IT World Canada

YouTube Fridays: All geeks on the dance floor!

Shane Schick — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:35:00 GMT

I've always believed that Friday nights were for dancing. This clip proves it.

I don't know if this was a celebration of a successful project being completed, a holiday part of some kind or just a really energetic staff meeting. But I do know this: these techies can move.

The art that is IT

Kathleen Lau — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:29:00 GMT

It’s only twice that I’ve heard the term “art” used in the same context as technology. Once was when an analyst complained to me that corporate application developers get little leeway in how they work because of rigid managers who don’t realize that creating software is an art just like making a movie.

Managers treat app developers “as automatons on an assembly line,” he said during a conversation of why developers aren’t keeping pace with the realities of new technologies and the current economy. Building software shouldn’t be like Toyota builds cars these days because the creative process is one that needs a little TLC (tender loving care), he said.

But with the availability of tools with nifty user interfaces for non-developers to build Web sites, for instance, is the art that is writing code in danger of being diminished?

The only other time I heard art associated with technology was when an exec with a business intelligence vendor said BI can be tough for organizations because it’s not just a technology. He said you can’t just simply deploy, use and repeat -- BI is an art.

Yet industry experts and vendors talk about bringing BI to the everyday user, to the front line worker. If BI is indeed an art then that implies a certain degree of analytics know-how. And that makes me wonder if BI is indeed something that will fall into the hands of everyday users as many vendors strive to do.

Iterative or Incremental Software Development?

David Wright — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:38:00 GMT

Iterative or Incremental?

Both of these adjectives are being used to describe Software Development these days. The way they are used, it is hard to tell if they are synonyms, or if they are two different things.

Various dictionary definitions lead me to conclude they are different things.

Iterative would seem to be executing a process or procedure to produce an end result to a desired level of accuracy. If the desire is to increase the level of the result, you repeat the overall process to get to that next level of accuracy. Each time through the process is an Iteration. (There is a definition specific to computing, to describe multiple executions of a loop in a program, but that actually doesn’t apply in this discussion.)

On the other hand, Incremental would seem to be the process of building something piece by separate piece until the whole is complete. One execution produces part of the desired result, an Increment. Compare this to an Iteration, where each execution produces all of the end result to some degree, not just a part of it.

If I am explaining the obvious to you, please excuse me. If not, I will tell you to think about the above difference each time someone talks about Iterative or Incremental Development, and see if the method bearing the name matches to its underlying meaning, or not. If not, get them to define it. They may indeed be using one word as meaning the other, and I suppose that’s OK if everyone understands their definition.

What will be interesting is if they can’t define it all, or think the two adjectives mean the same thing.

You may ask, "Why is this important?" Because words matter, it is why we define them, and use of the wrong word, or incorrect use of a word, is a common cause behind a lot of mis-communication.

So, I am going to follow my own advice, and if I get some results worth reporting, I will post them here.

(To start, I went back to RUP, to confirm it uses Iterations, defined as above.)

Google TV and how it impacts Microsoft

Paolo Del Nibletto — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:22:00 GMT

I have been reporting on Microsoft’s Media Center since the start all the way back in 2004 when Bill Gates andQueen Latifah launched the product in LA.

My opinion of Media Center has never changed. I think it is a great product and it has evolved nicely over time and with media extenders has been the best operating system for your flat-screen TV. But, one of the issues I’ve had with Microsoft executives on Media Center is there out right denial that Media Center could be an effect way to mix Web site watch with your regular TV show watching.

My point was that sites such asYouTube can be as entertaining as CBC, CTV, ABC, NBC, CBS, Global, CNN, PBS, etc. And, the fact that you could switch over from your stored media, TV and the Internet was a great feature of the Media Center.

But, Microsoft Canada executive never wanted to discuss the Web as an alternative viewing environment. I could never figure out why the staunch refusal until now. Within the next few days Google, Sony and Intel will announce they are joining forces to create Google TV. Google TV will take the form of a set-top-box for Internet-ready TV. And, if you surf around the Web there is a lot of TV content online fromCTV.ca orHulu.com (not available yet in Canada). Google TV will use its mobile operating system Android for Google TV.

