Sailing on Fluffy Clouds of Innovation

I Want it Wet & Wild – A Mid-life Crisis?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:22:00 +0000

So, I think I want one of these… I’ve got the Miracle for sailing with the kids, but I do miss getting on the water on my own, don’t forget my roots are in the Optimist..single-handed sailing is something that I’ll never grow out…

Actually I really want one of these, its a foiling International Moth...

So currently I’m looking to invest, purchase, blow some money on a Foiling International Moth..

I may get a Low-Rider i.e. a non-hydrofoil one, play with that for a while and then get it converted… but ideally, mad, stupid, insane or not, I want to go straight into a foiler….

The challenge will be awesome, just check out the footage below taken at the Moth Worlds being held in Dubai currently…

So, the old, the original, Soulsailor, may be back with blog posts about the thrills and spills of trying to go freakin’ fast without, hopefully, seriously injuring myself..

So, the plan is:

Convince wife the investment is worth it (gotta be better than a sports car?)
Any of you with contacts in the Moth fleet put the feelers out (sorry no pun intended) for a second-hand boat
I need to get fitter!
I’ll keep trawling the web sites for a bargain
I’ll keep dreaming!

Fast & Low my Friends… Fast & Low & Close(ish) to the Water…

Trinity achieve Microsoft Business Value Planning Services Certification (BVPS)

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:13:00 +0000

Trinity announced today that we have achieved the Microsoft BVPS certification.

http://www.tesl.com/TESL/News/Pressreleases/Trinity+achieve+Microsoft+Business+Value+Planning+Services+Certification.htm

Actually the reality is for the moment, I have achieved the MS BVPS certification… I’m certifiable around ensuring that you deliver business value for your organisation through the Microsoft Information Worker platform!

I’m extremely excited about the prospect of being able to engage with our existing and hopefully new (get in touch!) clients and driving proper ROI through their organisations.

Making a difference.

Engaging with business and IT.

Realising potential.

Changing cultures.

Maximising adoption.

Shipping value….

Get in touch with me or Trinity direct if you want our assistance in making you look good in your organisation and allowing your organisation to deliver its potential.

Why Facebook and not SharePoint 2010 could become your Intranet for 2010?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:20:00 +0000

Don’t panic, I don’t believe this!

I came across this article on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Capgemini/status/10021634294
http://www.capgemini.com/technology-blog/2010/03/why_facebook_and_not_sharepoin.php

I have to admit, I don’t particularly agree with the premise for the article. Ignoring the fact that a lot of companies don’t trust their employees to access FaceBook in work (so they turn to accessing anyway over their mobile devices!), what I don’t like is that it makes the assumption that SharePoint isn’t a good platform for an Intranet which of course it is.. it’s awesome and with the launch of SharePoint 2010 in May, the Intranet features, including a heap of social features which I feel are key in bringing context into our everyday activities, are immensely strong.

The article states that FaceBook (obviously) doesn’t support integration into your back-end systems and probably isn’t the right location for confidential documents… Right so you’re telling me that I should have an external FaceBook Intranet for news, information and connections (internal and external) and then separate systems for all the other stuff I do each and every day??

I don’t think so guys… maybe in the “old days” with SharePoint 2003 and SharePoint 2007 that may be a credible approach as the social/connections focussed elements were weak, but SharePoint 2010 is a totally different beast.

What I do agree with in the post is that for Intranets:

Adoption is key
Building engagement with business partners is a key differentiator in business (Extranet AND other social tools)
Utilise platforms rather than custom build

With FaceBook not being a good platform from a security perspective, then why not consider SharePoint Online, that platform certainly meets the needs of this requirement that they state at the end of the article:

Save money, thrive adoption. Not every successful solution has to start inside your firewall or should be custom build. Use the tools your colleagues already know, use the tools that they already selected as the tools they prefer to use.

Finally, an interestingly, what they also say is:

“…If that holds you back to go full fledge into Facebook, just use your Facebook group as a portal to get your colleagues to the news on the Intranet (which could be based on SharePoint 2010)…”

Now that is a more sensible idea…

Build a social presence as a portal…
Use the social features of a decent platform such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Ning etc to engage with new customers
Use this as a launch pad for employees to an Internal Intranet (SharePoint 2010)
Use this as a launch pad for partner/clients to an extranet (SharePoint 2010)

Sorted! This approach give you a great transparent presence, and as much relevant content and business processes that the platform can deliver, and hands you off neatly to internal systems such as SharePoint 2010 for the really rich, contextual intranet (or extranet) functionality you need…

Make sense?

The Fear of the Linchpin

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:38:00 +0000

So I bought from iTunes Seth Godin’s latest creation from iTunes a a few weeks ago.. The audio book comes in two parts and during some of my commutes and occasionally at home I’ve been dipping into it and slowly working my way through the 8 hours or so of audio..

I like Seth, he has a great deal of interesting, challenging stuff to say… his voice works well in audio books (maybe he has a face for radio?). This book is another well thought out insight/self-help/business/innovation book, or piece of art as he may call it.

But I started to not enjoy it.. it wasn’t that he wasn’t making sense, ‘cus he was.. but he did seem to be banging on about “factories”, I’ve never worked in a factory, but my parents have, so although I can see it’s relevant, for some reason it feels distant and I didn’t connect. I found that lack of connection, for an undeterminable reason all the way through the first half of the audio book; I still learnt a bunch of stuff, I still got some of what he said, but the power and the connection wasn’t necessarily there..

