The Highlight Report

Cutting IT Spending: a case study

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:19:00 +0000

Here is an interesting case. A customer of mine was engaged in a cost optimization process. The IT department was examining how the end user equipment assets could be made subject to such an exercise, with an aim to significantly reduce costs.

Within this remit, a new policy detailing the allocation of laptops and smartphones needed to be developed, detailing the rationale behind the cost-effective allocation of end user equipment. The use of these devices had to be made subject to specific, shared and well understood business needs. Equipment allocation should be backed by a decision matrix that went well beyond the traditional set of arguments. (E.g. hierarchical position or management request)

Because the nature of the business of my client was severely impacted by compliancy and security considerations, mobility enhancing initiatives were not a main strategic consideration. This meant that no plans were under development to address the more common market challenges of mobile computing, information management and social computing.

This is important to note because such a strategy would influence to a great degree any end user equipment profiling exercise. (E.g. ‘bring your own device’) As this was not the case here, we could safely assume that remote work would remain limited, mobile computing needs would not exceed simple mail and document access and the number of people needing ‘anytime, anywhere’ access would remain limited for the time being.

So the scope here was a reduction in the number of assets rather than a long term end user efficiency enhancing exercise. But this didn't imply that valid business needs and allocation rules did not need to be researched, synchronized and documented. The aim of the exercise was to look for opportunities to introduce an accepted rule base to allocate end user equipment adapted to a specific business environment while reducing IT spending.

We proposed an approach based on a suggestion in a Forrester study on Smart Workforce Segmentation (February 2011), and adapted it to the needs of our client.

First categorize the employee population factored around 2 to 3 key dimensions engaging with representatives from HR, the Business and IT. Then interview a sample of each employee segment checking the validity of each category's need for IT devices. Rework the matrix, validate the business case for each IT need, and capture the business rationale. Document and ratify the policy, get acceptance from the stakeholders, appoint gatekeepers and enforce the policy.

So, even an IT spending exercise is an opportunity to increase end-user efficiency, to position IT as a business partner and to learn more about your end-users.

Bring your own device to work!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:08:00 +0000

There's a lot of talk going around about 'Bring your own Device' to work. (BYOD) But it's not all talk. While we're contemplating how to include this evolution in a neat IT Governance and Service model, iPads and other tablets are popping up all over the place. People just love these devices and how it facilitates their work.
So companies need to act quickly, a place must be carved out in the workspace to accomodate these modes of working. From an IT management standpoint it should be easy to introduce, support and manage. My company is developping a strong support platform to help companies implement BYOD.

But why should we provide room for a BYOD strategy? Here are some things to ponder. (Thanks to my colleague Sybren ten Wolde, Global Practice manager at Getronics.)

The biggest driver for BYOD is often employee satisfaction in combination with productivity. BYOD is stimulating creativity, supports information sharing and social media using the latest mobile devices in and outside the office, compared to a more traditional environment.
We also see the rise and high adoption levels of mobile devices which are aimed at consumers, but are also suitable for professional business activities. This trend is likely to have an equally significant impact on operations as the introduction of the PC.
BYOD can reduce training costs as well as the costs for management and support if new policies are well ensured. Procurement costs for the organization can eventually be reduced if they are shared with personal budgets between company and employee, where the employee is also using their device(s) for private use.
Embracing a BYOD policy can also help accelerate the process of IT transforming itself from cost center to business partner.

So bring it on!

The Pyramid Principle: structure your thinking!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:36:00 +0000

We talk with clients, we analyze their needs, we capture concerns, we design IT solutions. We think we have a good solution for a particular client. We know that our service or our solution can really create value. And then comes the hard part:...we need to convince them of this simple fact.

But even before we build our sales strategy around a TCO reduction, a performance increase, a service guarantee or the absence of worries, we need to get something clear. We need to be able to present - in writing or during a presentation - our solution. This is no easy feat! We need to be concise and clear, we need to develop a narrative that addresses the implicit needs of the client. In short: we need logic. We must think things through with logic and perseverance. IT solutions tend to spiral out of control and devolve into super complexity. Only one thing can save us: our logic.

From time to time I coach colleagues in how to create good presentations. The methodology I use is heavily influenced by Barbara Minto's book: 'The Pyramid Principle - Logic in Writing and Thinking' The key concept of the book is that every idea worth conveying must be considered as the top of a 'thoughts' pyramid. The top then serves as a lynchpin - this binding concept will bundle ever broadening levels of comprehension and information.(Moving down the pyramid...)

We have used this concept to structure our presentations around this three layered approach. Our first three slides must tell in roughly 10 minutes the key idea (situation) - the factors surrounding it (complication) and the corroborating evidence for the solution (the third layer of the pyramid: the solution). After these crucial first 10 minutes your audience should be hooked and ready for a more in-depth explanation.

I also use it to structure my management summaries.

Trending or walking on thin ice...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:29:00 +0000

It is difficult to look into the future. Many are the futurologists and trend watchers who have - to their misfortune - totally missed the mark with their predictions. But still we read them, we want to believe that someone out there may have a crystal ball through which we could see the future. Perhaps, it takes away some of the anxiety related to the ever accelerating changes characterizing our society and economy. Still, it takes courage to predict (publicly) new trends, socio-economical changes, or new technology. I am not talking about the latest web 'thing' or internet meme, I am talking about real changes in the way people interact and use information and information devices. Remember the executive of a large IT company who - in 1943 - said that 'there is a world market for maybe five computers'.

