Header Image for LCG
English/Anglais French/Français Coming Soon

The missing market of portfolio management software

Written by Mike Lamoureux on August 13, 2010 — View Comments

Despite being a mostly non-Microsoft shop, I recognize that Microsoft Project is the leader in project management software. I’ve used alternatives, LiquidPlanner is very nice software. Clarizen, and even JIRA. They don’t quite seem to stack up, yet. What else is out there?

The problem is not with the lack of options in the project management field. The problem is that project management and portfolio management are two different, but related tasks. In our opinion, even small businesses should consider using some form of portfolio management software. Imagine the value in being able to step further back, and look at your entire company’s set of projects as a whole. Imagine the usefulness of historical reports on past projects.

Portfolio management is the top candidate for data integration with your project management software, they work hand-in-hand, which is why it makes for the best case for consolidation into a single product.

Let’s also be clear about something else: You don’t have to be an IT shop to take advantage of portfolio management software. This can, and should, be used for all large projects with multiple team members.

The field of portfolio management products is much less crowded, though. Microsoft’s answer to portfolio management is Project Server 2010. It disturbed me recently to discover that Project Server requires Microsoft SharePoint, a combination of products that directly leads to having to purchase Windows Server licenses, Exchange Server, and SQL Server. Most organizations don’t want their collaboration solution dictated by their project management solution. This should be a choice for customers, and not a domino effect of purchases to do more than what was intended.

Thoughts?

Share|
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Key takeaways from the World BPO / ITO Forum

Written by Mike Lamoureux on August 6, 2010 — View Comments

We have written several posts on the results of the World BPO / ITO 2010 Forum. This is our reconciliation of the key takeaways from the conference, however we will continue to incorporate lessons and themes that we picked up in future blog posts. Click here to see all our posts relating to the conference.

Vendor and Partner benefits chart

  1. As we move from having sourcing “vendors” to having sourcing “partners” the key is to understand the gap between the benefits and the practicality of the result (see picture).
  2. The market does not yet see a clear trend over the strategic decision of having a single “one-size-fits-all” partner or having a boutique of partners.  One-size-fits-all is standardized and inflexible.  Boutique is non-standard and can adapt.
  3. The market does not yet see a clear trend over the strategic decision of having a larger number of small deals, versus having a small number of large deals.  NOTE:  this is independent from the number of sourcing partner that a buyer has.  For example, a company could choose to have a single sourcing partner, but have many deals with them.
  4. If working with a  non-strategic vendor, fix a process before giving it to a vendor to execute.  If working with a strategic partner, allow the partner to help you fix and source it faster.
  5. LCG’s favorite: Collaboration with your sourcing providers is critical.  There are new technologies that can help a company collaborate efficiently with sourcing providers.
  6. Key phrase and ending quote from the whole conference: Globalization and sourcing is complicated.  It is not simple.  It requires effort.  The answer is always “it depends.”
Share|
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Is there such thing as a private cloud?

Written by Mike Lamoureux on July 28, 2010 — View Comments

At the BPO/ITO Conference today – It was stated that private clouds do not exist.

The reason given, is that private clouds do not allow a organization to scale up and down as needed, since the private cloud infrastructure is owned by the same company as the end user. In this case, the infrastructure cost is paid regardless of usage.

This begs the question: Is shared infrastructure a core principal in the definition of cloud computing? If so, can a private cloud exist? If the government were to create a “cloud” for itself, where departments/agencies only pay for what they use, and can scale up and down, is that a private cloud? After all, the taxpayers pay for the infrastructure, whether the capacity is used or not.

Share|
Tags: , , , , ,

Early reports from the World BPO / ITO Forum

Written by Mike Lamoureux on July 28, 2010 — View Comments

As we mentioned, LCG is present at the World BPO / ITO Forum.  The attendees include top CIOs that are involved from the buyer or seller site of offshoring.  The goal of many at the conference is to understand what it means to have a healthy outsourcing operation.

