Archive for May, 2010

Cloud Walking: 5 Ways To Make The Cloud Work For You

Thursday, May 27th, 2010
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The Cloud Could Be Your Key To Team Collaboration

The Cloud Could Be Your Key To Team Collaboration

I’m guessing that the last thing in the world that you really need to be reading about right now is more “cloud” talk. The world of IT is experiencing a form of “cloud fever” in which every company seems to be talking about how they are going to use cloud computing to become more successful. Well, talk is cheap and in the end it’s starting to look like nobody really has a clue as to how to go about actually doing this. How about if we lay down some practical steps that you can take to use the cloud to make your IT team more successful?

Step 1: Appoint A Cloud Champion

You’re going to need to have someone step up and become a clear cloud booster in your organization. There’s no problem with this being you – if you’ve got enough pull. If you don’t then you need someone farther up the food chain to come forward and tell everyone that this is what we’re going to do.

Step 2: Make Using The Cloud To Collaborate Mandatory

Come on, you know how us IT folks are – once we get used to doing something one way, we hate to change. Add on top of that collaboration tools who’s primary purpose is to get us to share our hard learned information, well you can guess just how popular that idea is going to be.

You are going to have to change how your team gets compensated – using your cloud-based tools has got to become a required part of everyone’s job. New polices like “you have to make three updates to our wiki each week” are the way to start things rolling.

Step 3: Focus And Share

Saying that you’re going to start using cloud based tools to collaborate better without having a driving goal is the wrong way to go about doing this. Instead, pick one set of information that your IT team needs to do a better job of sharing and start by focusing on how that information is created. This is going to make it much easier for you to measure your success.

Step 4: In With The New, In With The Old

Just because your team starts to use some nice new shiny cloud based collaboration tools doesn’t mean that you get to throw all of your old tools away. I’m going to bet that like most of the corporate world your team uses Outlook for email and it’s going to be important that at the bare minimum that you find a way for your new tools to work with Outlook.

Step 5: Training, Training, Training

The best collaboration tool in the world isn’t worth the code that it’s written in if nobody can figure out how to use it. Unless you’re using an app that was written by the user interface engineers at Apple, you’re going to have to take the time (and expense) to make sure that everyone who is going to be using it knows how to get the most out of it.

What All Of This Means For You

Managing a team of individual IT workers who operate in unconnected silos is just about the hardest way to get anything done. As an IT Leader your task is to find ways to get everyone to share information and to work together.

Cloud based collaboration tools provide an excellent way for you to get your team to work together and share information. These tools are even more valuable if your team is distributed across multiple locations.

There are no “silver bullets” in IT. Cloud based collaboration tools are very useful, but unless your name is Harry Potter they aren’t going to magically fix all of your team’s issues. However, they are a step in the right direction and they may be the most important step for you to take…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Knowledge

Question For You: Do you think that security issues would prevent you from using cloud based collaboration tools?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

When you go hunting for your next IT mangement job (and it may be sooner than later), will your resume be up to the job? Come to think of it, when was the last time you dusted off and updated your resume?

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Posted in collaboration | 2 Comments »

What A Rental Car Company Can Teach IT Leaders

Thursday, May 20th, 2010
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Maybe We Should All Be Trying Harder…

Maybe We Should All Be Trying Harder…

As IT Leaders, we should all be trying harder to find ways to use the talents of our teams to make our companies run smoother. Hmm, I wonder if there are any companies out there that could serve as an example for us? Good news – there is one: >Avis rental cars.

How Hard Can It Be To Rent A Car?

It turns out that Avis Rent A Car is really both Avis and Budget – both companies are owned by the same company (who knew?) The first lesson that IT Leaders can learn from Avis is how they roll out new technologies: they don’t bet the farm on any one technology. Instead they do proof-of-concept trials and gauge customer feedback in order to decide if they should go ahead an rollout a solution company-wide.

Avis is not afraid to use wireless technology if it solves a problem. If you’ve returned a rental car to Avis lately, you’ve probably been greeted by an employee standing in the return line with a wireless device. I know that I haven’t had to go into the office to return a car in a long time – thank you wireless (great because I always seem to be running late for my plane).

