Sales moves from art to science
By Paul Taylor
Published: March 15 2011 16:22 | Last updated: March 15 2011 16:22
For years, sales and marketing was a pretty haphazard affair in most companies, more art than science.
Sales directors kept contacts in a Rolodex file or on their computer and sales staff worked the phones or hit the road with samples in a suitcase.
Marketing usually meant commissioning an advertisement in newspapers, magazines or broadcast media and perhaps organising a direct mailing campaign.
IT began to change corporate sales and chief marketing officer (CMO) roles in the 1990s with the introduction of more sophisticated contact management and customer relationship management (CRM) systems and salesforce automation tools.
CRM software, in particular, has become a key IT tool to improve efficiency and customer focus.
Harris Products, the metal working products company, chose the CRM suite of SAP, the German software company, to improve control over sales processes and give a more accurate view of prospects.
Lincoln Electric, Harris’s parent company, was able to build a common customer database, establish a standard sales methodology to provide greater accountability, eliminate duplication in reporting and provide better information about sales opportunities.
“We needed one complete version of the truth about our customers, as we couldn't manage what we couldn’t measure,” says Greg Langston, vice-president of sales at Harris.
“[It] changed the way our sales reps sell and we are collectively now more in control of revenue and forecasts. It is also helping us to focus on our customers, and invest in the aspects of the business that directly impact our success.
“It’s all about results and accountability driven by superior information and process.”
Harris reps, who sell a lot of welding equipment, can now see full details of contacts and previous dealings with customers in one place, instead of having to look in various files and databases.
Companies, particularly those in customer-facing industries such as retail and entertainment, and their CMOs are also having to adapt to fundamental changes in media consumption, the rising power of the consumer and the growth of social networking.
Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the California-based CMO Council, says globalisation of markets and digital channels mean that senior corporate marketers are having to develop new skills and redirect marketing spending.
New software tools are helping. “Sales and marketing campaigns haven't historically always been that easy to monitor or measure,” says Bill Ogle, Motorola Mobility’s CMO, who is in charge of building the smartphone maker’s brand.
“However, new tools – most noticeably salesforce automation and CRM – as well as search marketing measurement, together with the emergence of social network channels, have had a huge positive impact in terms of campaign return on investment, ” he says.
Like other companies, Motorola can now much more accurately measure the effectiveness of its marketing.
Many of the technology tools used by marketing and sales professionals are also moving rapidly online and into “the cloud”, where software and IT services are provided over the internet rather than in-house.
Traditional CRM software packages have helped companies manage their interactions with customers and sales prospects by co-ordinating business processes – including marketing, sales activities, customer service and technical support.
But some packages earned a reputation for being difficult to implement and use and for being expensive. These concerns have been a driving force behind the success of cloud-based CRM offerings, pioneered by Salesforce.com.
“The problem with traditional sales and marketing apps was actually getting sales and marketing people to use them,” says Alex Dayon, executive vice-president of CRM at Salesforce.
“That’s because the apps were cumbersome and didn’t always share data across departments, making it difficult for managers to have insight into business performance. Traditional sales and marketing apps were also incredibly expensive and difficult to install.”
By contrast, cloud-based packages promise fast implementation, do not require hardware investment and can be automatically updated. “With a cloud app, you just open a browser, log in and start using it,” says Mr Dayton.
Recent converts include NBC Universal, the media and entertainment company, which wanted to change its advertising sales business.
The company went for Salesforce’s cloud-based CRM service. “Four weeks later, we had 75 per cent user adoption [among the sales team]. That is unheard of,” says John Sabino, senior vice-president of commercial operations at NBC.
Instead of grappling with software, reps can look at all relevant information in one place and have time to focus on clients and identify opportunities. “It gives us a competitive advantage,” says Mr Sabino.
Other companies have found innovative ways to speed up the sales closing process.
Groupon, the deal-of-the-day website that offers local discounts to online consumers, discovered that its sales teams were spending up to 25 per cent of their time chasing and signing contracts. The company turned to AppExchange – an online marketplace for cloud computing applications – and found a digital signature app, EchoSign.
