Phil Simon's Blog, page 112

Understanding Big Data

In this video, I discuss the explosion of data (structured, unstructured, and semi-structured) and what organizations are doing about it.

What do you think?

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. To watch all of my IBM Mid-Market videos, click here.

Inc. Article #2: The Pinterest Effect

My second Inc. Magazine guest post is now live. Here's an excerpt:

Pinterest today is all the rage. Earlier this year, the sitecracked the 10 million monthly unique visitor mark faster than any site—ever. Whether you personally "pin" or not, it's interesting to see the impact that Pinterest is currently having on web design. Case in point: New start-ups are launching with what basically amounts to a Pinterest interface (the new travel recommendation engine Wanderfly is just one example). Look for more Pinterest-inspired sites to come, what with WordPress developers hard on work at picture-laden themes.

Now borrowing elements from popular and successful websites is nothing new, of course. As I write in The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business, new platforms combine true innovation with liberal borrowing of others' good ideas.

Click here to read the whole thing.

The Applefication of the Enterprise, Part I: Introduction

Photo Credit: » Zitona «

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

–Leonardo da Vinci

In a series of posts over the next few months on MIKE2.0, I'll be delving into a nascent trend: the Applefication of the Enterprise. Today's introductory post lays a bit of the groundwork for the series. Here's an excerpt:

In early February of 2012, Halliburton, one of the world's largest oilfield service com Applefication panies, became the latest enterprise to abandon RIM's BlackBerry. Halliburton's new smartphone of choice: Apple's iPhone.

Even two years ago, this would have been earth-shattering news. Companies of this size just didn't buy Apple products. These days, however, announcements like these have almost become commonplace. That is, Halliburton is hardly alone in adopting the Apple's iPhone throughout the company. In late 2011, Pfizer announced that it will purchase a rumored 37,000 iPads for its scientists and sales and manufacturing employees. In the same year, biotech giant Genentech announced that it had rolled out 30 company-specific apps in its own private app store.

To read the entire post, click here.

On Vocalists, Poseurs, and Pretension

Photo Credit: theinvisiblewombat via Compfight

I'm out last night to celebrate one of my friend's birthdays. We're at The Blue Martini, a pretty standard Las Vegas bar/club when the night's band takes stage.

This four-piece group is doing 80s covers and, although they're too loud and I'd rather not have to shout to be heard by people right next to me, I tolerate it. Rules of the game, I guess.

At different points, members of the band put down their instruments. Evidently, some of its songs only required guitar, while others needed only bass and drums. Before one song, the bassist handed his bass to the band's female lead singer, who then mimicked playing it for a few songs. (Now, she's not actually playing notes or chords, but she is superfluously moving her left hand up and down the fretboard. She's faking it–and poorly.)

There's nothing wrong with "only" being a singer, if that's what you want to do and that's all your band demands of you. Robert Plant and James LaBrie (two of my favorite vocalists) don't play instruments, unless you count the tambourine.

But if you want to play the bass, then learn how to do it. Ditto writing a book, painting a picture, or starting your own business. Just don't pretend like you're doing something that you're clearly not.

Pretension serves no one–and it's completely unnecessary.

Quote of the Day

"I don't want to be in a movie, just to be in a movie, or pump things out. I want to be able to look back on everything that I've done and be proud. It doesn't mean it has to be a box office success. It doesn't meant it has to be absolutely lauded by every critic. But, I want to be able to please myself and look back and say, 'You know what? That didn't get attention, but take a look at that movie again. There's something there.' That's where my pride falls in line."

–Bryan Cranston, star of Breaking Bad.

Well said.

The Difference Between Management and Leadership

LinkedIn recently tweaked its matching functionality making it easier than ever to connect with previous colleagues, acquaintances, and friends. I stumbled upon a former boss of mine at a large, publicly traded consulting firm. He's now a bigwig at a large tech company struggling to remain relevant (call it XYZ here).

Now, I have no doubt that XYZ was certainly looking for a type of employee when its hiring manager made him an offer. The type: a safe, experienced, risk-averse manager.

So, what's wrong with this? On the surface, nothing. But look deeper for a moment.

Without exception, today CXOs talk about innovation, embracing change, speed-to-market, yadda, yadda, yadda. Everyone wants to be the next Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. But also-rans are unlikely to drive true innovation by hiring the usual suspects: safe, experienced management types more concerned about self-preservation than rocking the apple cart.

Management and leadership are not the same thing. By all accounts, Steve Jobs didn't win any awards for his often abrasive management style. But few can doubt his leadership prowess. Ditto Mark Zuckerberg. (How many people are effective managers in their early 20s, anyway?)

Don't mistake a leadership for management.