As an example of IT Leaders thinking outside of the box, Avis has taken this remote check in one step further and now they will email you a copy of your receipt so that you don’t have to worry about stuffing a piece of paper into your luggage as you jump on the shuttle bus.

How To Innovate When You Work In A Parking Lot

One of the reasons that Avis’ IT Leaders are so innovative is because they can see their competition on the other side of the parking lot. That causes them to try harder.

The Avis data center is currently outsourced to IBM so Avis doesn’t have to spend any time worrying about typical data center activities. Instead they spend their time working on things like trying to make sure that a customer’s experience at the rental counter will be the same experience that they’ll have when they visit the company’s web sites.

The Internet plays a big part in every IT shop these days and Avis is no different. Avis uses XML to interface to other travel related businesses via the Internet. By doing this they are able to avoid booking fees and this saves everyone a lot of money.

Finally, Avis IT Leaders have also spent a lot of time and effort to create a direct connection between themselves and their insurance companies, car dealerships, and collision repair shops. This allows them to quickly react whenever one of their customers has a car crash.

What All Of This Means For You

Normally rental car companies and their cars don’t get even a second glance from IT Leaders as we race though the airport. However, maybe we’ve been overlooking a well run IT shop in our haste.

Avis is locked in a constant struggle with other rental car companies and so their IT Leaders have to be constantly innovating. They use whatever IT technology best suits the issue that they are tying to solve and this includes wireless and XML.

In the end, it’s the close working relationship that the Avis IT Leaders have been able to create between themselves and the business side of the house that has allowed them to achieve so much. Maybe that’s why they try harder…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Knowledge

Question For You: What do you think that Avis should do next in order to make renting and returning their cars even quicker and easier?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

The world of IT is experiencing a form of “cloud fever” in which every company seems to be talking about how they are going to use cloud computing to become more successful. Well, talk is cheap and in the end it’s starting to look like nobody really has a clue as to how to go about actually doing this…

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Posted in information technology | 2 Comments »

Maybe It’s Time For IT Leaders To Go Shopping To Learn New Tricks

Thursday, May 13th, 2010
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The Retail Sector Needs Good IT Leadership

The Retail Sector Needs Good IT Leadership

Good IT Leaders find ways to use the tools that IT provides along with the skills that their teams have in order to help the company move faster and do more. Nowhere is this currently more visible than in the world of retail sales…

Do Retail Stores Even Still Exist?

After the past bruising few years, one might be forgiven for thinking that the world of retail was going away. Look around and you can probably see countless shuttered stores in your area. However, if you take a moment and look just a bit closer you’ll see something else: some stores are starting to wake up. The global recession drove a lot of firms out of business, but the ones that are left are eager to get back to work.

Their products haven’t really changed all that much, but they realize that they are going to have to work hard to change the shopping experience for their beaten-down customers. Making shopping easy is the goal and this is where IT Leaders can lend a helping hand.

The research firm IDC forecasted that worldwide retail IT spending was going to grow by 2.4% from $81B to $83 in 2009. On the flip side in the manufacturing sector, they forecasted that supply chain management spending was going to grow to $3B in 2009. Clearly retail firms are placing their bets for future growth in the hands of their IT departments.

What Can IT Leaders Do To Help Online Stores?

Being willing to help the company out is an important part of being an IT Leader in retail; however, often times the big question is just where that help is needed. The first thing to realize is that not all stores are created equal. Specifically, online stores are different from traditional bricks & mortar stores.

If you work for an online store, then you are going to want to be using your team’s IT talents to find ways to add more features to your web sites. These can include such things as: making purchasing easier to do, adding customer reviews, or even videos showing how to use your products.

Online stores are lucky (sorta) in that they have a great role model in their industry: Amazon.com Love ‘em or hate ‘em, everyone agrees that Amazon does a great job of presenting products and then selling them like there’s no tomorrow.

Following Amazon’s lead, IT Leaders need to work with their teams to find ways to simplify the online checkout process and incorporate recommendation engines that can help solve customer problems while up-selling additional products.

What Can IT Leaders Do To Help Offline Stores?

Traditional stores that were not “Internet only” stores were predicted to be going away now that the Internet has arrived. However, clearly that’s not happening. Instead, what’s going on is that traditional stores are using IT to reinvent themselves and make the shopping experience more enjoyable for their customers.