LCG will report more from the conference in the coming days.  For now, here are some raw quotes and preview from some of the speakers:

“The world is not in a recession, it’s in a redistribution”
- Jim Noble, SVP Talisman Energy

“The role of the CIO is to help the business.”
- Jim Noble, SVP Talisman Energy

“There is real value to making sure everything comes back to your principles”
- Glen Salow, EVP Ameriprise Financial

“There are technologies that can help you improve the transparency of outsourcing”
- Glen Salow, EVP Ameriprise Financial

“Do not confuse relationship management and sourcing governance”
- Christine Bullen, Professor Stevens Institute of Technology

“SLA’s do not work.”
- Gary Greenstein

Share|
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Open Source Software and the Enterprise

Written by Mike Lamoureux on July 23, 2010 — View Comments

Open source does have a place in the enterprise. Even in markets dominated by giants, open source can always exist and have a niche. For example, there are several open source enterprise service bus’s (ESB) out there. They co-exist in a market dominated by Oracle, IBM, and others. Much of the challenge for open source software is to get over the fear that technical project managers and CIO’s have of them. Another challenge is that open source does not typically have a team of advocates that are selling the software’s capabilities.

A common argument and source of hesitancy for enterprises is that a open source community can disappear at any time. Evidence of this can be found by looking at the slow progress that Drupal has made in the past few years. Drupal 7 has been in development for years and is not yet complete. WordPress has used a fixed schedule to combat losses of momentum in the community.

Here is a list of considerations for enterprises considering open source software:

1. Consider using a hosted solution for open source software. Hosted solutions support the open source community and provide an enterprise with support. Work out crucial details with your open source software provider to ensure that you have the flexibility to integrate with your data. Make sure you understand how well your hosted provider is integrated with the open source community.

2. Consider using open source as part of a pilot project. The danger here is to recognize when the pilot has ended and consider moving to a enterprise solution. Remember the story of Microsoft Visual Basic – It was never intended to be a language for final software production. However, after using it to create semi-working pilot applications, clients demanded the developers pass along the pilot app itself, rather than wait months for it to be re-developed in C++. This is how VB got momentum in the market, rapid development of windows applications.

3. Remember the core competency of the software you choose. Open source software doesn’t stray too far from its roots. For example, WordPress is a blogging platform. Yes, it can be used as a generic CMS, and their is the capability of using extensions (called plugins) for things like Social Networking (Buddypress), and multi-language support (WPML). However, these are not supported by the WordPress community itself, but instead a plugin developer. Plugins have the added risk of a even smaller community supporting them.

A plea to open source communities: Open source plays a very important part in the marketplace. It is the heart of software innovation and the reason why the industry has changed so much due to user-generated content. Keep building, challenging the norm, and inspiring the big companies to build better, more usable software. Keep in mind that open source DOES play a important role in the enterprise. Given this fact, proves that there is a business model for open source software. Enterprises need smart people, they need support, and they need problem solvers. Communities can form businesses to support their open source projects. I’d love to see an open source community that says “come help us out, and we’ll help you find a job once you prove your value.” With corporate support/sponsorship, this could work.

Share|
Tags: , , , , ,

LCG at the World BPO / ITO Forum

Written by Mike Lamoureux on July 23, 2010 — View Comments

World BPO ITO Forum LogoLCG is excited to attend the World Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology Outsourcing 2010 Summit.

The event is sponsored by a group that is dear to our hearts at LCG, the Capital Area Chapter of SIM. We will attend both days, July 28th and 29th. Here on our blog, we will have live bullet points as well as detailed summaries following the conference. If you are going to be in attendance, please let us knnow.

Share|
Tags: , , ,

Collaboration tools when it is most critical

Written by Mike Lamoureux on July 19, 2010 — View Comments

In business it’s important people work well together. Theoretically, the more this happens, the better a business will perform. However there are some times in which a company absolutely must collaborate well, or the consequences will be greater than typical. In these circumstances, a collaboration tool can be useful to help organize and have groups of people review the same data. Here’s a list of those circumstances.