“The normal process for our sales force across the UK and the world, was to get the Groupon contracts signed in person or follow the tedious process of scanning, mailing or posting the contract,” says Ash Mahmud, head of CRM at Groupon UK.
“It wasn’t unusual for a rep to visit a client two or three times to negotiate all the details.”
The sales reps have managed to cut the time taken to close deals to just under three hours.
Businesses are also learning how to tap into social networking and use the online customer relationships they can create for commercial gain.
“Social networks promise to be the next generation of e-commerce engines,” says Matt Anderson, a partner at Booz & Company.
While commerce mediated by social networks is still nascent, some companies are already testing the waters.
For example, 1-800 Flowers, the online florist, has a fully functioning Facebook store where customers can buy and pay for flowers to be delivered.
CMOs are also beginning to tap into social networks to guide product development, attract customers and boost sales.
Dell, the computer company, is using Twitter, to offer customers Twitter-only deals on equipment.
In December, the company also launched a social monitoring centre, Ground Control, designed to track and analyse the more than 22,000 daily topic posts related to Dell, as well as any mentions on Twitter.
“Digital channels have transformed the way customer interactions are recorded and reported back,” says Patrick James, head of marketing, sales and service at Capgemini Consulting.
He says: “We can track when, how and where customers enter digital channels as well as what they do, when they exit and where they go next.”
With sophisticated IT, including superfast memory-based databases, companies can now mine that data in near real time to detect trends and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
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Friday, April 15, 2011
Do you know your SaaS from your PaaS?
Do you know your SaaS from your PaaS?
By Charles Batchelor
Published: March 16 2011 17:29 | Last updated: March 16 2011 17:29
The “cloud,” as a term, has the virtue of simplicity. But burrow into the different types of cloud computing service on offer and you realise the techies have got hold of the dictionary. Infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and software-as-a-service are terms frequently used to describe the shapes the cloud can take.
“There are real differences, but there is also a degree of marketing spin,” says Rupert Chapman, a cloud specialist at PA Consulting. “They describe the levels of service on offer.”
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) involves the customer paying for off-site use of basic hardware and equipment – servers, network equipment, database storage from the provider. “I get access to very cheap shared machines and can put my own operating system and applications on top, so I have a degree of control,” says Mr Chapman.
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is the next level, with the customer renting both the machines and the operating systems that do the job. The customer does not need to understand the architecture of the platform or to carry out upgrades. At this level, customers can also develop and test their own applications.
Staff who are not programmers can try out applications to see how they work and if they are of value to customers and users. A credit-checking database could, for example, be used as a building block to construct a customer management application.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the third layer in the cloud. Customers rent whatever applications they require – enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and human resources are common business applications – and have only to log in to be able to use them.
“All I need is an internet browser and I can log in from home, the office or the coffee shop,” says Mr Chapman. “Everything is looked after by the cloud provider.”
SaaS is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to mean “cloud computing”, but the purists insist the two terms are different. Cloud computing is the more general term used to cover the different levels of service available.
“Clients tend to forget about the labels,” says Mr Chapman. “These are terms that will stay in the IT world. Most business users don’t care and are probably turned off by them.”
“We prefer to call it IT-as-a-service,” says Michael Kogeler, director of cloud strategy at Microsoft International, which has launched Windows Azure as a cloud computing platform. “That’s more understandable.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
..
By Charles Batchelor
Published: March 16 2011 17:29 | Last updated: March 16 2011 17:29
The “cloud,” as a term, has the virtue of simplicity. But burrow into the different types of cloud computing service on offer and you realise the techies have got hold of the dictionary. Infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service and software-as-a-service are terms frequently used to describe the shapes the cloud can take.
“There are real differences, but there is also a degree of marketing spin,” says Rupert Chapman, a cloud specialist at PA Consulting. “They describe the levels of service on offer.”
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) involves the customer paying for off-site use of basic hardware and equipment – servers, network equipment, database storage from the provider. “I get access to very cheap shared machines and can put my own operating system and applications on top, so I have a degree of control,” says Mr Chapman.
