The Lesson of the Holiday Roast

Have you ever heard the story of the holiday roast? Little six-year old Mary is watching Alison, her mom, carefully preparing the big holiday meal. There are appetizers, salads and all sorts of side dishes. But the centerpiece is always the wonderful holiday roast.

After spending time at the market to choose just the right one, Alison is now in her kitchen, ready to begin cooking it. It is unwrapped, placed in a huge roasting pan, seasoned, coated and finally, most importantly, carefully cut exactly in half. As she gently placed each half face down in the sauce little Mary asked why she had cut this beautiful roast in half. Alison had lots more to do and shrugged off the question.

After exactly two hours, Alison opened the oven, pulled the pan out, turned it around and put it back in. Little Mary, curious again, wanted to know why the roast had been cut in half, and why the pan had to be rotated. "Why?" Alison snapped back. "Well that is the way my mother, your grandmother, taught me to do it," she explained.

Still curious, the little girl asked her mother if they could call grandma and ask her these questions. When they got grandma on the phone, she said the same thing. It was just what she had been taught. Maybe cutting it open makes it juicier inside, and rotating the pan makes it cook more evenly, but I never really asked my mother. Fortunately, great grandma was still around in a nursing home. Little Mary's curiosity still unsatisfied, grandma thought perhaps great grandma could reveal the secret.

As IT professionals, we will often try to uncover the origin of a particular business process. Like little Mary, when we see how things are done, and it is not obvious why, we ask. Called upon to add, change or remove some element of a process, it goes beyond mere curiosity. It is important to know the real reason behind each step being taken, and to put this process into the context of the larger picture. While this can be irritating to the person making a seemingly simple request, this story illustrates why the relentless inquires are often justified.

You see, they got great grandma on the phone and little Mary suggested cutting the roast made it soak up the juice better or would somehow preserve tenderness. Great Granny laughed and explained that in her day the ovens were small and if you didn't cut the roast and lay it flat it wouldn't fit! The wood fueled oven was much hotter in the back than the front and so you had to rotate the pan to cook both halves the same. Of course, neither of these conditions existed today and the tradition was pointless.

And so often it turns out that a business process was invented to meet a need which was outside of the capabilities of systems in place at that time. The reporting oven could only bake so much data at one time leading to a need to slice the data in half. Clever people invent clever ways to achieve their goal by whatever means they know and it then becomes routine. As time passes and people hand off responsibilities, the approach becomes institutionalized and the rationale behind the design of the process is lost. It becomes tradition or, as we often hear, simply "the way we have always done it."

We all know the speed and capacity of systems today are far greater. The data "ovens" are larger and "heat" evenly all the way around. Moreover, software capabilities have expanded beyond our wildest imagination. If together we focus on the ultimate goal, deconstruct the current process and perhaps even trace its origin we are likely to find we can eliminate unnecessary steps and take advantage of newer, faster approaches. With less effort we quickly and consistently deliver the best holiday roasts.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Thoughts on Immortality

This morning I read yet another article declaring how some current piece of technology will soon be dead and gone. This time it was that conventional, spinning storage medium we call disk. Solid state devices are getting cheaper and faster and more efficient and so naturally all those floor space mongering, power hungry, heat generating mechanical antiques are going to simply vanish.

I disagree.

The truth is none of this stuff ever really dies. Of course you don't encounter many 3.5 inch floppy disks any more. But we can cite an almost endless list of technologies that the prognosticators have assured us are destined for the the grave, most of which are still around.

For instance there are still as many or more lines of COBOL code in production today as there are in any other computer programming language. Mainframe computers abound. Even the RIM Blackberry is still with us despite Apple and Android, and the company's own missteps. Pagers and PDAs still sell well years after the advent of the ubiquitous and all powerful mobile device. The list goes on and on.

In fact, outside the computer realm, people continue to read books and magazines, VCRs are still around and so are CDs. According to the CEA, digital cameras, e-readers and MP3 players are among the top gift holiday items. Even vinyl records have enjoyed renewed popularity and are staging a comeback. Heck, I own a hand cranked phonograph and a collection of 78s.

Okay, the phonograph is an antique and, though it works, I don't actually use it to listen to music. But the point is many of these things are very much in daily use many years after the prediction of their demise. If you expand your view outside of the US there are even more so-called obsolete devices very much alive and kicking.

Perhaps they aren't written about as much or advertised as heavily and so they slip quietly into the background of our minds. They are no longer the newest, hottest or sexiest thing on the market. But news of their death, as one famous author is reputed to have said, has been greatly exaggerated.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

The Danger Within

Security is surely on everyone's mind these days.  One merely has to pick up a newspaper, magazine or visit news sites on-line to read about the latest incident involving the release of personal data, confidential corporate files or government secrets. As a direct result of the rash of these high profile incidents, articles and presentations abound on the need for better means of protecting our information.

Some of the focus is on better educating the person at the keyboard, since they are most often the initial crack in the armor. I have even advocated for this in previous columns.