But the second half…

Wow, Seth really started switching on some lightbulbs for me, that showed some scary insights into me and you and our behaviours that reinforce or work against us being the “linchpin”.

Disclaimer:- I haven’t actually finished listening to the book yet!

Stuff around a 2nd voice in our heads was fairly standard stuff, but the focus on fear stopping us from being freakin’ awesome and becoming a linchpin and developing a network of linchpin’s around us was extremely interesting. The leadership strands, seem to strengthen as the audio book progresses and I’m not sure whether this is because Seth get’s better at writing, kinda gets into his stride, or that I’m just learning in the first half and putting the relevance into play in the second… but persevere please, it’s worth it…

3 things stuck out on my way to and from a client meeting today listening to Seth..

Fear - Don’t be scared, things fail, people fail, failure is good.. learn from this, don’t stress, focus on (as Seth says) shipping getting things done, delivering
Stop Checking In - In order to succeed, in order to become a linchpin stop wasting time through the day checking-in periodically (email, Twitter, LinkedIn, intranet, colleagues etc) use that time to be awesome, to deliver, to “ship stuff” & to make a difference
Gift – Give things, knowledge, gifts, books, time or whatever with no thought to reciprocation

So I spent some focussed time this afternoon culling my inbox… I didn’t get to “Inbox Zero”, but I did get down to only 6 unread emails. (Stopped Checking In)

I shipped stuff… No fear, no pause, delivering this blog post, reviewed a draft RFP response, a manifesto and agenda for a clients IT Steering Group, an agenda for a SharePoint 2010 Organisational Readiness session all done, efficiently this afternoon and this evening (Fear)

And finally, as I’d discussed previously with Matt Groves previously, I thought I’d buy a book, a gift for my colleagues at Trinity; so a copy of Seth’s Linchpin is slowly making its way to the office for you to read, borrow, discuss or ignore (Gift)

So, I’ve got a day’s leave tomorrow to spend with my daughter on her birthday, but Friday and all next week

I’m not gonna let fear define what I do,
I’m gonna focus on shipping stuff and not a stack of spinning plates
I’m gonna give..

That’s all, simple, effective and movement towards my personal vision.

Personal ROI – Accept or Decline

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:15:00 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about “time” – my time, company time, family time…

I see time wasted all over the place, I hear people talking about wasted time, I see inaction and I see great uses of time and resources.

So I’ve had enough of wasting any time, mine, yours and everybody elses. To achieve balance “time” needs to deliver “value” otherwise what’s the point?

So from now on I’m going to start to re-dress the balance, every internal meeting, every conference call and every client meeting needs to deliver me, or my family, or my colleagues or my company an ROI.

Every time I receive a meeting request I’m going to question it’s value, I’m gonna do the maths in my head, work out the Personal ROI, then decide whether to click “Accept or Decline”…

Why am I attending?
What value will the other attendees add to me?
What will this meeting/call add to our client?
What will this meeting/call add to our project?
What will this meeting/call add to our company?
What value will I add?

Life is too short to waste on delivering “nothing”…
I am valuable…
I have something to add…
I am worth more than this…

Click “Decline” and go deliver.

Is SharePoint a Huge Pulsating Beast?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:13:00 +0000

Ok, so at the last Trinity SharePoint 2010 event it is true that I stated, when talking about the huge value around context and knowledge that can be captured within SharePoint, that, and I quote):

“…SharePoint is a huge pulsating beast…”

OK, in hindsight that may not have been the best way to articulate SharePoint’s value but in my mind at that second it was accurate, without:

Governance
Clear requirements
Information architecture
Stakeholder buy-in
User adoption

Then SharePoint truly can be a beast when it’s left to it’s own device with your clients…

The following post is hopefully a better articulated version of “the beast”, that should make more sense!

So, when we deploy SharePoint our hopes, requirements and vision are that it will become a business tool that the whole organisation embraces, and with this large-scale adoption will come a deep pool of knowledge, data, information, debate and context.

The problem is, unless sufficient thought has been made around governance, information architecture, search, meta data etc, finding information in platforms like SharePoint can be like throwing a pebble into a fast moving stream, finding the exact same pebble again can be extremely challenging!

SharePoint 2007 is therefore very analogous to a complex maze of tributaries meandering towards the sea but going nowhere particularly fast… A fair bit of water (knowledge) flows through the tributaries, but there are also many twists, turns and dead-ends.

With SharePoint 2010, there are countless more ways in which knowledge, information and data can manifest itself, its more like fast flowing rivers on their way to the ocean. All that information flowing through the system can be difficult to take advantage of, but with SharePoint 2010, there are also an increasing number of ways in which you can harness the knowledge-flow, speed it up, slow it down, aggregate it, re-use it and give purpose to it (context).

So SharePoint in the future is going to allow us a greater level of control (governance) to properly harness the flow (derive business value), but we won’t ever fully stop that knowledge branching out, being used in ways we hadn’t anticipated and we should plan for and accept this uncertainty…

So I’m going to stop referring to SharePoint as a “huge pulsating beast”, and start referring to SharePoint, and specifically SharePoint 2010 as:

“…a river of knowledge that we can’t control, but we must harness…”

LinkedIn to Infectious Generosity

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:37:00 +0000

Last week, now that my role has changed, I decided to request from a few close colleagues a “LinkedIn Recommendation” for my time as both a Strategic Consultant and Deputy Head of Strategic Consultancy. I don’t know whether I deserve any recommendations, but sometime you have to push a little to take your life forward, and I figure if people don’t want to then they’ll just ignore my request, now worries.