Integration after a merger. Use a wiki to collect inventory and distribute information. Bring parties from both companies on the same system. If corporate firewalls are an issue, sign a short term agreement with a external provider. It will be worth it.

Preparing data for a lawsuit or some other appeal. Make sure you have your facts straight. In this case, the more eyes the better. Nothing does this better than wiki-like tools. Or even, a Google Wave!

That critical project that will make or break the future of your business. For projects, consider tools that are made specifically for project sharing. Basecamp is one great one.

Creation of a business plan, or managing the change in a business plan. Business strategy documents such as a business plan, communications plan, etc. are commonly ignored once a business gets off the ground. This results in times of “reorganization” to revisit these documents and update them. Make this process more organic by having your documentation grow along with your company. We suggested this in a earlier post relating to IT Governance.

Reviewing a proposal. Again, the more eyes the better. this might sound like a headache to you initially, but if you take out all of the repetitive loops of sending out drafts via email, and use a collaboration tool instead, it can be quite manageable.

Share|
Tags: , , ,

Unified Communications versus Unified Communications and Collaboration

Written by Mike Lamoureux on July 16, 2010 — View Comments

There seems to be a debate on the difference between Unified Communications (UC), and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC).

A summarized definition of UC, according to Blair Pleasant is:

Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.

Gartner defines UC as a subset of UCC, where UC focuses on telephony, Voice Mail, Audio conferencing, Email, IM, Web Conferencing. UCC includes Wikis, Blogs, and Social Software.

At LCG, we believe the key variable in the definition is rich media. Communicating (UC) occurs whenever a message is successfully transmitted between two people. Collaborating means two or more people doing more than communicating, they are experiencing a higher level of communication in their experience. But why does this matter?

Arguing the difference between UC and UCC is applicable because the UCC marketplace is less mature than the UC. Separating the two is still relevant because the players are very different in each, and no one company dominates the market in both. Both markets have been disrupted by the trend of Cloud Computing. Until that time, companies should consider using a market leader in UC, along with a niche vendor in the UCC space.

Share|
Tags: , , , , ,

Ways to Improve an Organizations IT Governance Part 2

Written by Mike Lamoureux on July 14, 2010 — View Comments

In a previous post, we discussed how collaborative tools can improve an organization’s IT Governance. In a nutshell, our position argued that the benefits of information transparency, and having others provide input into decision making will help an internal IT organization. Modern collaboration tools, which include tools that you hear under the Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media umbrella, can help make this easier. In this post, we will discuss how cloud computing can help an organization’s IT Governance.

As a review – Governance is about decision making for your IT portfolio. It’s also about managing that existing portfolio (think of this as the maintenance from your past decisions). Decision making implies that you have options. As business changes, IT must provide support for the changing goals and atmosphere of the business. IT has different ways in which it can support the business, hence where the options and decision making come in. This is also where cloud computing enters the discussion.

Cloud computing can provide options to your business that couldn’t be provided before. At the risk of seeming overly optimistic and vague, cloud computing allows for a CIO to say more frequently:

“yes, we can do that.”

If you need to be reminded of the general benefits of cloud computing itself, check out our previous post on the topic. Here we will discuss more specifically how cloud computing increases the options available during a Governance process.

Cloud Computing reduces the entry cost of IT. Allowing an organization to experiment with new technologies in a pilot project before formally proposing a adoption. Experimentation is similar to prototyping, but less formal of a process. Experimentation brings ideas and comfort levels that result in more options available for IT business solutions.

Cloud Computing reduces the risk of IT Governance. The reduction of entry cost discussed above means that ideas can be prototyped before formally recommended. This reduces the frequency of mistakes or errors later in the implementation process. The earlier a mistake or error in software or a approach is discovered, the cheaper (in terms of overall resources) the rectifying action will be.

