reduce wait times. Technology deployments include consumer health solutions such as chronic disease management tools, patient portals and scheduling.

Challenges

They key challenge here is measurability. Wait Times is a system that is designed to provide metrics. However, how do we evaluate the impact to Quality Care that OLIS, iPHIS or DPV has? Intuitively we know that these systems should have a positive outcome to patient care, however assigning metrics to measure the impact they have had is a challenge.

Where is Ontario?

Complete: Wait Times system – this has proven to reduce wait times. It enables patients awaiting care to be prioritized and redirected to other providers if certain thresholds are exceeded. Some systems mentioned earlier: Drug Profile Viewer, Telehealth, OLIS, iPHIS, as well as other applications that are not listed on the CHI roadmap such as Oral Care, Autism, Healthy Baby/Children, EMR systems, all of which improve the delivery of care.

Coming: Diabetes Registry, Diagnostic Imaging, DPV enhancements and Panorama

Interoperable EHR

An EHR is a secure, integrated view of a person’s medical records from all systems in the network; it provides a comprehensive view of a patient’s medical history. A network of interoperable EHR solutions in Canada – one that links clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and other points of care – will help improve Canadians' access to health services, enhance the quality of care and patient safety, and help the health care system become more efficient.

This definition is not in substitute to the other categories listed here. It is rather envisioned that this will tie all of these things together into one graphical view/interface that has access to all data.

Now this is a pretty picture, the problem is something like this requires the following Infostructure (or Infrastructure) to support it:

The above is a large and complex technology challenge that doesn’t just include the build out of infrastructure, but interoperability of disparate systems. Interoperability is a challenge both of antiquated systems at provider levels as well as software incompatibilities as a result of competition between vendors. These are the real issues that face the ability to acheive a fully functional EHR in Ontario, regardless of timelines.

Ontarians should receive some solace that it is not all doom and gloom. Yes Ontario does not have a fully operational EHR, but they have made great strides. It will be interesting to watch the new CEO and his ability to communicate achievements, progress and strategy that Ontario health consumers can expect to receive over the next couple of years. He will certainly be scrutinized along the way as this is likely to be one of the major campaign discussion points in a not too distant election.

More about Canada Health Infoway

More About eHealth Ontairo

The dot-com bubble 10 years later: What it meant for enterprise IT

Shane Schick — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:08:00 GMT

The dot-com bubble didn’t leave a lot of room for IT departments.

Many media organizations on Wednesday took a look back at that moment of heady excitement when Nasdaq hit its peak of 5,048.62 and everything seemed possible, at least online. The best of the dot-com bubble retrospectives, at least pictorially, is not surprisingly on Wired magazine’s site.

This was the dawning of the “e-business” age as we knew it. It was also the point where everyone was talking about the marriage of content and distribution as “convergence.” (It would be years before that marriage crumbled so badly many firms probably wish they’d signed a pre-nup). The dot-com bubble meant big things for investors, for entrepreneurs and even for print media, which saw fatter issues than they may ever see again. For IT managers, I suspect the impact was far more muted.

IT departments didn’t necessarily see major benefits from the dot-com boom. They probably saw a lot more marketing – I would argue the boom benefited marketers more than anyone – but the process of setting up those first brochureware sites didn’t yield the kind of long-term benefits that, say, the rare successful ERP rollout did. A few firms probably got the go-ahead for online payment processing, where appropriate, and perhaps were able to bring on development staff for some portal-related work, but that’s about it.

More than one IT manager I knew at the time left the back office entirely to go seek out startup nirvana. There was also a certain concern over IT skill sets and the so-called “brain drain,” but I think that was more a result of confusion than anything else. If there was such a thing as dot-com skills, they were not necessarily the same as those required to manage a fleet of PCs, a data centre or a pool of storage resources. If there was increased labour market demand for technology professionals, it may simply have been because there were more firms sprouting up that needed the fundamental IT infrastructure up and running as quickly as possible.

In some respects, the bursting of the dot-com bubble may have been a boon to IT departments. In very short order, vendor choice consolidated among players who were easily able to supply their needs. Knowing that not anyone would buy anything just because it was offered through a Web site probably also made it easier to reset management priorities around IT spending. Over time, the real value of the Internet as a connecting point and repository of information would become more clear, which is always useful to the people who end up running this stuff.

One area of the dot-com bubble that changed IT? Mainstream perceptions about technology. Although the desktop PC had already revolutionized workspaces, dot-coms made technology, and those who were proficient in technology, appear much more creative, inspiring and connected to everyday life (Web 2.0 hasn’t necessarily managed to perform the same trick, social networking did for a while). And despite all those business failures, most companies today rely on their dot-com presence to reach customers, and on many other portals who act as suppliers, content distributors and provide other useful services. Sure, the bubble eventually burst. That doesn’t mean it was completely empty.

Help us find Canada's smartest IT department

Shane Schick — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:45:00 GMT

When I hear the word “quest,” I think of a knight setting out on a long journey for a difficult prize, like the Holy Grail, which may never be found. Hopefully the Quest For Canada’s Smartest IT will be a little bit easier.