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is the next level, with the customer renting both the machines and the operating systems that do the job. The customer does not need to understand the architecture of the platform or to carry out upgrades. At this level, customers can also develop and test their own applications.
Staff who are not programmers can try out applications to see how they work and if they are of value to customers and users. A credit-checking database could, for example, be used as a building block to construct a customer management application.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the third layer in the cloud. Customers rent whatever applications they require – enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and human resources are common business applications – and have only to log in to be able to use them.
“All I need is an internet browser and I can log in from home, the office or the coffee shop,” says Mr Chapman. “Everything is looked after by the cloud provider.”
SaaS is sometimes used as a catch-all phrase to mean “cloud computing”, but the purists insist the two terms are different. Cloud computing is the more general term used to cover the different levels of service available.
“Clients tend to forget about the labels,” says Mr Chapman. “These are terms that will stay in the IT world. Most business users don’t care and are probably turned off by them.”
“We prefer to call it IT-as-a-service,” says Michael Kogeler, director of cloud strategy at Microsoft International, which has launched Windows Azure as a cloud computing platform. “That’s more understandable.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
..
The Economics of the Cloud
Computing is undergoing a seismic shift from client/server to the cloud, a shift similar in importance and impact to the transition from mainframe to client/server. Speculation abounds on how this new era will evolve in the coming years, and IT leaders have a critical need for a clear vision of where the industry is heading. We believe the best way to form this vision is to understand the underlying economics driving the long-term trend. In this paper, we will assess the economics of the cloud by using in-depth modeling. We then use this framework to better understand the long-term IT landscape.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
LinkedIn launches social news platform
LinkedIn, the professional networking site with 90 million users, announced a new product today that aims to transform the site from an occasional directory into a daily social destination.
LinkedIn Today is a new platform that aggregates news stories by industry based on what people are sharing on the network. Users can see what their contacts are reading and what other people in their industry are reading and saying about different articles. They can choose from 22 industries, including banking, entertainment and nonprofits, and sort by geography and job title.
“What are CEOs reading? What are health care professionals in India reading?” said Liz Walker, LinkedIn’s product manager. “We think that can deliver relevant content to people.”
Facebook and Twitter garner huge traffic from people sharing news. And other aggregators that filter news according to specific industries, like TechMeme or MediaGazer, have proven themselves to be quite successful. LinkedIn Today puts the business spin on news sharing, and the social spin on business news aggregation. As former LinkedIn employee Mrinal Desai put it, the network wants to become the Wall Street Journal of social news.
Though LinkedIn has 90 million registered users as of January 2011, the site has struggled to get them to visit regularly, instead getting most of its traffic from recruiters looking for prospects. While other recent products like InMaps, a visualization of each user’s professional network, and Skills, a search function that illustrates popular skills in particular industries and companies, seem most helpful to recruiters, LinkedIn is indicating that its social news filter is just one of many efforts to come geared toward building relationships among everyday users.
LinkedIn Today is a new platform that aggregates news stories by industry based on what people are sharing on the network. Users can see what their contacts are reading and what other people in their industry are reading and saying about different articles. They can choose from 22 industries, including banking, entertainment and nonprofits, and sort by geography and job title.
“What are CEOs reading? What are health care professionals in India reading?” said Liz Walker, LinkedIn’s product manager. “We think that can deliver relevant content to people.”
Facebook and Twitter garner huge traffic from people sharing news. And other aggregators that filter news according to specific industries, like TechMeme or MediaGazer, have proven themselves to be quite successful. LinkedIn Today puts the business spin on news sharing, and the social spin on business news aggregation. As former LinkedIn employee Mrinal Desai put it, the network wants to become the Wall Street Journal of social news.
