I’ll be hosting two webinars in the next few months on Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data:

08.28.2013 at 5:00 pm PST

Sponsored by 12Books

07.11.2013 at 11:00 am PST

Sponsored by Carahsoft. Click here to register. The first 100 live attendees will receive a copy of Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data.

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Disclaimer: The following post is based exclusively on my own observations and discussions with colleagues. In other words, this post is not a to be a survey or scientific study.

As I write in The Next Wave of Technologies, sometime toward the latter part of the last decade, we entered Enterprise 2.0. Monikers aside, new enterprise technologies have been with us for a while now and it’s high time we ask, “How are organizations doing so far?”

First, let’s take a step back first and discuss the precursor to Enterprise 2.0: Its 1.0 equivalent. At a high level, in the mid-1990s, many companies began deploying ERP and CRM applications. Most organizations moved from mainframes to relational databases like Oracle, SQL Server, and dB2. They introduced e-mail, ecommerce, and relatively simple websites. A relatively brave few dabbled with business intelligence and data mining. Unfortunately, far too often, data silos hamstrung organizations and their employees.

As I write in The Next Wave of Technologies, sometime toward the latter part of the last decade, we entered Enterprise 2.0. Today, organizations have at their disposal new, far more powerful, and much cheaper technologies. Examples include cloud computing, MDM, more mature open source applications, and the like. What’s more, if you can’t find what you need, it’s never been easier to just build it. ISVs have proliferated, as have APIs, SDKs, and platforms.

Diffusion of Technologies

Generally speaking, organizations today are using better technologies than fifteen years ago—and are spending less money in the process. Most organizations have improved upon their initial websites, often integrating web services. While some enterprises continue to resist the cloud, many have realized that the benefits (cost, near-constant uptime) far exceed their downsides (primarily security)

Grade: B.

Data Management

My consulting clients vary across a number of different dimensions. I can, however, say one thing about just about every enterprise I’ve worked with over the past ten years: A plurality has failed to recognize the importance of increasing the quality of—and access to–enterprise data.

This is unfortunate. There’s so much power in the data—if it’s unleashed. As Tony Fisher writes in The Data Asset (affiliate link), most organizations need to change their focus. That is, far too many are stuck in a department- or application-specific mind-set, not an organizational one. Doing so will enable them realize many benefits, including:

• To increase communication and collaboration among employees
• To improve the rate of innovation
• To procure deeper customer and employee insights

Grade: C+.

Simon Says

To be sure, there are technology and data exemplars like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. For most of the rest of the pack, however, there’s still a great deal of work to do, particularly with respect to data management. To paraphrase Alan Kay, Enterprise 2.0 has arrived; it’s just not evenly distributed.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

So far, the most interesting visualizations are the interactive ones. While early, it’s clear to me that there are myriad ways to make data tell a story. To paraphrase Hans Rosling, “Let the dataset change your mindset.”

I spent a decade working on large scale ERP projects, many of which informed my first book, Why New Systems Fail. It astonished me then—as it does today—that so many organizations of all sizes continue to struggle implementing and maintaining their HR, payroll, financials, and other back office functions. After all, ERP isn’t exactly not “rocket surgery”, and many specific solutions have been with us for decades.

In his recently published a report titled “A Guide for a Successful ERP Strategy in the Midmarket: Selection, Services, and Integration”, Nick Castellina emphasizes the need for an “integrated approach to ERP.” By this, he refers to “the integration of processes, employees, technologies, and business partners.” (I would add data as well, but that’s fodder for another post.) Such integration results in “an organization that is efficient, cohesive, and ready for growth.”

Many a CXO assumes that her data and business processes are integrated because her organization now runs one ERP.

You’ll get now argument from me about the importance of integration and cohesion. After all, the “E” in ERP stands for “Enterprise.” In other words, it behooves organizations to truly integrate their enterprise data, technologies, and the like. Maintaining standalone applications and data silos only serves to encumber the organization. Efficiency suffers, and employees make suboptimal business decisions.

Lamentably, however, many midsized organizations continue to support disparate applications years after the new ERP goes live. Broken business processes exhibit remarkable staying power, even in the face of a system that theoretically converges the enterprise. In the immortal words of Craig Bruce, “Temporary solutions often become permanent problems.” Exceptions are made too frequently, often enabled by powerful MDM solutions.

Simon Says

Many a CXO assumes that her data and business processes are integrated because her organization now runs one ERP. Don’t make that mistake.

Challenge those who believe that their data, applications, and processes need to be treated specially. Perhaps that’s the case, but too many exceptions only serve to defeat the very purpose of a true ERP in the first place.

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What say you?

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Over the course of writing Too Big to Ignore and The Age of the Platform, it became evident to me that progressive organizations were using different types of data in fascinating ways. Yes, they were making better decisions because employees had access to better information, but often that data was presented in innovative and compelling ways.

There’s a term for this type of thing these days–data visualization–and it’s huge. Exhibit A: Tableau Software recently went public, and the results have been amazing.

