Agilization

Map of UK WiFi Access Points

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:58:00 +0000

I've been playing around with Squork Mapping this week. Squork is a digital mapping solution intended to enable business professionals to plot, upload and manage their own data securely on high quality digital maps. Unlike Googlemaps and similar solutions, Squork Mapping is more like a fully functioning GIS system that's provided online and made really easy to use. The app provides account holders with controls to design and personalise their map area, upload and manage data (without you having to be a computer whizz) and then view and share the maps you've produced.

This example (link to it from the title of this article) shows all of the published WiFi spots across the UK by carrier. It's likely to be pretty useful if you ever need to get onto the Web in a hurry with your iPAD ;-)

You're able to add your own logo, title - even choose your own pin, tag or dot styles for the maps you publish.

There are a number of example maps that Squork have already published in their gallery to example the uses of the mapping site - and the quality of the results. I'd have to say, so far, the accuracy of the maps looks excellent!

I'm going to spend a bit more time with Squork Mapping this month. I'll hope to show you some of my results!

Finding the next Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:05:00 +0000

Social networking players in China

If you wanted my best guess as to who we would see as the next generation of 'Apples, IBMs and Microsofts' - I would say it's likely to be one of the companies on this list. Bear in mind the size of the Chinese domestic market. If these products achieve the same levels of adoption as Facebook then they would create larger online communities than both Facebook and Google!

Better get used to these names ;-)

Business Websites - Still a Competitive Differentiator?

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:50:00 +0000

There was a time when businesses could hope to differentiate themselves through their website design to bring a competitive advantage. Not anymore.

A decade ago websites were seen to have the power to wow site visitors and bring them to your door. Promises made by website designers suggested that new online marketing, powered by search engines, would result in a train of new prospects and business opportunities. For most small businesses this promise has not materialized. They continue to generate more business through word-of-mouth contacts, partner referrals and direct marketing methods.

Visitors of websites today want to see a predictable structure and format. This makes it easier to know where the information is they're trying to find. It's no fun crawling around websites to find out what a business does. In an ideal world, everything a site visitor wants to find out should be on the front page. And technologies like streaming video mean that persuasive arguments don't need to fill pages of content. Just like newspapers (news on the front, sports on the back etc.) designs of websites have to tell their stories in a way that visitors don't find irritating. Over time the information design inherits dictated rules.

The idea that a website is a great source of leads thanks to search engines has proved untrue for many micro businesses and SMEs. Bottom line - Unless your business can get into the top 10 hits on a search engine, chances are you're not going to get that call. And most organizations don't have the marketing funds to make that happen. So the website often becomes the second point of contact, not the first.

After three decades of Internet marketing experiences, business leaders are more aware of the return they can expect to get from their web presence. Current sourcing options - either building a DIY site or paying a web designer to build it - don't satisfy this required mix of affordability, control and return on investment. In short, for the level of opportunity business websites bring, they are generally too expensive to design and too costly to maintain. Nevertheless, they are a necessary component of a marketing mix in the digital economy. They have largely replaced the business card as a medium of contact and they have replaced the office reception as the first place to meet and greet new prospects.

A website isn't a good replacement for a salesperson but it IS a good way of welcoming and engaging customers that visit your website. True, your business needs a professional web presence but it has to be easily maintained and deliver on its promises of professional standards of appearance, accessibility and performance - and it has to deliver more value than it costs annually.

The launch of services like Google Sites, Microsoft Office 365, Webs.com,Yola and Squork WebSpace mean that creating a professional website isn't difficult even for people with no IT background. The role and expectations of websites used for the purpose of giving an organization a web presence are changing. No longer can sites be static, show signs of home-made design or unimaginative construction.

They must be living components of the digital communications network of which every organization and business professional is a part of - like it or not. Websites today are expected to provide rich media content, such as video, and social networking features like twitter feeds, blogs and news feeds. They're also required to be transactional (i.e. To offer the capability to capture and publish data normally held in a database to support customer enquiries and process requests).

Websites started as the shop window of businesses, they have moved to become the reception room too (greeting visitors and welcoming them in) and in the next decade we can expect them to become the meeting rooms and general office of enterprises.

Cloud-based offerings like Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and Squork are continuously adding service components - file management, collaborative tools, timetabling tools, project and task activity management, business intelligence, performance management, contact management etc. - that are turning business websites into online business spaces.

Websites are losing their design differentiation because of the need to conform to the way people want and expect to work. Competitive differentiation is no longer about design flair, it's about how well platforms deliver the communications and productivity enablement that businesses need.

Cloud Security market to hit $1.5 billion by 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:18:00 +0000

It's always interesting to read analyst forecasts of market size and growth - but I actually think this one is pretty well grounded.

Cloud security is going to be a hot topic in IT over the next few years.

I think many people think cloud technology is less secure that traditional systems but actually that doesn't have to be the case. Cloud platforms can make corporate IT more secure by adopting an inclusive security model, federated identity management and providing the ability for users to serve themselves with robust IT solutions that serve the long-tail of applications rather than turning a blind eye to shadow systems developed on Excel, Access and PowerPoint. Perhaps the biggest issue though is enabling organizations to cascade duties of data security to departmental managers rather than IT and giving them the tools to do it. Departmental managers often know more about the risk of using data for new apps (and the context of use) compared to IT.

Cloud 9. Nine Reasons Why the Cloud is Worth Taking Seriously

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 10:09:00 +0000

For those business professionals who are keen to get a handle on what cloud computing is and why it might be relevant to their business I've put together a very crude list in this most basic of white papers produced for US Tech Solutions to help start the process of deciphering the business case for cloud computing.

For technologists please don't read it because the oversimplification of arguments will drive you crazy;-).

Ian.

Delivering the most economically advantageous software apps

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 08:12:00 +0000

At times when organizations need to find smarter ways of working to cut costs, they're often frustrated by the lack of effective software applications to support these new ways of working.

The long-tail of demand for new applications created by middle-managers that are working hard to optimize their departments and core processes is not something that should be ignored. Without this innovation, sub-optimal processes continue to under perform and add unnecessary operating costs.

Organizations going through change need adaptive IT solutions that can be shaped to support new processes. Of course, there are huge pressures to reduce IT expenditure too - so how do organizations source the new applications they need to create leaner processes?

Current approaches to sourcing software applications fall into three main categories:

1. Purchasing ready-to-use software applications - This isn't a very cost effective way to source business applications because of the high cost of acquiring pre-shaped applications and the fact that it introduces additional costs for integration, maintenance fees - and creates new 'IT silos' into the organization.
2. Custom coding of a new solution - The most common solution is to instigate a custom coding project - either internally (tying up scarce IT resources) or externally through contractors (necessitating procurement procedures and the high cost IT development).
3. Outsourcing of systems - The view held by many today is that outsourcing IT systems or particular process disciplines are better outsourced and placed in the hands of 'experts'. The downside of this approach is that control is lost over the resources and systems outsourced causing the organization to be less able to adapt to changing business requirements. It also means that costs of contracts soar.

Thanks to innovations in rich internet web technologies and cloud computing, there are new options now open to organizations that want to support process improvement without having to jump into an expensive IT procurement or complex project.

Situational applications development software like Encanvas Secure&Live provide business analysts with the technology tools they need to develop applications without custom coding by adopting architecture similar in concept to LEGO. It means that organizations can embed business analysts into change teams and have them develop new applications solutions as quickly as they emerge.

The advantage of this approach is that organizations typically don't need to go to IT procurement or outsourcing but can serve themselves with 'right-first-time' solutions developed across the table in workshops held by business analysts and project sponsors. The applications produced are deployed on the Microsoft Web Platform and can therefore be operated internally or on the cloud.

Innovations that make Encanvas Secure&Live 'enterprise ready' include advanced security features to manage site access, data, users and groups. It also includes data acquisition and mashup features so that business analysts don't need to do any custom coding or learn many different tools. Everything that business analysts require to deliver professional business applications is in the box.

I was asked by Encanvas to write a business argument for situational applications development so I've provided a link to this document here.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_mCKU7TIXWaNTJmZmJlZGQtNTMyOS00YTFiLWE3MjktMDAyNmY2OWE0NGM0&hl=en

Map Mashups without APIs: How Squork Maps Changes The Mapping World

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:28:00 +0000

Believe it or not, Google Maps has only been around for a decade. It feels like it's always been around. When Google Maps arrived it changed the software world in a number of ways. Firstly, it made digital maps accessible to the masses. What it also did is trail blaze the idea of software applications as services that need no explanation or introduction. My kids can use Google Maps without a manual or any instructions. It's so intuitive they can work it out for themselves. Google Maps raised the question - 'Why can't all software applications be like this?'

With Microsoft Bing Maps, Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps all providing similar services it's perhaps a little surprising that any other supplier would attempt to launch another mapping service - but in September there's going to be another - Squork Maps.

So why would anyone think there's space for ANOTHER mapping service?

Well the design team of Squork Maps take the view that until now, people have had access to maps and finding places, but unless you have expertise in scripting or coding, putting your own data on the map (plotting pins) has been something few people could do by themselves.