Launched earlier this year in partnership with Info-Tech Research, the Quest is a contest that, much like ourBlogging Idol competition, will rely on user-generated content from technology professionals, but oriented around their success stories and related to specific areas of IT. This includes business intelligence, virtualization, managed risk and green IT – in other words, the things that seem to preoccupy most of our audience.

Some backgrounder from the Web site:

In May of 2010 Info-Tech Research Group and the Quest for Canada’s Smartest IT’s sponsors will review applications from companies who have nominated themselves or been nominated to select those that qualify as the Smartest IT and/or Greenest IT. The criteria for selection will be based on the stories shared about how they have sustained innovation, provided solutions allowing for their organization to operate smarter or greener, and the ‘Wow’ factor that sets their use of IT apart from the competition. A select group of finalists will be chosen and an independent panel will meet with them to select The Smartest and Greenest IT winners.

The Quest will culminate at an event highlighting the stories we’ve collected from across Canada, highlight best practices, new ideas, and IT led innovation.

As one of Canada’s major market research firms focused on technology, Info-Tech is supporting the Quest with a number of additional resources: Webinars, assessment tools and video tutorials. I encourage our IT department readers to browse through these to help educate and inspire your teams. We’ll profile the winners, naturally, bringing some much-needed recognition to those who work behind the scenes at Canadian companies.

“Quest” is, in fact, a much better word for this contest than “search,” and precisely because of the challenges it implies. Innovating in a traditional firm is hard. Thinking beyond the difficult day-to-day realities of budget cuts and business demands is even harder. The Quest For Canada’s Smartest IT is really about putting the spotlight on your quests – the obstacles that have been overcome, and what you learned along the way.

As with ComputerWorld Canada’s IT Leadership Awards, which focus more on the individual characteristics of those who innovate around technology, the Quest is a vehicle for sharing best practices by celebrating achievement. There are plenty of examples of technology projects gone awry out there. Let’s start collecting the more valuable examples of technology done right.

What would you do with 322 Terabits per second?

Greg Meckbach — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:46:00 GMT

In 2004, I spent my Victoria Day holiday near San Jose, Calif. covering the launch of Cisco Systems Inc.’s Carrier Routing System 1.

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. Literally.

I still have the T-shirt I got from the CRS 1 launch with the slogan, “What would you do with 92 Terabits per second?” As far as vendor T-shirts goes, this one stood up quite well. But I usually only wear it to the gym, because for some reason, it’s difficult to open up a conversation at the nightclubs by talking about the throughput of routers.

This morning, I didn’t travel anywhere to watch the launch of the Cisco CRS 3. Instead, I decided to save some time and watch the video webcast from my office -- not because I was only dressed in a T-shirt, but because I didn't have a lot of time to travel back and forth. In an unrelated matter, Cisco is banking on more companies using video for corporate purposes to help sell CRS 3 routers to carriers.

During the webcast Tuesday, Cisco president John Chambers said when CRS 1 was launched, some people questioned whether 92 Terabits per second was a little much.

At the time, it probably was. Although Cisco emphasized the 92 Tbps maximum capacity of CRS 1, when it was launched the cheapest version was actually a 16-slot chassis with 1.2 Terabits per second.

With the CRS 3, the version with 322 Tbps is a multi-shelf system with 1,152 slots. The four-slot single shelf system actually has 1.12 Tbps.

Cisco’s Patel said with a 322 Tbps CRS 3, you could download the entire contents of the Library of Congress in a second, and all the movies ever made in four minutes. So what would I do with 322 Tbps? I guess I’d never leave the house, except to pickup my official CRS 3 launch T shirt.

RIM provides free BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express

Greg Meckbach — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:45:00 GMT

Research in Motion Inc. is providing a no-frills version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, which manages networks using BlackBerry smart phones, free of charge.

Users can download BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express from RIM’s Web site.

It works with both Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2007 and 2010, plus Windows Small Business Server 2003 and 2008.

With BES Express, RIM says companies can synchronize users’ e-mail, calendar, contact databases, notes and task. They can also manage their e-mail folders and search their mail from their BlackBerries.

It is certified for VMware Inc.’s ESX virtualization software and includes more than 35 IT controls and policies.

If you download this software and find it useful, come back and rate it. And if you’ve got links to useful downloads, e-mail ‘em to us using the e-mail link.

Why Not Use this Idea to Generate Revenue? (part 2)

Chris Greaves — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:03:00 GMT

(see Why not use this idea to generate revenue? )

IT World Canada invited me to an HP seminar. I joined the crowd struggling to get through the registration desk and into the dozen or so tables of coffee and pastries.

I chatted with a bright young guy, "So, what brings you here?" I asked, glancing at his different-colored-neck-ribbon singling him out as an HP-er.

(Smile) "I'm here to meet some of my clients".

We glanced at the hundreds of suits.

"How will you recognize them?"

(Crestfallen) "I don't know".

We glanced at the registration desk line-ups.