Christmas (or early February in reality) is for giving as well as receiving, so I decided to recommend some people I currently work with whom I felt at the time warranted recognition… these included:

A Technical Architect at a client
A Trinity project manager
Two Trinity consultants
A Trinity “technology leader”
A Trinity solution architect
And a Client Project Manager.

There are of course lots of other great people I do or have worked with, but in the spur of the moment these “felt right”.

It’s a cathartic experience writing a recommendation, but it’s a little weird when you push those little “boats of reputation” onto the virtual lake and hope that they get to their recipient and they are accepted and become reality…

Anyway, the deed was done, I felt good about the “giving” and life went on… One of the recipients of a “boat of reputation” (not sure i like the analogy anymore!) dropped me an email the next morning stating:

It’s nice to feel appreciated – what prompted this then?

I don’t usually give or expect recommendations on Linked in ....

My response was:

Decided this year I need to be more proactive in being positive and giving credit where credit is due..

Plus its always nice to do something unexpected!

So go on, think of the last 3 people that inspired, impressed or were just plain awesome and go to LinkedIn and write a recommendation.. Why wouldn’t you?

Reputation and attention are rapidly increasing in value, give the gift of a recommendation, it’s infectious!

Social SLA

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:10:00 +0000

When I hear that “ping” or “boing” or see the flash of a new message, connection, thought, innovation, idea, friend request, poke, check-in, request, event notification, email, updated RSS feed, email or whatever I kinda find it hard to not just check who, what, where pretty immediately…

But responding back is a different matter; I seem to have a brain and psyche that can cope (on the whole) with multiple sensory inputs\updates\distractions… For me the stimulation is good, new ideas, new perspectives, creative sparks or getting bumped back on the right track.

But if I’m trying to get my “shit done” then responding is a different matter…

So what is the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Social Media? Ask yourself this, when do you expect a response from a:

Facebook Poke
Email
Instant Message (work or personal)
Friend\Connection Request
Twitter @Mention
New Blog Post (comments).

If you mention someone on twitter and they don’t respond within a few hours, does that p!55 you off? How long should it take for someone at work to respond to a truly important email or an casual IM?

I think the “Social SLA” is determined by three key factors:

The proximity of the “engager” to your social graph (Family vs Acquaintance)
The transient nature of the “request” (Twitter vs Email)
Perceived value in the “payload” (Insightful Blog Post vs Checking-in@Gowalla)

Using a VERY rough rating table such as this:

Proximity	Transience	Value
Close = 1	High = 1	High = 1
Friend = 2	Medium = 5	Medium = 4
Acquaintance = 3	Low = 10	Low = 8

And an SLA calculation based upon:

Proximity * Transience * Value = SLA (Hours)

Lets look at the extremes e.g. Twitter\IM versus Email:

	Proximity	Transience	Value	SLA
Twitter	1	1	1	1 hour

Twitter

1 day

Email

10 hours

Email

10 days

It may be rough, but for a, lot of people this isn’t that far off reality!

Scenario 1 – Twitter, tweet pops into my stream from a close friend, family member or trusted advisor, its a valuable tweet i.e. a great link or breaking news or a fix to an issue – expected response within the hour.

Scenario 2 – Twitter, tweet pops into my stream from an acquaintance, its not a valuable tweet i.e. a link to an event or a re-tweet of something I probably already know – expected response (if any) within a day.

Scenario 3 – Email pops into my inbox from a close friend, valued colleague, family member or trusted advisor, its a valuable email i.e. breaking news, a great offer for something I am interested in, or a request for information that I can add value to – expected response within 10 hours or roughly a working day.

Scenario 4 – Email pops into my inbox from an acquaintance, its not a valuable email i.e. a catch-up email, newsletter or something I probably already know – expected response (if any) within 10 days.

The problem with a Social SLA is that the expectation and the ability to deliver are poles apart…
Maybe the recipient is on leave, currently Twitter doesn’t have an off-the-grid message?
Maybe they are up to their nuts in work?
Maybe they have a few hundred other connection requests, messages, tweets or IM’s to work through?

So maybe there should be some kind of leveller on the SLA according to how much traffic, reputation and engagement you get from elsewhere on the grid (or offline)?

Lots to consider and think about…I’d like to hear your thoughts, in a timely manner?

SharePoint Perception

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:05:00 +0000

SharePoint is a “large beast”, it can deliver a wonderful array of functionality, however I still encounter clients and organisations in the wider world that feel that SharePoint just doesn’t deliver on its promises... But why?

To me it fundamentally comes down to 3 things:

1. Wrong starting point
Please don’t do a “SharePoint Project” any more! Technology never solves problems, it facilitates the organisation or end user to achieve, SharePoint is no different. Do a business change project, sort out a business process do something for your business.

2. No Directions
Just because SharePoint has a stack of functionality doesn’t mean you can go into a project without a clearly defined business vision and set of requirements, if you do the project will almost always fail to deliver.

3. Rose-tinted Glasses
Less obvious but equally damaging, is end-user perception, especially when your “showing” SharePoint to a client. Be it a causal “look this is what SharePoint does”, a formal pitch or an event you must be clear to clients as to what your showing, how far from OOTB it is and how they get what your showing. Office Versions, customisations, add-ins, ways of working all fundamentally change the SharePoint experience, what it can deliver and how much it’s going to cost to deliver.