Gartner issued a list with their top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2012. It is a mix of emergent and mature technologies that have the potential to significantly disrupt a company's Business or IT landscape.

So here are some of them with my remarks. From a consulting viewpoint it gives us some direction on what topics to follow in the near future..clients could have some serious questions relating to these trends and how it might impact their IT architecture.

Media Tablet and Beyond: Mobile computing and BYOD questions abound but it is clear that users are driving this change, people want to interact with data in a convenient way and will choose the most convenient platform.

Mobile centric applications: Learn HTML 5 - web apps are on the rise. Apps will need to be cross platform.

Contextual and Social user Experience: Context is king - how you deal with information will be driven by the context: location, functionality, preferences ...

The internet of things: think embedded sensors and hooking up all sort of devices with the internet. No, it's not only the fridge that orders my groceries when I am running low on food but the possibility to enhance customer experience with image recognition, or easy payment through mobile devices...

Big Data: we talked about it before. The demands for data management are increasing. Other factors include the impact of the increasing amount of information on models for data warehousing and data analytics.

Cloud computing: a lot of IT players are gearing up to provide cloud services, it will be one of the most intrusive change drivers for existing IT set ups. Hybrid solutions, governance models and security measures will have to co-evolve at the same speed.

It is an interesting list. Especially if you compare it with Gartner's 'Top 10 Disruptive Technologies for 2008 to 2012' list from May 2008. The lists overlap to a large degree. Cloud Computing, web platforms, contextual and ubiquitous computing remain the main considerations for the CIO of today and tomorrow.

Of all the technologies mentioned, I would like to see 'augmented (virtual?) reality' finally living up to some of its promises.

Do you think Gartner has missed some game changers? I am interested to hear what other people think.

Tales from the Toolbox: Business Model Generation

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:54:00 +0000

As a consultant you get confronted with a lot of different challenges and opportunities. Every new mission or project is characterized by its own typical mix of scope, complexity, risks, client expectancies, project drivers and stakeholders. You need to get an overview of these factors fast, if you want to safeguard the success of your project. Sometimes these things are not even clear for the client, let alone for you, an outsider. So we need to dive into these matters with a fresh perspective, backed by our experience and...our toolbox.
My imaginary toolbox is a set of techniques I can use to:

Acquire information, to get something into the open, to create an awareness that wasn’t there before,
To facilitate something (acceptance, collaboration, problem resolution, sign-off…)
To deliver, create, build a solution, a thing of value to the client.

Consultants gradually build up their toolbox and must take time to periodically assess the value of its content. So, here’s one from my toolbox that I think you can use when you are trying to visualize some business drivers related to an IT project.
It is based on the excellent handbook: ‘Business Model Generation’ written by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur. Basically this book describes a tool - a language - for describing and assessing business models. This ‘canvas’ as they call it, creates the necessary basis for a kind of ‘joint’ vocabulary to tackle business problems. In 'architecture speak', it creates semantic interoperability. (Always a good thing to avoid Babyloneon confusion.)

The canvas consists of 9 building blocks (Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, Customer Relationships, Revenue streams, Key Resources, Key activities, Key Partnerships and Cost structure) you can use to thoroughly outline a necessary component for business success. In addition it describes a set of techniques (Customer Insights, Ideation, Visual Thinking, Prototyping, Storytelling and Scenarios) that can be used during workshops to capture and discuss these building blocks.

Its main advantage – in my view - is that these insights, building blocks and techniques are scalable to the ‘business’ you want to scope. For instance, for a client in the banking sector, I have used the canvas to visualize a set of key IT services during a workshop with IT management, and used this information to devise a user satisfaction survey that directly links to the service model they wish to pursue…It also helped to facilitate a workshop we did internally on prototyping our consulting offering. It could also be a good tool to help scetch out the Target Business architecture for a client when you use the TOGAF framework.

Let me know how you used ‘Business Model Generation’ with your clients!

Using TOGAF for Enterprise Architecture: the Über Framework?

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:03:00 +0000

TOGAF is a framework for structuring the way you can build a coherent Enterprise Architecture, it describes the process that can lead to an architecture that syncs the IT and the Business Architecture. This is the holy grail of alignment. That elusive quality that determines whether a company can successfully iterate its value chain in today's competitive markets. And in my job it is the benchmark by which I judge the quality of my actions and my advice towards customers.

There is a lot to say for TOGAF. Its emphasis on the free flow of information, reusability of components and the adaptability of the process make it an effective tool, not only to chart business aspects that are related to IT but to get an overall view on the business components. Of course TOGAF cannot hide its IT origins (IT legacy issues, anyone?) but as an ICT Business consultant, I think that the tool is powerful enough to encompass a complete business mapping.

How do we position TOGAF in relation to other frameworks such as ITIL, COBIT and PRINCE 2? Two points are obvious here. First, it is clear that TOGAF with its Architecture Development Method (ADM) is a higher-level framework than the others because it clearly addresses key strategic business questions to kick off the architecture development method, rooting any subsequent IT modeling firmly on business prerogatives.