"What you need", I offered, "is some sort of device that gives you a buzz in your pocket when your clients register. Hooked up to the OK button on the computer. Then you'd be aware that one of your clients had arrived. Like those plastic drink-coasters you get that lights up and vibrates when your sandwich is ready for pickup".

(Sheepish) "Yes", he said, "In fact, we have that technology".

Memo to HP: If you run with this idea, you owe me a jolly good lunch at The Montreal Deli

There are twenty conferences a day across Toronto.

Find someone who is ready to start up a have-database-will-travel service in Toronto, then franchise it. It's a bit late for The Olympics, but any event with Sid Crosby is a candidate.

At close of business the day before, you download a copy of the database from the host, and two hours before the event, you roll up with your tables, your smiling and professional staff in matching red jackets, all the paper and badge holders you'll need, and as many computers as you have desk staff, each staff member thoroughly familiar with the screen and the keyboard shortcuts - no more clicking in the wrong place and muttering "snot".

You supply pagers. Your staff at the registration computer would know which Sales Representative had been paged, so they'd be able to tell the registrant "Joe Bloggs is here and would like to meet you". Or they could hand the client off to one of a small band of hosts who know Joe Bloggs.

Relieving the seminar provider of the mechanics of a registration procedure creates happy registrants. And taking care of collection of evaluation forms and distribution of freebies has to have some real value.

YouTube Fridays: Poetic justice for the IT department

Shane Schick — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:01:00 GMT

Don't ask me what prompted this.

I'm not normally a fan of spoken word, but this is the kind of love letter IT staff doesn't hear very often. And not a bad way to begin the weekend. Enjoy.

Casino buys March Networks IP cameras

Greg Meckbach — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:33:00 GMT

A casino in northern Italy is using equipment made by Ottawa-based March Networks Corp. to keep an eye on its gamblers.

Casino de la Vallee, located about 150 km west of Milan in Saint-Vincent, Valle D’Aosta, has more than 380 of March Networks’ VideoSphere cameras, plus VideoManagement Software (VMS) and a control room application.

Using March Networks products, the casino monitors its gaming tables and slot machines and can archive video content. March Networks stated in a press release that Casino de la Vallee uses two types of cameras from its VideoSphere product line.

The MegaPX 720p, which have 10/100 Megabit per second (Mbps) Ethernet interfaces, send high-res footage at up to 30 frames per second, using the H.264 video compression technology. The MicroDome pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) camera, which is ruggedized, is designed to withstand dust. March Networks says both cameras include power over Ethernet. They also have redundant storage in case the network goes down.

March Networks says users can configure transmission algorithms on the MegaPX cameras based on the bandwidth available, whether it's a 2-Mbps fixed connection, or a wireless cellular network.

The 'mesofacts' of technology and business

Shane Schick — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:18:00 GMT

The location of your head office may not change. That’s one kind of fact. The average server workloads may fluctuate wildly. That’s another kind of fact. And then there are the mesofacts.

Writing in the Ideas section ofThe Boston Globerecently,Samuel Arbesman coined the term mesofacts to describe those pieces of truth which are neither permanently fixed nor constantly changing. They do change, though, and sometimes at a speed with which we find difficult to keep pace. Some examples:

Often, we learn these in school when young and hold onto them, even after they change. For example, if, as a baby boomer, you learned high school chemistry in 1970, and then, as we all are apt to do, did not take care to brush up on your chemistry periodically, you would not realize that there are 12 new elements in the Periodic Table. Over a tenth of the elements have been discovered since you graduated high school! While this might not affect your daily life, it is astonishing and a bit humbling.

What may be even more astonishing and humbling are the mesofacts that do have an impact on your daily life, particularly where you move in IT. Most things in IT from a technology standpoint are expected to change at rapid-fire speed: updated versions of software and hardware, variants on malware, not to mention all the various acronyms and jargon. To some extent, re-certification and skills upgrades help take care of this i ss ue. The more slowly changing facts, such as who’s running a particular company or which vendor has bought what, are usually reported often enough (we try our best, anyway) as to keep most IT profe ss ionals up to date.

To some extent, mesofacts become mesofacts based on how in touch you are with the primary sources. Ardesman uses the example of mobile phone penetration, which was only four per cent in 1997 but reached 50 per cent by 2007. The average person throwing around this stat at a cocktail party might be quoting from an old copy of one of our magazines. An IT manager might not consider this a mesofact, because they probably hear more about how this market is changing. Things outside their niche – like the going rate for a family lawyer – might be more of a mesofact because they are more isolated from the flow of information about its evolution.

The mesofacts in IT may not, in fact, have a lot to do with IT. I think they will probably be more about busine ss itself. As they endeavour to become more strategic in their thinking, some IT managers are probably reading the latest busine ss books, or are pursuing training that help them understand the challenges of their departmental counterparts. Or maybe they’re just relying on whatever management philosophy they remember from their high school or college busine ss cla ss es, a ss uming they took one. Economics is probably taught a lot differently than when I went to school (it’d better be). In the same way, busine ss people may have antiquated, mesofact-laden ideas about what IT departments spend most of their time doing, if they haven’t been exposed to them. This could explain some of the disconnect we see in many organizations.

