The data model is critical, but far too often overlooked with system procurements, especially in the realm of cloud solutions when the database isn’t on your server. Here’s why.

The data foundation

Applications that are rich in structured data – think CRM, billing, accounting, HR, manufacturing or logistics solutions to name just a few – typically persist their data in a relational data model. The data model is the very foundation of a data-rich app and, like the foundation of a house, doesn’t change readily and requires a significant effort if changes are required. A major data model change requires a migration of data from the old to the new structure, which can be costly and disruptive. It may also demand a change to the application code that reads and writes data to and from the data model, again involving time, cost and disruption.

The balancing act

As well as being foundational, all data models are a compromise. No model can be perfect and each is a balancing act between simplicity and flexibility; the more flexible, the less simple. Most data models in transactional systems (i.e. those systems where data is entered regularly) are optimised for ease of input and maximum integrity of data. The pursuit of these virtues necessarily results in numerous related data entities (known as tables in most databases, or often objects in cloud solutions), the logic of which needs to be understood, especially if you’re planning to customise or integrate.

You must ensure that the balance struck by the data model in your chosen solution is sensible and matches the business rules of your organisation. For example, a billing solution may, for the sake of simplicity of data entry, structure its data such that an invoice always relates to a single parent order. If, however, your business issues periodic invoices that span multiple customer orders, you’ll either need to adapt your business practice to the solution, or opt for a more flexible tool. Either way, you’ll want to assess the time and cost implications of that at the evaluation stage, not during or after the system implementation.

Find a good data architect

Sophisticated data-rich systems may have many dozen or even hundreds of data entities, such that assessing the simplicity-vs-flexibility balance can be a major undertaking. For on-premise solutions, a knowledgeable DBA is often on hand to help, given that he/she will take responsibility for the installed database. But for cloud database apps, too often a DBA or data architect isn’t consulted at the evaluation stage. The good news is that the skills needed don’t change between the on-premise and cloud worlds, despite the fact that with the cloud app, direct access to the database tables isn’t typically allowed. The DBA or data architect you’ve relied on previously should be well up to the task of assessing a cloud data model.

Transparency vs IP protection

With packaged solutions, on-premise or cloud, some vendors may be unwilling to share details of the data model with you for reasons of intellectual property protection. A lack of transparency in this area should raise a red flag in your evaluation. Confident cloud vendors will share their data model with you, safe in the knowledge that the model alone is far from enough IP for you to reverse engineer their product. For example, salesforce.com openly shares their data models on their developer website, setting a minimum benchmark that you should expect.


Universal models

The other good news to note is that with relational databases having been around for decades, standard – or “universal” – data models have emerged for routine business functions and common industries. Universal data models are tried and tested over many years and hundreds of implementations, so provide an ideal blueprint against which to compare your cloud vendor’s offering. For example, if you’re buying an accounting solution, detailed universal models exist for handling the chart of accounts, transactional entries and the general ledger, so if your vendor’s solution deviates majorly from them, you’d be entitled to ask why. A wonderful source of universal data models is the range of books written by Len Silverston – bibles for data architects.

The data model is the core of your data-rich cloud solution, so I hope these tips will help you to ensure it’s up to scratch.

When not constructing metaphors spanning equine sports and enterprise software (a pointless vocation with few prospects), in my day job I have the pleasure of helping clients navigate their way through the pre-race field of preening cloud vendors and their flighty solutions.

Invariably the clients’ IT departments furnish them with a dusted-off standard checklist for evaluating new software offerings, covering the usual points around functionality, usability, reliability, performance, security, support and the like. In the rapidly evolving world of cloud computing, however, these checklists, while definitely necessary, are insufficient.

Public cloud solutions are typically well presented, with the underlying technology shrouded in very pretty user interfaces and sophisticated APIs. With the application’s code and database being hosted elsewhere, and the purchase often made without the involvement of the IT department, it’s all too easy to omit the detailed design checks that have been routine in the evaluation of on-premise systems for decades. On a positive note, the constant enhancement paradigm offered by public cloud solutions (as opposed to the optional, infrequent upgrades of traditionally purchased software) presents a huge opportunity for customers to ride a wave of continual improvement if they choose the right vendors and products.