Secondly, although several processes from other frameworks mirror some key ADM building blocks and architecture elements (Change management in ITL and TOGAF, the TOGAF Enterprise Contiuum and the ITIL CMDB, the Prince2 Project Brief vs. the TOGAF 'Request for Architectural Work', COBIT's 'Determining Technological Direction' (PO3) vs the ADM Vision building block etc...) it is clear that the most natural connections between TOGAF and other frameworks is through the 'Implementation Governance' part in TOGAF providing a 'ready made' portal for the implementation of operational and service based best practices such as Prince2 or ITIL.

So, from an IT point of view, don't wait on TOGAF to implement good governance, get started on COBIT, but from a Business point of view, get started on an enterprise architecture for a more long-term and more robust alignment.

But don't forget - frameworks are nothing without the people who support it. On that we can agree.

European Mobility week and working from Home...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:33:00 +0000

'The European Mobility Week is an awareness raising campaign aiming at sensibilising citizens to the use of public transport, cycling, walking and at encouraging European cities to promote these modes of transport and to invest in the new necessary infrastructures. From 16 to 22 September 2011 the Mobility Week is the opportunity for European cities and towns to participate to the most widespread event on sustainable mobility.' You can read more about this at the official website.

My company is of course participating. As specialists of the ICT workspace we can hardly do otherwise. But true flexibility to work from anywhere and at any time can only come about in a company that mixes the right corporate culture of trust and transparency with the right ICT tooling. It is a very good thing to promote public transport but it is even better if you give people the tools to occasionally work from home so they do not have to come into the office each day.

Regarding this corporate culture issue, do you want to know some interesting facts? (From the third edition of the yearly survey on ICT in the workplace, conducted by InSites Consulting for Getronics. Based on results from 1.516 employees in December 2010)

25% of Belgian employers don’t allow homeworking at all (this figure is actually increasing!)
Only one in three companies have a written homeworking policy
Efficiency would increase according to no less than 64% of employees
Employees see three main benefits in working at home: a better quality of Life (73%), concentration (72%) on specific tasks and increased creativity (53%) when working on a project.

It seems there still are a lot of obstacles for increased mobility in the workspace, despite the obvious benefits flex working can produce. Employers will have to face these issues in the near future, not only from a 'ecological' point of view, but from an economical point of view as well. In addition to this, future employees, the so called digital natives, expect this kind of flexibility.

So the European mobility week is yet another initiative to get this issue in the minds and hearts of people, employers and employees alike. But the really competitive companies already have this flexibility or are busy preparing for it..

How to use your erotic capital...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Should a consultant be attractive or beautiful? This is a weird question. But it seems we have a new form of capital we can use in the workplace to further our careers. It is the so-called 'erotic' capital. In other words, if you got it, flaunt it.

According to Catherine Hakim, in a blogpost on the London Evening Standard on 22 Aug 2011, 'Attractive wins and ugly loses in today's rat race.' For her the term 'erotic' capital covers a mixture of traits like beauty, good dress sense, physical fitness, social skills, liveliness, sex appeal and sexual competence. Apart from the difficulty that it poses to recruiters to ascertain these qualities (especially the last one) during job interviews without exposing themselves to a harassment suit, do we really want to live in a world where woman (and man) are judged on how they look and dress?

You could argue that we already live in such a world. That we infer things about people based on the way they look. We all do this. It is only human. This is true. In psychology we used to talk about JAVRIS people. An acronym meaning: young, attractive, verbal, rich, intelligent and socially adapted. Studies have shown that JAVRIS people tend to have a greater chance to succeed in life. (Duh!) We tend to favor people who look good. But we also know that 'personality goes a long way', as Samuel Jackson says in the movie 'Pulp Fiction'. And our competencies and skills also go a long way in how people or colleagues perceive us. As it should be! Any 'mature' person will not base his assumption about people solely on their looks (although it might subtly influence the decision making process.)

But for Catherine Hakim the 'erotic' capital will become more important as it will provide us with a steady accumulation of marginal benefits, as she calls it. Ugliness is out! This may be the case and it may say something about certain values that seem to arise in the current business environment, but we must not forget that there are also moral and ethical virtues at play. Always. What about the less than beauty queens or poster boy models of this world? Is this just another way of injecting yet again more inequality in our current society? It also says something to the young women entering the workspace (or - come to think of it - the slightly older women). And in that way it diminishes us all.

All work and no play ...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:32:00 +0000

I just stumbled on an interesting press release about the 'Key Data on Learning and Innovation through ICT in European schools 2011' report from the European Commission (Eurydice). Based on research data from 31 countries it seems that 83% of all 15 year olds use their computer for leisure and fun activities compared to 46% using the computer for their homework. And only 20% of the students use a computer at school to read, to write, to conduct experiments or to learn new languages. Although about half the schools in the European Union have got a PC for each pair of students. Does this surprise you? I do not think so.

This is just another example of the Homo Ludens - Man the Player - involved with what he does best: play. Johan Huizinga, who wrote a seminal book on the importance of play for the creation of culture and society in 1938 (Likewise called 'Homo Ludens') suggested that play is in essence a state of freedom.