By continuously learning, paying attention and refusing to fall back on a ss umptions about what’s true, IT executives are bound to be more succe ss ful. They just have to get their mesofacts straight – at which point they will no longer be mesofacts, just recent news they’ve overlooked.

IT management secrets from the Grateful Dead

Shane Schick — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:36:00 GMT

Come to think of it, Jerry Garcia wouldn’t look out of place in the back office. The very, very back office.

I was intrigued by an article from Joshua Green in the March issue of Atlantic Monthly about the growing musicology surrounding the Grateful Dead and how many of their approaches to the business of being a band could inform the strategies of enterprise executives. Technology professionals weren’t brought into this picture, but just as IT managers try to become more comfortable with the business mindset it wasn’t hard to see where the lessons could be adapted. To wit:

Use good service to gain loyalty and buy-in: As Green notes, the “customer-first” philosophy wasn’t entrenched when the Dead first became popular, but there’s a reason for all those Deadheads. “(They) established a telephone hotline to alert them to its touring schedule ahead of any public announcement, reserved for them some of the best seats in the house, and capped the price of tickets, which the band distributed through its own mail-order house,” he writes. IT departments can’t always provide the level of support they would like, but by concentrating on offering great feedback mechanisms and communication tools that create more comraderie among users, they might develop some ITHeads to call their own.

Add pragmatism to policy: Long before Napster and BitTorrent, the Grateful Dead were on the case. “Peace and love notwithstanding, (the band) did not hesitate to sue those who violated their copyrights. But they weren’t greedy, and they adapted well,” Green notes. “They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales . . . it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.” IT managers are often put in the uncomfortable position of corporate enforcer, denying access to Web-based services or programs that haven’t been approved from on high. Take a closer look at the tradeoffs – lower productivity, distrust or alienation among users – and see if there is an upside to introducing more flexibility.

Crowdsource the knowledge base: “Even with the recent renaissance, Dead scholars are few,” says Green, who describes the sizeable collection of information being donated to a U.S. library. “The bulk of the expertise lies outside the academy, with ordinary Deadheads. So Santa Cruz library officials have devised a novel approach (some would call it strategic improvisation) to curating the collection. They intend to post as much of it as possible online in the hope that Deadheads—zealous social networkers that they are—will contribute their knowledge, and perhaps material of their own, to help build up the record.” The IT environments of most organizations would be as impenetrable as many Grateful Dead Lyrics. Why not create wikis, forums and other intranet-style tools to help users track their compute needs, document the most common problems and brainstorm solutions?

If business managers can learn from the Grateful Dead, I see no reason why IT managers can’t do the same. Just be careful about citing them in strategy sessions. They might look at you as if you’re on drugs.

Thoughts on Consulting #2 - if the Consultant says it, it must be right...

David Wright — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:21:00 GMT

Thirty years in IT, 28 not as a consultant.

If you work in IT at a typical company, you may have had some good ideas, some recommendations, but they were not given their due by management, and you wondered what it would take to make some meaningful change... then an outside consultant comes in, and says basically the same thing, and management pays attention and says "that's great, let's do that!", and you sit there saying "but that's what I said...", or you keep your peace and help to make the change.

That's just the way things go sometimes, I have no great insight to offer you on this. Management laid out large amounts of money to get the consultant to come in, so it is real hard for them to say "we knew that already" or even "that sounds familiar...".

So, have I been part of something like this since I became a consultant? As Mr Bean said in in his movie "...not that I am aware of." I would like to think I would recognize it when I meet those employees, and try to work with them to increase the chances of success. So far, I have met people who agree on what the problem is I have come on to address, and want to help, but have not seen a case where someone already had figured out the solution before and had been ignored. The thing is, that could actually be true but I may never know it. So, I can only do the best job I can and leave everyone as happy as I can make them.

Move to end foreign ownership cap for telcos highlights throne speech

Jeff Jedras — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:33:00 GMT

Those hoping for specifics on the federal government’s plants to grow, stimulate and support the IT sector in Wednesday’s speech from the throne will be disappointed. The throne speech, read in the Senate chamber by Governor-General Michaelle Jean, outlined in broad strokes the government’s legislative priorities for the upcoming session of Parliament – more specific measures will likely be forthcoming when the Conservatives introduce the 2010 budget Thursday afternoon.

In the broad strokes of the throne speech, however, there were some signals of where the government is looking to go when it comes to IT, and once major specific – the end of foreign ownership restrictions in the telecommunications industry, as well as satellite and other key industries.

Here’s what the government said:

Our Government will open Canada's doors further to venture capital and to foreign investment in key sectors, including the satellite and telecommunications industries, giving Canadian firms access to the funds and expertise they need.

Such a move would require amendments to the Canadian Telecommunications Act, which sets caps in the telecommunications, broadcast and cable industries, and would seem to be a move to formalize the move the federal cabinet took when it over-ruled the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in the case of Globalive Wireless Management Corp., which the CRTC had ruled didn’t meet foreign ownership restrictions.