We are inundated with demands for better, more complex passwords, two-factor, three factor or biometric and other means of authentication. We must have improved edge security, faster intrusion detection, the latest anti-virus and web filtering systems. Network equipment vendors try to outdo one another with increasingly sophisticated methods of preventing unwanted visitors, while the security related software companies race to stay ahead of the nefarious individuals exploiting holes in the code by spotting the latest attack vectors.

What we do not hear enough about is an effort to ensure there are no holes in the code to exploit. In my recent work with the NAiC investor group I had an opportunity to learn about several companies with tools that automatically read and evaluate software code. These tools can be used to find logic flaws and identify opportunities to improve code efficiency. But importantly, they can also highlight potential security issues allowing these dangerous holes to be plugged before the code is ever released for use.

Major corporations, particularly software houses, routinely have a QA group perform reviews. But the priorities of the company and demands of the marketplace often push the code release ahead of a complete review. Moreover, the QA department is often the poor, red-headed step-child with little power to truly complete the mission. They are only there to make sure the code doesn't crash the system or fail to perform in line
with some option on the menu.

Until we make the quality and especially security of applications as important as meeting the date we promised our customers new features, we will always run the risk that some employee will unwittingly allow malware to evade all the perimeter defenses and take advantage of flaws, infecting systems, stealing data or taking control.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Where Did We Meet?

I have always been a fan of LinkedIn. For professional networking it is unsurpassed, outdone only by live events where you can shake hands, make eye contact and exchange business cards.

I am not exactly sure when this feature was added but I would love to shake the hand of the person who enhanced the "relationship" tab to allow for notes and other information about each contact that only you can see. One of these special fields is "how you met."

I attend a lot of conferences, business meetings and social events which means I collect a lot of business cards. I have always been pretty diligent about keeping this contact information in my personal address book, but often the 'connection' is made on-line in LinkedIn as well. I also connect frequently with people who I meet by phone, video-conference, through publications or even by referral.

Of all the things I have the most trouble tracking it is how and where I first met someone. Being not just able, but prompted to include this tidbit of information when adding a new connection is pure gold. Now, when looking back at people, particularly people with whom there has been little contact for a long time, one can easily be aware of the source of the connection.

By the way, the section allows you to add multiple notes about the individual such as personal information or other background material you may have, activities or communications with the person. You can set up reminders to prompt you to call, write or take some other action. The contact can also be "tagged" or assigned to a group. 

By using these features, which are included in the free version of the product, you can have  pretty robust contact tracking system.

Recently, I started to go back through my contacts, reconnecting with people and carefully adding notes. Not only has it been working well, but I even get a laugh when some of them can't recall where we met either.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Swimming with the Sharks

When you see a ship in port it not only means the end of one voyage, but the beginning of another. And so it is that my ship has come into port again, ending an almost three year journey. This was the fourth voyage where I filled the role of captain, pulling a crew together from different parts of the ship and taking the systems of the vessel up a couple of notches.

The role of the CIO is changing in many ways and like an old sea captain it becomes more and more difficult to find a ship where people are comfortable with you and believe you will function well on the bridge. Some think you lack the energy while others might feel you haven't kept up with the latest advances in the engine room or navigation systems. In fact, many think technology has advanced so much the ship can practically run itself.

Well I may find myself on the bridge of another ship one day, but in the meanwhile I have embarked on a completely new journey. Toward the end of last year I joined the crew of a pirate ship. Well, not really, but I'm not sure there is a good nautical analogy for an investors group. I suppose we're more like a independent fleet of fishing boats, casting our nets and hoping for a big haul.

I am now a partner in the North Andover Investors Collaborative II. Week after week we evaluate different early tech based start-up companies to choose the ones we think are going to be winners. What sets this group apart from most is the collective brain-trust with a diverse cross section of disciplines and experience.  To select the investments we draw from over thirty seasoned professionals with backgrounds in law, finance, technology, and a variety of verticals.  I've only been a part of it for a few months but I can already see where this breadth of knowledge has quickly segregated the high potential candidates from the glitzy flash in the pan ideas.

Playing Shark Tank has been exciting, fun and a real learning experience. I am seeing some incredible innovations, new software, services and technology. There will certainly be no lack of material to write about.

This new journey may be more uncertain, with less clear direction and a much higher risk of return. But I am enjoying the wind and the waves, and the camaraderie. This role turned out to be quite a catch!

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

ello, I Love Tsu, Won't You Tell Me Your Name

Almost as if right on queue a couple of new social networks have arrived in recent months. The last time I found myself between full time assignments, Google+ captured my attention and consumed a significant portion of my free time.

Perhaps I have missed some, and surely others will come along in time. But let me share some initial impressions of ello and Tsu.

ello popped up and when one of my good friends from Google+ days invited me to participate I thought I would give it a go. Signing up was quick and easy and I was in. It took all of about ten seconds to realize this was not a feature rich environment. In fact, I characterize the interface as rather spartan.