This is something that we can easily grasp. We seem to be drawn to situations that have an element of play in them. It resonates with our human need to interact, build, learn and socialize in an unfettered way. Work only seems work when this component of 'freedom' seems lacking. Call it 'empowerment' or 'autonomy'. That is why so many jobs in the current market have become boring. By trying to create 'rule based' tasks, by trying to describe a job in overly simple process terms - that can be chopped up in constituent tasks - we are draining the work of the necessary elements of autonomy and play.

So faced with process automation, what we might be able to get in terms of quick wins, or in increased productivity, we might loose in motivation and commitment. The net result may be zero. That's why one key rule for organizing task and processes in the 'New World of Work', is to take the human centric approach. In other words...leave room to play.

3 Reasons IT consultants should run a marathon at least once...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:38:00 +0000

It simply cannot be that there are so many parallels between my job as a consultant and other area's of life. And yet I see them all the time. Am I becoming paranoid? Do I believe that there is some unseen hand at work here. Someone working behind the scenes, like the wizard of Oz? Or is it that the role has ingrained itself on my personality a bit too much? Probably the latter. Take running for instance...

I have run some marathons and (mostly) enjoyed the experience. I think a consultant might benefit from the process of preparing for - and running at least one marathon. Why?

1. You're in it for the long haul
We are wired for short term thinking. We tend to forget lessons from the past. We seek quick wins and pick the low hanging fruit. Immediate gratification is the default option. But life - and especially projects - sometimes demand that we take the longer view. That we envision solutions which may take some time to achieve. And during that time we will have to keep the momentum going. If you are a fit and trained person it generally takes about 3 to 6 months to prepare yourself for a marathon. If you are not - like most of us - it takes between 12 and 24 months to prepare for your first marathon. So if you want to be successful at it...you'll have to sustain that goal over a decent stretch of time. A lot of projects go over their allotted deadline..that's just how it is. Stamina is what you need. A marathon, a humbling experience at the best of times, will give you just that...

2. You might experience some pain
This is an understatement. You will get injured, you will curse the day you decided the run a marathon. Some people breeze through their marathon but most of us suffer. Tendons and muscles will object. On the other hand...they will get used to it. Anybody can run a marathon with the right preparation. Everything can be trained! You just learn to ignore the aches and set backs. This is exactly the right state of mind when your involved in difficult projects, especially when things go awry or when the client is not happy. But a runner knows this is just part of the job.

3. You overcome obstacles, you set goals and you keep on going
Life may interfere. You might have to reschedule training sessions. A common cold might delay your program. The marathon might be cancelled. You might have to postpone for any number of reasons. Take it in your stride. The thing you must do - the only thing you can do - is just to keep on going. You set the right goals and just keep going after them.

Want to start running? You'll get a lot in return. But the same can be said for a lot of other activities. However, I do not think birding - to take just one exemple - is a better metaphor than running for consulting. But I might be wrong. Convince me.

5 Books any IT consultant should read...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:44:00 +0000

Naturally there are more books you can read. This blog should have been titled: 50 books any IT consultant should read. But then, nobody would have read this post because of its length. And besides, all these blogposts with titles that promise a clear and concise list might draw a reader in, but are mostly based on arbitrary choices and a subjective point of view. But isn't that the definition of life itself?

1. 'Let's get Real - or let's not play' by Mahan Khalsa and Randy Illig

The primer on engaging in a real value selling approach with your customer. Provides insight into the selling cycle decision making process. You might have mastered your technical portfolio but if you cannot pinpoint the areas in which the portfolio might add real value for your client, you are not going to do a lot of business.

2. 'Enterprise governance of information technology' by Wim Van Grembergen and Steven de Haes

Another standard. This time on how to build a working governance structure into your IT Projects. The writers link the concept of IT governance with the balanced scorecard, with how it extracts value from IT projects and with the industry standard COBIT. Essential reading if you want your projects to succeed beyond the initial transition stage.

3. 'Supercharge your Management Role: Making the transition to internal consultant' by Mark Thomas and Sam Elbeik

The book that got me hooked into the consulting role. It's an oldie but it taught me the basics all those years ago. It handles all the key building blocks of consulting in a structured approach. And it basically is applicable to any kind of knowledge work - for internal or external clients.

4. The Little Prince 2 by Mark van Onna and Ans Koning

The absolute olympic minimum for your basic understanding of structured project management, based on the Prince2 industry standard. (Projects in Controlled Environments 2) This practical guide covers the groundwork. Ignore it at your own risk.

5. 'Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance' by Robert Pirsig

A book you are not likely to find among Management or IT literature but a very insightful one. A hard read at times and a strange mix between philosophical tract, travelogue, fact and fiction. But Pirsig's relentless search into the definition of quality, encompassing both a 'romantic' and a 'rational' worldview is captivating. If you think you need some professional guidance, read this book first.

So, that's your basic consulting toolkit. I remember Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski saying...'But that's just like, your opinion man...'

Agreed. Any others?

The dream of a forgotten future...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:01:00 +0000

Sometimes technology can be a curse. But sometimes it is a blessing when it transports a user to higher levels of freedom, insight or happiness. Good technology is the result of human creativity seemingly tapping from that great and shared unconscious reservoir of dreams and visions of the future. It is the materialization of embryonal desires from previous generations.