What makes Squork Maps different then is that it enables non technical people to upload, publish, edit and download their data on maps. It uses downloadable templates to enable users to organize their content and then upload it on to maps. Users can manage security permissions and also have the ability to share their site URLs with collegues - even embed them into websites and blogs without requiring any coding skills. Unlike Google Maps that doesn't let you manage the data you publish on its maps, the data people use on Squork Maps is always there. Every aspect of the data management life-cycle is managed by the user themselves and it takes no training to do.

While software-as-a-service applications are nothing new, the way that Squork Maps makes complex IT accessible to a broader audience, is something special. It fills the gap between light-weight web mapping services like Google and the more serious geo-spatial intelligence systems like ESRI and Pitney Bowes MapInfo.

Will anyone pay the subscription to use it? That remains to be seen - but if it takes off, it could herald in a new set of user expectations around the ease of use and functionality of online apps.
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Generation Y and the workplace

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:25:00 +0000

I'm busy writing a White Paper to explain to organizational change managers what a social office is and why it matters - so I was delighted to come across this research that's been published in May of this year that provides feedback on what matters most to Gen Y entering, or preparing to enter the workplace.

Gen Y is important to employers because, with the baby boomer generation racing towards retirement, this is the community charged with taking over the reigns. But with so many employers seeking such a small supply of brain-power, inevitably the voice of Gen Y matters. And Gen Y has a whole new set of employment expectations; one of which is the work environment. This article does well to capture the workplace environmental expectations of Gen Y workers.

Taking your first step onto the cloud

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:54:00 +0000

Why situational applications are the obvious first step into cloud computing for public sector organisations

Faced with depressing predictions of looming budget cuts cloud computing has come to the fore of discussions to uncover relatively short-term economies in IT functions within the public sector. But how much of the cloud story is hype? How different are cloud architectures to the web-server farms that organisations have had the means to access for well over a decade? And how realistic is it that core business systems will move out of the data centre into the cloudspace?

Most of the CIOs I speak to are sceptical of the real-world practicality of large-scale porting of business critical apps to the cloud. They site concerns over data security, business continuity, administration and the realistic challenges of running a relationship with a vendor that will need to provide robust administrative tools to manage day-to-day support activities. Even those CIOs who brush through all of these concerns with optimistic verve, there are still huge issues to take onboard about the scalability of databases and commercial structures supporting cloud platforms. And what about the proprietary nature of the various cloud platforms? It’s a very new industry and the entire market is experiencing a sharp learning curve.

What’s the difference between cloud computing and web hosting?

Experts of cloud computing will allude to a small number of very pointy differences between cloud computing and traditional web server hosting. The first clear difference is the potential for multi-tenancy – the ability for individuals and companies to buy into a share of a computing platform that has a seemingly endless supply of processor and storage capacity. They will site dramatic advances in technology that have made possible new levels of virtualization and scaling that is unprecedented in the industry. Other enthusiasts of cloud computing will point to a step-change in the possibilities of deploying virtualized applications made possible by the administrative tools and technologies that the competitive bun-fight for cloud computing has inspired by the major vendors. Whilst these advances in the framework of tools for applications design, deployment and administration might not be exclusively the domain of cloud computing, this is most definitely the ‘flag’ that these new innovations fly under.

Having stepped through the minutia of the cloud debate I conclude that it doesn’t really matter whether cloud architectures are fundamentally different; or whether the software tools that cloud computing has levered to the surface are part of the cloud computing story or not. What matters to hard-pressed IT leaders in the public sector is that – thanks to cloud computing - more opportunities exist for virtualizing server platforms, and achieving economies by adopting smarter means of running key processes including the design, deployment and operation of business applications than ever before. Cloud computing provides a greater ability to leverage the competencies and resources of third party vendors (with smarter technology) while organizations only pay for what they use.

But with so many concerns over the robustness, database scalability, administrative tools etc. of cloud computing, what is the first step that IT leaders should take on this journey?

Situational and departmental applications – the first step into the clouds

While some private sector organizations like easyJet are taking the lead in cloud computing by adopting policies whereby all future application should be considered for deployment on the cloud before any other justification is considered, the majority of public sector organisations are adopting a more cautious approach. The first applications most organisations are considering for cloud deployment are the departmental and so-called ‘situational applications’ that I describe below.
For departmental managers and executives, IT budgets have always been a bit of a lottery. There are so many business processes that occur in any public sector organization, and their operation is to tangentially different to the private sector, that most departments have to make do with the majority of users gaining access to a core administrative system while workers that need a bigger bag of different systems are required to make do with spreadsheets, PowerPoints and Access databases to fill in the cracks in their information management. The gap between information needs and information systems capability is forever growing while IT teams lack the resources or budgets to respond to every need with a shrink-wrapped software tool. Even today, most middle managers report they lack the information they need to discharge their roles and the information they do get is often not in the format (or completeness) to make it useful.

Developments in Rich Internet portals technology spearheaded by investments into cloud computing are now reaching the market. They provide users with the level of user interface experience and responsiveness to queries comparable (if not better) than the systems resident applications they’re used to using. Rich Internet portal platforms like Encanvas engineer a new marriage between data mashups technology, building block applications design and pain-free deployment and operation needed to support near infinite numbers of secure and live community spaces in the cloud.
Rich Internet portal solutions for the Microsoft Azure cloud like Encanvas Secure&Live™ are purposely designed to meet enterprise requirements for situational applications; described by thought-leader Luca Cherbakov of IBM as “applications developed by small teams in response to new business situations that possess the economics that mean once used they can be discarded”.

Experience gained in the last decade on the use and deployment of situational applications suggests that while situational applications start simply as a robust IT answer to a business problem, generally these solutions mature into business critical IT systems as users and stakeholders benefit from their use and start to mature their use cases. And many of these applications start within a department – to serve a departmental need – and grow because of their usefulness and practical rewards.

The way communities and teams tend to mature their situational applications takes on a common roadmap:
(1) Applications start with the need for ‘secure and live’ community spaces providing access to collaboration and participant interaction.
(2) Then the need to acquire data from different data sources emerges.
(3) Next, users call for more enquiry and analysis screens and capabilities.
(4) Then the need for more formalized business processes materialises.
(5) Finally, (and only in some cases) requirements for predictive engines emerge – providing the ability to anticipate the likelihood of events and impacting scenarios that might impact on the community.

While the majority of IT users are adequately supplied by a small number of systems (such as sales administrators that will spend all of their time on a CRM system, or an accounting clerk who will live in their SAP or Oracle portals) there are a smaller number of department managers, marketers, R&D and creatives that demand robust IT solutions to serve themselves with richer sources of insights and smarter tools to rationalise the information overload of the digital age.

Situational applications are seen as the remedy to the ‘long tail of demand’ for business applications coming from this very important minority community of IT users scattered across the enterprise that make innovation happen and spark competitive advantage. Unfortunately, at the outset of these departmental and situational software development projects, it’s often not clear what the return-on-investment might be for investing in the development of a robust IT solution. Equally, there can be relationship and organisational pressures surrounding a software development project that mean cooperation is not assured and data acquisition and aggregation may be prohibited by practical IT roadblocks or the unwillingness of parties to play ball.

It’s in this complex arena of information change management that the unique blend of economics and functionality manifested in cloud computing platforms like Encanvas comes to the fore; where the cloud represents a more neutral zone for cooperation (with each contributing party owning its own data and ability to regulate access permissions while sharing the same technology platform).

Why are situational applications the obvious start-point for cloud computing initiatives?

The main reasons are these:
• Most organisations have too many software products and supplier relationships. Reducing the number of discrete software applications through harmonisation offers a direct route to savings in IT expenditure while the ability to deliver more applications right first time through situational applications is assured.
• Cloud architectures provide a faster and more painless means of designing, deploying and operating custom built applications. They’re more economic and can scale to whatever size they need to grow so there’s no risk of outgrowing the hardware platform.
• The cloud is seen to be a secure and live ‘neutral territory’ for organisations seeking to share data and collaborate with their communities – there is less of an emotional issue towards where data resides.
• Making a start on the cloud journey with situational applications addresses the ‘long-tail of demand’ for business applications so IT teams can be seen to deliver responsive IT solutions to emergent business needs by serving up robust IT solutions at very low cost.
• While situational applications can grow to become business critical, there’s a big difference between starting from day one with new applications on the cloud and attempting to port the much less numerous core transactional platforms that are critical to business continuity.

Use case examples of situational applications

Here are three use case examples that show how situational applications can mature into best-fit business critical information systems; ideal early stage candidates for cloud computing.