Though LinkedIn has 90 million registered users as of January 2011, the site has struggled to get them to visit regularly, instead getting most of its traffic from recruiters looking for prospects. While other recent products like InMaps, a visualization of each user’s professional network, and Skills, a search function that illustrates popular skills in particular industries and companies, seem most helpful to recruiters, LinkedIn is indicating that its social news filter is just one of many efforts to come geared toward building relationships among everyday users.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Misconceptions about cloud computing
Misconceptions about cloud computing
By Chris Burn and Conrad Thompson
Published: March 3 2011 17:53 | Last updated: March 3 2011 17:53
As the market for cloud computing matures, there is growing awareness of its potential among chief executives and finance directors. However, that awareness tends to be based on three misconceptions: firstly, that the CIO should lead the organisation’s approach to cloud; secondly, that there will be significant legal, security and regulatory obstacles; and thirdly, that the cloud is only about IT cost savings. Each of these is wrong.
First, CIOs cannot give impartial advice on cloud. A business that transfers its IT to the cloud will receive those services in a very different way, and that will almost certainly require a smaller IT department. Speaking recently at the London School of Economics, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggested that increased use of cloud services could lead to job losses of 10 to15 per cent across the worldwide IT industry.
The shift towards cloud is also creating concern for traditional enterprise IT hardware vendors. Big players are hearing some of their clients talk about adoption of cloud-based IT services at a pace that would devastate their existing hardware revenue streams.
They are responding by offering ‘private cloud’ solutions that play perfectly to typical CIO sensitivities. These private clouds, or pre-integrated units of hardware and software from the same vendor, are very attractive at first glance as they address perceived security and confidentiality risks by keeping the hardware and its management on site. This approach creates the illusion to casual observers that cloud is being adopted but preserves the complexity, and size, of the in-house IT organisation.
Ultimately, however, private cloud deployments do not make any significant impact on how IT services are delivered. These rebranded legacy vendor services only lock the organisation further into proprietary standards and expensive service contracts.
This means CIOs need help to challenge the status quo if they are to secure the full benefits of cloud for their organisations. Unfortunately, that support is unlikely to be provided by the leaders of the security, legal and regulatory departments. These groups will find many reasons why cloud is unlikely to be suitable for their particular needs. Here again the problem is that they cannot give an unbiased perspective. They will know that handing over compliance monitoring or regulatory liaison to an external provider risks their own jobs.
Indeed, solutions based on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers such as salesforce.com, are already eliminating some in-house assurance processes as they are automatically pre-approved. This reflects the efforts of SaaS vendors to acquire independently audited third-party certifications, such as ISO27001, as well as increasing customer maturity and willingness to focus on the particular needs of their business rather than the routine mechanics of information systems.
This does not mean that vendors have all the answers yet. Organisations need to secure assurances about the ability of their cloud suppliers to meet standards and remedy failures but also seek expert guidance to understand the laws and regulations that apply to any service moved to the cloud. This is particularly important for multinationals, those working in regulated industries and those dealing with sensitive data. A careful examination of these requirements will highlight the genuinely difficult areas which may need to be dealt with separately from the main cloud provision.
However, the evidence is that obstacles in these areas can be overcome cost effectively, either by providing a mix of services at different price points or by deferring transfers until vendors and regulatory bodies develop ways of managing the issue.
Having challenged that misconception, business leaders considering moving to the cloud need to challenge the view that it is just about IT cost savings. As Peter Coffee, Head of Platform Research at salesforce.com, said at a recent IT professional cloud computing conference: “If we talk about cost reduction, the most I can do for you is cut your IT spending by 100 per cent. Then we’re done. If we talk about value creation, I can keep on delivering value with no upper bound. That’s a much more interesting conversation.”
The key strategic driver for cloud cannot be cost alone. Like all IT initiatives, the success of cloud depends not only on getting the technical aspects right, though that is important, it lies in securing the engagement from the business. Cloud can transform the way a business operates, it can stimulate innovation and provide a real competitive edge – but it can only do this if everyone is willing and able to use IT in a different way.
This requires business leaders to reconsider what they need to deliver improvements for their customers. That means going beyond generalities such as greater flexibility or lower cost services. The business needs to focus on more specific requirements, such as how to provide self service customer access to processes buried within complex legacy applications, or how to improve the management of customer relationships through more joined-up access to data that is spread across existing systems.