Other than the foreign ownership bombshell (read more on the move, including reaction, at Network World Canada), which could have widespread repercussions in the telecommunications space, there wasn’t much of note for the IT community in the speech. A few sections did, however, offer some hints.

For example, the speech promised a digital economy strategy to encourage IT adoption which, in theory, would be good news for IT vendors and partners:

To fuel the ingenuity of Canada's best and brightest and bring innovative products to market, our Government will build on the unprecedented investments in Canada's Economic Action Plan by bolstering its Science and Technology Strategy. It will launch a digital economy strategy to drive the adoption of new technology across the economy. To encourage new ideas and protect the rights of Canadians whose research, development and artistic creativity contribute to Canada's prosperity, our Government will also strengthen laws governing intellectual property and copyright.

There was also a commitment to invest in clean energy technology, a promise to support SMBs, and a pledge of steps to make manufacturers more competitive. There was also a commitment to “xplore ways to better protect workers when their employers go bankrupt,” an apparent reference to the failure of Nortel Networks, which has put the pensions of thousands of former workers in jeopardy.

Otherwise, the throne speech was largely quiet on IT issues, with certainty none of the specifics the IT community was hoping for, such as reform of the SR&ED Tax Inventive Program or the need for a national strategy on innovation.

However, the place to watch for more specific initiatives will be Thursday’s federal budget. Then we’ll have a better sense of whether or not the government has heard the industry’s concerns, and what measures will be adopted in the next year and beyond to help address them.

Welcome to Finance.ITWorldCanada.com

Shane Schick — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:16:00 GMT

The year 2011 still looks a long way away until you start looking at the work that moving to IFRS involves.

A while back I did a feature story for ComputerWorld Canada that examined the changeover from generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to the international financial reporting standard (IFRS), which goes into effect Jan. 1. It means that for this year, as they get prepared, many companies will effectively have to run two sets of books, and deal with all the transition around technology and process that a new standard introduces. Talk about a pain point (More on IFRS from ComputerWorld Canada's Rafael Ruffolo).

This issue has been the catalyst for a new, vertical market approach to our audience that we haven’t really tried before. We’ve set up a group calledFinance.ITWorldCanada.com which will develop research, special reports, live events and online discussions specifically for financial services industry IT professionals or anyone in our community that is dealing with finance-related technology challenges.

Instead of merely reporting about the woes of the IFRS conversion, we’ll be using Finance.ITWorldCanada.com to hopefully help this group ease the pain. I’ve created a short, multiple choice, 10-question survey that looks at the IT requirements around IFRS. Although there have been a number of consulting firms and industry associations that have developed IFRS research, I’m not aware of a project that looks at this from an IT manager’s perspective. Here's a link to the IT World Canada IFRS survey.

In return for filling out the survey and opting into our group, we’ll be making a draw for a $150 gift certificate to Best Buy, along with a link to any other articles we develop from this, invitations to any related event and, of course, the complete report.

As it develops, I’m really hoping that Finance.ITWorldCanada.com becomes more self-organizing, where members identify the most critical issues, and give us an opportunity to either investigate answers or facilitate a conversation among peers to find them in a more collaborative fashion. Please help me make this research project successful. It’s in many companies’ best interest. The GAAP is closing.

Infrastructure management from a Microsoft perspective

Shane Schick — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:37:00 GMT

Just what you've always wanted: an hour of me -- and only me -- on camera.

Late last week I hosted a live Webinar for Microsoft's "Because It's Everybody's Business" (BIEB) campaign which looked at how properly managing infrastructure is getting more complicated in a world dominated by virtualization and cloud computing.

This is part of a series we're producing for Microsoft along with advertising features that are appearing in all our enterprise publications. Microsoft approves that content, and they hand-picked my guests in this Webinar, but the conversation was not scripted.

That's why -- although the discussion obviously leans towards a Microsoft-oriented view of the data centre -- I'm offering up this link to the archived Webinar. We were able to talk live to one of their IT manager customers, Patrick Plante of the CollegeSt Jean-de-Vianney, about his business case planning, deployment and early results. We also had on hand Brian Bourne, a longtime colleague who has blogged for this site and who gave some pretty frank (as usual) feedback on what clients are actually doing today.

The most interesting parts for me were looking at the issue of IT chargeback through effective infrastructure management and virtualization, as well as the response to a question from the audience about working in a mixed environment.

Time for telecom foreign control review

Howard Solomon — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:33:00 GMT

This might be Foreign Carrier Control Review Week. That's because some six weeks after the federal cabinet chucked the CRTC's Globalive Wirelessruling in the Rideau, we may actually hear from Parliament on the worth of the foreign control provisions of theTelecommunications Act . For those who don't recall, cabinet said the telecom regulator was wrong to conclude that Globalive Wireless Management Corp. is controlled by Orascom Telecom S.A.E. But, cabinet added, the ruling shouldn't be seen as a precedent for other companies hoping to structure themselves like Globalive.