1. Streetworks (local government department)

At the introduction of the Traffic Management Act in 2004, the Traffic Manager of West Sussex County Council identified that the current information management of the department was unworkable if all aspects of the new legislation (calling for improved cooperation with streetworks undertakers and demonstration of parity on planning decisions) were to be met. With the current IT systems, no mapping functionality existed that could provide a single page view of all planning aspects. Engineers were required to reference six different internal systems to build a clear picture of the planning considerations – and even then mistakes could be easily made. Another major challenge was the impact of TMA legislation on the administrative overheads of the department demanding that the Council input all of its own streetwork assets, activities and events in order to demonstrate parity with other streetworks undertakers (before TMA 2004 this information was not reported). An urgent solution was needed to comply with the TMA requirements – otherwise the Traffic Manager estimated that at least 2 additional FTEs would be required simply to keep up with the administrative overheads (at a time when skilled staff with appropriate qualifications were scarce due to demand driven by the new legislator framework). An interim situational application was developed by IS consultants NDMC and West Sussex County Council to provide a bridging solution to respond to the new information demands of the TMA 2004 legislation in advance of core business systems being brought up to date. The project team identified the sources of data from across the department and mapped out a requirements specification. Samples of each of the data sources were gathered and a ‘start-point’ proof of concept was developed. This application was presented to a workshop of users and stakeholders who spent a day discussing the format and operation of the system. By the end of this one-day workshop, the majority of the systems design was completed and a fully functioning test system was deployed onto the Encanvas system within 2 days. As the result of this project, the WSCC streetworks team was comfortably able to service the anticipated peak in demand for noticing of works without needing to create new posts and West Sussex County Council became the first local authority in the southeast, outside London, to operate and full EToN3 compliant system.

2. Credentials Management (professional services)

A global professional services organisation found that it was unable to satisfactorily provide credentials of past projects in support of new client engagement bids owing to the lack of retained information. While some detail of contact information was held on a Lotus Notes intranet, project information was either not captured or was to be found in different systems. The current situation meant that evidencing capabilities was proving to be difficult and was risking future business growth. In response to this business challenge, the organisation worked with IS consultants NDMC to create a situational application using Encanvas. The application was created during the course of six days with the project team working in a workshop environment. Data mashup technology, incumbent in the Encanvas platform, was used to acquire data from disparate sources – including the Lotus Notes Intranet, a third party database (held in .CSV format) and project systems. User search and enquiry forms were created that used drop-down filters and free-text weighted search to simplify the enquiry process. Once filtered queries were returned, the resulting records could be downloaded in a templated form for instant inclusion into bid documents and proposals. As the result of the situational applications deployment, senior partners were instantly able to harness the credentials of the global knowledge center operations in support of future bids. Whilst this system achieved an ROI within the first 6-weeks of use, it continued to be used on a daily basis for over three years before an integrated platform solution was developed to displace it.

3. Compliance Management (electronics sector)

A global electronics company found that in order to comply with new regulatory demands from its parent in Japan, it needed to install a license management and reporting solution. The European operation was given scant notice of this new requirement and were challenged to get a system in-place within 6-weeks! The project manager elected to work with IS consultants NDMC to design and deploy an interim situational application using the Encanvas Rich Internet platform. Through a one-day workshop the project team devised a data model and website design. Taking advantage of the data connectors provided by the Encanvas platform, the project team was able to import historical licensing data held in MS Access and spreadsheet files to deploy a working solution within five days. Following a period of user testing, a second workshop was initiated to recommend iterative changes that were subsequently implemented using the code-free design environment of Encanvas; changes that took only a ½ day to implement. Having the license management system on a web hosted environment meant that the Japanese parent company is now able to access report data for compliance purposes directly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This interim solution has now been running since 2005 and continues to satisfactorily meet compliance reporting requirements.

In conclusion

The idea that IT functions will achieve step-change reductions in operational costs is unlikely to happen without a harmonisation agenda where the hundreds of software applications that organisations use are trimmed down to a manageable number – perhaps to less than 10 core applications platforms. Migrating the many homemade and discrete applications and spreadsheet systems to a common secure and live architecture present a real and immediate opportunity for short-term cashable economies.
Cloud-borne Rich Internet Portal architectures like Encanvas Secure&Live deployed on Microsoft Azure present IT leaders with the opportunity to not only ‘test’ the economics and viability of cloud computing as their first-step to cloud computing, solutions such as this also provide a mechanism to economically serve the long-tail of applications demand that exists within all organisations today (improving internal customer satisfaction towards IT).
So if you’re considering making the move to cloud computing, why not consider taking baby steps first with situational and departmental applications - and just make sure you’re able to reach the cloud before you leap.

Why Enterprise Mashups and Social Media will make India successful

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:19:00 +0000

It was a great joy for myself and the Encanvas team to launch our 'Squork' secure and live business social networking technology in Lucknow, India this month with our partners US Tech. We were cheerfully surprised by the enthusiasm that exists in India for new technology - even when it's technology that changes the paradigm of business computing and asks people to consider new ways of working. (A big thanks to the IIM-L team for making us so welcome!).

Through a series of meetings with leaders of academia and business around the purpose and opportunities offered by Squork business social networking, surfaced the fundamental reason why I believe India will be the powerhouse of world markets in the next decade.

You see, here's my point:

In Europe and the USA, I see IT leaders playing a game of 'got, not got' over the building blocks of IT technology in support of their enterprise computing stacks that always reminds me of the game we used to play as kids swapping football player cards with our friends at the school gate. It seems every IT leader has to have at least one of every technology genre whether it achieves a business outcome or not. So I'm always being quizzed by CIOs about 'what Encanvas displaces' and 'where does Encanvas (and Squork) fit' in the enterprise IT stack? This focus on innovation is firmly pinned to their NOW, and the norms of understanding and behavior as they see them today. They are focused too much on DOING THINGS BETTER and think too little about DOING BETTER THINGS.

Never once did I have that schoolyard conversation in India. The most common question was this: "How will Encanvas help me to achieve 100% growth in the next 2 to 3 years?"

This is a much more relevant business conversation.

It's not secret that companies around the world have spent millions on IT, and yet - with an average of 15 business intelligence tools, tens (sometimes hundreds) of shrink-wrapped software products, workflow tools, search tools, mapping tools etc. - most middle managers and C-level execs. still complain about the fit between IT and their business information needs. Nomatter how we measure it, IT has not, does not, deliver agile information systems that always stay in tune with the way organizations want to work.

In Indian I found businessmen and women who aren't shackled by the IT investment they've already made. Instead, they're interested in the potential of IT to be a competitive differentiator. The question they want answering is how technology can deliver the growth they want to see.I'm convinced that, as long as new innovation delivers on its promises, they will happily throw out their current IT - AND ITS ASSOCIATED NORMS OF BEHAVIOR - without a thought.

And that's why Encanvas is in India.

I don't mind so much sitting in meetings with IT leaders in Western Europe and the USA evidencing how the world of Web 2.0 - with its enterprise mashups, drag and drop mapping, agile business intelligence, instant mobile apps and business social networking solutions - can make a step-change difference to business growth. I don't mind because I know that for every stick in the mud corporate gate-keeper there are other IT leaders who are thinking about business outcomes and it's always fun to help any and all of these people to find their own reasons to change their perspectives on the potential of IT to bring about a competitive advantage.

New web 2.0 technology platforms like Encanvas that are built for cloud computing and a new generation of IT savvy business people are unstoppable in the hands of entrepreneurs and creative people with uncluttered minds. And today, there are more of those people in India.

If we are to see economies in the USA and Western Europe remain as major players in global business markets, somehow we need to get more business people (and particularly IT leaders) thinking more about the 100% growth of their organizations, and less about the completeness of their IT stack. The 'got, not got' game of corporate IT procurement has got to come to an end.

How? Beats me.

Why Enterprise mashups are more than a 'nice to have' for business leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:50:00 +0000

Today I’m re-authoring the Action Framework system. It reminded me that in 2002, the Action Framework was the reason why I started on the journey to producing a better way of working with data that has since become known as enterprise mashups.

Under any other description, an Action Framework is a performance management system but unlike traditional performance management systems that focus too much on strategies and plans and not enough on reality, the currency of an Action Framework are the actions that happen across an organization on a daily basis.

When I started NDMC I was keen to find a better way of managing organizations because I’ve seen so many good and enthusiastic people find themselves in middle-management positions, not knowing why they’re doing what they’ve been asked to do. All too often, enthusiasm and effort does not translate into results and rewards because of poor instruction or poor alignment between the actions of these key people and the required outcomes of the organization. Another issue that I was keen to resolve was how organizations listen to their customers and learn what matters most to them. Normally organizations get this wrong because they have sales people doing the asking or they rely on satisfaction surveys with their ‘yes’ and ‘no’ black and white responses. So it made sense to me that a performance management framework needed to have installed mechanisms to listen to the outside world and adjust plans based on its ability to learn.

From these fragments of logic, my colleagues at NDMC and I created the first Action Framework in 2004. Initially our first attempt was built on spreadsheets that I used to capture strategic plans, budgets and actions and insights. Aligning all of these elements was not easy on a spreadsheet (I wasn’t convinced we were helping anyone see the woods for the trees with such a complicated landscape of data) so a year on we turned to the use of an SQL relational database and built a series of data capture and analysis applications in dotnet.

But there was a fundamental problem. Whatever we did to create ‘the perfect system’ for every organization, there were too many variables and far too many repositories and sources of data. In consequence, the cost of ‘feeding’ the Action Framework with up-to-the-minute data proved too expensive. We had a good model but not a good ‘system’.