Companies such as Starbucks have taken this approach and used cloud to drive transformation in customer engagement. They built an online platform in six weeks to facilitate conversations with customers and to generate ‘crowd-sourced’ ideas as to how they could improve services. They received 77,000 ideas and 150,000 comments and are now implementing those with the most votes, including new smoothie flavours and the reintroduction of old biscotti favourites, with the confidence that they have the support of their most loyal customers. A traditional IT-driven approach for a worldwide customer collaboration website would undoubtedly have failed at the business case stage by being prohibitively expensive. However, by leveraging the power of the cloud they enabled a successful, cost effective engagement with their customers.
So it is clear that cloud computing is here to stay and that it can deliver significant IT cost savings and improve the efficiency of IT operations. In order to realise those benefits CIOs will need to go beyond the status-quo and understand their IT organisation will be smaller and more focused. Yet cloud’s true potential lies in its capacity to transform business models and help companies respond to an ever more competitive, fast moving world. It will only do this if business leaders understand that cloud is too important to be left to IT and that it has to excite and engage everyone across the organisation.
Chris Burn is an expert in cloud computing, PA Consulting Group and Conrad Thompson is an expert in IT enabled business change, PA Consulting Group.
For more information visit www.paconsulting.com/smart
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
By Chris Burn and Conrad Thompson
Published: March 3 2011 17:53 | Last updated: March 3 2011 17:53
As the market for cloud computing matures, there is growing awareness of its potential among chief executives and finance directors. However, that awareness tends to be based on three misconceptions: firstly, that the CIO should lead the organisation’s approach to cloud; secondly, that there will be significant legal, security and regulatory obstacles; and thirdly, that the cloud is only about IT cost savings. Each of these is wrong.
First, CIOs cannot give impartial advice on cloud. A business that transfers its IT to the cloud will receive those services in a very different way, and that will almost certainly require a smaller IT department. Speaking recently at the London School of Economics, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggested that increased use of cloud services could lead to job losses of 10 to15 per cent across the worldwide IT industry.
The shift towards cloud is also creating concern for traditional enterprise IT hardware vendors. Big players are hearing some of their clients talk about adoption of cloud-based IT services at a pace that would devastate their existing hardware revenue streams.
They are responding by offering ‘private cloud’ solutions that play perfectly to typical CIO sensitivities. These private clouds, or pre-integrated units of hardware and software from the same vendor, are very attractive at first glance as they address perceived security and confidentiality risks by keeping the hardware and its management on site. This approach creates the illusion to casual observers that cloud is being adopted but preserves the complexity, and size, of the in-house IT organisation.
Ultimately, however, private cloud deployments do not make any significant impact on how IT services are delivered. These rebranded legacy vendor services only lock the organisation further into proprietary standards and expensive service contracts.
This means CIOs need help to challenge the status quo if they are to secure the full benefits of cloud for their organisations. Unfortunately, that support is unlikely to be provided by the leaders of the security, legal and regulatory departments. These groups will find many reasons why cloud is unlikely to be suitable for their particular needs. Here again the problem is that they cannot give an unbiased perspective. They will know that handing over compliance monitoring or regulatory liaison to an external provider risks their own jobs.
Indeed, solutions based on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers such as salesforce.com, are already eliminating some in-house assurance processes as they are automatically pre-approved. This reflects the efforts of SaaS vendors to acquire independently audited third-party certifications, such as ISO27001, as well as increasing customer maturity and willingness to focus on the particular needs of their business rather than the routine mechanics of information systems.
This does not mean that vendors have all the answers yet. Organisations need to secure assurances about the ability of their cloud suppliers to meet standards and remedy failures but also seek expert guidance to understand the laws and regulations that apply to any service moved to the cloud. This is particularly important for multinationals, those working in regulated industries and those dealing with sensitive data. A careful examination of these requirements will highlight the genuinely difficult areas which may need to be dealt with separately from the main cloud provision.