“Lead with the business and be transparent; then think about SharePoint”

I’m Certifiably Delivering BVPS!

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:04:00 +0000

I bloody did it!
I passed the Microsoft Business Value Planning Services exam… I am well and truly certifiable!

It’s an interesting exam, I found it quite challenging because, well basically in most cases all the multiple choice answers were “positive” and could have been correct… What do I mean well, for the scenarios described the companies would have benefited if any of the answers were followed… what the exam looks for is the “most right” answer based on the wording of the questions…

I don’t think you get that by a course or cramming… It’s the experience of working with clients and understanding what is really important to them, what meets their needs, doesn’t step over their cultural boundaries and answers the question in MSFT’s eyes..

BVPS itself kinda fits only when there are clear challenges around business process with human interaction and links to the Microsoft Information Worker platforms and products… I’ll be looking to evolve BVPS thinking around more fluid, non-structured, loosely coupled, non-process orientated “flows” within an organisation.

So now I have the certificate, what next well… Firstly I’m developing a wider business value consulting proposition here at Trinity that includes BVPS and other consulting approaches I’ve architected, and also I’ll be focussing on business value at a Trinity SharePoint 2010 Event we are holding later in January in Coventry and March in London along with Matt Groves. Ongoing, I’ll be looking at a verticalised focus on BVPS, starting with the Public Sector.

So if you or a client need to engage around delivering business value from a general organisational or Microsoft Information Worker perspective, give me a call..

It’s official, Microsoft say I can help your business achieve your business strategy!

How Do You Make A Strategy Stick?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Sticky Strategy is an interesting concept… I hear and see a great deal about strategies of all sorts in my consulting work both successful, ineffectual, innovative, obvious etc, but the number of true IT strategies that are operational i.e. have been implemented and are being managed and tracked are few and far between.

My definition of a sticky strategy is one that, once created (by the organisation or a partner like Trinity) actually gets implemented, no dust, no change of heart no ignorance, just strategy created + strategy followed = business and IT outcomes are being achieved.

There are a stack of challenges that prevent a strategy from sticking and deliver:

Confusion over what IT Strategy means:
- Applications
- Infrastructure
- Full IT estate
- Collaboration
- Virtualisation
- etc
Not taking sufficient heed over business strategy
Focussing on strategy duration
- Why will a 5 year IT strategy keep you in a better position than a 1 1/2 year one that is regularly evolved with business changes?
Evolving Service Models (see Stop Talking Fluffy Cloud Crap!)
IT resources
- People
- Financial
- Knowledge
- Skills
Business and economic influences

So back on track, how do you make an IT Strategy, whatever flavour it is, stick? I was going to way lyrical for a few “pages” about this, but the reality is that won’t add any value to you, and there are only, in my opinion, a small number of truths that together ensure the delivery of a “Sticky Strategy”..

Business Vision and IT Strategy Alignment
- Business first
- IT Strategy has to deliver “services” that directly support the Business Strategy
- IT Strategy must be regularly evolved to keep in sync with business strategy changes, market influences and economic drivers
Be Actionable
- Must be able to clearly articulate tangible IT projects from the strategy
- IT must be able to deliver with their IT eco-system (partners, contractors etc)
Deliver Demonstrable Value
- Primarily to the Business (first bullet)
- Secondarily to the IT function
Demonstrate Awesomeness
- Make the IT Director \ Senior IT Stakeholder look awesome in the eyes of the business and the Senior Executives.

Success starts at being able to clearly define what the strategy will do for the business and how. So every IT Strategy executive summary should start with something like the following, to ensure awesomeness for all involved:

“…This strategy will facilitate the delivery of business excellence and successful achievement of our key business objectives <list>; Delivering demonstrable value <list>; Through a programme of business-led IT projects <list>…”

Hey Number 33 Who The Hell is Number 158?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Social Strategy & Dunbar’s Number
Dunbar's number has been most popularized by Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, where it plays a central role in Gladwell's arguments about the dynamics of social groups which is where I became familiar with the concept… but of course I was always “aware”, because its human nature.

So, why blog about this? Well, it’s an interesting phenomenon that I’ve witnessed both organisationally, socially and within the confines of “social networking” platforms and I guess I wanted to get my thoughts down on "paper” and illicit some thoughts and views from you guys.

Organisational Stickyness
Within organisations, as companies grow, especially from a small org to a mid-size org and structures within that organisation or a discrete operating business unit move up to the 150 mark, it is very clear that suddenly the cohesions and stickyness of the organisation (everyone knows everyone and what is the power behind great teams, departments and companies) suddenly breaks-down completely. Immediacy, flexibility and the ability to “just do it” to achieve positive business outcomes, just disappears and is replaced by process and governance to hold the “group together” and achieve the same positive ends, but it’s not the same, not by a long way!

Social Networking:
So currently I have:

Twitter – I follow 803 people & have 860 followers and appear on 22 lists
Facebook – About 300 “friends”
Physical Close Friends – Probably less than 20

So, my reality versus my virtual is drastically unbalanced, but that’s no bad thing, not to me anyway.
I kinda crave on-line attention, but off-grid and out the office I keep myself pretty much to myself…

Twitter List Experiment:
So, I’m at the time of writing creating a Twitter List of 140-odd people that I would have an unprompted conversation at any bar in any town of I saw them; the kinda people with whom I think I have a connection, add value to me or I work well with in whatever sense…
This list will grow and shrink like the tide and people will drift in and out like pebbles on the shore – but there will never be any more that 149 pebbles, but that’s no issue for you, the list is just another type of filter… not something to get hung up on… its all in my head, its all psychological ;-)

Finally,
Gladwell also refers to Mark Granovetter’s theory of “The Strength of Weak Ties.” this is where Twitter’s power is for me, this is the massive groups of interesting, powerfuil, influencing people that missed the Dunbar List but I would never be without!
The Twitter platform seamlessly supports engagement between close friends, peers, work colleagues and loose ties and allows people, brands and organisations to float between these categories as is appropriate and required.