To meet these challenges, over the coming weeks I’ll detail here some important evaluation criteria aimed specifically to help with the procurement of cloud technologies. Armed with these tricks, you’ll improve the odds of placing your wager on the firm favourite every time.

Thanks for everyone’s topical suggestions, of which I certainly mentioned a few in my responses. The 10 min segment can be seen on the website now so take a look.

We talked CRM, cloud, social media and customer service and I can only assume (until I see evidence to the contrary) that we were a huge ratings success.

I had a meeting with a wealth management client this week to talk them through how best to expand upon their thus far introductory usage of Salesforce CRM. One of the protagonists was their head BDM, a savvy, high-energy sales type who demanded quick evolution of the system for it to keep up with his frenetic pace. We talked through foundational matters of roles & responsibilities, data structures and processes, which were critical to success, but barely of enough interest to keep the BDM from twiddling with his iPhone 4 throughout.

However, once we arrived at the far sexier topic of mobile CRM, his eyes immediately lit up as the killer concepts of sales, gadgetry and freedom from his desk fused in his brain. I began to talk through the potential, but in the minute or two it took me to explain it he’d found the Salesforce Mobile app on the AppStore, installed it, logged into Salesforce and assessed how he’d access his contacts, make his calls and take his sales notes in Chatter. He interrupted me mid-sentence with a simple “Yep, we’ll have that” and promptly left the room to go back to selling.

It was a stark reminder to me that the decisions around cloud and mobile technology can be every bit as real‑time as the tools themselves. And that salespeople dig gadgets.

The show airs on the Sky News Business channel at 9:30pm (Australian east coast) on Friday 15 April, but is also repeated at 10am Saturday and 9:30am Sunday, and is available on the website afterwards. At the Friday night slot, we’re competing on cable with Ultimate Fighting and 60 Minute Makeover, so if we lose your interest, flick over and watch people’s faces get mangled in one of two different ways.

I’m not short of opinions on the topic of CRM, but if you have any killer points you think need an audience, I’d love to hear them, so feel free to drop me a line.

Myriad Share is a fully configured client portal to allow business to share key documents with clients. It’s built on the Force.com platform and comes with its own embedded Force.com licence, so you don’t need to be an existing Salesforce customer to get started.

Myriad Share for Financial Advisers takes the core functionality of Myriad Share and adds specific professional relationships and document workspaces, allowing an adviser’s client to share documents with their other professional consultants, such as their accountant and solicitor. It’s ideal for financial advice practices looking to add a lucrative value-add to their existing service offering.

We’re thrilled to have the product available and if you’re interested in a free trial, drop us a line or contact us here. Or if you’d like to test drive the demo version, just follow the instructions at http://bit.ly/myriadsharetestdrive.

Myriad Share for Financial Advisers is the first module of our financial advice practice management suite, so keep a lookout for further module announcements.

It starts off a tad doomsday-esque with an image of a dark, ominous sky and the headline “Storms Gather in the Cloud” (OK, so a lot doomsday-esque), but when you read the fine print, the point is that cyber theft is a risk for any online system. Moreover, the major cloud vendors often have the most robust infrastructures because (a) they do it for a living; and (b) they’re under constant scrutiny by their enterprise clients. I chimed in briefly to challenge APRA’s recent focus on cloud and to suggest that their concerns are equally relevant to on-premise solutions, and to challenge that cloud is inherently the riskier proposition.

Have a read below. (We’ve even turned the magazine to the right page for you using Issuu‘s rather neat Flash component)

At the enterprise level, forward-thinking companies have CIOs responsible for any matters even vaguely related to technology. Less mature businesses, however, often allow the commercial benefits of technology to fall through cracks between silos owned by departmental heads. In SME world, examples range from those who have no technology leadership at all; to those that outsource hardware and desktop support piecemeal to various local suppliers without a single point of ownership; to those who tack their technology responsibility onto the CEO or CFO’s portfolio, as if they should know how to lead an IT function. In each scenario, the base needs are sometimes met, but huge opportunities are missed.