Sometimes you have to turn to writers if you wish to make a point. In 'The Gernsback Continuum' (a short story by William Gibson and published in the 'Burning Chrome' anthology) these dreams of previous generations become palpable when the protagonist, a photographer, is haunted by semi- forgotten ghost images from a lost era. The fantasized American cityscape from the 20th century (Zeppelins mooring at the top of the Empire State Building, beautifully streamlined giant airplanes crossing the blue sunny skies, cars skimming the enormous 80 lane freeways...) starts to invade his vision and elements from a dreamed past, a broken architecture of hope, return as hallucinations.

In the same way, technology can pick up shards of these broken dreams and refer to bold blueprints of impossible spaceships or other utopian designs, as an homage to visionary thinkers. It can transmute these concepts into something worthwhile and uplifting. Into something practical, enhancing our daily life. Like robotic arms for remote surgery, nanobots for pin point delivery of new medication or quantum computing.

Did you see the picture of the last space shuttle being rolled out to a parking spot in a museum somewhere? Where is this dream now? Put to rest next to the Concorde and other relics who might not even have made it past the drawing board. Relics, perhaps. But relics who have touched the hearts of people.
That's why we must continue dreaming, in bright colors and on big canvasses. We have to keep filling that collective reservoir with wishful vistas of beneficial technological wonders for the sake of future generations.

So, for our next project: why not deliver or develop something truly awe inspiring in stead of whizzing through the next off-the-shelf implementation?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:24:00 +0000

...and where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot's question grows more legitimate by the decade. We are swamped with information. 'Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003,' said Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO at the Techonomy Conference. He should know. It is estimated that Google now has about 900.000 servers in operation to cater to the world's growing need to find information.

More en more we use Google as a kind of external memory. We all are cyborgs now, depending on external storage for information. And why not? There is just too much information floating around to commit to our grey cells. No, the brain we keep for personal & important information. Do any of us still go through the trouble of memorizing phone numbers or addresses? Why should we, when we have smart devices that fetch the required information when needed? That recognize a song and provide us with the title? That show us a map with directions when we have an appointment?
At work we are even more in need of good information. Not only for strategic or economical decisions but also for the smooth execution of our daily tasks. More and more we are dependent on the 'search and find' capabilities of our IT Tools. This is where software for document management, or business intelligence and data mining tools come to the fore. Perhaps it is this what HP has understood when they recently acquired AUTONOMY for 11,7 billion dollars.

Autonomy provides an IT platform to perform conceptual and contextual searches in order to construct knowledge - understanding - out of electronic information, including unstructured data like voice, video or e-mails. Perhaps HP has understood that the future of IT is in software - and not in personal computing tools - as they plan to divest their PC department?
These are interesting times and it is clear that in the foreseeable future the real value from IT will perhaps no longer come from a fault free, low maintenance workspace (that will be a given) but increasingly from innovative software, as we keep on externalizing our intellectual capabilities just to keep up with the information flow...

She blinded me with science!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Why did I become a consultant? I know the old joke. A consultant is someone who takes your watch and then tells you the time. But let's not go there. Did I become an IT consultant because I like the science, the IT side of things? Because I like the shiny new technology toys? Because I spent hours on a commodore VIC 20 when I was a spotty adolescent? As the Thomas Dolby song goes: was I blinded with science?

I certainly hope not. What I wanted - and still want - to achieve is informing clients about IT and how it can help their business. But that's only the first layer of the answer. The second layer is about the eventual user of the technology we implement. I want people to benefit from IT in a way that makes their life easier. We live in a world where things get increasingly more complex. We are inundated with rules and regulations, compliancy guidelines, audits, and policies. We need to get things done faster and, simultaneously we need to be more productive. But we sit hours in traffic jams and lose large amounts of times in meetings or in cleaning up our ever expanding mailboxes. We are seriously at risk of squeezing all the fun out of our work.

So I want to make work less stressful, more fun, hassle-free. That is my personal mission statement as consultant. I want IT to empower people, to increase their flexibility. To give them more choices on how and when to work according to their life-work balance. ICT can make this happen. Yes I'll admit it. I am an advocate of the 'New World of Work'.

Last year, as Program Manager, I managed the transition to this new work environment for my employer. We aim to increase the efficiency of the employees by providing state of the art ICT workspaces. We learned a lot during this 8 month long project. We also made a book about it, for the benefit of our clients. You can get a free copy here. (You can reed it online and after a few pages you can click the option to download a .pdf version. The book is currently only available in French or Dutch.)

If you are considering implementing this for your company, read the book. It will give you a clear direction on how to proceed. Or drop me a note.

You are not a gadget!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:55:00 +0000

Ever wonder why I don't allow anonymous comments on this blog? Well, it's because of this book. Anonymity is just one of the things that is wrong with the web 2.0. I believe in open, polite and constructive dialogue and anonymity just leads to mob-like behavior and - witnessing the comment sections on numerous websites - to avalanches of insults. I do not play that game.

Jaron Lanier, a long time thinker, engineer, and developer (the guy was trailblazing virtual reality when I was still playing Pacman) is one of the few voices of discontent amid a torrent of praise for the abundant possibilities of the internet and its myriad of benefits for mankind. In his book: 'You are not a gadget', he makes his point with passion and insight. And even if I do not always agree with what he says, the book is full with legitimate statements about the possible risks and perils of the current internet model, known as the web 2.0.