Go make a list, but don’t make it too long and don’t worry if I’m not on it… that’s my problem and my value proposition to you!

Stop Talking Fluffy Cloud Crap!

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Awesome "How to talk about cloud sensibly" document from NIST:

NIST Definition of Cloud Computing v15

The key elements to me are (a) Moving focus away from “cloud” and more to what it delivers, (b) Definition of Models and (c) Simplicity! I’ve summarised these below, but please go read the 2 page-document:

Characteristics

On-Demand Self-Service
Broad Network Access
Resource Pooling
Rapid Elasticity
Measured Service

Service Models:

Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS)
Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Deployment Models:

Private Cloud
Community Cloud
Public Cloud
Hybrid Cloud

The document doesn’t seek to define how these are implemented but does create a wonderfully simple common ground so we can stop talking "fluffy clouds” and start talking about what our clients need in a clear and concise language!

Go Read Today!

Job One…

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:16:00 +0000

So after a fair few days of tweaking, the blog is now up and running, content is in from the old www.soulsailor.co.uk and www.fluffycloudsofinnovation.com and I’m pretty happy with the layout, design and function…

This was job one on my way towards being Fookin Amazin’ – Now it’s time to start delivering quality adding value and engaging everyone.

Feedback is always welcome… but remember it’s after 1am when I’m writing, I haven’t been drinking, and its been at least 8 hours since my last coffee; so I’m kinda sensitive now… Any criticism leave till after my first coffee of the morning please!!

Got the builders in.

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:45:00 +0000

You may have noticed that I have now pulled together the posts from:

I'm still not sure that this is the best approach, but I think that the current levels of blogging on both domains will mean that a mix will sit ok with everyone.

For the next week or so I will be tuning the blogs functionality, layout etc.

Let me know what you think from a look & feel perspective and also from combining my two personas.

We Are Recruiting!

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:24:00 +0000

We are currently recruiting for several key positions, please get in touch via the Trinity website or with me directly...
Usual company info is available here: www.tesl.com

I've been here for nearly 3 years and I think it's a pretty awesome place to work, we have a well established and exceptionally talented organisation and we need more exceptional people to join us!

We offer excellent career development and have some really exciting opportunities in the pipeline!
Senior Consultants/Architects - £60-80k +
http://www.tesl.com/TESL/Careers/Jobs/Strategic+consultant+Microsoft+SharePoint+Architect.htm
http://www.tesl.com/TESL/Careers/Jobs/strategic+consultant+Web+Application+Architect.htm
http://www.tesl.com/TESL/Careers/Jobs/strategic+consultant++Microsoft+CRM.htm
http://www.tesl.com/TESL/Careers/Jobs/strategic+consultant++Business+Intelligence.htm

Please get in touch via our Website (www.tesl.com) or with me (see below) directly, I am happy to answer any questions and if you'd rather have an informal chat then I'd like to hear from you...
At this time I do not want to hear from agencies, the roles are all permanent (although contracts may be offered from time to time).
email: antonyc@tesl.com
web: www.tesl.com
Twitter: @soulsailor
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/AntonyClay

Is Google OS a SharePoint Killer?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:59:00 +0000

It’s early days, really early days… but what if, just what if Google OS delivers all the collaboration and business functionality you actually need:

Blog
Wiki
Email
Documents
Team Collaboration
Spreadsheets
Data
etc

How far away from that are we, they have all the apps now… well not very far at all by the sounds of it (http://mashable.com/2009/11/19/google-chrome-os-launch/) and although the SharePoint bashing is usually a crock-o-crap and I am definitely a fan, maybe just maybe, a device that boots really quickly, allowing individual, global and team working may just be the thing that seriously challenges Microsoft SharePoint.

All Google OS needs is proper integration between it’s business and collaboration services and Microsoft will have a proper fight on their hands, this will take time, I think it’s a 3 year battle, but Google OS v2 will definitely be the one to watch!

Just thinking…

Just saying…

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,SharePoint,Google,"Google OS",Collaboration

Ant Having Naked Conversations in Twitterville

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:13:00 +0000

Last week I was lucky enough to get invited out to Dinner with Shel Israel (@ShelIsrael) Co-Author with Robert Scoble of “Naked Conversations” and now Author of “Twittervile, How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods” and Adrian Moss, Head of Head Web 2.0/SocMed Practice at Parity who was hosting Shel on his UK leg of the book launch (see my review here).

It was a chance encounter, I’ve been a virtual friend of Shel for a while, following his blog and tweets for ages, and was lucky enough to get some thoughts I had included in the Twitterville book. I had been looking forward to the chance to meet him at the Social Media Summit but a client engagement meant I wasn’t able to attend… an email dropped into my inbox early last week inviting me out to Dinner with Shel and Adrian the night before… #Win!