To be fair, I tinkered a bit, was not overly impressed and have not returned since. While I was "tickled" frequently for a few weeks, I have not received any recent notices of a new post or invitation to return. It seems to me activity there is quite low.

The promise of ello is a new place to interact with others of like minds without the fear of your content or data being exploited for financial gain. The operators promise the basic service will be free forever. They will never sell advertising on the site, nor sell data about their subscribers to anyone. Their plan is to up-sell with special features so compelling you will be happy to pay for them. This is a familiar business model sometimes called the freemium model.

Tsu, on the other hand, has a rather different approach. They will sell ad space and hope your content will attract eyeballs and drive revenue just like some other social networks we all know and love. The difference, though, is the 90 / 10 revenue sharing model. Yes, 90% of the revenue driven by your content will be credited to your 'bank' while the operators are only keeping 10% of it.

The interface looks like the what you would get if Google+ and Facebook got together and had a baby. It is very similar in appearance with a multi-dimensional stream, right side ad bar, and several other familiar features and functions including the like, share, friend and follow constructs.

I like Tsu and plan to continue to have fun with it, posting faux proverbs and the occasional story, graphic or video people might find amusing. I want to see just how many pennies I can accumulate under this novel business model.

Has someone finally come up with the magic to compete with Facebook? Will this new upstart grow fast and prosper, while its participants also prosper?

You can click here to sign up, explore and decide for yourself.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

I Fail to Understand

After enjoying a delicious meal at a local Chinese restaurant this weekend, I cracked open my fortune cookie to be amused by the content as is usually the case. But rather than the typical nonsense, my little white strip had words on it that made an awful lot of sense. It said something we have heard or read many times before.

Good people learn from their mistakes.

Whether great inventors like Thomas Edison, famous sports figures like Wayne Gretzky, US Presidents and their wives, or the granddaddy of all fortune cookie sayings, Confucius, you can find an endless variety of quotes that inspire people to try and espouse the value of failing.

All too often as leaders, managers, coaches or parents, we only focus on the negative, condemning the actions of an individual who may have tried but did not succeed.  This will dampen excitement, diminish enthusiasm and eventually reduce the motivation to take any risk at all..

Of course, we cannot reward stupidity, nor should we tolerate laziness. But allowing people to experiment, try new things and find the one in a hundred that actually works will lead to more innovation, creativity and ultimately a wiser person.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Don't Blame It On The Tool

Ever smash your thumb with a hammer? Have the screwdriver slip and poke a hole in your skin?  Seems like human nature is to react by throwing the tool and yelling at it as if it did it to you on purpose, as if the tool had any means of doing anything on its own!

As a society, we work hard to find excuses for all the problems of the world caused by people. Children are protected from over-demanding teachers and coaches, and criminals defended from prosecution under the law. Sadly, many of our role models are stars and athletes with a lifestyle of self indulgence.

We have become a nation of  "not my fault". There is always some reason why we were unable to fulfill some obligation, keep a promise, make a due date or just behave properly. 

When John Belushi is finally cornered by Carrie Fisher in the original Blues Brothers movie, he drops to his knees and strings a series of excuses together; "I ran out of gas! I--I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! IT WASN'T MY FAULT!"

We encounter this very same mindset in the workplace. It was the "system" that failed, not me.

One of my favorite uncles once asked me about a problem with his gas bill. Seems the utility sent an invoice for thousands of dollars which was clearly an error. When he called the company he was told the 'computer' made an error. He asked me, since I was in technology, how computers could make mistakes like this? Of course, computers don't make mistakes, people do.  Perhaps the meter reader transposed digits, or a data entry clerk entered the wrong amount. But someone, some human did something which ultimately caused my uncle's bill to be wrong. We all know the acronym GIGO (garbage in, garbage out.) 

It's easy to miss a deadline because email was down, or the phones were not working. My PC had a virus, my laptop ran out of battery and I didn't have a charger, my cell phone fell in the toilet and the dog ate my spreadsheet. We sound a little like John Belushi. 

Where there is a will, there is a way. First, accept responsibility for your own actions. Don't blame the tool. Don't blame others. Get creative and find ways of overcoming obstacles. Hold to your commitments. Go the extra distance. Strive to reach your goals no matter what may stand in the way.

"It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."

Despite untold numbers of police cars, these boys managed to deliver the money. So "Hit It !!"

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

How to Keep Up to Date on Tech Trends

Tech trends come and go. Some re-emerge at later dates, using improved technology and ideas to refine a product. Staying current with trends requires a bit of reading, attending conferences and subscribing to newsfeeds. If you have the passion for technology, you’ll turn into a loyal reader of certain blogs, magazines and social media outlets to gather the inside scoop.

For a student pursuing a computer science degree to the tech consultant wanting to keep track of new software and gear, some ways prove more effective at helping you stay tuned to what’s releasing soon. From print media to Web media, each serves its purpose in exposing you to new trends.