The Liberal and NDP oppositionsay they will raise the ruling in Question Period when the House resumes this week. Mind you, we can't say ifthere will be a debate of substance. Liberal Industry critic Marc Garneau told Bloomberg News last week that his party's biggest complaint is that the decision was done without consulting Parliament. He didn't say it was wrong, leaving the impression that the Grits are upset with the process, which is legal. That doesn't tell us much about where the Liberals stand. Brian Masse of the NDP was more pointed: "The problem with Globalive is that they've gotten a different set of treatment and rules than other people," he told Bloomberg. "You have some operating under the old rules and some under the new rules and that's unfortunate." Unfortunate is a mild word. At least one industry analyst believes the current rules help keep wireless rates high.

Whether the government will sidestep any attack by launching a new review of foreign ownership and control regulations in the telecom industry is a question. Certainly it can duck the issue by doing so, although the opposition has shown no sign of making it a cause celebre. Still, remember that the 2008 Competition Policy Review Panel chaired by formerBCE Inc. president and CEOLynton Wilson called for an easing of investment restructions in the telecom and broadcast sectors, starting with a reveiw of the rules every five years. In making its decision the cabinet has created confusion over foreign investment in telecommunications. It's time that confusion was cleared up.

Meanwhlle,the CRTC last week notified carriers that it wants to know a bit more about their ownership structure. With corporate structures becoming multi-layered, the commission wants to know a lot more than it used to about parent companies, capital structure, shareholders and directors of any entity that has a piece of a carrier. Why now? Ostensibly, it's part of the foreign ownership review process the commission started last year, which creates four categories of review. No sense in having reviews, I suppose, if you don't have all the information. On the other hand, it may have something to do with the public grilling Globalive owners got from commission members last fall, when Globalive had to bare much of its secrets. It's a grilling that some of the startups aren't having to face. Perhaps the commission feels everyone should get the same scrutiny, incument and startup. On the other hand, with the commission not knowing which way cabinet is leaning on foreign control, why bother?

There's no substitute for a full review of the country's telecom competition and foreign control policy. If the Harper government hasn't got the strength to call a full debate on its telecom foreign control policy, if it can't propose legislation to clarify the Telecommunications Act, then it should at least fall back on a tried and true Canadian answer: Appoint a specialized review panel to report back in 12 months. That would be a great start.

Tech Data Canada recognizes its resellers

Jeff Jedras — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:34:00 GMT

On Monday, distributor Tech Data Canada announced the winners of its eighth annual Circle of Excellence Awards. The program is designed to recognize the distributor’s top resellers for revenue, dedication, commitment and leadership, selected by Tech Data executives based on such criteria as growth, partnership, electronic commerce integration and joint strategic initiatives.

“The importance of partnership seems to be the overwhelming theme this year,” explained Frank Haid, vice-president, sales, Tech Data Canada. “A significant number of this year’s recipients are members of our TechSelect program. TechSelect members are typically early adopters of new technologies, and with the opportunity to foster the development of strategic relationships and business consultation through the program’s conferences, the community was clearly able make significant headway against the economic challenges that characterized the past year.”

The winners for this year are: CDW (National Partner), ELCO Systems Inc. (System Builder Partner), Triware Technologies (Atlantic Region), Informatique D.L. (Region du Québec), CPU Design Inc. (Region du Québec), SHI Canada (Central Region), Mid-Range Inc. (Central Region), OnX Enterprise Solutions (Central Region), Zycom Technology (Capital Region), TeraMach Technologies Inc. (Capital Region), Think Communications (Western Region), Sudden Service Technologies (Western Region) and Acrodex (Western Region).

Primus adds to Ottawa data centre

Howard Solomon — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:03:00 GMT

Primus Business Services, a division of Primus Telecommunications Canada, has expanded its second Ottawa data centre. The additon triples the amount of raised floor available for customers to over 836 square meters (9,000 sq. ft.) This brings the total combined data centre space of the two facilities in the capital to approximately 1,393 net square meters (or 15,000 net sq. ft.).

"The expansion of our Ottawa data centre will enable Primus Business Services to address the ever-increasing demand for hosting services within the Ottawa community," Jeff Lorenz, vice-president of sales and marketing, said in a news release. "The expansion has been engineered to provide the same state-of-the-art infrastructure as all of our existing data centres across the country, while incorporating a number of new technologies and designs into the facility."

The expanded space can accommodate an additional 150 scalable and flexible cabinet designs. Solutions range from 1/8 cabinet to full cabinet or custom cage design.

Primus has also data centres in Toronto, London, Ont,. Edmonton and Vancouver. In addition to hosting, it offers a number of managed services, dedicated servers and cloud computing solutions.

Thoughts on being a consultant...

David Wright — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:36:00 GMT

Since 1979, I was a regular IT employee of the organizations I joined and left up until early 2008. “Consulting” to others in the organization was something I started doing as I gained useful knowledge and experience (while trying to dump anything un-useful on an on-going basis…like Data Flow Diagrams), often within a staff unit that did R&D. I drove the implementation of new methodologies at one company, for example, to the point of defining and delivering training to other employees.