However, the evidence is that obstacles in these areas can be overcome cost effectively, either by providing a mix of services at different price points or by deferring transfers until vendors and regulatory bodies develop ways of managing the issue.
Having challenged that misconception, business leaders considering moving to the cloud need to challenge the view that it is just about IT cost savings. As Peter Coffee, Head of Platform Research at salesforce.com, said at a recent IT professional cloud computing conference: “If we talk about cost reduction, the most I can do for you is cut your IT spending by 100 per cent. Then we’re done. If we talk about value creation, I can keep on delivering value with no upper bound. That’s a much more interesting conversation.”
The key strategic driver for cloud cannot be cost alone. Like all IT initiatives, the success of cloud depends not only on getting the technical aspects right, though that is important, it lies in securing the engagement from the business. Cloud can transform the way a business operates, it can stimulate innovation and provide a real competitive edge – but it can only do this if everyone is willing and able to use IT in a different way.
This requires business leaders to reconsider what they need to deliver improvements for their customers. That means going beyond generalities such as greater flexibility or lower cost services. The business needs to focus on more specific requirements, such as how to provide self service customer access to processes buried within complex legacy applications, or how to improve the management of customer relationships through more joined-up access to data that is spread across existing systems.
Companies such as Starbucks have taken this approach and used cloud to drive transformation in customer engagement. They built an online platform in six weeks to facilitate conversations with customers and to generate ‘crowd-sourced’ ideas as to how they could improve services. They received 77,000 ideas and 150,000 comments and are now implementing those with the most votes, including new smoothie flavours and the reintroduction of old biscotti favourites, with the confidence that they have the support of their most loyal customers. A traditional IT-driven approach for a worldwide customer collaboration website would undoubtedly have failed at the business case stage by being prohibitively expensive. However, by leveraging the power of the cloud they enabled a successful, cost effective engagement with their customers.
So it is clear that cloud computing is here to stay and that it can deliver significant IT cost savings and improve the efficiency of IT operations. In order to realise those benefits CIOs will need to go beyond the status-quo and understand their IT organisation will be smaller and more focused. Yet cloud’s true potential lies in its capacity to transform business models and help companies respond to an ever more competitive, fast moving world. It will only do this if business leaders understand that cloud is too important to be left to IT and that it has to excite and engage everyone across the organisation.
Chris Burn is an expert in cloud computing, PA Consulting Group and Conrad Thompson is an expert in IT enabled business change, PA Consulting Group.
For more information visit www.paconsulting.com/smart
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Guest column: Top issues related to cloud
By Tom DeGarmo
Published: March 1 2011 15:55 | Last updated: March 1 2011 15:55
All the hype that cloud computing has got over the past few years tends to push business leaders into one of two camps: those who love the simplicity and convenience of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, like those supporting sales force automation (let’s put everything in the cloud!) and those who do not believe the false promises from vendors and think cloud computing is not ready for enterprise-class security and business continuity requirements.
The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between, and the most rewarding adoption patterns will vary considerably depending on the market and competitive situation individual enterprises are dealing with.
The list below offers a set of issues many enterprises are discovering as they engage with cloud computing. We recommend senior leaders spend a little time “in front of the mirror” and make sure they have not fallen prey to them.
1) Thinking cloud computing is only about public cloud services, or only about transforming internal IT into private clouds.
All the great stories about companies taking advantage of public cloud services leads some enterprises to think the cloud computing opportunity is only about external service providers. But much of the medium term value to be harvested from clouds will come from transforming internal IT by emulating the style of computing defined by these types of external services. This requires a deep appreciation for their differences in architecture, technologies, processes, and differentiating roles for IT staff. In other words, by creating private clouds. But putting all your efforts into private clouds ignores the real value that can be found from the on-demand, limitless capacity of public cloud services and the instant-on availability of applications. The best use of cloud computing is derived by adopting an integrated model, one that transforms internal data centers into private clouds and makes use of external clouds where their value proposition is distinctive.
2) Not anticipating the new challenges created by integrated clouds.