Social Media
Compared to print and Web media, social outlets serve as a great source for connecting fans with the creators of new technology. Simply add or subscribe to an electronic giant’s news feeds or tweets and get the inside scoop on the latest ideas engineers seem actuated to design. Pictures, clues and even snippets of information manage to leak onto social media websites that let you validate rumors and even get a glimpse of new software and hardware.

Many of the social outlets are run by CEOs while others become managed by marketing companies to discuss new technology and to gather feedback from community members. These insiders will give you the most recent statuses on new projects, show you beta builds of a piece of software and some may even include a video or two about a recently completed project.

Web Media
Social media works great for granting inside access to fans, but Web media, such as blogs, websites and videos, let the enthusiast read, see and interact with the latest tech trends arriving soon. Some websites aim to attract readerships interested in rumors, such as the case with MacRumors, a website dedicated solely to Apple products.

Other Web media outlets use their well-placed media sources to gather facts, quotes and news stories from heads of electronic companies to help readers stay informed. With RSS feeds and newsletters, individuals can subscribe to all the latest information in order to stay current with the technology trends.

One of the newer forms of Web media – podcasts – also work great at providing information from tech news giants or large electronic companies. As with RSS feeds and newsletters, individuals can use subscribe to podcasts to hear the latest on tech trends. With playback options, users can listen to a podcast anytime they wish from their MP3 device or computer.

Conferences
Large tech conferences aim to accomplish one goal: Bring together the biggest players in the industry to show off and discuss new products and software making its way to the market. Attending one of these conferences makes for a surefire method of staying on top of current trends arriving, but also, makes for a spectacle for playing with new devices.

For teachers managing computer classes, tech conferences will lend an inside scoop as to the latest trends in software and hardware, from newer specs on computers, new chip sets arriving and even the most current security patches being implemented into systems. Conferences also make for a great place to network and rub shoulders with executives and software engineers. Networking aside, you’ll be showered in pamphlets, vibrant gadgets and colorful displays.

The key to staying up to date on current tech trends is by reading, attending and having a passion for the industry. Staying in tune can help you better attend to customers, avoid excess spending and clue you in on new gear soon to be released.

Sources
Summa Technologies (2011)
Yahoo (2010)

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Start With The End In Mind

One should always start with the end in mind.

I borrowed this concept from Steven Covey who wrote the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, a book everyone should read at some point. This is also the basis for the ever popular "gap" analysis, a technique in which we determine where we are and where we need to be. Then we look at the delta, the difference or, in the parlance of the technique, the gap and figure out how to get from here to there.

It is important to have a clear vision of where you want to end up. Another old saying comes to mind. When you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. I sometimes sense this is the way systems evolve. The planning is incremental and the enhancements are a patchwork of little improvements or fixes done over time. At the end of the day, you wind up with a quilt-work instead of a smooth and uniform process flow.

If a business process is completely manual, partially automated or perhaps broken, and there is a desire to improve service or increase efficiency, it is often tempting to take a look at a small portion of the process and address it.  We look for the major flaws or the low hanging fruit. We shoot for a quick fix, a small and easy adjustment that may improve things a lot. We move slowly and carefully so as not to be too disruptive.

While I applaud the effort to avoid having a negative impact on the business, we sometimes draw out the pain and introduce more problems than we solve. Running parallel can be overly burdensome and when only part of a process is reinvented we force people to do double or triple the work for extended periods of time.

At some point this even becomes counter productive. It can lead to more mistakes and distrust of a new process. One has to look at the total picture and decide what the ideal process would be. If we are talking about order entry, for example, ultimately we want the order to be in a specific format and contain all of the data necessary to both execute the order and collect the proper payment.

All too often the focus will be on "streamlining" by locking down one field on a form or adding some calculations and pushing a snapshot of data to some interim holding file for analysis. Eventually the order process gets modified again and the data, after it has been pulled for analysis, are changed. Without a holistic view we wind up carrying multiple versions of the truth.

Take the time to develop the end state vision first. Then, work your way back to the beginning of each process and make sure you fully understand the flow of the data from start to finish. Change the entire process and find ways to phase it in that minimizes the need for parallel operations.

One more old proverb comes to mind. It seems there is never enough time to do it right the first time, but there is always time to do it over. Let's identify the ultimate destination up front, chart a safe and direct course from here to there.  Let's not wind up beached in a sand dune or dashed on the rocks.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

The Iron Rice Bowl

It is often said, the beauty of standards is that you have so many to choose from. The irony of this statement is, of course, there should only be one standard. But we often find, as I have in many prior situations, that standards are local and sometimes not known, understood or even followed.

Standards lead to efficiency. There are countless examples of equipment, software and business process where the variety in place lead to unnecessary complexity, difficult interactions and rework. But this applies to more than just IT. People will tend to develop their own "standard" process unless they are provided documentation or training. Even then, they are likely to add their own special twist and perpetuate its use by handing it down to the next person who will perform the same task or job function.