Too full actually, to discuss in one blogpost. I'll just touch on one of the many topics discussed in this captivating book:

Information wants to be free

This slogan is at the heart of some of the more pervasive fallacies of the interrnet: that (creative) content should be free. That artist and writers should put their work out there for free. That they should adapt their business model. Hey, I like freebies as much as the next man, but not when it is slowly killing our music and newspaper industry. Not when it is slowly strangling jobs because professionals - who have meticulously crafted their skills during years of practice – are now being replaced with newsbots, aggregators and amateurs, endlessly rehashing, annotating, re-tweeting, posting and amalgamating content, headlines and soundbites, without really adding value.
The internet is slowly pushing out the freelancers, authors, artists and middle-classes because no one actually can make money on it. Because everything should be free, right? Only a few large behemoths like Google and Facebook will survive. Because they provide a service - not to you, the consumer - but to the advertising market. We are shooting ourselves in the foot here.

Will the future be as bleak as he paints it? I firmly believe in self-regulating mechanisms and in the fact that people will actually change their behavior when consequences are correctly spelled out (in the case of illegal downloading for instance). But perhaps I’m being too optimistic. Perhaps we will need some more stringent legislating and controlling. Because if we want to forge ahead into this brave new digital world, we should at least make sure that everyone can benefit from it.

Read the book. We're consultants. We should know all the facts.

Can I have some software please?

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 07:50:00 +0000

As I said before, the rate of new technology implementations is accelerating. Business clients are also getting more IT knowledgable. This puts some stress on us consultants to stay abreast of the current evolutions but we cannot deny these are exciting times. Because we are finally starting to reach, what I call, Star Trek Country. A place where the use of IT is easy and hassle free. And before anyone can say 'transporter malfunction', I'm talking about the integration of IT technology and IT services into a user-centric deployment model, transparent and easy to manage from an operational as well as an IT accounting point of view. Yup, it's the App store model.

Businesses and IT departments are increasingly looking into the possibility of using an in-company cloud model as a way to dispatch and manage software across a large user base. Some tinkering at the front- and back-end needs to be done and the process tooling needs a bit more fleshing out, but is a very viable near future ICT workspace model. And as I was serenely envisioning this software distribution heaven I was suddenly and rudely struck by a flashback.

Because...remember the old days of software distribution? Here's how it went:
With no web portal in sight and with only the rudiments of an internal mail system (if you were lucky) in place, you requested the software from your manager. He/she had to get about twenty signed approvals before the request could be transferred to IT. Then the inquisition started in earnest. Eventually, when the IT Big Giant Head had given his blessings, it was time for the ...waiting. And after some more waiting, someone from the IT department surfaced from the cellars. Remember these IT support guys? Full of goodwill but also full of tech speak, high-strung and weary, and often wearing a Mickey Mouse or Droopy tie, they came armed with a stack of CD's and hocked your Desktop for a least a half day before you could resume working. Nowadays I push a button and according to my profile, the software is pushed to my machine and installed in seconds.

This counts as an improvement, no? So...beam me up Scotty.

Exploring the new normal

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 07:01:00 +0000

Some time ago I had the opportunity to follow a presentation by one of the better speakers on the future of ICT currently around: Peter Hinssen. It started at 2 o' clock in the afternoon. I was eager, well rested and ready.

7 hours, 666 slides (I kid you not) and a modest walking buffet later, my head was spinning and I was experiencing what you might call a brain spasm. Seeing and hearing creative people at work, filling my headspace with interesting concepts and new ideas, will always put me in a good mood. So, I was tired - but in a nice way. Consequently, I would recommend going to one of his talks.

The central theme was the idea of 'the New Normal, a concept that states we are now halfway the digital revolution. And although we have already gone through a lot of changes, what lies ahead of us, will be even more challenging'. For real digital natives a digital camera is a camera - only people of a certain age insist on adding the 'digital' qualifier. Even now, when we are nearing the outer limits of Moore's law (essentially describing an increasing chip miniaturization rate) the impact of technology on our lives is still accelerating. Where it will lead to is anyone's guess. And although I am not a great believer in Kurzweil's singularity, I do think that the future connectedness of people, technology and ideas will result in some disruptive paradigm shifts. Some good, some bad - as the realist in me persists in saying.

But I particularly liked Hinssen's use of the mathematical concept of a limit in describing some of the more pervasive effects of this technological revolution. Remember the company memos we used to write? Or harking further back, the thesis we graduated on? Compare that with the average amount of words in a tweet and you can understand him saying that the limit of the length of information is zero. But also that the limit of the depth of information is essentially infinite. We generally stay on the surface of information - we digest quick bites - only occasionally do we venture into the deep. But if we choose to do so, we can go to great depths to mine information.

See this short video for an introduction. And make up your own mind!
Because that's what consultants do.

IT Consultant or IT Samurai?

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:33:00 +0000

Sometimes I come across things that are just too good not to share. I was reading the 'Hagakure - The Book of the Samurai' last week and I was struck by the uncanny similarity that exists between advice given to the samurai classes some 300 years ago and advice you could give to a consultant just starting out in our exciting profession.