What we needed was a method of creating Action Frameworks that would be different for every organization; that could capture data from pretty much any data source from across the enterprise and present insights in new and useful ways without the traditional overheads and burdens of IT projects.

It was with this fragment of common sense that we embarked on the production of such a system. Initially we went to all of the major suspects to see if we could use an existing tool but it didn’t take long for us to realize that our vision was at odds with what the IT industry believed to be possible.

Enterprise mashups are a very different concept in IT that requires a fresh perspective in the way such a technology can be applied. Unfortunately, most people in business apply the role of enterprise mashups into the current ways of working and uses of IT. They try to fit Enterprise Mashups into the present day landscape of IT and ask the question ‘ so what does it replace?’

People that do this miss the point.

The envisioned role of Enterprise Mashups is to provide a system and mechanism for creating an information management that is always in consort with the information needs of the community they serve. Any effective Action Framework cannot be affordably deployed (and therefore can not exist) without this level of agility in IT systems.

Anyway, back to re-building that Action Framework;-)

Why is Squork better than Google Wave? ..and other good questions

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:52:00 +0000

YOUTUBE videos on Squork are getting some attention and the first few bits of feedback we’ve received ask some very pointy questions on what makes Squork better than Google Wave and free source software.

Rather than answer the same questions a hundred times a day I thought it probably a good idea to answer them here;-). My thanks to Aravind for summarizing the key questions!

QUESTION – “What is Squork?”

Squork is a secure and live business social operating system. It enables communities to develop and operate virtual social network operating spaces for their business or community of interest.

QUESTION – “Where has Squork come from?”

ANSWER - Squork is a deployment of the Encanvas Secure&Live Integrated Software Platform (which itself can take some explaining). With Encanvas people can design, deploy and operate their business applications using a single integrated platform without needing programming or scripting skills. It obviates the need for traditional enterprise portal platforms and means people can publish directly to their favored cloud computing platform or web server (although at the moment we’re only supporting Microsoft Azure). Encanvas produces ASP.NET web spaces.

Because Squork is built on Encanvas, organizations benefit from what we call ‘frictionless IT’ – i.e. Once they’ve deployed the Encanvas platform they don’t need to buy any more applications as it becomes easier and more cost effective to build applications than purchase them. Using Encanvas also means organizations no longer have to suffer with upgrade costs.

The fact that Encanvas underpins Squork means that organizations (and communities) can use Squork to extend their networks and processes beyond the boundaries of the enterprise without compromising security.

QUESTION - “I could understand that you deliver data security, aggregating information, making everyone work on the same page...but my question is how is that different from existing stand alone usage of social media. What advantage will it provide me as a customer ahead of ones who aren't using squork?”

ANSWER – While most social media tools are ‘applications’, Squork is a complete Social Operating System.

Here’s what I mean: Social media technologies like twitter and YouTube represent exciting new forms of communication but like the telephone, email or letter, they don’t organize data for you or integrate together in a common environment. What Squork does is provide users with access to the communications tools they want to use in a trusted environment that they can tailor precisely to how they want to work. Users own and manage their data on Squork - not Google, Facebook, Skype or Microsoft.

Squork provides users with the tools they need to create secure user groups and communities. Within these communities, users can serve themselves with the collaborative tools and applications they need to meet the needs of the community (or project). Today, users are coming to realize that social media isn’t architected to provide a trusted workspace that enables organizations to manage their social ties, their intellectual property, business applications, or govern projects but you can find out more by reading my book ‘Cloud Coffee House’ ;-)

“It would be of great help if you could explain why someone should go with your product ahead of using free source software. Tell precisely the differentiation factor that your product delivers and how it could be an added value as a customer for me.”

ANSWER – The Encanvas community is about helping individuals to lever their talents and skills by applying technology in new ways, so we don’t want to discourage people from using their own flavors of social media. It's great to experiment so please try out these new ways of communicating and sharing ideas. The role of Squork is to provide the best user experience and the best way of creating a virtual workplace where people want to spend their time. Our plan is to integrate with as many social media tools as we can (including Google Wave) but Squork will also include its own embedded functionality – so users don’t need to go anywhere else for the different forms of communication (such as live webchat or RSS feeds) unless they want to.

There are many benefits of a thoughtfully designed architecture as opposed to creating sites by mashing together multiple tools where the designer does not have full control over the components. Because Squork is built on Encanvas, it uses the same ‘LEGO brick’ approach to integration and deployment, so there’s no need for scripting or coding skills and all of the capabilities you might want to add to your site – such as dashboarding, charts, visualizations, maps, data entry forms etc. – can be easily added.

And what’s its advantage over Google Wave?

In fairness to Google, that’s not a fair question at the moment because the clever people at Google have already got Wave ‘out there’ while we’re still working on the first version of Squork but I would say adopters of Squork will like that its architected on Encanvas Secure&Live and leverages the Microsoft ASP.NET platform while users will love the usability, integration of different communications vehicles and ability to bring everyone together on the same page. I guess the best answer is ‘try it and see’.

“When will Squork be available? (Wasn’t it meant to be out already?)

ANSWER – We expected to launch Squork in October 2009 but we delayed the launch because we had some fundamental learning lessons from the initial beta that we wanted to apply prior to launch in order to make the technology more adaptable and easier to use. We’re expecting to make Squork available to people who are interested in trialing it some time mid 2010 but we won’t have a release date confirmed for a few weeks yet.

Google takes another step towards turning into Microsoft - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:28:00 +0000

Google takes another step towards turning into Microsoft - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-14-google-takes-another-step-towards-turning-into-microsoft

There are occasions when the true colors of corporate arrogance show themselves and it's not pretty. Google has done well to steer clear of being tarnished with the image as an uncaring 'corporate giant' that has hit so many other large corporations that only do things for money.

That's why I found this article so interesting to read. Google isn't a charitable organization and its willingness to try to cut off smaller players at the ankles by using its market penetration shows what happens when youthful exuberance turns into a cruel corporate game. Fortunately, cloud computing is opening the doors to European and Asian innovators and it is in these far flung parts of the planet that innovation is taking hold.

Perhaps we should all think a little more about the negative consequences of Google's dominance over the Web.

Well done John Naughton for presenting this thoughtful perspective.

Enterprise mashups and de-risking software development projects

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:41:00 +0000

One of the main uses of Encanvas and other enterprise mashup platforms is in custom software development.

Traditionally, business software applications have been purchased as shrink-wrapped products that serve a specific process or functional business area. The fundamental problem of this approach is there are so many processes in a business. Attempting to purchase a shrink-wrapped solution for every one of them is hugely expensive. Another problem is there's no guarantee that each of the shrink-wrapped packages is architected to use the same building block components of technology - so organizations have to contend with supporting a variety of different database engines, workflow engines and reporting tools (that all work differently).

The alternative to buying read-made software solutions of course is to build your own. The problem in doing this is the high cost and risk of project failure. Developing bespoke software applications has traditionally been performed by programmers and IT professionals in back-rooms working on a common plan that's been drafted as the 'best guess' of what the outcome should look like. Programmers find themselves working in parallel on different parts of the same system. No surprise, when the project team tries to bring all of these development strands together and present it to the users and stakeholders, it's not uncommon for lots of re-working to be needed. Primarily for this reason, organizations make do with buying shrink-wrapped software and coping with the high expense of operating a plethora of different software applications that still don't really fit their business need or how they want to work.

Encanvas, and other composite applications design products, overcome these issues by providing IT leaders with a common toolkit of ready-to-use technology components so they can develop applications across the enterprise as the need arises. What makes Encanvas particularly unique is that it doesn't require coding or scripting skills. Its design environment is completely 'point-and-click'. Even its data integration and mashup features and logic building features are created using drag and drop methods. Another feature is that unlike other Enterprise Mashup products, Encanvas is supplied with ready-made design elements for mapping, forms capture, social networking, reporting, file transfer, dashboards etc. - so there's no need to rely on third party components. This is important for developers because they can see developoment projects all the way through to delivery of a robust and scalable system in the knowledge they have full control over design components and can modify every aspect of the user interface design and application functionality.

By removing the time and complexity of coding in development, Encanvas reduces project risk by enabling business analysts to develop their applications in real-time with stakeholders in workshop environments. With everyone on the same page, it's possible to architect right-first-time deployable solutions.

Time to value on Encanvas is greatly reduced by it use of existing data resources (with its ability to mashup data from existing IT systems) and its ready-made building blocks for complex technology components like geo-spatial mapping. It means that IT leaders can embed IT-centric business analysts into process improvement teams and provide these individuals with a single design, deployment and operational environment with the dexterity to cope with all of their enterprise information management challenges.

Social Operating Systems: The rise of social oriented architecture

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:55:00 +0000

As the term suggests, a social operating system is a computing platform that supports the formation, management and use of social relationship ties. In my opinion, social operating systems will have a fundamental impact on both society and business - but my interest is how they change the way people work and are empowered in their roles.

My next business book is due out in October 2010 and studies the growing influence of social operating systems in computing and considers their impact on the business world. I'm hoping to add a few early examples of how early adopter organizations are going about developing their social operating systems, the challenges they're encountering and the benefits they're seeing.

(So, to the big question!!!) Do you have a great example of an organization that has implemented (or is in the process of implementing) a social operating system. If you do, then I'd love to hear from you.

The more I get involved in IT modernization, the more I see a close relationship between the new 'social oriented architectures' on the technology horizon and the 'services oriented computing architectures' now in the throws of adoption by many corporations. In fact, social oriented computing and services oriented computing are two ends of the same subject.

Here's what I'm getting at:

There's a great deal written about Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). This term describes an approach to business information management and computing that opens up the 'information fibers' of tightly matted corporate computing systems so that business people - and cross cutting processes - can serve themselves with applications that access the rich silos of data held within the enterprise (and also from public sites on the Web).

Sounds great doesn't it? Hmmm - but then I'm thinking, for me, when it comes to business value the point of emphasis in this IT architectural vision is on serving data rather than consuming it to bring real value to business people and the organizations they serve.

It is quite easy when working with IT to start with the answer rather than the question. People interested in IT are normallly pro-technology and want to find good reasons to do more with it. Sometimes this means doing 'clever stuff' in advance of any real demand for IT from consumers. But IT projects without strong sponsorship normally topple over at some point. Now, as I understand it, the idea of services-oriented computing is to serve up data from back office systems (and other such sources) in such a way that it can be made useful to lots of people (and processes) for many different reasons. If not properly thought through it's a bit like creating your own library of books without working out who wants to read them and why.

Social operating systems - on the other hand - start with 'what matters most' to the consumers of information, and giving these people the capability to form and support their social relationship ties, develop interest groups, share insights and applications - and one day I'm sure these workspaces will be sufficiently secure and trusted that organizations will run their business processes through them too.

If you're interested in social operating systems or social oriented architecture and have a story to tell, do please get in touch. I'd welcome your perspectives, thoughts, experiences and ideas! I'll even take predictions;-)

Why CRM Systems Drive Sales People Crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:26:00 +0000

When they first came on the scene with SIEBEL, Customer Relationship Management systems were supposed to grow your business 'one customer at a time'. Like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems they promised a rosy future for business people of being able to deliver a 'single view' of customers - so that all of the systems in an enterprise could work together to serve up a coherent appreciation of customer conversations, account history - and most importantly, what mattered most to them (to understand 'customer value').

After decades of CRM implementations, most sales and marketing people are left cold by the impact of CRM. It simply hasn't delivered on its promises.

An agile enterprise can only achieve greater customer value - and therefore more potential to grow - if it understands what customers actually want. This insight can not be gathered OFFLINE by market research because it creates a false picture of the real-world. The only way to really understand customers and their needs is to gather insights progressively through day-to-day interactions.

In most businesses, it is the CRM system that is meant to perform this role. And CRM systems are meant to increase revenues through higher sales. That means to get the right CRM solution, the stakeholders you need to convince first of its value are the sales people.

In this document I've summarized the main underperforming feature areas of CRM systems that drive sales people (and sales managers) crazy. Next to each subject I've crudely marked the performance of CRM systems today (out of 10 when 10 is high) to show where in my experience underperformance normally exists.

WHAT SALES PEOPLE WANT

Time. Sales people are short of it and they're keen to maximize it. That means not investing time on sales opportunities unlikely to close, not spending time on unnecessary travel and not keying data into databases without good reason. Sales people want to know how best to prioritize their time to get maximum return. They know that CRM software SHOULD help them to achieve this.

7 Recording contact activities

Sales people speak to a large number of people and they need help to remember and record the detail. They want to know who they spoke to, when and why so they can always find the contacts they've spoken to and they're armed with what was discussed and what outcomes were agreed. It's normally very difficult with CRM systems to obtain a timeline view of activities that brings together all of the actions and activities of the salesperson - which is extremely helpful for the salesperson to audit their personal productivity.

7 Scheduling and coordinating meetings and events

Sales people are normally responsible for managing events and meetings so they are big users of time management and calendaring tools. Having the ability to easily schedule meetings and add custom calendar items like events, tasks, to-dos, conferences etc. is very important to them.

6 Qualifying and grouping contacts

Every contact in a sales contact database is different: Different in terms of their potential as a prospect, their degree of influence on a sales process, the nature of the relationship with the sales person, the strength of the relationship with the salesperson, the reason why the relationship exists in the first place. These nuances of relationship ties means that sales people need to categorize contacts in ways that make sense to them (in addition to the typical demographic and industry sector views that marketing people want). Therefore, tagging systems are a useful vehicle to add richer context to contact records.

[Take a typical example of a salesperson wanting to select a group of contacts with common needs. Perhaps they want to send a quick email to this group - and afterwards, perhaps they want to follow-up the emails to progress discussions. With a typical CRM system that integrates with email, they can create a group of contacts as a category perhaps but all of the contact and progress information of this micro-canvassing activity is held on each of the contact records - so it doesn't provide any 'group' view of activities. Should the salesperson wish to report on these activities to a supervisor, a cut-and-paste activity is required, probably into a spreadsheet or word processor document.]

6 Notifications and alerts

Most CRM systems are good at alerting sales people to contact activities they should perform (this is after-all the main motivator for procuring most CRM systems). The better systems will enable sales people to create customizable hotlists and custom flags. Even so, CRM systems aren't very good at altering sales people to what they don't already know. The notifications you receive as a user are normally those that you've created yourself.

5 Setting the right balance between minimal data entry with maximum productivity

Sales people want fast data entry of 'business card' information on the prospects and contacts they meet. They want a system that enables them to plan next actions and reminders to progress sales. Most CRM systems seem to demand a high level of effort to capture data and then fail to deliver the helpful 'prompts' and productivity enablers that sales people value. So, for a salesperson, the obvious question is "Does this CRM system make me more productive or less productive?" More advanced CRM systems require data about accounts, organizations groups etc. to be entered before contacts can be added to create relationships between the contacts, their organizations, organization groups and accounts - all very sensible, but all of this complexity can make it impossible for sales people to simply add a simple contact with the smallest effort. [Features like auto scanning of business cards are very helpful to minimize data entry overheads. It's also helpful that every salesperson is able to access and use a common database system and have the opportunity to check to see if a contact already exists before they add another one to avoid double-entry of contacts - or worst case two sales people contacting the same contact.]

5 Making the task of working with data easier

When salespeople are at their laptop calling and communicating, desk space comes at a premium. They need a 'cockpit' view of everything they need to see in a single view at any point in time. Very often an editable table view is preferred to lots of forms. Most sales people want a series of views at different stages of a sales engagement process - contact card, editable list view, filtered search views, contact record profile views.

4 Account management

There are different types of sales people. Some are responsible for only a handful of major accounts and need to know everything about the accounts they manage. Today there are some good sales methods for managing accounts but most systems fall short in providing a WORKSPACE that brings together all aspects of account information management into a single cockpit.

4 Pipeline management and forecasting

So many CRM systems are poor at pipeline management and forecasting that results in salespeople and sales managers reverting to spreadsheets to manage their pipeline the way they need to for their business. This is sometimes because the pipeline forecasting requirements of the business demand such a high level of customization that a spreadsheet becomes easier - but as soon as data is entered into a spreadsheet, this insight becomes hidden from the organization.

4 Mobility

Sales people are always on the move and they need to be able to update records and keep in touch no matter where they are. While most CRM solutions will provide the ability to update records locally and then synchronize with server management systems later, online browser based systems afford the possibilities of always on communications.

3 Social networking enablers

The world is moving towards social networking platforms and social operating systems but CRM systems are locked into a world where email is assumed to be the only conduit between salespeople and their contacts. New CRM systems need to harness data insights available from popular social networking systems and aggregate this content in ways that makes it easier for salespeople to harness it. Capturing conversations conducted via online web-chat is also useful in developing richer insights of contact activity without demanding re-keying of conversation content.

3 Access to communications and collaboration enablers

Salespeople are communicators and they want access to the best tools to share their thoughts and ideas from their desktop, to communicate with clients using a mix of communications vehicles - phone, email, SMS, VoIP, web-chat etc. - and all of these communications options need to be available. Sales people also want to make sure that THEY are available to BE contacted should customers or prospects want to make contact.

3 Sales people as 'micro-marketers'

Sales people today have to be micro-marketers. They typically hold the responsibility of organizing their own micro campaigns, managing their own contact lists and follow up their sales leads with sales literature and follow-up correspondence. This means sales people need access to simple campaign list creation, batch label printing, mail merge and email marketing features.

2 Managing tenders and quotation processes

When businesses need to produce tenders and quotations, often this work is done using word processor and spreadsheet systems that are completely offline to the CRM system. The best most CRM systems can offer is to provide a link to a document repository containing this information.

1 Telling sales people things they don't already know about their accounts/territories

Sales people want to know if a major news story breaks on one of their accounts (perhaps a new appointment or the announcement of a merger etc), or when a new company has been created in their designated sales territory. This 'new news' is very helpful for sales people but today most salespeople have to source these insights themselves. Sales people often want to know when contracts are due for renewal or which products any new products are displacing. It's good to know when projects are behind schedule or accounts have a poor credit history or are on stop! Given that much of this content is already known but exists on different systems it's normal for stand-alone CRM systems not to flag this REALLY IMPORTANT information.

In summary, for sales people CRM systems fall short in areas of:

* Time - Giving more sales time than they consume

* Serving up new insights about what customers want or might buy

* Providing the means to always be contactable through mobile connectivity

* Their level of customization and integration (to fit the business/integrate)

* Social networking enablement

* Micro-marketing tools

* Managing the sales lifecycle --> prospect - quote - sell - order process - account manage - new things to sell!

2010 Tech Forecasts

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:49:00 +0000

2010 tech forecasts: What the accurate analysts predict ( - Telecommunication - Internet - Software - Hardware Systems - Security - Consumer Electronics - Virtualization )

I came across this blog that outlined the performance of IDC's predictions. Very interesting!. Ian

SOA, Security and Enterprise Mashups

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:07:00 +0000

I'd like to dispel a myth - that Enterprise Security is more likely to be compromised or weakened through the adoption of situational applications and enterprise data mashup technologies. If IT leaders were to let users roam free on all of their data through a poorly thought through Enterprise Mashup Platform THEN MAYBE, but then, how likely is that to happen?

The logic behind the argument that 'mashups are a security threat' is usually this: that mashups are about empowering information workers to consume web services (sourced from back office systems and via online public sites) and, if you all this to happen, then several new potential threat areas emerge:

Poor security regimes mean that users usurp identity management and access control systems so either back-doors are created to data or administrative systems become more complicated with multiple user identity directories emerging that could create errors in monitoring user identities.
Users (knowingly or unknowingly) gain access to data that they shouldn't be seeing (or in the worst case editing) by giving power users the ability to create their own applications
Enterprise Mashup Architectures may not be as secure as traditional enterprise portal suites and so by adopting them organizations might be letting their guard down.

From the experiences I've seen so far of Enterprise Mashup deployments, the inverse of these arguments is actually true and the Enterprise is actually MORE SECURE and facing LOWER RISK when an Enterprise Mashup Portal Architecture is deployed. Here's why:

Firstly, it's important to remember that in most organizations today, the most widely adopted mashup application is Microsoft Excel. Business professionals use spreadsheets to capture data, gather data, analyze data and share data. The popularity of spreadsheets to still discharge all of these roles after 30 years of faithful service is testament to their invention. But spreadsheet systems are a high risk option. They mean that most organizations have hidden pots of business critical data on laptop and PC hard drives that almost nobody is aware of that can disappear at any moment. They also mean that people can inadvertently add the wrong data to the wrong cell or change a formula that can instantly result in high threat compliance issues.

Secondly, the Enterprise Mashup Platforms I've encountered so far integrate seamlessly with incumbent User Identity Management and Access Control systems like Active Directory used by corporations today. This isn't rocket science; most of these systems rely on a table of UserIDs, email addresses and passwords that are easily inherited by third party systems when properly designed.

Thirdly, it would be wrong to assume that incumbent Enterprise Portal Suites are more secure than the Rich Internet 'Enterprise Mashup' platforms displacing them. To my knowledge, none of the leading portal products can trace the movement of enterprise data from every single field of every single silo to every single portal and every single user - but platforms like Encanvas do.

Debates on the future of Enterprise security have moved away from the concept of protecting the enterprise by keeping everyone on the outside of the Firewall except 'trustworthy employees'. Organizations are slowly realizing that data breaches are most commonly the result of employees activities rather than unknown 'baddies'. It's also dawned on IT leaders that people in business expect to collaborate and share data - subcontractors, outsourcers, customers, channel partners all have very reasonable arguments for being able to access enterprise data. So the future of Enterprise security is about protecting the data and the intellectual property rather than the container that houses it.

In 2010 we're going to see a big push towards the virtualization of enterprise systems and cloud computing. We're going to see lots of business social networking tools entering via the backdoor of organizations to serve 'departmental needs'. And security will become all about monitoring the activities of individuals (and the groups they belong to). What better system to do this than the enterprise mashups portal platform that serves them with the data?

What's in store for Enterprise Mashups in 2010?

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:26:00 +0000

Enterprise Mashups are the big topic for 2010 as organizations seek to harness their SOA investments and get their apps on the cloud. A report by Business Insights suggests the Enterprise Mashups software market was worth around $161m in 2008, and is forecast to grow to $1.74bn by 2013. So what can we expect from Enterprise Mashup platforms in 2010?

In 2009, Enterprise Mashup platforms designed for business started to make inroads into corporate IT thinking by providing a coherent way of bringing together web services, RSS, twitters, maps and other sources of data together in secure enterprise portals. they're quickly becoming the preferred consumption layer of information served from business applications in the form of web services and now there are more than enough case stories to show how scalable and robust the technology is. 'Enterprise mashups = software that's ideal for consuming web services. Great. So what's next?' you ask.

Here I've summarized my top 6 list of the key innovations in Enterprise Mashup platforms you can expect to hit the market in 2010. These are the capabilities that are likely to separate the 'men from the boys' in this fast maturing enterprise software market.

1. Advanced Security Architectures (Inclusive + User Activity Monitoring)
2010 is the year of inclusive security as firms move away from protecting data silos to protecting data itself. It's no longer possible for organizations to protect their operations by hiding behind a firewall. In an era of business social networking, mobility and collaboration, security has become a more sophisticated challenge and governing data has to become the responsibility of the line of business managers. Enterprise Mashup Platforms are now being equipped with capabilities to track user behaviors to ensure that the usage of every data item can be traced from its source via the consumption portal to each individual user (See 'Encanvas Ring-of-Steel' for an example).

2. Cloud Deployment
The migration from running in-house servers to operating IT systems on a cloud computing platform is now well underway in most industry sectors. IT analysts IDC suggest that up to 1/3 of new IT spend will be on cloud computing technologies by 2013. Whilst we haven't seen large ERP migrations (yet) the future of computing will be in the cloud before we know it.

3. Advanced Analytics
A year ago when you said the words 'Business Intelligence' people thought about dashboards. Of course, dashboards are a great way to expose a single page view of what;s going on in a business or process to expose insights that would otherwise remain hidden in spreadsheets and databases. A decade before, business intelligence meant you were talking about 'OLAP cubes' and the ability to create views of enterprise data that was held in disparate systems, decision makers needed to frequently refer to. But the advent of Enterprise Mashup Portals means that today it's not difficult to harvest data from disparate systems from across the enterprise and create custom dashboards and reports (although many vendors do continue to ignore the important role that printed output has to play in disseminating information!). As we've been heading towards 2010 I've seen a transition in buyer expectations away from 'static business intelligence' that offers up preset views of data, towards a more fluid and proactive form of business intelligence. This new generation of business intelligence platform is about moving away from spreadsheet systems towards portal deployed applications that give users the ability to serve themselves with the insights they need. That means features that provide users with the tools to create 'what if?' scenarios have to be available and easy to configure, and data visualization tools need to exist that enable users to define their own maps, visualization structures and data plotting grids without needing to be mathematicians, programmers or scripters. MiddleApps like Encanvas VisualPlot due for release in 2010 provide this level of functionality out of the box and I'm sure that we've only just started on a long journey of user empowerment for business intelligence mashups.

4. Collaborative Social Networking
Business social working is becoming better understood but we have yet to see a clear market leader in this space. I expect this is because the mix of features required for business have yet to materialize in the same product or platform. It's going to be interesting in 2010 to see how businesses react to Encanvas Secure&Live's social office technology that provides a white label environment for creating secure live collaborative environments. I expect that most Enterprise mashup platforms will have integrated with (or will have built their own) business social networking tools by the end of 2010.

5. Applications Stores (AppStores)
The reuse of mashup applications has always been a contentious issue but platforms like Google and Apple's iPhone are showing how effective AppStores are to access and reuse applications. In 2010 we're going to see many organizations looking to build their own AppStores powered by Enterprise Mashup applications.

6. Collective Intelligence
The blend of collaborative social networking and Enterprise Mashup technologies starts to build a coherent information management architecture for the enterprise that is by its very make-up agile, scalable, secure and extensible. It means that 'the system' will be able to interpret who speaks to who, what content they share, the groups individuals belong to, the problems they encounter, the opinions they express, the projects they contribute to, what their colleagues think of them, and all of this information will help systems to filter out for individuals the subject matter information and relationships that matter most. I expect we won't see collective intelligence solutions emerge until late in 2010 but the first few early seeds of examples will no doubt be in place by the end of the year.

So there we have it. The list of new capabilities you can expect from Enterprise Mashup platforms in 2010. If the product you're considering doesn't meet these capabilities then it makes sense to examine some more options.

Gartner top 10 predictions for 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:31:00 +0000

So Gartner's top 10 predictions are out for 2010 and it's a very different picture to last year. Nevertheless, it's always interesting to see what the world's leading IT analysts think is going to happen next in the year to come.