Today, I can hook up my laptop to a projector and watch live content on a pull-down screen or the wall. For example, last summer’s World Baseball Classic game between Canada and the USA played at the Skydome was unavailable where I was so I watched in my hotel room wall through a notebook/projector combination.

So why wouldn’t Microsoft want to embrace this concept? Well, the fact is that isn’t an MSN TV is your answer. Google is out in front and with Sony on board I can see Sony devices and flat screens that carry Google TV. I think with nine years under its belt with media center Microsoft should have had a Web TV platform by now, but they wanted to play by the rules and not upset the TV networks. They were not aggressive and now Google may supplant them in this area.

Two quick hits before I go. Cisco Canada has hired two senior level executives: Mark Kummer, vice president, Service Provider and Ron McDougall, vice president, Commercial Sales and Central Region. Kummer was formerly with 3M, while McDougall worked at Nortel Networks.

Also HP Canada has narrowed their search for a new channel chief down to four candidates.

ICTC's Paul Swinwood on the promise of ComputerWorld Canada's IT Leadership Awards

Shane Schick — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:04:00 GMT

There's a reason we asked Paul Swinwood to chair our inaugural awards program for IT decision-makers.

The head of ICTC knows better than probably anyone else how desparately the IT industry needs not only skilled people, but people capable of leading great teams. In this clip to promote our ComputerWorld Canada IT Leadership Awards, he also points out a second essential element of this program: the fact that it will bring together, for the first time, nearly every major technology industry association together on one stage. Nominations are now open, by the way. Time to prepare your entry.

http://video.itworldcanada.com/?bcpid=7044989001&bctid=72106374001

Cabling solution for neater data centres

Howard Solomon — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:23:00 GMT

CABLExpress has released its Skinny-Trunk Solution, a high-density cabling system to help bring order to data centres. Thepackage includes Skinny-Trunks (fiber trunk assemblies), the Z-Mount, Skinny-Trunk Harnesses, H-Series Enclosures and Skinny-Trunk Fiber Jumpers.

The Skinny-Trunk Z-Mount is a universal mount, metal bracket with angled MTP couplers that attaches to the outside of any standard rack or cabinet. Skinny-Trunk fiber-optic trunking cables snap into the back of the bracket and a Skinny-Trunk Harness plugs into the front, therefore eliminating the need to utilize an additional enclosure inside the rack. This reduces the use of vertical rack space, saving room for future expansion. For large switches, the combination of the Skinny-Trunk Z-Mount and Skinny-Trunk Harness also eliminates the need to attach fiber jumpers to a patch panel. Skinny-Trunk Fiber Jumpers are still available for smaller switches.

The Skinny-Trunk Harness features customized, pre-engineered, staggered lengths that meet the specifications of high-density switches from Brocade Communications Systems Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and manufacturers. The MTP breakout legs on the Harness vary in length and plug into the angled Z-Mount bracket, which reduces bend radius and insertion loss.The MTP breakout legs on a Skinny-Trunk and a Skinny-Trunk Harness are only 3 mm in diameter, which reduces cable congestion compared to breakout legs that are typically 5-6 mm.

All Skinny-Trunk products carry a lifetime guarantee, and the H-series Enclosures have a five-year warranty.

Agile is Fragile

David Wright — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:22:00 GMT

Recent experience at a client showed me that Agile can be successful for a project, but maintaining a level of success across projects and organizations is difficult.The client had one team using Scrum that was delivering sucessfully, but several others that were not.

A manager of one of these other teams told me that their biggest problem was turnover in the Product Owner role; a business person would take on the role, get better and betterat it, then change jobs. The team would have to acquire a new person and start from scratch again.

The other most common problems were scope creep, and excessive change during dev sprints in a project. To me, these are another sign that the Product Owner role was not being performed well. Overall, the discipline needed to make Scrum effective was not being practiced.

The client's response to these problems was to focus on a process for requirements definition, to have stable and clear requirements available for use by a dev team, irrespective of the development process that team may use. Yes, this can be seen as a step backward from an Agile point of view, but what else could the client do?

As a consultant involved in implementing the new requirements process, I have to acknowledge that some readers would say I am biased against Agile/Scrum. What I am biased against is any process that is not working. The client's original use of Scrum is certainly before my time, but it can be safe to assume that it was done for good reasons, one of them likely being that up-front requirements was not working for them.