Enterprise Data Governance: The Human Element

I wrote a white paper for DataFlux a while back on how one organization completely dropped the ball on an IT project.

Executive Summary

Enterprise data governance (EDG) is a bit of a catchall term, with many nuances and  complexities not typically emphasized by those looking for a quick fix. To be sure, technology and business processes are essential if one wants to be able to reliably run reports and make decisions based on accurate information. However, many organizations overlook the cardinal importance of the human element before, during, and after their data quality and governance initiatives.

This white paper analyzes the human factor. Almost every organizational endeavor impacts data quality – from individual data entry to automated database backups (and everything in between).

This white paper examines these data management issues within the context of Acme, Inc., a fictitious manufacturer of widgets. Rather than looking at data quality and management though a theoretical lens, this white paper uses a persona-oriented approach to tackle the issues endemic to many organizations vis-à-vis EDG.

Click here to read the whole thing.

Upcoming Speaking Gigs

I'll be speaking about The Age of the Platform at the following events:

06.13.2012 - I'll be speaking at Postal Vision 2020 in Washington, DC. Read the press release here.
06.22.0212 - I'll be speaking at an OCLC Event in Anaheim, CA.
07.11.2012 - I'll be speaking at an OCLC Event in Dublin, OH.
10.08.2012 - I'll be speaking at an OCLC Event in Columbus, OH.

If you're going to be attending these events (or live near their locations), let me know so we can get together.

New Language

 Photo Credit: Bindaas Madhavi via Compfight

Unfettered idealism has its drawbacks. I firmly believe that compromise makes sense on many things.

In The Age of the Platform, I write extensively about platforms, planks, ecosystems. These aren't words that most business folks use on a regular basis. And many of the people who do talk and write about platforms and ecosystems these days do it in a way that confuses more than conveys.

I knew that it wouldn't be easy to get people thinking in a fundamentally different way. In fact, few things are more difficult than creating a new framework and defining new terms. As my friend Alan Berkson says, in the book, I try to raise the level of discourse.

Tall order.

That didn't stop me and it shouldn't stop you. As a creative type working on a passion project, few things matter more than staying true to one's vision.

The End of Big BI?

In the mid- to late 1990s, many organizations undertook large business intelligence (BI) projects at considerable expense. The vast majority of these companies deployed BI applications via a sequential or Waterfall methodology, often taking a year or more to implement. While the particulars varied from project to project, most were conceived as follows:

IT gathers requirements from business users, including the all-important key performance indicators (KPIs).
IT designs a data model to support those requirements and KPIs.
IT identifies data sources that need to be loaded into a cube or data warehouse.
IT loads the data into its target, and formulates a process by which to extract, transform, and load the data (aka, ETL ).
IT rolls out the final product to end users, often in the form of visually compelling dashboards, cubes of data, alerts, and other ad hoc reporting tools.

In theory, these types of deployments were supposed to meet the needs of different lines of business (LOBs). Sadly, they often did not. Many if not most BI projects did not meet often the lofty expectations of CIOs who believed that these new tools would transform their businesses. While the reasons for these project failures varied, organizations characterized as early adopters often served as examples for others of what not to do. What's more, they often deterred many mid-market companies from even going down this road. Relatively few organizations could justify expensive software licenses, consulting fees, and hardware upgrades—especially when their own core CRM and ERP applications were lacking.

BI 2.0: More Palatable for the Mid-Market

So, what's different today for the mid-market organization vis-à-vis BI? Many things, actually, but I'll focus on two in this post. First, BI no longer needs not be a massive undertaking, both in terms of time and cost. On the time side, in many organizations, Agile software development is replacing the Waterfall method as the primary means by which to deploy applications. Rather than a "big bang" at the end of a year or more of work, users see bits and pieces of the application as it develops. Think iterations. Users can identify problems, issues, or inconsistencies early on, thus dramatically reducing the amount of rework.

On the cost side, we've seen the maturation of many BI applications and the increasing popularity cloud computing. As such, organizations need not spend $1 million or more on new databases and servers to launch a powerful BI tool. Yes, many BI applications are still memory- and resource-intensive, but lighter and less taxing options abound. Costs also drop because IT's role has changed: It may no longer need to be the main gatekeeper (and, many times, bottleneck), particularly if an organization opts for BI as a service.

Note that IT departments are still essential to the successful deployment of on-premise BI applications. In a cloud-based environment, however, IT's role may be smaller, but it's by no means insignificant. For many technical, logistical, and even regulatory/legal reasons, IT still serves an important function for organizations embracing cloud computing.

Simon Says

The halcyon days of Big BI are coming to an end—and that's great news for many mid-market organizations.

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.