While I touched upon data visualization in Too Big to Ignore, I quickly learned that there’s a great deal more to write about the matter. A whole book’s worth… And John Wiley & Sons (publisher of two of my five books) agrees with me. My new book has a current working title of The Visual Organization: How Intelligent Companies Use Data Visualization To Make Better Decisions. It will be out in early 2014. We’re still playing with the subtitle.

Story Matters Here

AMC’s motto is “Story Matters Here.” I like that.

I believe strongly that business and technology books ought to tell stories, and good ones at that. Today, data visualization isn’t hypothetical; many people and organizations are using it as we speak. To that end, I am looking to interview people at organizations that are routinely doing interesting things with data visualization. I’m not talking about one-off PowerPoint presentations for quarterly reports. I am interested in speaking with progressive companies that routinely visualize their data–and make better business decisions as a result.

A few guidelines:

• I’m open to hearing from software vendors, but I’ll want to talk to real-world users of your products.
• Case studies will contain real company names and results. This isn’t Why New Systems Fail.
• This will be a color book and I want to include many visualizations. I’ll need hi-res photos (at least 300 DPI). If I can’t get these, then I’ll have to pass. The whole point is to show data represented in interesting ways.
• My sixth book will contain examples from multiple functions, including HR, sales, finance, IT, marketing, and others. I’m not looking to write about the same function over and over again.

Contact me if you’re interested.
 

Concerns about privacy did not begin with the era of Big Data or the advent of Facebook. They’ve been with us since the advent of the Internet. For instance, during the dot-com boom, companies like DoubleClick (now owned by Google) pushed the privacy envelope as it attempted to serve up relevant ads via cookies.

In August of 2012, the Federal Trade Commission “fined Google $22.5 million…to settle charges that it had bypassed privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser to be able to track users of the browser and show them advertisements, and violated an earlier privacy settlement with the agency.” As The New York Times’ article points out, the fine represents “the largest civil penalty ever levied by the commission.”

Nothing’s Shocking

This should shock no one. Increasingly, the FTC has been cracking down on tech companies for privacy violations. (The European Union has been even more vigilant vis-à-vis privacy breaches.) What’s more, the FTC continues to monitor Google for antitrust violations. And let’s be honest here: Given Google’s recent track record on privacy, the FTC certainly should keep its eye on Larry and Sergey’s company.

Ignore privacy issues at your own peril.

Now, Google can afford to pay the fine–and then some–but that’s hardly the point. And the fine and resulting negative press didn’t make a dent in Google’s stock price or brand. After all, Gmail, YouTube, and the other planks in its platform have become indispensable tools for far too many of us. Whether it can sustain further hits to its reputation is another matter. Remember, people don’t have to use Google products and services; it’s a matter of user and consumer choice. In each case, alternatives exist to Google’s products.

Organizations with much less traction and stickiness than Google should pay particular attention to transparency. A customer whose privacy has been violated may well not come back, not to mention tell her friends.

Simon Says: Start with Transparency

Today, organizations can do amazing things with Big Data. Foolish is the CXO, however, who doesn’t recognize the very real issues posed by our ability to track just about everything. While there’s no secret sauce to avoiding the pitfalls of Big Data, lack of transparency is ill advised. Better to ask for permission rather than forgiveness.

Feedback

What say you?

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.

I’m pleased to announce that Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data will be 12Books’ featured text for August of 2013. The GoodReads group attracts some great discussion on the most important business topics of the day. It is the largest business book group in the world.

I’ll be hosting a webinar on the book on August 28, 2013 at 5:00 pm PST. Click here to register.

You may not have heard of WordPress, but if you surf the web every day, you’re almost certainly using it. As of this writing, it powers an astonishing 66 million websites, including those of many mainstream media outlets like Forbes, CNN, and Reuters. (I personally run seven WordPress sites. My moderation issues are fodder for another time.) What’s more, WordPress is increasingly making inroads in enterprise IT.

Over the weekend, the content management system celebrated its ten-year anniversary. Around the globe, hundreds of events marked the occasion, and I attended a meetup near my home in Las Vegas.

Mulling the Future

I for one am very bullish on its future. I can’t wait to see what happens with WordPress over the next ten years.

Now, that might seem strange. I have no crystal ball. We are living in a time in which it’s never been tougher to make accurate, long-term predictions about technology and business. The tech landscape is littered with ostensibly intractable behemoths like MySpace, AOL, RIM, HP, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and others that have recently fallen from grace. Even erstwhile Wall Street darling Apple qualifies. So why such optimism?

Today, for an independent product, service, or company to survive (much less thrive), at least two things need to happen. First, its founder–or founders–needs to be committed to its long-term future. Second, that product, company, or service needs to keep evolving, and quickly at that.

With respect to the former, Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg does not appear to be interested in cashing out. Sure, the temptation exists, especially with Yahoo’s $1.1B acquisition of Tumblr. From all accounts, however, Mullenweg is not out for the quick buck. He has big plans for the platform and, make no mistake, that’s exactly what WordPress is.

The Power of Platforms and Ecosystems

In the Age of the Platform, success is less about what an individual company’s management wants. Rather, stickiness and continued relevance hinge upon where its users and customers want the product or service to go. To this end, WordPress sports one of the most passionate and robust ecosystems in the world. Countless bloggers, web designers, trainers, premium hosting companies like WPEngine, and software developers make their living off of WordPress.