Once, while automating the "standard" process for starting a new project, we encountered Louie, the keeper of the job numbers. Louie's job was to maintain the book which listed the identifying number of every job the company performs. Louie has the privilege of assigning the job numbers and so every project eventually came across his desk so he could open the book and allocate the next number. Louie designed and owned this process.

Everybody along the way had a "standard" way of initiating the work that had to be done in their particular department for the new job to get underway. Whether it was the scheduling of manpower, purchasing of materials, preparation of documents or management approvals, there were a myriad of steps using various paper and electronic means to enter and process the same data.

The process was riddled with many forms in duplicate or triplicate which were physically passed around the office and often copied, annotated and then stored in multiple locations. As you can easily imagine, this was a cumbersome and inefficient way of alerting each department about a new project. Forms were misplaced, incomplete or contained old information. Time was lost as they moved around and often information was inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistent from one department to another.

We saw an opportunity to streamline this process and set about identifying the key steps, data elements and reasons behind each. If I had a nickle for every time I heard "because that's the way we've always done it" I could have retired years ago. A new, more rational process was designed and approved by management.

The process was then automated from start to finish using imaging and on-line forms with drop down menus limiting choices and having the intelligence to display those fields which were relevant to the different departments. One set of forms with one set of data living in one physical place meant everyone always had the latest and most accurate information and could get it at any time from any location.

The story has one twist. Perhaps you are familiar with the expression that someone has an iron rice bowl? This means they have their position or seat at the table forever. No one can take it away.

It seems Louie had an iron rice bowl and so the entire automated process still had to grind to a halt so Louie could open his (physical not metaphorical) book and allocate the next job number.

Perhaps the ultimate irony was that someone had to enter this job number as Louie was not technical enough to do it himself.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Six Of One, Half Dozen Of The Other

There is this popular expression of unknown origin that I frequently use. "Six of one, half dozen of the other" is just a different way of saying something simply doesn't really matter. Faced with two equally good options, you are more or less indifferent and would be happy with either one. Any choice is a good one, as long as you pick one.

This is how I often feel about a selection of a technology or process standard. Today, much of the hardware and even common software systems are essentially commodities. There is often a heated debate around which is best and should therefore be designated as the standard across the company. It is easy to spot the ongoing rivalry among fans of particular operating systems or cell phone carriers. Debates extend to internet browsers and a variety of other basic tools. But at the end of the day, what's really important is to make a decision and stick to it.

I can recall the discussions, years ago, at a company that lacked any personal computer standards. At that time, the predominant choices for desktop and notebook computers were either HP, Dell or IBM. The choices obviously would be somewhat different today.

But at the time, among the IT professionals throughout the organization, each brand  had a number of strong supporters and a group of fairly vocal detractors. Certainly each of the brands offered a wide range of models with a variety of unique features people found very attractive. The differential in cost was minimal and each manufacturer would regularly introduce new, faster, cheaper models, often leap-frogging the others.

So the question became how do we choose. Well, for me, it was six of one, half dozen of another. The company happened to own more of one of these brands and after fairly brief negotiations this allowed us to put a volume purchase agreement in place and choose it as the standard.

In my view, it wasn't worth an extensive amount of research or debate. We chose one horse to ride and began to accrue the benefits almost immediately. There were far more pressing needs in the company.

Certainly there will be other, more critical evaluations where the technology or application is more complex and will have greater implications or major impact on the company and its operations. This is where you should spend your time and energy. Don't lose sight of the business.

Remember, the cash register has to work, but it is just a tool to facilitate a transaction. Actually selling your merchandise is what will make or break your company.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

It's Finally Over - You Got The Job

Imagine that great feeling when the long weeks or months of search finally draw to a close. When all the scanning of job boards, networking, teleconferencing, writing, research, travel and interviews are behind you. You passed the rigorous HR screening and all the interviews went well. Happily, all your references check out and an offer is extended. It is a good one, the job you always wanted so you accept. You breath a huge sigh of relief and can finally relax. Right?

Well, this may be the end of one journey but it is only the beginning of another, hopefully even longer one.

Remember all those accomplishments you touted, and all that skill and knowledge you said you had? The interviews were easy because you only had to talk about them. Now you have to put them all into practice. Of course, you were honest and gave a fair and true accounting of your history. Still, as they say in financial reports, past performance is no guarantee of future performance. You may be faced with an even steeper hill to climb.

When my children were younger they complained, as children often do, about school, their teachers, homework and tests. They especially dislike tests and, in particular, midterms and finals. My advice to them was to relax because this part of life is easy. You study hard, learn the material, take the test and move on.

In real life, I told them, every day is a final exam. There are no study guides. No one tells you what will be on the test, and there are only two grades. You either pass or fail. Often, there is a lot more at stake than just having to take the test over or, heaven forbid, failing the class. In life, bad outcomes can lead to much more severe consequences.

So it is when you have a new job. You can only guess what new problems or opportunities each day will bring. You are confident and expect the knowledge and experience you have will be sufficient to address problems and lead to success. But you must maintain the same level of determination you had when you were trying to get the job.