In this article I've plucked out the bits that have most to do with Services Oriented Architecture (SOA), Enterprise Mashups, Business Social Networking and other such technologies that are making businesses more agile.

No surprise that Cloud Computing is number 1. The feeding frenzy around cloud computing has been growing for some time and now it's almost impossible for IT leaders not to consider cloud computing as a way forward for their future IT infrastructure. For many organizations however, cloud computing is just another form of commercial model for virtualization of servers; the result of a transformation is a gated environment for enterprise applications on a hosted web server instead of using in-house servers. This myopic view of cloud computing is a big undersell on the possibilities that the cloudspace offers to create extensible community-based portals and possibilities of knowledge markets, federated applications and the like that reach beyond the firewall of the enterprise to harness talent and resources from knowledge markets - but it's a start. I expect that the majority of organizations will want to 'practise' deploying non-core applications to the cloud first and then see how well the experiment works before they consider porting their discrete applications and ERP systems to this new platform. We could be talking a lag of 3 to 5 years before larger corporations make this sort of 'can't turn back the clock' step.

Number 2 on Gartner's list is Advanced Analytics. It's interesting that Gartner worked hard not to say Business Intelligence and came up with a new term. But BI is changing. At one time it was about massing data into huge OLAP cubes to impart knowledge organizations already owned but couldn't see. Today though, business intelligence has gone online and forms part of the Enterprise Mashup Portal platform business people use to consume information services. These applications are no longer passive, but provide tools for users to serve themselves with new views of information, let's them paint 'what if?' scenarios and share their content within their secure social networks. The need for agile Business Intelligence tools has been answered by mashups that form part of the social operating systems organizations are in the process of developing. Advanced Analytics is no longer about OLAP cubes that serve only 15% of the user population; it's about letting decision makers at all levels of the enterprise consume information in new ways to find answers to new questions they've only just begun to think about.

Social Computing comes in at number 6 on the list. Trying to make sense of social networking in a business context has been a tough challenge in 2009. In truth, there are so many different technologies and approaches that the subject has proved too overwhelming for IT leaders to make any sense of. I expect that the take-off in business social networking will only happen when 4 things happen (at the same time and probably in the same software service that business people can try before they buy):
1. A security architecture emerges that business people can trust - Business social networking has to sit within a security blanket that corporate buyers can trust. The software applications and services found in consumer land don't come close to managing content and intellectual property the way that businesses need to.
2. Data can be owner-managed - Organizations want to harness their corporate information capital, while individuals want a record of their social relationship activities. Having knowledge of conversations, talent and skills on Facebook or Twitter doesn't give business people the security or control over information assets that they require.
3. A realistic alternative to email emerges - Email today is the peer-to-peer communications vehicle of choice that benefits from the ability to work even when the sender and receiver are not both online. Without a genuine alternative to email, the home page of most business people will still be Outlook.
4. Supporting social behaviors - In the real world business people chat, have more formal conversations and even more formal scheduled meetings. It's not realistic to believe that, in a virtual world, business people will suddenly be satisfied with informal communications for every situation. Business social networking tools will have to mature to support social behaviors that people are accustomed to.

The fact that Security - and specifically activity monitoring - has only reached number 7 on the list is surprising to me. With all of the concerns raised around data security in 2009 I would have singled out Security as being a top 3 issue. The issue of enterprise security has matured over 2009 away from the idea of protecting the silos of data to protecting the data itself. This has fostered more mature discussions around inclusive security models that see users as individuals rather than good guys and bad guys (where anyone who doesn't work for the enterprise is assumed to be bad). In 2010, Encanvas is releasing its RING OF STEEL inclusive security architecture that enables CIOs to push back data governance to line of business managers so that appropriate governance regimes can be implemented at departmental level. This means that the people responsible for data are also made responsible for its security. For IT leaders this has to be good news. Whoever said that IT leaders must be the security watchdogs of the enterprise anyway?

The last notable entry holds up the list at number 10. Mobile applications are still topical it seems but the idea that mobile applications need to be treated as somehow 'special' is slowly ebbing away. Convergence of web and mobile platforms mean that Enterprise mashup platforms like Encanvas can produce applications for mobility as easily as they do for desktop and web. The mobile device has become 'just another portal consumer' in an always connected world. I expect we won't see mobile applications appearing on the next Gartner list for 2011!

All of the above is good news for Integrated Software Platforms like Encanvas that provide 2-step publishing to the cloud with the assurety of a robust inclusive security model. No surprise that the global market for Enterprise Mashups Software is expected to grow ten-fold in 2010.

Looks like it's going to be a busy year!

ERP in a Services Oriented World

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:04:00 +0000

I've just completed this White Paper in support of work that I'm currently doing in the Insurance sector to migrate organizations from traditional ERP systems to more agile platforms based on a blend of Master Data Management, SOA and Enterprise Mashup Portals. It's hard for CIOs to come to terms with the fact that business social networking and collaboration means that it's no longer possible to protect the enterprise by selectively cutting it off from the rest of the world behind Firewalls. This White Paper I've written for Encanvas describes how a blended strategy of ERP+MDM is a smarter move and encourages investments in 'IT growth innovation'.

Hope you like it. Ian.

Wake up JackBe, Encanvas v2 has arrived

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:51:00 +0000

It's been a frustrating year watching JackBe and Corizon running around the market while we sit on our hands and code ferociously to get Encanvas secure&live ready for market before Google Wave. I think of it as our 'wilderness year'!

Thankfully it's now coming to an end and in 2010 we have the launch of Encanvas v2 and Squork to look forward to. Unfortunately, we're still busy patenting the unique technologies that have been added to the platform so you'll have to bear with us on going public until the end of January. At least there will be a sneaky peak next week!

I'm delighted that we've been able to beat Google to the punch with what I believe is a more appropriate communications platform for web collaboration than Google Wave - which has had its doubters of late - but I'm sure, when the guys at Google overcome the short-comings of the beta,Google Wave will be a world class product.

At the TECHNOLOGY WORLD event in Coventry next week we'll be meeting with the major electronics companies of the world to introduce a truely world class enterprise mashups platform. Can't wait.

Thanks to everyone involved in Encanvas since the early days of 2002 for staying with the product. If you'd like to see a Webshow of the new technologies just let me know.

Idiots Guide to Enterprise Mashups

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:00:00 +0000

I keep getting asked for a simple overview on Enterprise Mashups. After looking around slideshare for a while it became apparent that descriptions of what Enterprise Mashups are about and what they're for tend to be really over complicated so I've penned a simple 10 slide overview.

Cloud Coffee House

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:43:00 +0000

Sorry I've not been online much this year - I've been busy writing my new book Cloud Coffee House that describes how the two worlds of cloud computing and social networking are likely to collide and create a cloudspace where people will in future enjoy both work and play. If you get the opportunity to read it I hope you'll tell me what you think!

Top 10 Enterprise Mashup Software Products and Why

noreply@blogger.com (Ian Tomlin) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:10:00 +0000

The growth in information working and the knowledge economy is placing new demands on information technology. Knowledge workers today expect the same level of access and ease of use from their business systems that they enjoy with their iPOD or favourite websites (such as Google). A challenge facing IT departments is how to keep up with the volume of requests from information workers to develop new applications in response to their rapidly changing information needs. In a 2008 survey conducted by IBM, a majority of CEOs rated their organisation's ability to manage change 22% lower than their expected need for change. Business mashups give people the tools needed to adapt to change, develop new insights, and act on new business opportunities.

Enterprise mashups are an important new development in IT as they provide a new and accessible means of creating large numbers of business applications without requiring complex IT projects or large numbers of IT people with deep technical skills. They offer organizations a way to rapidly adapt to changing business needs.

Unlike traditional IT development tools that focus on the small number of heavy-weight business applications that serve the majority of users, enterprise mashups are specifically designed to support the 'long-tail' of demand from small numbers of users, sometimes individuals, for a proportionately large number of relatively light-weight (and sometimes short-terms) business applications that information workers as individuals, or working in teams, need in order to respond to new business situations. Without enterprise mashup technologies these information applications would otherwise go unserved by IT. The usual consequence of this is IT heads finding information workers serving themselves with self-made applications built using desktop tools such as MS Excel or MS Word (and the security risks and version control dangers this represents).

It was Luba Cherbakov of IBM, who is attributed with putting the term situational application (or SN) on the IT technologies ever growing list of acronyms. Cherbakov describes a Situational Application as - “…an application built to address a particular situation, problem, or challenge. The development life cycle of these types of applications is quite different from the traditional IT-developed, SOA-based solution. Situational applications are usually built by knowledge workers who adopt iterative development often measured in days or weeks, not months or years. As the requirements of a small team using the application change, the Situational Application often continues to evolve to accommodate these changes. Significant changes in requirements may lead to an abandonment of the used application altogether; in some cases it's just easier to develop a new one than to update the one in use.”

Enterprise mashup software applications (that produce situational applications) mean that the majority of information worker needs can be self-served by appropriately robust and scalable enterprise IT solutions. Applications are normally authored and deployed using Web based technologies (so called Web 2.0) that can harvest information from disparate sources to create composite applications - built using ready-made building blocks of applications components that are assembled using integrated point-and-click development environments designed specifically with non-IT people in mind.