Moving the point-of-sale (POS) terminals to where the customers are is one way that IT Leaders and their teams can help out the rest of the business. In order to do this a whole series of IT challenges need to be overcome such as finding ways to wirelessly connect cash registers to the network and allow credit cards to be securely processed.

Inventory management and its cousin application supply chain management are also prime areas where IT can help traditional retailers to reduce costs and boost profits. Implementing or optimizing these applications allows a retailer to link their sales forecasts with their manufacturing or ordering processes and prevents over / under stocks.

What All Of This Means For You

If IT Leaders aren’t careful they can focus on the wrong things. They can spend too much time thinking about how to optimize what IT does, and not enough time thinking about how to make the rest of the business run better.

Online and offline retailers are different types of firms. IT can play a role in helping both types of companies be more successful by helping them to make the customer’s shopping experience more enjoyable.

IT lives to serve the rest of the business. This means that smart IT Leaders know that when it comes to supporting a retail business, it’s how they use IT that’s going to be the key to their success.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Knowledge

Question For You: Do you think online or offline retailers value their IT departments more highly?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

As IT Leaders, we should all be trying harder to find ways to use the talents of our teams to make our companies run smoother. Hmm, I wonder if there are any companies out there that could serve as an example for us? Good news – there is one: Avis rental cars.

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Posted in information technology | No Comments »

Management Secrets From the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health President

Thursday, May 6th, 2010
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Tachi Yamada Is The President Of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program

Tachi Yamada Is The President Of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program

Is it possible that the challenge of managing a team of IT professionals could have anything in common with the challenge of curing global illnesses? Good management is something that we can always learn from and healthcare has a lot of similarities with IT: it uses highly trained workers, it’s always experiencing lots of changes, and technology plays a key role in every part of how it’s done. Tachi Yamada is not only a doctor, but he is also the president of the The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program. He’s got some great insights that can help us do a better job of managing IT teams.

Details, Details, Details

In an interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times, Tachi explained how he manages people without losing control. He explained that he tries to avoid micromanaging his staff. Instead he says that he has “microinterest”.

The subtle difference here is that he is very interested in the details of what people are working on. However, he tries very hard to not tell them what to do.

Just like in IT, Tachi’s organization has countless projects going on at the same time. There’s too much here for any one person to stay on top of. What Tachi does is to spend time at the beginning of a project studying the various steps that it will go through. He’ll identify the critical step in the project – the one that everything else depends on. That’s where he’ll spend his time understanding what needs to be done there because more often than not, any problems that the project has will develop in this area.

How To Connect With Your Staff

In order to manage an IT team well you have to truly connect with that team. Tachi points out that if you are living in a box far removed from where your team is and how they are living their lives, then you’ll never be able to connect with them. Instead, you need to spend time with them and find out how they think and why they think that way. Since you don’t know everything, this is a great way to learn more.

When you have an opportunity to interact with a person, Tachi says that you need to take the time to make that person feel as though in your world they are the only person who really matters. That means turning off the cell phone and putting away the BlackBerry.

Each person on your team will have their good features and their bad features. As an IT manager it’s your job to make the most of what you have. Tachi says that working to bring out the good features in everyone is what a manager has to do.

One key factor that every manager has to understand is the background of each team member. Those on the team who moved around a lot during their childhood are generally better able to deal with change than those who grew up where they were born.

What All Of This Means For You

Nobody ever said that managing a team of smart, bright professionals was going to be easy. No matter if you are working in healthcare or IT this is going to be a full time job.

Tachi makes the point that to be a good manager you need to understand what really interests you. You need to have a good understanding of what kind of challenges you are looking for in order to be an effective manager.

Using Tachi’s suggestions, IT Leaders can do a better job of connecting with their staff and moving the entire company forward faster.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Knowledge

Question For You: Do you think that face-to-face time with your team really matters in the 21st Century?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental IT Leader Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Good IT Leaders find ways to use the tools that IT provides along with the skills that their teams have in order to help the company move faster and do more. Nowhere is this currently more visible than in the world of retail sales…

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Posted in leadership | No Comments »