Continuously probe and learn more about the company and its people. Build an organization chart and develop relationships with everyone below, above and at your level. Understand the business and apply your skills to make it a better place for the employees to work and to improve the experience for customers.

As Yogi Berra once famously said, "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Drinking From A Firehose

One of the most frequent questions I am asked by friends, colleagues and almost always during interviews is how do you keep up with all the changes and new developments in your industry.  There is no easy or short answer to this question.

Technology moves at the speed of light. New hardware, software and communication products are introduced every day. Products become services and services evolve into products. Software gets embedded in hardware while hardware becomes virtual. Just when you think you know everything about how data can move from here to there, someone introduces a faster, cheaper and more reliable method.

Certainly there is no shortage of information sources. Whether in print, audio or video format, there is a never-ending stream of news stories, opinions, vendor announcements and other content physically or electronically delivered to you. My preference is a healthy mix of tech and business publications. You have to scan a  Computerworld or Information Week, and read CIO Magazine. But you should also be reading Fortune or Forbes and top publications in your industry or vertical. For example, when I was in construction it was important to scan through ENR each week. If you are in finance you should be reading the Wall Street Journal.

The internet and aggregators make it relatively to assemble stories from multiple sources. Whether you employ your own rules using alerts, RSS or other tools to pull stories, or you rely on the judgement of others to highlight content of interest, you do not have to go to each original source. Web sites like Topsy show content that is trending while electronic newspapers collect links based on custom rules. Applications like Flipboard are very popular because they pull information from all your sources and present you with a personal magazine.

Additionally, social networks are a place where people know you and are happy to share links to content they think will be of interest to you. Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus all have streams of original content and links to published material. Twitter let's you choose the people or companies you consider interesting or well informed. By following your favorite thought leaders or industry pundits, you can have links to relevant content handed to you all day long. Companies now Tweet in addition to issuing a press release or other forms of announcement.

It does not end there. In fact, all of this is incidental and often random while other means of keeping up are more deliberate.

Attending conferences and seminars is important in order to hear and interact with presenters. But the real value at these events is the interaction with peers. This is where you hear what has been working and what to avoid from others who have had experience with various solutions. This is where you can run an idea up the flag pole and get the kind of open and honest feedback you need to avoid disaster.

These conferences, like the publications, should not be confined to technology. I will be the first to admit I hate to miss the annual Forrester meeting but I also want to attend general business or educational functions for my vertical as well.

Lastly, the people in your company are an invaluable source of information and you should be deeply immersed in frequent  information exchanges with people at all levels.

So, how can one possibly find the time for all of this, have a normal social life and also do your job? Well, I said right at the outset, there really is no easy answer.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

It's Simply Bad Form

Being a "systems" person, there are a number of things in life that often bug me. Last week  I covered poorly implemented IVR systems. This week my anger is directed to the endless array of forms which require you to enter the same information over and over again.

I can understand some paper based systems like the ones you encounter each time you visit a doctor or dentist. On each form, you have to sit down with a pen and fill out basic information. You write the date, your name, address, phone number and other personal data on each and every page in the stack. This is usually followed by a series of check boxes or other questions. They are a collection of standalone documents and individually serve a unique purpose. Therefore, each one must have your information on them.

However, I'm not sure why these are not designed as multi-part forms. They could be the kind where you press hard and your pen strokes are replicated on the pages below. Line up the fields and treat only the top half of the page in this way and the process could be made so much easier for the patients.

Better still, how about we use our smart phones and display a bar code, QR code or use NFC technology to electronically hand over these data to the office staff. They could then print personalized forms which would be easier for the patient to complete and the office to file. Use an OCR font and the completed forms could be scanned and stored! Changes from last time could be highlighted by the computer.

But this is a much harder process in the electronic world. Anyone who has been searching for a job will attest to the fact that you have to enter an enormous about of information from scratch every time you apply for a job. While some companies allow you to complete a profile and then use it repeatedly for job applications within the company, there is no cross company solution.

A number of companies allow you to scan your resume. It is parsed and their forms automatically populated with data gleaned from the document. However, it has been my experience that this is less than 100% accurate and requires meticulous edit and corrections which some systems facilitate better than others.

Everything you need to know is in my LinkedIn profile. When are we going to see the automated transfer of these data to job applications. Better still, why not include the data needed by reference instead of having to repeat it and store it locally.

Job applicants should only be asked to complete information or answer questions that are specific and unique to the company and the position being filled. Systems designed to support the HR hiring process should agree on a single, standard representation of the basic personal data and offer applicants simple and reliable import features from popular social networks where all these data reside.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Wave Goodbye

First thing this morning  I found this email in my inbox. It came as no surprise. As the note indicates Google Wave has been on its way out for some time. It was an interesting but failed experiment in a new and quite novel way to interact. Launched in May 2009, with great fanfare, Google Wave was going to revolutionize collaboration.