Over time, the above agilefragilities became apparent and something needed to be done. Rather than try to improve their use of Scrum, the client looked back to its original problems and determined that ifScrum did not solve their requirements problems, what else might? ...leading to me coming to this client to do a Requirements Process Improvement program.

That does leave the one team that is successful with Scrum; how can a Requirements Process fit into what they do? What their team leader and I have worked out together is that functional requirement statements (e.g. The system must have the ability to create an Order) can be matched to User Stories. A good set of Requirements helps deffne a much better and stable Product Backlog to use going forward with Scrum.

In the end, it is about the process, whatever it is, that works for an organization, delivers successful results, is repeatable, and can be learned by others with the same results; anything else causes more problems than it solves.

Toronto's MFP scandal: IT issues that remain in the leasing inquiry's aftermath

Shane Schick — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:15:00 GMT

Justice is only denied if nothing changes. You can’t say the City of Toronto doesn’t operate a lot differently in the five years since the inquiry into its computer leasing practices came to an end.

You can see it in City Hall every day when Janet Leiper comes to work. The integrity commissioner, appointed late last year, responds to just one of the many recommendations made by Justice Denise Bellamy in her report in 2005, which examined the testimony related to a $43-million deal between the municipality and MFP Financial Services. You can see it in the appointment just a few years ago of the city’s first CIO, Dave Wallace, which indicated a renewed focus on IT strategy over questionable technology procurement practices. And you can see it, finally, in the fact we’re spending more time talking about how the city is beginning to pursue an “open data” approach than on whether its next upgrade will involve a lot of backroom deals and bribes.

This is not to suggest that Toronto came out of the leasing inquiry unscathed. While the coverage in the Toronto Star and elsewhere focused on Tom Jakobek’s supposed vindication, there has not been much emphasis on bringing true transparency to the way the city handles IT. In the last five years there have been ample opportunities to illustrate how its more recent desktop refreshes (there almost certainly have been some) were managed with greater controls and without exposure to conflicts of interest. Perhaps no one cares to scrutinize when things are above-board.

There is also the outrage that, after all this time, the OPP decided not to lay any charges. Given the nearly $20 million spent on digging through this scandal, critics grouse, shouldn’t someone pay the price? The real scandal here may be that, after going through the reported 800,000 pieces of documentary evidence, the whole thing may have become too complex to fully understand. Toronto’s goal from here on in should be that its procurement and upgrade process be simple enough to fill no more than two sides of a single page.

The ultimate barometer of whether the leasing inquiry and OPP probe were worth it should be whether Toronto’s technology-driven services perform any better than they did before. As recently as last year, NOW magazine gave a pretty poor report card: “When it comes to ranking the most cutting-edge cities in the world,” NOW said, “T.O. is a pretender – from the failure of city-wide wireless to the absence of big-name Web firms and the lack of work-friendly Internet cafés.”

I can think of more serious issues, actually. Toronto could probably develop better online channels for accessing and navigating city resources. The much-vaunted 311 service took longer than it should, and still needs to prove itself. If it managed to virtualize its IT infrastructure as so many other firms have done, Mayor David Miller could leave office claiming a legitimate “green” accomplishment. But these are just examples. Toronto still has an opportunity to show how a city mired in debt can innovate, to showcase efficiencies when the Pan-Am Games arrive here in 2015, and to empower everyday citizens with data. In short, it has the chance to prove the MFP scandal was an aberration and not City Hall business as usual.

Why we changed the rules for this year's 'Blogging Idol'

Shane Schick — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:40:00 GMT

It’s not just about eyeballs. It’s also about what they’re looking at.

We’ve quietly begun a two-week “warmup” period to this year’s ComputerWorld Canada Blogging Idol, in which we’re allowing contestants to get back in the game before the contest officially starts on March 22. After that date the judges will be taking a closer look at the posts, offering their comments and keeping track of the best posts so they can award a winner in May.

If you don’t remember any judges in Blogging Idol before, it’s because we never had them. When we first launched this program three years ago, we wanted to accomplish a couple of times. We wanted to drive the level of user-generated content to our site. We wanted to discover and support new voices. And, as always, we wanted to generate the traffic we need to keep advertisers and stay profitable. It seemed both easy and natural to base the winning bloggers on the amount of interest they attracted from their peers.

As last year’s contest went on, however, a strange thing happened. The posts about Twitter, the iPhone and other consumer-friendly technologies were scoring big. The more hard-core reflections on enterprise IT, not so much. When you look at the balance, I’m still really happy with our winners, especially Pedro Cardoso who has since graduated to his own IT World Canada blog, Making IT Work. But I felt that, as much as we tried to coach and encourage our contestants, perhaps we were sending them the wrong message.

In a Globe and Mail column published today, Roy MacGregor makes some valid points about how orienting a newsroom towards the Internet has a negative effect on quality:

Why search out something new when the old and tried work best? Why be a storyteller when a ranter will have far more traffic? Why be investigative when instigative is a far quicker route to success on the Web? . . . It is a terrible vision of what journalism could evolve into as it enters a world it so desperately wishes to own, but has little idea of what the available measures in this digital world actually mean. At its worst, "journalism" could become nothing but a rump world of contrarians slagging the same handful of celebrities and spouting off on the same long-polarized issues.

I am determined our editors and writers never reach this nadir and we don’t want our bloggers to, either. That’s why I decided to appoint judges, who will focus strictly on the quality of the posts based on a criteria that we’ll be posting to Blogging Idol’s home page (We’ll also be formally introducing the judges next week). Of course, traffic will play a role – I hope that some of the best posts are also among the most popular – but it is critical that that we prioritize relevance and value in everything we do.

It’s been a great pleasure to welcome back some familiar names to this year’s Blogging Idol, and I hope we attract a number of new contestants as well. And if you decide you can’t write, at least read what these bloggers are saying – help us prove that great content and great numbers aren’t mutually exclusive.

Nortel reports financial results

Greg Meckbach — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:13:00 GMT

Nortel Networks Corp. reported its financial results for 2009, earning US$521 million on revenues of US$4.088 billion.

The Toronto-based telecom equipment manufacturer has been operating under bankruptcy protection since January 2009 and is selling off most business units.

Last year’s profit included a $1.2 billion gain from sale of its carrier wireless assets toTelefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and $765 million from sale of enterprises assets to Avaya Inc.

Revenues for the three months ending Dec. 31, 2009 were $794 million.

The annual revenue dropped from $7.6 million in 2008, when it lost $2.14 billion, to $4.088 billion last year.

Except for 2006, Nortel lost money every year between 1998 and 2008.

In addition to the sales of its carrier wireless and enterprise assets, Nortel also closed the sale of its metropolitan Ethernet and optical networking business to Linthicum, Md.-based Ciena Corp. last year for $769 million.

During its heyday 10 years ago, Nortel employed about 100,000 but as of last month the firm had a total of2,403 workers, 534 of them in Canada.

Yankee Group throws cold water on Cisco CRS 3 hype

Greg Meckbach — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:36:00 GMT

Three days after Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled the Carrier Routing System 3, industry experts continue to speculate on the 322 Terabit per second speed.

The day Cisco announced CRS 3, a senior executive with Juniper Networks Inc. claimed CRS 1, announced in 2004 with a top speed of 92 Tbps, has not been installed in anything larger than an eight-chassis configuration.

This is significant because both CRS 1 and CRS 3 start at speeds of about one Tbps. The 92 Tbps speed of CRS refers to the speed you could get if you combined 72 chassis. Likewise for the 322 Tbps speed of CRS 3.

When Network World Canada asked Cisco to confirm Juniper’s claim, Cisco neither confirmed nor denied it, even though we did not ask Cisco to name any particular carriers who were running the CRS 1.

Juniper is not exactly a disinterested observer in all of this, because Juniper also makes routers for carriers. Its top speed, when you combine T1600 routers, is 25 Tbps.

But on Friday, Jennifer Pigg, senior vice-president of Yankee Group Research Inc., also questioned the top speed of CRS 3.

“No one is going to string together 72 23 inch chassis, each three feet deep and over six feet high, to achieve the parlor trick of the 322 Terabit router,” she wrote.“I’m not saying that we’ll never need a 322Tbps core router.I’m just saying that when we do – it’s not going to be delivered by the CRS-3.”

Still, Pigg wrote, it lets Cisco boast that it has the highest-capacity core router.

Calgary wireless location firm Cell-Loc faces trouble

Greg Meckbach — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:33:00 GMT

Cell-Loc Location Technologies Inc. (TSX: XCT) of Calgary is laying off six employees and issued some dire warnings in a corporate update Friday.

If debt holders do not forbear on the terms of loans that were due Dec. 31 and the company is not able to raise additional money, “it is unlikely that the Corporation will be able to continue as a going concern,” Cell-Loc stated in a news release.

In June, 2008 Cell-Loc announced it raised $987,000 through a “private placement” to company insiders, which it had to pay back by Dec. 31, 2009.

It last reported financial results Nov. 26, when it announced a loss of $405,000 for the nine months ending Sept 30. In 2008, the company had $3.9 million in sales but reported a net loss of $6.8 million.

Founded in 1995 by Hatim Zaghloul and Michel Fattouche as a vendor selling technologies that enable wireless carriers to implement emergency 911 locating systems, Cell-Loc now specializes in wireless fleet tracking and other location-based services. Its CEO for the past eight years has been Sheldon Reid. Fattouche is currently an electrical engineering professor at the University of Calgary.

Its product is Cellocate Beacon. The technology it currently uses, is dubbed hyperbolic multilateration, meaning that it measures the difference between the time it takes signals to travel from a device to different beacons. If two different beacons are used, it can draw a hyperbola on which the device must lie. If a third beacon is used, it can then draw another hyperbola and locate the device using the intersection of the hyperbolas.

Two years ago, Cell-Loc announced an agreement with Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. of South Korea, in which Samsung would fund the development of a chip designed to reduce the cost of making beacons. But on Friday Cell-Loc stated the companies “have been unable to deliver on ay material milestones under their joint development project.”

But the layoffs in Canada mean Cell-Loc’s ability to improve its technology is “materially hampered” and it is having trouble selling more services in Brazil, where it operates X3 Telecomunicacoes e Equipamentos Ltda.

“CLTE intents to explore all reasonable alternatives to monetize some or all of its operating assets,” the company state in a press release. It also stated, without naming names, that “certain officers” of the company agreed to loan money to the firm while others agreed to defer their salaries until Cell-Loc’s finances improved. Those who loaned money “have agreed to temporarily forbear under their existing loans and salary deferrals.”

The loans were actually convertible debentures, meaning the lenders had the option to buy shares for 75 cents each. The most recent share price was four cents, and they have been trading below 15 cents for most of the past year.

YouTube Fridays: Put a bunch of IT guys in a room . . .

Shane Schick — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:01:00 GMT

So this is what our readers talk about when their staff isn't around.

This looks like a fairly well-facilitated discussion. If nothing else, the candour expressed around skill sets and training suggests to me that the organizers had managed to achieve a certain level of comfort among the attendees. Perhaps some of the points raised here could become the jumping-off point for similar roundtables -- whether they're organized by a consultant or not.

Goin' straight

Sharky — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:19:00 GMT

We all have that friend who shares too much. When social interaction was mostly by phone or face-to-face, that was merely an annoyance. But now that friends connected to the social networking universe.

First of all, that firend is more likely than your other friends to be, shall we say, promiscuous, in a social networking fashion. He or she's more likely to connect with people he or she doesn't know, with whom he or she has no common personal or professional interest, to befriend strangers. And that friend is also like to continue the habitual oversharing, just now with the entire Internet instead of just you on the phone at two o'clock in the morning when you just want to get some sleep for godsake.

That friend is the educational target of PleaseRobMe.com. See, all this Twitter and Foursquare and Facebook info tells people a lot of stuff. If you're the Foursquare mayor of the Starbucks at the Eaton Centre, you're telling people a dangerous piece of information: YOU'RE NOT HOME.

"The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc.," write the people behind ForTheHack, creators of the Web site, on their,um, Website. "Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information."

PleaseRobMe has received all the right sort of attention from media types, and the site is going straight. "We want to offer this website to a professional foundation, agency or company that focuses on raising awareness, helping people understand and provide answers to online privacy related issues," the creators write. "If you're such a foundation, agency or company, contact us."

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.