So I headed down to London last Wednesday night, found a great pub nearby for us to meet at, Somers Town Coffee House, somewhat fitting, relatively quiet, filled with lots of interesting people and a stack of conversations going on… So Shel and Adrian rocked up, we exchanged pleasantries and got the pints ordered, some jokes flowed and we sat down to what was going to be a great hour of frenetic chat about:

Social Media
The Midlands Car Industry
Naked Conversations
Family
Twittervile
Jobs
Culture
Public Speaking

That was a hell of a lot of subjects to cram it an hour or so, but as with great connections and platforms like twitter, it felt like I’d known these guys for years, just as Shel had said in a tweet early that day:

“Dinner w/ @soulsailor is another example of meeting an old friend for the 1st time, one of the things that makes twitter so very cool.”

It was a great pint and Shel is, just like it says on his business card, a “nice guy”..

So then it was off to Snazz Sichuan, check out the menu… it was SCARY and required a fair bit of effort from us all to find something that wasn’t going to kill us or make us regret it on the throne in the morning #BlameAdrianMoss was an apt hash-tag for the evening!

The reality was that there was some great food and beer at Snazz Sichuan, the staff were very courteous, and the conversation continued in the same vein as in the pub.. All in all it was a great night, it was an honour to meet Shel, it was good to see Adrian and we all had some very interesting conversations that need continuing…

There’s a hell of a lot of power and satisfaction in taking an online conversation offline… Go meet those virtual friends and acquaintances for the first time.

Technorati Tags: Twitterville,"Naked Conversations","Shel Israel",Parity,Soulsailor

Welsh Lightbulbs…

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:33:00 +0000

A few months ago I had a great session with a prospective client of mine in a welsh government body, talking about how SharePoint could enable their business processes in a range of ways… I got to pen my initial thoughts at EndUserSharePoint and the post is here:

http://www.endusersharepoint.com/2009/09/14/a-sharepoint-case-study-switching-on-the-right-light-bulbs/

It was an interesting short engagement, but one that seems to be being repeated more and more. There seems to be a heap of clients that are looking for SharePoint as an appropriate platform for enabling their document centric business processes and that are seeking people and organisations like us to support them in their strive for business justification..

Technorati Tags: SharePoint,Wales,Government,Strategy,"Case Study",EndUserSharePoint,Soulsailor

Twitterville by Shel Israel – Would you live there?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:29:00 +0000

Yes I would, and I think I’d probably want to own the pub on the corner ;-)

Disclosure: I contributed to the book.. page 262\263.

@ShelIsrael is a great, well respected guy; his blog posts have great insight and his Twitter stream is diverse and one of my (@SoulSailor) favourites and, assuming he ever makes it over to England, I can’t wait to have a few pints and talk about twitter and life at an “English pub” in Rugby ;-) just like he promised!

Firstly, let me make it clear that book reviews aren’t my thing… I read, I enjoy and I move on so be warned!

This is a book that you absolutely need to read if you’re not sure about Twitter, your just dipping your toe in or if you wanna know the hows and the whys…The book is in three main sections… a kinda “how it started”, “what people are doing” and a sort of “beginners guide”.

For me, Twitterville is a positive journey through the characters and impacts that Twitter has had since its inception. Some have said in previous reviews of the book that it’s too positive, well Twitter is what you make of it and I think that Shel does a great job showing what is possible to achieve with the platform..

The sub-title of the book is “How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods” well absolutely yes they can, but it’s clear that although a positive book, Shel makes no bones in the stories he tells, as to how freaking hard it is, the dedication, innovation, foresight and determination that one needs to succeed, but the platform is there, the villagers are waiting to hear what you’ve got to say, you just need to bring to Twitterville the catalyst, that's what is key!

I’m not going to comment on the last section of the book.. this is clearly aimed at the newbie.. a kinda step-by-step approach to getting engaged into the conversation and adding value… I can see this “completes” the journey depicted in the book, especially if this is a whole new world to you, but for me it gave nothing that I didn’t know or agree with; it doesn't detract from the books value, just skip it as Shel suggests :-)

The apparently random (to me) tweets through the book give some light as to what can be said in 140 characters… but to some extent they felt a little too random… but hey maybe that’s a true reflection of the twitter stream?

I really enjoyed the first sections in the book, how it all got started was explained very well with some great insights into both Twitter and the early adopters, really gave a sense at how far the Twitter platform had come over it’s short life and how much it has been shaped by the community rather than inside Twitter HQ…

The bulk of the rest of the book is a demonstration through well articulated stories of how a cross section of Twitterville are using Twitter to help their personal, business or charitable aims… I found the stories compelling, realistic and in most cases I was reassured that my own visions were being played out elsewhere in some way and were therefore attainable.

As many have said already Twitterville seems like the younger sister of “Naked Conversations”, it’s arrival is timely and the context seemingly flows naturally from what was said by Scoble and Shel previously but applied to the platform of the present; I’m sure Twitter won’t be around in the future but platforms supporting the subscription and publication and reuse of a stream of SAM’s (Simple Activity Messages) will absolutely be an integral part of the future technology landscape.

Overall this is a great book, rounded, accurate, appropriate, educational and most importantly eminently readable…

Go grab a copy, get a pint and sit down in your local pub and educate yourself…

Social Sales Cycle - Create or Die!

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:09:00 +0000

So we are in a recession, inevitably the chase is now on for Revenue Protection & Revenue Generation…

According to Heidrick & Struggles, the No. 1 focus for C-level executives in 2009 is the customer—acquiring new ones, increasing retention and improving their lifetime value, in that order.