Of course, I also worked with external consultants now and then; most often they were people with experience in a method or tool the company was adopting, to accelerate that adoption. It is a slightly unusual that I never worked with out-sourced resources over those years; the employer I spent the most time with had been an early example of outsourcing their computer operations to a subsidiary, and then selling the excess capacity to other companies. But, the project and development staff stayed within the main IT organization to be ‘with the business’ and that included me. (This does not include the many contractors I knew who came on-site to work; to me they were peers who just had a different employment model.)

Back when outsourcing got going, it was all about the impact on programmers and related tech roles. As a Business Analyst, I was comforted by the initial assertions by various gurus and pundits that Business Analysts could never be out-sourced, because we need to be near the business people to do our jobs.

However, as I gained experience, learned a lot and (hopefully) got better at what I do, it became apparent to me that while Business Analysis could not be outsourced to other continents, it is a discipline that could be done by external resources. They would come in for a focused period of analysis and deliver a set of requirements that could indeed be understood by the business and be of use as input to design and development. I knew this because even as an employee, because more and more I would do analysis for one project, then move on to the next one while the first project moved into development. I would be available to that development team as needed for questions or changes, but this only required a small part of my time. So, it was not necessary for a Business Analyst to stay with a project until its conclusion, there was no more Business Analysis to do to keep them fully engaged. (Now, if a BA also manages the project, or does testing, that’s a different thing, and I avoided both of those tasks most of the time.)

Being somewhat of an optimist, I thought this could be an opportunity rather than a threat, and I started looking at consulting companies as an option for a career change. This ‘looking’ lasted a while, as the majority of consulting companies did not do business analysis; lots of design and coding, but no analysis. I did not want to branch out as an independent consultant, or even a straight contractor, a little too risky.

However, I and the right consulting company found each other in 2008. It took only a few weeks before I joined up.

Hmmm, this has been a lot of lead-up to what my thoughts are now; perhaps they will help someone else who is heading down the same path as I was.

So, thought #1, concerning Travel: the typical week is fly out to a client’s location on Sunday evening, work 5 days, return home Friday evening. I had never minded doing business travel in the past, but it was not frequent, so the concern is what will traveling all the time do to you; will you burn out in some way?

Two years in, the travel is OK. It’s not glamorous; all I see is airports, hotels and client offices. Only one time have I stayed over at the client location to do a little sightseeing; that is not the same as a vacation with family, though, so I don’t expect to do it again soon.

Speaking of family, I have three sons, and the youngest was 20 when I started this. I don’t think this could have worked when they were growing up, it would not have been fair to them or their mother, so the timing has worked out.

Benefits? A lot of hotel points that did cover lodging for our last vacation. Most of my flying is short-haul on the east coast, so the frequent flier points are building slowly. Don’t believe I will reach the million mile level anytime soon…

More thoughts to come in future posts….

Wind Mobile now in Edmonton

Howard Solomon — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:03:00 GMT

Wireless startupWind Mobile began offering service Thursday in Edmonton, joining Calgary and Toronto since the company's December launch. Service will soon be extended to Vancouver and Ottawa. Initially, there are six Wind sales outlets in the Alberta capital, with a seventh to be added next month.

"When it comes to wireless, Canadians want value, control, and simplicity," Wind CEO Ken Campbell said in a news release. "We've heard loud and clear that people want a mobile experience that is free of contracts, system access fees, high prices, poor service, limited technology, and complicated billing, and we have built our offering to deliver on just that."

Wind Mobile's parent, Globalive Wireless Management Corp., spent $442 million in 2008 buying spectrum covering most of the country except southern Quebec and Nova Scotia. It expects to spend hundreds of millions more to build a national network. So far it has not said when service will start in Winnipeg, Regina, St. John's or Charlottetown.

Two other wirless startups that bought spectrum in that same auction still hope to launch by the summer. Public Mobile, which has spectrum covering southern Ontario and southern Quebec, has made no public statement yet on the status of its carrier licence from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. While Industry Canada issues spectrum licences, carriers need a licence from the CRTC, which looks into whether an applicant is under Canadian control. Among Public Mobile's investors are U.S.
fund with telecom experience. In December, when the commission started its review, it said in a letter that Public Mobile's ownership structureis "complex", but "could hold precedential value for the industry."

Meanwile, the commission has yet to start a review of the application of Mobilicity, whose parent is Data & Audio-visual Enterprises Wireless of Toronto. DAVE Wireless has spectrumcovering the largest cities in the country including Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal.

Bank freezes account over 'objectionable' blog

Sharky — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:08:00 GMT

Disturbing news from from Seattle entrepreneur Mark Maunder, CEO of Feedjit.com and founder of WorkZoo (bought by Jobster in 2005). Maunder's friend and fellow West Coast entrepreneur Jason Goldberg (since relocated to NYC) has hadthe bank account of his new business, Fabulis.com, frozen by Citibank Corp. over what it called objectionable content on the company blog, according to, um, the company blog.

Goldberg is no neophyte courting controversy for publicity. According to Maunder, he worked in the Clinton-era White House, then for T-Mobile, got an MBA from Stanford and raised $50 million for the aforementioned Jobster, among other things. His new venture is "still finding (its) niche," Maunder notes on his blog, but appears to be positioning itself as a travel portal for gay men.