Being a Google fan it was immediately of interest to me. I set about obtaining the much coveted invitation for a beta account.  I jumped into it as soon as the invite arrived. The interface was intuitive but a little confusing. At first I tried using it like email. Then thought we could develop documentation with it. Finally, I thought we could use this to manage and coordinate projects. Of course this would mean getting a handful of other people involved.

Dear Wavers,

More than a year ago we announced that Google Wave would no longer be developed as a separate product. Back in November 2011, we shared the specific dates for ending this maintenance period and shutting down Wave. Google Wave is now in read-only mode. This is reminder that the Wave service will be turned off on April 30, 2012. You will be able to continue exporting individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off. We encourage you to export any important data before April 30, 2012.

If you would like to continue using Wave, there are a number of open source projects, including Apache Wave. There is also an open source project called Walkaround that includes an experimental feature that lets you import all your Waves from Google. This feature will also work until the Wave service is turned off on April 30, 2012.

For more details, please see our help center.

Yours sincerely,

The Wave Team

Working with a couple of other brave souls, we tried valiantly to figure out what the heck it was. A mash-up of instant messenger, email and shared documents with multiple threads like a discussion forum made it incredibly powerful, innovative and confusing. It was an exciting and elegant solution desperately in search of a problem to solve.We explored all the ideas I mentioned above.

After a few feeble attempts to interact using this platform, my colleagues and I decided it was too radical to adopt for any purpose and we gave up. Most people believe among the reasons for its failure was simply too much too soon. It was significantly ahead of its time and more than people could accept, digest and fully understand.

Perhaps some learning and a little bit of new technology was derived from this experiment. Not all ideas are going to be home runs. Some will roll in with a big splash, crash on the rocks and then quietly wash back out to sea.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Q R You Kidding Me?

Months ago I wrote a column on the innovative use of QR codes. Those are the funny looking squares that visually encrypt information. You point your smart phone or tablet camera at them and use a QR code reader to decipher them. They will display some message or take you to a specific page (URL) on a web site where lots of information can be stored and kept fresh.

The example I included was the use of a QR code on a headstone in the cemetery. The code contained a link to a comprehensive obituary site which could support a mixture of text, graphics, photos and even video. By pointing and clicking, you could learn all about the deceased who was able to share their message and memories from beyond the grave.

Recently I heard two more stories about the use of QR codes. These were perhaps not as clever or well thought out.

The first involved a QR code printed on a poster in the subway. At first, this seemed like a perfectly good idea. There is a lot of foot traffic and most people have smart phones. Lots of people could take advantage of the instant availability of the additional information stored behind that QR block. Just point and click and there you go.

However, in the subway, underground, there is no cell signal. That eliminates the immediacy of access. Moreover, the particular story I heard reported the QR code was present on a poster that had been mounted on the wall on the other side of the tracks. In other words, the closest you could get to this poster would be 12 feet away. Unless you iPhone has the optional telephoto lens, you are not going to be able to gain any value from that QR code.

The other recent story was about the use of QR codes in a bar. It seems someone had the bright idea to print a QR code on the coasters in the bar. The QR code contained a list of taxis you could call if you needed a ride home because you had too much to drink.

An effort with good intentions, no doubt, but one doomed to fail. Imagine a highly intoxicated patron trying to operate their phone, snapping a photo of the code, choosing a taxi and successfully completing the phone call to arrange a pick up.  I'm guessing this didn't work out too well.

The moral of the story is a simple one. When deciding how and where to use technology, don't let the flash and dazzle or the coolness factor overwhelm common sense.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Now You See Them, Now You Don't

I have been impressed by telepresence demonstrations a couple of times in the last few years. It happened again at a conference I attended today.

Telepresence is very advanced video conferencing technology that creates the illusion multiple people in multiple locations are actually in the same space. The more conventional systems are usually room size. For example, one system has a large conference table with a curved wall on one side and chairs on the other. The remote participants, seated in a similar room elsewhere, are projected in life size on the wall. There is an illusion that you are sitting around the same physical table. Extremely high bandwidth is needed to support the video and audio, but the interaction during a meeting is very natural. After a while, you forget these people are not really on the other side of the table.

Then there are more advanced systems which use holographic projections to create a three dimensional image of the remote participants. A few years ago at a Forrester conference, John Chambers, Chairman & CEO of CISCO, was a featured speaker. Members of the CIO Group had an opportunity to see him during a small, private session apart from the main conference hall.

After he was introduced he stepped up on a small raised platform to speak with us about the latest developments at CISCO including, of course, their videoconferencing and telepresence systems. At one point he turned to the dark back of the stage and invited one of the product people to join him on stage to explain how telepresence works. Another person walked out from the back of the stage and began addressing the group. With John.standing next to him, they were able to interact easily and naturally with each other and the audience.

But this other person was actually in San Jose, clear across the country. What we saw was a holographic projection, so lifelike you thought he was actually there.

This evening, at the March monthly SIM Chapter meeting, a CISCO executive and very good friend, Norm Jacnis, presented a collection of current trends to help us prepare for the major changes occurring in the world. The future holds a lot of new and exciting developments, among them increased telecommuting and use of telepresence. He brought plenty of slides and some video. One in particular was very impressive. I found it on YouTube (where else) and included it below.