These people and organizations are indispensable. They extend WordPress’s core functionality. They take it new directions. This ecosystem allow Automattic to do so much with so few employees (roughly 150, according to the company’s Wikipedia page.) Scott Berkun’s forthcoming book delves more into the unique culture at Automattic.

Of course, success is hardly guaranteed. We may look back at WordPress as the predecessor of something bigger and better.

Don’t bet on it, though. WordPress does not appear to be complacent. And, more important, it is incredibly democratic. New functionality is added all of the time. New plug-ins and themes appear daily. Anyone who wants to start a WordPress project or site can.

Thank you, WordPress. Here’s to the next ten years.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be speaking at the following events this summer:

05.29.2013 – I’ll be speaking at Ignite Vegas.

06.07.2013 – I’ll be hosting a writing and publishing day-long seminar in Las Vegas. For more info, click here.

06.14.2013 – I’ll be keynoting a TechCocktail event in Las Vegas. More information to come soon.

Mark Kelly knows a thing or thirty about the music industry. He’s served as keyboardist of the English band Marillion for more than three decades. Today, few musicians have his perspective on the business of music.

For instance, for the last few years, crowdfunding and sites like Kickstarter have been all the rage. Kelly and his band recognized the vast potential of the Internet a remarkable fifteen years ago. Marillion was one of–if not the–first group to reach out directly to its fans via the Internet. Marillion used the burgeoning platform to fund his band’s twelfth studio album, Anoraknophobia.

To call Kelly eerily prescient would be a vast understatement. I sat down with him to talk about crowdfunding platforms, the fairness of royalties from superscription music sites like Pandora, and a few other subjects.

Here are some highlights from our discussion.

PS: Do you want to give a quick band update?

MK: There’s not much to talk about, really. We recently finished our run of Marillion weekends we do every couple of years. After that the plan was for everyone to do their own thing. I know that Pete is out in the States working with Transatlantic. Steve H has some shows coming up in August. I’ve been doing various things, industry-related stuff. I’m also trying to fit in some solo album writing as well. Marillion is off until September when we’ll go back in the studio to start work the next album..

PS: Can you talk a little bit about some of the streaming services like Pandora? Are some more friendly than others?

MK: It’s quite a complicated subject. I’m sorry if I get a little technical here. I might lose a few people here. For starters, we don’t have access to Pandora in the UK because of licensing restrictions. As a service, from a punter’s point of view, I think Pandora’s great, as is Spotify. But we know that many artists are unhappy about the amount of money they get paid. A lot of people make the mistake of comparing Spotify to Pandora because they’re both Internet music services, but they’re very different. With Spotify, you can listen to a particular song at the time and place of your choosing.. With Pandora, you can only listen to music in very general terms, like a genre. It’s not the same thing. Pandora’s much more like a radio station.

If you look at what you get paid via Pandora (relative to terrestrial radio station), it’s far more per listener, per play. The USA is one of the few countries of the world that doesn’t pay artists when their songs are played on the radio. They pay writers but they don’t pay performers.

PS: So, streaming is here to stay?

MK: I think that streaming is the future of music consumption. The Apple model of downloads is a stepping stone technology. It satisfies that need for people to own something. We’ve gone from physical CDs to downloads. People are getting used to the idea that the Internet is not going away and that paying to have access to–rather than to own–music, is ok.

PS: About 40 songs are downloaded illegally for every legal download. To combat the rampant piracy, Marillion has done some innovative things with crowdfunding. You guys were way ahead of the curve.

MK: It’s so hard to make a judgment on what damage illegal downloading has done to the industry. We know that piracy has done some financial damage, as has unbundling albums on iTunes. Just to be clear, though, illegal downloading is bad for the industry. Free downloading from the artist can be a good thing–and we’ve done that ourselves.

PS: While the Internet hurts certain artists, Marillion has shown that it can also help.

MK: The Internet saved us, really. We were in a position in 1997 where our manager said to us that we would have to find something else to do for six months out of the year because Marillion wasn’t earning enough money to carry on paying the sort of money that we were used to. We then sacked the manager. We emailed the 6000 fans on our database to ask, “Would you buy the album in advance?” most replied “yes.” We took over 12,000 pre-orders and went on to use the money to fund the writing and recording of the album. That was the crowdfunding model that has been so successfully imitated by many others including the most successful, Kickstarter. With success comes unwanted attention. In the music industry we have a saying “where there’s a hit, there’s a writ.”

Currently there’s a legal battle going on between Kickstarter and a company called Artist Share–a company that most people probably haven’t heard of. Artist Share filed a patent for the idea of crowdfunding in 2003. In the UK you can’t patent an idea like that but apparently in the US you can. It seems like a bit of a stretch, really. Crowdfunding goes back further than the internet.. Joseph Pulitzer (of Pulitzer Prize fame) made a plea in the New York Times, for donations to build a plinth for the Statue of Liberty over one hundred years ago. It goes to show there is nothing new under the sun.

To watch some of our conversation, see below: