Brian Sommer and I go back nearly 30 years. We look at issues from very different perspectives but have a healthy respect for our differences. We have been called the "Penn and Teller" of Enterprise Technology because we tend to be both educational and entertaining about trends in software, outsourcing and many other issues that affect C level execs in enterprises.
We collaborate on a number of advisory projects and talk on a regular basis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our conversations have moved to Zoom. We thought it would be fun to share some of our on-going conversations about enterprise technology.
Notice on the cover of each episode how cool the man is, even in the face of the raging fire. That is a good metaphor for how we approach enterprise problems. We will share these on a regular basis, minus much of the snark, family talk and politics that creeps into our conversations. We expect to average 1-2 a week. It is a roughly 10 minute format. Below are links to each episode.
Look forward to your feedback, and the opportunity to help you through complex enterprise issues. And do so with much needed humor in these crazy times!
- Eulogy for On-Premise Apps
- Bumper Quarter
- School buses or RVs
- The WTF about WFH
- Analytics, new management science
- The Post-Pandemic world of the CFO
- The Post-Pandemic world of the CHRO
- The Post-Pandemic world of the CIO
- Software - Feast or Famine
- Why does my software not have its own passport?
- COVID morphing of digital transformations
- Career advice for new tech world
- Wall Street and Enterprise Software with guest Rob Kugel
- Mediocre, Myopic or Merry? with guest Josh Greenbaum
- Project Management in the age of COVID with guest Bonnie Tinder of Raven Intel
- A Curmudgeon Christmas Greeting Card with guests Frank Scavo of Avasant and Dennis Howlett of Diginomica
- Diversity Trends in Tech with guest Cindy Jutras of Mint Jutras
- Services and other Industry solutions with guest Dave Hofferberth of SPI Research
- Architectural Trends in Enterprise Software with guest Holger Mueller of Constellation Research
- Digital Acceleration with guest Tamas Hevizi of Automation Anywhere
- Supply chain resilience and renewal with Bob Ferrari of Supply Chain Matters
- Pandemic and Tech AR/PR with Sabrina Horn of Horn Strategy Consulting
- A Christmas Carol with Sandy Lo of Zoho
- Cloud Wars! with Bob Evans of Evans Strategic Communications
- SAP Projects in Asia Pac with Paul Coetser of Big Blue Ventures
- Business Continuity with Mark Smith of Ventana Research
Florence during the Renaissance
Welcome to my new blog. Some of you may have read my Deal Architect blog.
I spend much of my time helping CIOs reduce their “utility” spend with large, incumbent vendors and started my Deal Architect blog to focus on efficiencies and savings opportunities. But the more I work with CIOs the more I realize, for an amazingly new set of economics, they can leverage innovation from many new sources, often from completely unexpected places around the world. While there is so much noise around “consolidation and the death of innovation” and “IT doesn't matter”. If you cut through the fog and the noise, we are really in the midst of a revolutionary time. And so I also started to write posts on the blog about innovative CIOs and business applications.
This is what Florence must have felt like during the Renaissance with so much happening in so many technology areas:
“Mobile Internet” - see this fascinating presentation by Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley as she generates renewed excitement this time around the “new Web”
Open Source - when Kleiner Perkins shows excitement, it is usually a pretty solid endorsement for a sector as this BusinessWeek article describes
BPO - a growing recognition in corporations business processes need to be “commoditized” and the wide array of call center, transaction processing and knowledge work that is being done in India and elsewhere
Sensor Telemetry - somewhat high-faluting term used by Accenture to describe all the neat payback companies are seeing from combining RFID, GPS and wireless technologies
Software as a service - the excitement being generated by AppExchange from salesforce.com and the growing understanding of operational and financial success factors for the model
Digital content and new media - the realities of the on-demand, blogging and podcasting world and how Madison Avenue is changing - and changing us along the way
Analytics - a growing focus on the challenge of master data management and the promise of next generation predictive analytics
Security and Surveillance: All the stuff from biometrics to other sensors to basic security for fraud detection and intrusion management
I did not even mention web services, mesh networks, collaboration, storage and server technologies and a whole bunch more.
Here’s what’s really exciting. This time “Florence” is virtual. Open source excitement from Scandinavia, mobile commerce excitement from Japan, BPO from India. New media in the US. Telemetry payback in utilities and healthcare. Security payback in financial services and government. BPO in insurance claims and mortgage processing.
And for a change, many of the technology initiatives do not require 8 or 9 digit budgets. You see this is why CIOs send me emails like this one ” ..more power to your elbow in driving out waste and excessive premia in our industry”. They all want the “innovation dividend” so they can book that trip to the new Florence. Exciting times!
Over the next few weeks, I will be moving many of the innovation focused posts from the Deal Architect blog .The Deal Architect blog will continue to focus on technology negotiation, process efficiencies and reducing “utility” spend. Look forward to your comments on both blogs.
May 10, 2006 in Biology and Biometrics, Emerging Networks and Grids, Industry Commentary, Infrastructure innovations (Blades, virtualization), Innovative CIOs, Mobile applications and commerce, Process and Business Innovation, Smart Autos, Homes, Sports, Restaurants..., Software as a Service (SaaS), Telemetry (Sensors, RFID, GPS), Web 2.0 and Office 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0)