"Their blog has had a ton of hilarious videos of guys describing why they’re 'Fabulis,' writes Maunder. "Zero porn, nothing even mildly suggestive or risque."

"Just to be completely clear, we’re not talking about refusing a line of credit here. This is a cash account belonging to a funded company that was blocked."

Why would a bank do this? Maunder has a couple of theories. One is that it is a form of "redlining," a practice in which service companies deny or increase the cost of services to a targeted demographic. Maunder says it's a "very dangerous precedent" if a bank can deny a depositor access to its funds based on the bank's moral judment.

The latest update on the Fabulis blog says Citi has asked to terminate the account because the content is "not in compliance with Citibank's standard policies." Hmm. Would they freeze Ashley Madison's account? Lavalife's? Who gets to draw the red line?

As Maunder notes, Citi received a $45-billion government bailout in 2008. One would think that a company spending public money would be required to adhere to some standard of responsibility to the public, wouldn't you? The U.S. Department of the Treasury, which administers the Troubled Asset Relief Program, might have a word or two to say, should a few e-mail messages of complaint come its way. The department can be reached at www.ustreas.gov.

The Goal: The Cheque; The Method: The Acceptance Test (part 2/4)

Chris Greaves — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:20:00 GMT

It’s all about The Money.

From the view of the supplier/consultant/contractor/trainer: “I will do the work and I want to get paid in full”.

From the view of the client: “I will pay when I’m happy that the work is complete, and I get the results I want.

(The usual references appear at the foot of this article)

I am convinced that the solution to these problems has to include well-defined Acceptance Tests, and like anything else, practice makes perfect, so let us start today.

The Cheque

Johnny’s goal is, of course, the cheque, but Johnny won’t get the cheque until the CEO is convinced that the CEO’s goal has been reached.

Hence Johnny’s first task is to clarify the goal.

Which mountain (spatial) of all the mountains encompassed in the CEO’s wave of a hand?

By when (date/time)?

Within what budget (numeric)?

Johnny needs to get written down (“If it ain’t written down, it don’t exist”) a formal specification of The Goal in a format that the CEO can understand.

For a short project, it is cash-in-advance, or a 50% deposit, to be sure. For longer projects it is pay-as-you-go, which is why we have Deliverables.

Pause, and think of the last time you handed over a cheque and weren’t happy about it.

I bet that The Cheque was not congruent to The Goal. (Free lunch at The Montreal Deli if you can prove me wrong).

I’ll go further and bet that The Goal did not have sufficient quantifiers of sufficient quality to support a cheque.

When was the last time you did not get paid?

I bet that you had no way of measuring your success against stated quantifiers in The Goal.

That’s why trainers issue evaluation forms for each day of a 4-day training course; "Please let us hear about the small problems before we get to the cheque problem".

Why Projects Fail

IT-Cortex report.

An Emerald Insight abstract.

A Cnet-news article.”

A Butler-Group article

EMC sees partner interest following Cisco/HP split

Jeff Jedras — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:10:00 GMT

When I spoke this week with Michael Kerr, director of channels and business development for EMC Canada, our conversation focused on changes and enhancements to incentives as part of the network infrastructure vendor’s partner program.

However, we also talked about the big networking/partner story of the month, the parting of ways of Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard. EMC is already a strong competitor to HP in storage and networking equipment, a rivalry that was only intensified in 2009 when HP poached EMC executive David Donatelli to lead its Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking group. And EMC is also a strong Cisco partner, through its technology alliance to offer pre-configured solutions that also includes Microsoft Corp. and VMware.

Kerr told me that since the Cisco/HP announcement they’ve seen increased interest in EMC from partners that still want to work with Cisco solutions but are looking for alternatives to HP to build into the offerings they take to their customers.

And it’s that alliance with Cisco and Microsoft, with the confidence its pre-tested and configured solutions offer, that’s attracting them, said Kerr. With the increasing complexity of modern technology, partners just don’t have the bandwidth to support multiple competitive vendors and figure-out how to bring them together.

“They’re looking for something that will work end-to-end, in a guaranteed fashion,” said Kerr. “A number of partners that were very loyal and have made good money and created a very strong business in the market today are now talking to us, and are looking at changing their investments. If I’m a reseller today I can’t support 20 vendors. With finite technical resources I can only absorb so many vendors. A partner can no longer be completely agnostic to a client. We don’t believe that’s ultimately the model.”

Seuss-a-phone?

Sharky — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:29:00 GMT

A Kindle is fine

if you're older than me

but what of you're only

a child of three?

Just text on a background

will never amuse

a demographic raised

on Dr. Seuss!

Bright colours and pictures

and nonsensical talk

are what tots are after --

Oh! How that would rock!

Oceanhouse Media

has taken Seuss titles

and apped them for iPhone --

electronic T. Geisel!

A readalong voiceover

and word recognition

are certain to hold

the most flighty attention

There's no Kindle or Spindle

from Amazon that

could hold half a candle

to The Cat in the Hat!

Alas, nothing's perfect

and this has flaws, too;

of all the Seuss titles,

they have only two.