Eighty-eight percent of the executives surveyed said acquiring new customers was important, and 87% said the same about customer retention. Least important on their list of priorities were improving marketing’s impact on shareholder value, retaining talent and expanding to new geographies.

This makes sense in current economic conditions—if a business is struggling, further development gets pushed to the back burner. Talent is easy to come by when unemployment is high, and if sales increase, shareholder value will naturally follow.

The question is how to increase sales.

Most significant to senior executives was optimizing the efficiency of the marketing mix across the business (including digital marketing), followed by responding more rapidly to growth opportunities and improving the consistency of marketing and sales communications.

The time for the Social Sales Cycle is most definitely here, and it’s likely that in your organisation there isn’t a Social Sales Cycle… or at least not a recognisable one!

If you asked any Sales Person or Account Manager though, they will absolutely agree that sales, relationships and opportunities are best achieved looking at the whites of the clients eyes and breathing the same air…

But this is social, personal, emotional, communicative… this is Social, isn’t it?

Traditional Sales methods around client engagements are certainly the start of the Social Sales Cycle, it’s like the root, but to make it really work, to maximise its effectiveness and to make it really resonate in todays culture and your industry or sector then you need facilitators and that is where social media needs to be embraced to amplify and control the effects of “voice” and “emotion” in business settings.

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004900.html

I don’t need to say any more, but you do….

Create Reputation
Create Conversations
Create Stories
Create Connections
Create Brand
Create Opportunities
Create Revenue

Create the companies Social Sales Cycle…or die

Technorati Tags: "Social Sales Cycle" "Create or Die" "Social Media" "Social Networking" Connections Conversations

Social Media in the Sales Cycle or Social Sales Cycle?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:23:00 +0000

~~Social Media in the Sales Cycle~~

Social Sales Cycle…

I don’t think that this should be as scary a prospect for any corporate organisation as perhaps we all initially perceive.

Chris Brogan wrote a good summary post earlier this week titled Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle. Chris Brogan advises businesses, organizations, and individuals on how to use social media and social networks to build relationships and deliver value and is well respected in “social circles”…

His key point is that the sales cycle has a number of points, roughly:

Prospects
Awareness
Leads
Customers
Evangelists \ Support

..and that for each of these engagement points between a supplier (just like you) and the client, traditionally differing approaches and tools were used, and that now, in the era of connections, social networks and transparency, a range of Social Media tools are relevant to be used in addition or replacing traditional marketing, sales and engagement methods… some of these tools include:

Email
Blogging
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Forums
Flickr

But these tools are not the focus of this post, more the person wielding the tool and their responsibility within the supplier organisation and the sales cycle.

All organisations have a number of overlapping areas that make up the “Sales Cycle” and a set of tools and techniques..

Sales
- Sales methods
- Relationships
- CRM
Marketing
- Web Site
- Telesales \ Direct Mail
- Campaigns
- Events
Senior Consultants
- Relationships
- Social Media – Blogs, Twitter, forums etc
- Authenticity – Technical Delivery, Events etc
Rest of the organisation
- Relationships
- Social Media – Blogs, Twitter, forums etc
- Authenticity – Technical Delivery, Events etc

As has been discussed at length both personally, within Trinity and across our sectors, the way we do business is changing, the ability to influence clients, drive client satisfaction, raise awareness, revenue generation and revenue protection has absolutely expanded outwards from Sales & Marketing and into the hands of each and every employee, within the organisation and this is especially so for an organisations senior consultants, technologists and strategists..

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin illustrates that point very well.
"Marketing", the word, has become tainted by the apparent lack of interest that most professional marketers pay to their markets. They seem to not be listening to the market...

Guess what, the market stops listening to them...

So we need to be aware, understand our role, power, influence and impact on “sales”… I’ve only been at Trinity for a couple of years, but even in that time I’ve seen a marked shift in the sphere of influence of our Strategic Consultants and certainly in my role and with my skills it’s apparent to me that we are all becoming a powerful mix of Technologist, Strategist, Marketer and Sales Person…

So I ask you all to think about “Social Media in the Sales Cycle”, who should be “selling” and what role do you have in the “Social Sales Cycle”?

Who should be blogging?
Who should be delivering content through our web site?
Who should be “listening” to where our brand is?
Who should be attending events?
Should we Tweet?
Who should be speaking?
Who should update CRM?
Who should have the relationships?

The Ant Clay view of the world is that anyone with a voice, with authenticity, with trust, with brand, with respect, with experience and something positive to offer for your organisation and its clients (new and old) should “be involved”….

Involved doesn't mean leading, owning or solely involved… involvement, many voices, authenticity an employee crowd-sourced sales cycle :-)

If you’re in any doubt that the world is changing have a look at the great presentations out there on marketing, social media, new ways of working etc.. Matt Groves did a great presentation on “Building Trust via the Web” at a team meeting earlier in the week… He gets it, I get it, do you or your organisation or your clients??

And Finally: Doing a Google search for “Social Sales Cycle” brings back zero hits! That phrase is mine :-)
Update: it now brings back one result from a tweet of mine! http://twitter.com/Soulsailor

Written with Windows Live Writer

Technorati Tags: "Social Sales Cycle"

I am the Worst, I am a Non-Soulsailor!

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:44:00 +0000

I have something to say… I am sorry…

I am sad, unhappy, maybe even ashamed… I have done something that I swore wouldn’t happen, that makes my eyes weep…

I have put my eldest son off sailing the Miracle at this year Nationals….