Technology leadership is crucial and too often ignored, so here are 3 useful benchmarks to help you determine whether your technology leadership measures up.

1. Does it provide a commercial return? If your technology leadership is working well, it will focus on people and processes as much as the traditional domain of hardware and software tools. In progressive organisations, the technology leadership is not merely responsible for the provision and deployment of IT systems (i.e. the tools) for the business. It must ensure that the interaction between system users (staff, customers, partners, suppliers, management) — the people of the organisation — and the tools provides a commercial return. Those interactions — the processes of the organisation — must also comply to standards, be aligned to the culture of the business (especially its risk appetite) and ideally be not unpleasant for those involved. But if they don’t make sense commercially, they shouldn’t be happening and you should ask your technology leadership why they are.
   
   
2. Does it manage your risk? Typical technology risk considerations centre on business continuity (disaster recovery, backups, failover, virus protection, etc.), service level agreements and security. Less obvious risks, however, such as poor user adoption, slow adaptability to change, poor data quality or compromised solution design can also severely affect the bottom line, as much due to opportunities lost as negative possibilities realised. IT functions can be outsourced and systems can be purchased or built, but it takes nous to combine these elements into an IT strategy that manages technology risk in the long term. Products and vendors are often selected primarily on functional or industry speciality, especially if they are introduced by business users. Technology leaders must look under the hood to ensure that each technical element is viable and fit for purpose, and that they combine into a technology architecture that matches the risk appetite of the business.
   
   
3. Does it inspire your team? If your technology leadership doesn’t inspire your business users, then you’re missing an opportunity. In years gone by, it may have sufficed to ask users what they want and try to provide answers. But what if they don’t know what questions to ask? With the plethora of fast-changing technology now available, technology leadership means inspiring business staff around what’s possible. To do this well, technology leaders must understand the business priorities at a detailed level, know the technology market intimately and be able to imaginatively match business need to technical solution. A sizable portion of the company’s staff will use inspirational consumer technology on a daily basis, such as iPads, Facebook, Twitter and Google. Good technology leaders know that the expectation bar is constantly being raised by consumer experience and will ensure that the informational people, tools and processes of the organisation keep pace.
   
   

Image thanks to LuMaxArt.

You’ll recall I mentioned James O’Loghlin’s lawn mower analogy. I thought it worth fleshing that out a little with reference to those most nebulous of cloud computing terms: private cloud and public cloud.

A private cloud approach to the lawn mower conundrum would be to build a better shed to house the mower, or perhaps to build a big shed that could store all of the household tools you own so as to free up some extra space in your house. Great, but it doesn’t change the fact that you still have to fix the mower when it breaks (and you’re hardly an expert on mower maintenance) and the mower will still depreciate over time; you still own the mower. Moreover, your ability as a lawn mower has plateaued at “average” and frankly, you’d rather be spending your time on the things you’re actually really good at, like watching reruns of Miami Vice (right from episode 1, when Crockett still had that sweet ’72 Ferrari Daytona Spyder).

A public cloud approach would be to turn the traditional lawn mowing paradigm on its head. Instead of each suburbanite in the neighbourhood owning a mower and mowing their own lawn, a public cloud mowing service would mow everyone’s lawn. The mowers would be experts in their field, with an inexplicable penchant for the noble art of grass topiary. The mowers would continually hone their skills and equipment further, allowing for not only faster, better mowing, but a range of related services, such as hedge-trimming, planting and advice on the latest techniques in lawn cultivation. The suburbanites would subscribe based on the size of lawn and frequency of required service, whilst the quality and breadth of results would far exceed the “average” level of the old approach. Most importantly, Miami Vice would be enjoyed right through until Crockett gets amnesia, forgets he’s undercover and nearly kills his partner Tubbs (surely the shark-jumping moment of the series).

So if you want to build a better shed, then fine. But be aware that there may be a more inspired option.