The Hagakure is a series of musings and stories, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659 -1719) explaining the 'Way of the Warrior' or the spirit of 'Bushido'. Sometimes, when the going gets tough, stress levels rise or the work is just too much to handle - in some of my more adventurous moods - I liken myself to a modern day samurai, laptop and pen at the ready, guided by the project plan, off to implement some particularly complicated service improvement.

In the second chapter, Yamamoto reflects on the true condition of a samurai and discusses three key characteristics: intelligence, humanity and courage. But they do not quite equate to their modern day concepts.

Intelligence is defined as nothing more than discussing things with others. A lot of knowledge is there for the taking. For me this means that knowledge is to be gained from talking to other people. We must take time to discuss issues and learn from listening and observing. It also means to interact in stead of writing e-mails.

Humanity is described as simply doing things for others. I read this as an endorsement for the team. It is not about making yourself shine. It's about helping the team succeed.

Courage is not a difficult concept. It just means keeping at it, even in the light of adversity and set backs, you just have to keep moving along. Do not let yourself be deterred by difficulties or problems.

Yamamoto also includes three more outwardly aspects of being a samurai. One should take care of one's personal appearance, one's way of speaking and one's calligraphy. Once again, he might have had consultants in mind.

Innovate or Suffocate!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:22:00 +0000

Salesforce.com is the most innovative company in the world according to Forbes Innovative Companies Top 100 list. It is no surprise that you find three IT companies in the top 5. Real competitive value comes from having an integrated Services Platform to engage with your customers in a way that makes it easy for them to use your service or product and easy for you to design, produce and deploy that service. And the only way to achieve this, is through innovative use of IT.

Defining innovation is easy. We all know it when we see it. Numerous criteria can be used to describe it. Forbes based its methodology in a large measure on the appraisal of investors. But these are financial markers. The question should be: what makes innovation happen? And then we have to zoom in. Innovative companies can be easily identified but how do you identify innovative individuals?

Tentative answers have been given, personality traits abound. We all know these people, we meet them from time to time. Or they are very persistent and shoulder the bulk of an innovation through sheer will power because they see room for improvement, where we mere mortals see only chaos. Or they are the thinkers with the ability to ask the right question at the right time and in doing so let us see a process or problem in an completely new way and make us feel like we just have stepped out of the dense jungle into a sunny clearing.

So the way to plan for innovation is than to hire the right people? Perhaps, but I am not completely convinced. More likely, innovation is a concept at play in a field that oscillates between processes and individuals. Innovation is as likely to happen when you start taking down barriers. When you start removing all the crud that your processes have assimilated over the years. When you start empowering people to question their basic business processes. When you create room to think in stead of waiting for the next big thing to happen. Innovation will start to bubble up. It is there, you just have to unleash it.

As consultants we are continually asked to think outside of the box. We should be aware that the box is in most cases of our own making...

Trekking through the desert is very much like IT consulting...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:21:00 +0000

Five things I learned trekking through the desert.

Coming back from a relaxing trek through the Tunisian desert last year, I could not help but make the following remarks:

1. It helps if you speak a little Arabic.

Conversation with the client goes more fluently if you take a little time to get to know the person in front of you. Do not jump right into your analysis but try to get a feel for the other person. People are never only the job that is printed on their business card. Providing this ‘space’ for expression, builds a certain connection that will help you when the ride gets a bit bumpy. (And in IT projects, it always does!)

2. Most camels will just follow the camel in front of them, no matter what happens.

Try to feel who is the true 'decider' in a meeting with a client team. Who are the real stakeholders? It might not always be the manager. Be sure to put some considerable consulting or convincing effort towards that person. (I am just trying to make a point here. I am so not comparing clients to camels.)

3. You will always get sand in your shoes. The sooner you accept this, the better.

There will always be set-backs and interruptions. You are dependent on the goodwill and professionalism of your client but also of your colleagues. Accept that other people do not always follow the same criteria or agenda and you will remain Zen.

4. Know the general direction in which you travel, even if you have to make a lot of detours around giant sand dunes.

I think you know what I mean. Keep your end goal always clearly in your mind. Visualize it once daily. It will act as a razor eliminating 'excess' tasks.

5. Take a rest during the hottest part of the day.

There is a particular phase in the life-cycle of every project when things are heating up and pressure increases. Paradoxically, this is the right moment to take a step back and go out for a drink or a lunch with your project team. When people eat together they generally discuss things in a more leisurely and civilized manner. (Bring back the business lunch, is what I say!)

For both situations (and numerous others) the following rule applies: Enjoy The Ride!

New ITIL Books coming

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:44:00 +0000

The new ITIL Books (Edition 2011) will be available by the end of this month. More detailed information can be found on the itSMF Belgium website. And as ITIL is in essence a 'library' this is big news for IT Service Management Professionals.

At its most basic level, ITIL is just a collection of books. But these books constitute a wealth of experience, laboriously acquired through time, endlessly revised, discussed and improved upon, often lauded, occasionally berated but mostly considered as the essential foundation for good IT service management.
So what do we have to look forward too? I'm especially interested:

In Service Strategy: They have promised a complete rewrite of the strategy book with better descriptions of Business and IT strategy.
In Service Design: A better alignment with Service Strategy and more information on the management of the overall design phase.

It looks like Service Strategy is the domain where the bulk of the improvements or changes have been made but I would probably recommend that book anyway. The improvements to Transition, Operation and CSI look to be of an incremental nature. Let's wait and read.