According to a report published in 2008 by IT industry analysts Forrester Research, mashup usage is growing rapidly. According to their research the enterprise mashups software market is expected to generate global revenues of $700 Million by 2013 (Forrester defines mashups as "custom applications that combine multiple, disparate data sources into something new and unique").

In January 2007, an Economist Intelligence Unit survey revealed that mashups were the most popular traditional web 2.0 technology in the enterprise, with 64% of companies saying they already use or planned to use mashups within the next 2 years.

Situational applications are growing in popularity because business organizations seek to:

•Unlock innovation and the creativity in their business
•Need to increasingly work in consort with industry partners to achieve shared business outcomes
•Demand information agility to respond to rapidly changing market situations and therefore need to uncover business insights more speedily; often relying on a blend of information that exists within and beyond the enterprise fire-wall
•Reduce application backlog without losing control and governance - Speed development of applications and reduce the cost and risk of applications development for the majority of knowledge worker applications that serve small groups of workers (and sometimes an individuals’ specific information needs)

Performance Metrics for Assessing the Top 10

I’ve based my assessment on the terms of reference established by Microsoft in their excellent white paper on enterprise mashups (J.R. Arredondo, May 2008)that comes in two parts:

1.Capabilities that an enterprise mashup platform must display in order to ensure broad enterprise adoption across business users and also acceptance within the IT organization such as:
-Business user requirements.
-Easy to use for business users.
-Integrated with business users’ daily work life.
-Powerful for power users to “finish the whole job.
-Social and viral.

2.The existence of key technical elements of a mashup platform:
-Access to a repository of web services that users and IT managers can employ to publish and manage corporate and public information that information workers can leverage in Enterprise Mashups.
-A gallery of visualization components that users can use to make sense of newly aggregated sources of insights.
-Mashup creation capabilities are easy to use by non technical users.
-Authored mashups create THE PORTAL ARCHITECTURE (ie. User permissions, site layout, page layout, hierarchies and taxonomies etc.), not just component pages.
-A place where users can share the mashups they create and a social and collaborate workspace that supports the deployment and manageability of mashups for internal and external users - as well as the social networking capabilities that help people to connect with one another, create workspaces and data mashups within them.

The Top 10
So who are the key players in the Enterprise Mashups space? Here’s my Top 10 of what I believe are the most influencing products in the market today (presented in reverse order):

10. Corizon – A UK software business that originated from call centre and CRM integrations projects sponsored by British Telecom and has continued to develop its platform to serve the needs of call centre integrations market. This early verticalization of its proposition has enabled Corizon to rapidly develop a sound raison-d’être for its technology and through successive deployments the company has fashioned a robust enterprise mashup platform. However, the solution offered – whilst incorporating many of the attributes of enterprise mashups technology does not target or meet the needs of the long-tail of business applications (or Microsoft’s key functional determinants) and therefore sits at number 10 in my list.

9. Just Systems – Headquartered in Tokyo, Just Systems is a global software provider with three decades of successful innovation in office productivity, information management, and consumer and enterprise software with over 2,500 customers worldwide and annual revenues over $110M. Whilst not strictly speaking an Enterprise Mashups player, JustSystems – with its XFY technology - has developed an XML architecture for dynamic composite documents similar to Encanvas that makes it well positioned to become a leading player in the market over the next few years.

8. Twinsoft - A French company, Twinsoft sees itself as a market leader in Enterprise Mashups. According to its website, its flagship product, Convertigo Enterprise Mashup Server helps companies reuse their existing assets to build new and exciting WEB 2.0 composite applications for a fraction of the cost and time needed to complete software rewrites or traditional development. It’s a good story and the company has some very interesting case stories but its software platform relies heavily on Twinsoft’s OEM relationship with DreamFace and to me looks very much like a consultancy-led offering rather than a coherent software application.

7. Nexaweb – This Burlington (Massachusetts, USA) based company specializes in modernization technology that ‘enhances, extends and transforms legacy applications through an open web development platform and reference architecture’ but to anyone in the enterprise mashups space, the parallels between the technology platforms are obvious. Nexaweb has found a convincing story to sell its Web 2.0 architecture to IT departments in a way that IT people understand its purpose. Not a platform for situational applications yet but no doubt it’s on Nexaweb’s roadmap.

6. Serena – Serena is the first major player to create a marketplace for mashups and their software applications dovetail nicely into the Microsoft desktop world so users find their UI familiar. Serena has profited from its experience in Applications Life-Cycle Management and has the most advanced version control and mashup management features in its class. Another strength of Serena’s platform is its orchestration module for integration with legacy systems (similar to Encanvas’s Information Flow Designer). However. Serena has yet to provide a full platform to include social networking and collaborative features so in my view they’ve still got some way to go. The absence of an On Premises offering is also a major weakness for large corporations.

5. JackBe – The Enterprise Mashup platform making the most noise, JackBe has recently received even more coffers for its developments through another round of funding. Jackbe sees portals and mashups becoming the 'ecosystem' for business users - and the browser as the business container of choice (I agree). Similar to Encanvas, JackBe’s mashup platform, Presto, can leverage internal and external data while meeting tough enterprise security and governance requirements. The vision of the management team seems to be sound but the company has got some way to go to prove its marketing messages with real-world case examples and the software platform currently appears to lack depth in areas of legacy integration tools, life-cycle management and orchestration.

4. Microsoft SharePoint – Other than its light-weight consumer mashup product Popfly, Microsoft doesn’t really have an enterprise mashup ‘product’ as such but it does a pretty good job of gluing its enterprise computing platform tools together to create an enterprise mashup environment. SharePoint Designer 2007 is intended to be more of an end user tool but not for any users that I know without a computing degree!

3. Interneer – Interneer (CA, USA) would not describe themselves as an enterprise mashups player at all but their technology is relevant and well designed. Inteneer’s Intellect platform is positioned as a human-centric workflow platform that (according to their website) “allows average business people to configure web-based applications with integrated workflow at the speed of business, without programming.” Interneer has developed an extremely intuitive and easy to use point and click design environment for non-IT people and has managed to combine this UI with an equally impressive applications integration and orchestration module. What Interneer lacks at the moment is the collaborative workspace and automated portal deployment architecture. It also remains to be seen whether Interneer has the vision and marketing muscle to remain at number 2 in my ‘best of the best’ chart.

2. Encanvas - Encanvas version 1.7 didn’t make the number 1 spot – but that’s okay considering the amount of investment that has gone into its GIS and print technologies of late (and with the 1.8 release just around the corner). Encanvas continues to be the easiest to use code-free situational applications publishing platform, the most secure and most dexterous. Its ability to create databases, virtual marts and harvest legacy sources through multi-linking between fields of data from disparate web services, legacy and desktop data sources makes its data mashup possibilities more versatile in my view than any of the other products in this category (although OpenSpan’s desktop integration technologies gives Encanvas a run for its money). Encanvas also has built in collaborative tools like WebShow for turning enterprise mashup applications into virtual collaborative workspaces. Encanvas’s use of its own embedded applications components (including GIS and visualization, dashboard meters, charts, reports and now printing) together with its ability to deliver the deployment portal architecture and security without requiring IT skills, makes Encanvas a strong runner up.

1. IBM Mashup Center – IBM has taken the whole subject of enterprise mashups much more seriously than Microsoft and has recently invested over $100 million in mashup, collaboration and social computing technologies. This investment is now beginning to show through the new line-up of technologies coming out of the IBM stable. IBM Mashup Center is in my opinion the first meaningful platform that unites a user interface that non-IT people can understand with data mashup technologies and web harvesting and discovery. The portal based solution also integrates with Avaya’s Application Enablement (AE) Services API which is probably the first mashup cross-over into the unified communications space. IBM appears to understand collaboration better than Microsoft, yet its strategy is enterprise platform based and so it may suffer as the industry moves towards self-forming situational people networks who will want the ability to pay for their IT platforms on a utility basis. A challenge for the IBM team is how to counter the factor of 100 price difference to Encanvas when the functionality is getting so similar.

Other key players that are likely to influence the Enterprise Mashups space are Coghead and Dreamface who have excellent design interfaces but have yet to deliver the full gamut of enterprise mashup platform capabilities, Endeca, StrikeIron and OpenSpan who play in the Information Access Platform space and have particularly powerful enterprise legacy systems connectors with scope to develop enterprise mashup capabilities in the future, Kapow technologies who currently lead the way in mashup harvesting tools, composite applications vendors like Cordys that focus more on enterprise business process management but whose technology implementation is similar in terms of usability and dexterity to enterprise mashup platforms, and finally rapid applications authoring providers like LiquidApps from Harmonia Inc and IronSpeed who are introducing development environments that have the potential to respond to a number of the use cases that enterprise mashups address.

It will be interesting to see who the winners and losers will be in 2009 which promises to be a year of step change innovations in all areas of technology – cloud computing, unified communications, virtualization, mashups, location-awareness… time for a coffee ;-)