Cloud Computing reduces the impact of change. Governance is the process in which your organization manages IT change. As the business changes, so will your IT. Cloud Computing, if properly implemented, allows for hardware and software to be allocated or deallocated as needed. Cloud Computing makes IT services replaceable with a lower cost than ever before. Changing IT will require less time as well as reduced cost. The impact seen on the business and internal IT department (or contractor if outsourced) will be reduced over traditional IT.

There are some assumptions to our argument:

  1. Your organization is able technically to move to the cloud. Companies that are best fit for the cloud typically are those that have already broken out IT services into semantic pieces.
  2. Services that are best fit for the cloud are those that do not include PII. A caveat is that some organizations are comfortable using the cloud for IAAS/PAAS rather than SAAS for PII data. See our post on IAAS/SAAS for more.
Share|
Tags: , , , , ,

What the centralization of computing will mean for business

Written by Mike Lamoureux on June 28, 2010 — View Comments

The centralization of IT hardware and software because of trends like Cloud Computing is having an effect on business IT decision making.  This is being seen widespread for new start-ups and franchises.  Existing businesses are beginning to see the effects as well, but will take time to transition.  Here are some of the observed trends:

Less software packages, more web-based services.  Computers now run less specialized software on their local machine than they once did.  More software is now offered over the web.  Apple has benefited from this tremendously, since the old argument that “no software runs on a Mac” no longer applies.  Consumers and businesses want simple services, which can be obtained over the web.  Business consumers should now view their computing hardware as a gateway to their data, rather than a machine to run specialized software packages.  Specialized software such as image, sound, and video creation will likely continue to run on local machines.  Word processing over the web may be lacking in features compared to Microsoft Word, however the ability to work across Mac/Microsoft/Linux, on and off the web, with file compatibility is already here.

A renewed focus on usability.  The de-emphasis of localized software has lead to the increased focus on usability of both the operating system, and web-based software.  Increased competition between software vendors has lead to usability becoming a feature for differentiation.  The Mac versus PC advertising is a great example of this.

Removal of back-office dedicated servers.  Non-technical companies do not need a server in the back closet anymore.  Local data storage can be accomplished by dedicated devices, or perhaps outsourced to the cloud via Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Smaller IT departments.  Unfortunately, the centralization of IT also means the shrinking of both the internal company IT department, and the local specialized computer store.  Each software vendor has their own support network to use.  For hardware support, companies use big companies like Geek Squad, and OEM warranty on-site service.

Focus on connectivity.  Connectivity is now critical to keeping a business functioning.  Companies are paying much more attention to the Terms of Service (ToS) for their primary internet provider.  Redundant internet providers are common amongst even small businesses.  Options are increasing with the spreading of 4G wireless networks, WiMax, and having multiple wired internet providers.  These services offer mobility as well as a backup internet source.

Technology that is portable.  The new competitive advantage from software vendors is becoming whether or not they allow a user to pick up their data, and bring it somewhere else.  This feature set is often underestimated when reviewing a software package, but is becoming increasingly important.

Mobile.  Most software over the web is available on different platforms, including mobile.  Some mainstream applications are publishing iPad and other mobile apps.  You can now run Point-Of-Sale applications on a tablet PC, or preview images with customers on a mobile platform before submitting for final production.

Did we miss any?  Please comment!

Share|
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Page 1 of 512345
  • Higoenenext: Very Interesting! Thank You!
  • Mike Lamoureux: Colin, There is nothing wrong with that definition, but I don’t think it’s widely...
  • Mike Lamoureux: Christine, Thanks for the comment.
  • Ccrandell: Great post Mike. I agree that Portfolio management shouldn’t be tethered to one’s project...
  • Colin: What's wrong with defining a private cloud as you just did?

LCG Manifesto

LCG Manifesto YouTube Video

Subscribe to Social | Strategy