In general, it is a set of 'best practices'. Tried and tested methods that can be easily implemented. The use of the word 'easily' in the last sentence is debatable - I agree - but having some ITIL books at the ready is very much like having an old relative nearby, willing to dispense some good advice when needed. But we all know what we do with good advice, don't we? Right!

And there lies part of the reason why a successful implementation of ITIL is not always guaranteed. The ITIL services and processes are sound but equal attention should be given to the very disruptive power of introducing new methods when you don't involve the people that will execute the new methodes. Change Management is essential when you start on the balancing act that is ITIL. Resistance to change is one of the main reasons why it takes so long to reap the benefits of ITIL. And these benefits can be numerous in times when IT departments are under a lot of pressure to perform more efficiently and at lower costs. Ignore the human factor at your own peril.

But get a start on those ITIL books anyway...

That thing between IT and Business...

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 09:35:00 +0000

We know the problem. We have all heard it before. Business says that IT does not understand them. IT says that Business makes unreasonable demands. It seems that the water is still too deep between them. But is it really?

We might be looking at it the wrong way. Why persist in this split between IT & Business? There’s scarcely any process left that is not supported by Information Technology, or for that matter, that can exist without IT.

A lot of the discontent that reigns on the business side is valid. We only have ourselves to blame. We still think too much as technologists, we still have problems looking at a problem from a user centric point of view.

Internal IT departments have also fallen into the trap of trying to market themselves as a supplier. For years they have been restructuring their departments and services – sometimes with the knowing help of the business side - along the lines of an independent supplier. A so-called 'internal' supplier that should pass muster when compared with other - external - suppliers. The problem is that if you position yourself as a supplier you run the risk of playing second violin. Of not being perceived as a strategic business partner. Many CIO’s have discovered – to their sorrow – that once perceived as a ‘supplier’ (meaning outside of the business - also known as 'not committed') the business actually will choose another supplier with a lower price tag or a better value proposition.

These scenarios are discussed in an excellent book on IT Governance written by Chris Potts. In ‘FruITion – Creating the ultimate Corporate Strategy for Information Technology’ Potts describes what happens when IT departments are not entrenched enough in the business lines. His vision of an all too near future is not so kind to the traditional IT department. IT departments that view themselves as ‘enablers’ are not committed enough. And because only the business can create value, they run the risk of being overlooked.

He even builds a case for replacing the CIO with a CIIO – a Chief Internal Investment Officer. A top strategic position where Business and IT is merged as each business investment is IT related anyway and where the management of the daily IT infrastructure is relegated to a Chief Technology Officer hidden in a Purchase Department. The book is also written as a fiction novel which increases the reading pleasure tremendously.

It really gives ample food for thought. And isn’t this what any good IT management book should do? Make us critically rethink the value of our IT contributions?

No productivity increase? What the heck?

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:37:00 +0000

As an IT consultant currently involved in a number of 'New World of Work' projects, you can imagine my surprise when a study from the Rotterdam School of Management, the Erasmus University and the NOVAY Research center from Holland called the 'Nationale Nieuwe Werken Barometer' (The National New World of Work Barometer) crossed my desk last week! One conclusion plainly stated that productivity increase was not experienced as a tangible benefit from the introduction of 'New World of Work' (NWOW) principles.

This study is based on a sample of 102 companies in different stages of a NWOW implementation. In my view this particular result should be seen in the light of not fully adopting the basic NWOW principles, a preference for introducing NWOW bottom-up (69%) in stead of top-down (thus missing a coherent approach) and not enough involvement of the employees (only in 49% of the cases within companies considering NWOW implementation).
The study DOES however indicate that in 49% of the cases where aspects of NWOW are adopted, flexibility is improved. And isn't flexibility a precursor to productivity increase?

The study also emphasizes that benefits do occur in the following domains:

Increase sense of 'wellbeing' of the employees
Increased Work/Life balanced
Increased employee satisfaction.

It has been corroborated by other studies that stress and burn-out are likely to occur where employees do not feel in control of their work and their work environment.
Careful implementation of NWOW will open doors towards this kind of control. And after reading this study I think that the business case for NWOW remains as solid as ever.

Glad we settled this.

Declare!

noreply@blogger.com (Ludo Constant) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:12:00 +0000

So, what's this blog all about? Another blog on technology? Haven't we got enough of those?

Consulting is a very interesting job. I like talking and negotiating with clients. I like trying to match their business needs with good Information Technology solutions. I like giving presentations and working with people. I even enjoy writing reports. So, does this make me a GOOD consultant? Only my clients can tell.

But the job does require a diverse skill set and I firmly believe that consultants learn best from other consultants. I didn't find a lot of blogs on these subjects. So I decided to start one. I hope readers will engage in comments and share their own tips and tricks of the trade.

I intend to write about general job related issues, like the best way to prepare for a presentation, how to improve your people skills or how to handle resistance to change. I would like to discuss the broader impact of IT trends on our JOB as an IT consultant, and on the workplace and life in general. Of course we will talk about interesting evolutions in the ICT services market but it won't be all technology related.

We will definitely use less buzzwords and try to get to the heart of the matter in a transparent and direct way, as consultants do!