Check it out and pay particular attention to the end. Two of the four stars were not physically on the stage. They are holograms. Can you tell who was really there and who was being beamed in?




Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Working On My Personal Image

Many years ago I decided to reduce the amount of paper in my home office. I had desk drawers and file cabinets filled with bank statements,vendor invoices, purchase records and other paper documents. These dated back at least seven years or more. The older ones were removed and stacked in boxes in the closet.

Everything from our tax returns to the bill of sale for a purchase of a major appliance was carefully filed. Of course, 98% of these documents were never again touched after they had been handled once and put away.  Yet, it was always a challenge to find that one particular page you really needed somewhere among the other 2%.

While I was CIO at an insurance company, a system for imaging documents was introduced and successfully implemented in the claims department. This had the effect of reducing mountains of paper and rows of file cabinets to digital images which were accessible by anyone from anywhere. No more lost files. No more outdated copies. No delays in obtaining information. It even allowed more than one person to have access to the same file at the same time. It also freed a lot of office space and removed desk top clutter.

With a strong desire to do the same at home, I took a look around and I found an affordable solution. For about $100 I purchased a single sheet scanner which came with a complete imaging package. It was rudimentary, only allowing you to scan one page at a time. You could create folders and organize your documents accordingly. I created an initial set that mirrored the folders in the drawers of my desk and file cabinet, and set about reducing my massive accumulation of papers.

It's been over 15 years and the system has served me well. Papers stack up for a while and then I have a scan-fest. But hard drive space is cheap and plentiful. Once scanned the originals are discarded. I have never had an issue finding or printing a copy of any document I needed.

There have been many updates along the way. New releases of the software were clearly worth the small investment. New features and improvements were introduced. I can nest folders and choose their colors. I can scan documents in full color including high quality images of photos.

The scanner itself has also been replaced twice, upgraded each time to a better, faster, higher resolution model. I am still limited to one page per scan but I plan for my next upgrade to include a sheet feeder.

Thanks to my wonderful  imaging system, I now have room in all those drawers for cables, connectors, old cell phones and a variety of other obsolete equipment.

Captain Joe


Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC

Ding Dong WiMax Is Dead

Last night I listened to a fascinating panel discussion, presented as part of the monthly dinner program hosted by the New Jersey Chapter of SIM. On the panel were three representatives of the vendor community and one practitioner.

• Bob Egan - Vice President, Mobile Strategy, Mobiquity, Inc.
• Vinod Kachroo - Senior Information Technology Executive
• Chuck Sacco - President of Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic, Vice President of Client Strategy at Movitas and Adjunct Faculty at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.
• Dean Guida - President and CEO - Infragistics

The panel was moderated by JP Finnell,  Head of Mobile Strategy, SAP America Services. Under his direction, they covered a lot of ground in the mobility space but one comment in particular really struck home with me.

Many months ago I wrote a brief piece about the impending death of WiMax, the first broadly available high speed cellular wireless system. Only a year or so before, I was thrilled to have obtained a so-called 4G Sprint phone that supported WiMax. This meant my smart phone would be several times faster when it sent or received data over the WiMax network. It had little to no impact on voice service, but email or any internet related activity would be considerably faster.

Service was only available in a handful of major cities at first. Traveling in these cities, my phone delivered fantastic performance. I couldn't wait until service was available in more cities and in my area. I remember the week I showed up to my office and saw the little 4G symbol light up. Super high speed internet to my phone while sitting in the office.

At fist, Sprint was way ahead, expanding WiMax into lots of new markets. Then, there was a deal with Clearwire Communications who were going to build out a huge WiMax infrastructure. Through a joint agreement, Sprint users would soon gain access to WiMax service across the nation.

The wheels came loose when Clearwire ran into some difficulties obtaining additional bandwidth due to concerns over interference with the GPS systems. But they came off altogether when the world converged on LTE, a competitor to WiMax. AT&T, Verizon and T_Mobile, the major payers in the US all adopted the LTE standard. Moreover, with its partner, Clearwater, having difficulties, even Sprint began introducing new devices with LTE in lieu of WiMax.

These signs lead me to believe, and subsequently write, that WiMax was on its way out.

Last night, the floor opened for questions and, being the quiet and shy individual that I am, my hand went up immediately. The panel had discussed the latest devices, user interface designs and applications. But we are still limited by coverage and bandwidth, I pointed out. How do we deal with that?

Most of the response had to do with disconnected or standalone processing, store and forward logic, and tight designs that minimize traffic and therefore limit bandwidth needed. But the first statement was made by John Egan, a well know and highly respected industry veteran. He simply said, "WiMax is dead."  It's what I had predicted months ago. Even if it was old news to some people in the room, for me it was confirmation.

That was a good enough response for me.

Captain Joe

Follow me on Twitter @JPuglisiLLC