Yep, a combination of:

Me being too competitive
Shouting
Ripping the spinnaker (actually he like the way it looked like a smiley face!)
Windy
Me being too competitive

…at Brixham Nationals last year has caused my son, my crew to say “NO” to coming to the Nationals this year… he may get won round over the course of this season for next year, but I have truly blown it for 2009…

So, the Soulsailor really didn’t think of the soul did he?

On slightly more cheerful news, the Miracle has been re-varnished (thnxs dad) and is back at the club ready to be sailed… both sons still want to sail thankfully.. just not as competitively as I’d like…!

So I will see you on the water this year, at some point, and I will be on my best behaviour!

The Digital Nomads - 12*6 Service

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:53:00 +0000

Looking around at the majority of my peers in the industry, within my organisation and more prevalently in our customers, its blatantly obvious that the 9-5 Monday to Friday working ethos is dissolving far more rapidly than perhaps we would like to admit we are very much into the global warming phase of the work-life balance ecology…

I’m a typical (tell me if I’m wrong) IT Strategist… I have a laptop, I have connectivity at home, work and in between, I have a work phone (Blackberry) and a personal digital device (iPhone), I’m rarely unconnected and I have an absolute bucket-load of things on my mind, such as this lot:

So how does a typical day flow for me and where do the edges of the old, “nice” 9-5 get bled to death?

between 6am – 7am
Wake up slowly
Check email (iPhone maybe Blackberry)
Shower etc
Breakfast with family (unless I’m on the road early, then its just breakfast with the dog!)
iPhone - Scan RSS, Check Twitter… replies, DM’s and scan through a few pages of tweets… Favourite those I think may be worth consuming properly
between 7am – 8:30am
Go to work \ client

Car and usually catch up on phone calls..
Train then its email, calls, tweets, RSS… maybe knock up document skeletons, ideas, brainstorm etc…

Work..laptop\iPhone checking backchannels occasionally when\if appropriate
sometime between 12pm – 2pm
Lunch…iPhone - Scan RSS, Check Twitter… replies, DM’s and scan through a few pages of tweets… look in depth at any Favourite’d items
Work..laptop\iPhone checking backchannels occasionally when\if appropriate
between 5:30pm – 7:00pm
Go to home

Car and usually catch up on phone calls..
Train then its email, calls, tweets, RSS… maybe knock up document skeletons, ideas, brainstorm etc…

between 6:30pm – 9:00pm
Kids & wife… eat, kids to bed, (or eat later)
TV \ Music
Laptop \ iPhone - Scan RSS, Check Twitter… replies, DM’s and scan through a few pages of tweets… look in depth at any Favourite’d items
TV \ Music
between 9:00pm – 10:30pm
Catchup on emails, admin, proposals etc
TV \ Music
between 10pm – 2am
Laptop \ iPhone - Scan RSS, Check Twitter… replies, DM’s and scan through a few pages of tweets… look in depth at any Favourite’d items
between 11pm – 2am
Sleep..

Thats crap isn’t it… I mean I’m productive in the day…and when travelling… but why the uncompromising activities in the evening?? And worse a cut-down version of the above @ weekends too!

I guess the only excuse (and its a poor one) is that I, we, all of us are trying to just cling to the ever-changing digital world that keep incessantly revolving, changing, innovating and leaping ahead across time-zones, technologies, cultures and strategies…

The only way we can stay ahead of the game is to plug in and consume and participate, share, add value and learn…constantly…

There must be a better way to stay ahead of the game without “bleeding eyes” and pissed off families…Isn’t there??

Technorati Tags: work,life,balance,consulting

Does a Pure Architecture Muddy the Business Waters?

noreply@blogger.com (Ant) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:34:00 +0000

Recent conversations with a range of clients and peers has led me to some soul-searching and thinking regarding IT Strategy, Business Outcomes, Enterprise Architecture and Technical Implementation.

Specifically I’ve been pondering the relationship, benefits and possible contradictions between a true loosely coupled Service-Focussed Strategy and that of a Strategic Platform (typically single vendor).

From an architecture-purest perspective, a loosely coupled service strategy offers significant benefits both from a business perspective, technology delivery, flexibility, openness and lack of vendor tie-in; however those benefits come with a cost as far as I can see that, unchecked far outweighs the benefits…

Taking the widely adopted scenario whereby you separate out UX, Logic and Data Storage and deliver these using “services”, that works great; I love the fact that I can instigate business processes from a number of end-points, it’s great that I can consume the data through a range of interfaces and I absolutely think it’s the only way forward to enable me as an end-user to remix the data and add my context and expertise to it in an open manner…

But in an organisation this flexibility without constraints will not enable the delivery of business outcomes… rather the flexibility will become anarchy, end users and technology implementors will be confused, it will hinder productivity and the ability for the platform to deliver the users business outcomes!

Our role as IT leaders, strategists and pragmatists is IMHO to to take the architectural vision and deliver those principles in an appropriate manner, this means making sure we don’t facilitate:

Multiple User Experiences
Multiple Dev languages & tools
Loss or confusion of context
Increase in complexity

Architecture validity is a key concept, but delivering business outcomes and supporting business strategy must come first and to do this, Architecture and Strategic Platforms need to have a more mature relationship between themselves.

What rules the roost in your organisation?

Does Architecture drive and shape the business solution?

Does the Strategic Platform cut the corners off the Architecture?

…or does the Strategic Platform deliver direction and pragmatism to the Architectural vision?

Technorati Tags: strategy,architecture,enterprise,"business outcomes"