Acknowledging the disruptive opportunity of the integrated cloud model is only the start. Companies that adopt the technologies and external cloud services willy nilly end up recreating a complexity and maintenance challenge that defeats two of the biggest paybacks from cloud investments: business agility and business alignment.
Virtualisation technologies, for example, have already recreated “server sprawl” in its virtual form in situations where staff are able to request new instances of virtual servers without guidance from IT policies or “cleanup” systems in place. Enterprises also need to anticipate the scalability and security challenges of systems integration in cloud environments and the impact that rapid introduction of new metadata from SaaS vendors will have on data management in integrated cloud computing environments.
3) Moving forward without a strategy.
Many companies already have elements of this emerging integrated cloud model in place; they use server and storage virtualisation, they have partially automated the management of the data centre and they use SaaS offerings. Few companies have laid out a vision and strategy for moving to a defined future of integrated clouds. A leading practice is to use a cloud maturity framework so you can proceed logically from assessment of current state to realisation of desired future state. This includes important delineations of the core component parts of this future state. PwC has established a conceptual model of exactly this architecture comprising 7 categories of technology types. By establishing this reference architecture it is possible to define your road map, avoid wasteful spending on solutions that promise “instant clouds” but introduce proprietary technologies that will not fit into the architecture, and establish an order for what comes first. Without a strategic plan of this type it is not obvious whether an individual decision to use a service or technology will get you closer to real benefits of cloud computing — agility and business alignment.
4) Failure to recognise the transformative value of cloud to the business — cloud computing is not just a better way to deliver IT.
The openness and architecture of cloud infrastructure establishes a disruptively powerful business collaboration platform that empowers companies to deeply integrate their business processes with partners. We see this already with Web-centric businesses, such as those in retail and hospitality industries. Without leaving, say, a convention Website, customers can make restaurant reservations or purchase tickets to events. The user has an integrated experience even though the convention, restaurant, and ticket service providers are separate companies. And traditional “bricks and mortar” companies, such as those in financial services, are unbundling functions like risk exposure management that were formerly parts of an integrated offerings and making them available in the cloud as “e-services.” As a result cloud is positioned to transform how we integrate and communicate between businesses. However cloud puts new demands on strategy and governance with its agile applications and infrastructure, far more so than previous generations of IT. Although ERP and CRM have had major impacts on the enterprise the focus has been almost entirely on internal processes. Cloud moves that focus to external business collaboration and integration.
Tom DeGarmo is a principal in PwC’s Advisory Practice and leader of the firm’s U.S. Technology Consulting Solutions Practice
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Published: March 1 2011 15:55 | Last updated: March 1 2011 15:55
All the hype that cloud computing has got over the past few years tends to push business leaders into one of two camps: those who love the simplicity and convenience of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, like those supporting sales force automation (let’s put everything in the cloud!) and those who do not believe the false promises from vendors and think cloud computing is not ready for enterprise-class security and business continuity requirements.
The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between, and the most rewarding adoption patterns will vary considerably depending on the market and competitive situation individual enterprises are dealing with.
The list below offers a set of issues many enterprises are discovering as they engage with cloud computing. We recommend senior leaders spend a little time “in front of the mirror” and make sure they have not fallen prey to them.
1) Thinking cloud computing is only about public cloud services, or only about transforming internal IT into private clouds.
All the great stories about companies taking advantage of public cloud services leads some enterprises to think the cloud computing opportunity is only about external service providers. But much of the medium term value to be harvested from clouds will come from transforming internal IT by emulating the style of computing defined by these types of external services. This requires a deep appreciation for their differences in architecture, technologies, processes, and differentiating roles for IT staff. In other words, by creating private clouds. But putting all your efforts into private clouds ignores the real value that can be found from the on-demand, limitless capacity of public cloud services and the instant-on availability of applications. The best use of cloud computing is derived by adopting an integrated model, one that transforms internal data centers into private clouds and makes use of external clouds where their value proposition is distinctive.
2) Not anticipating the new challenges created by integrated clouds.
Acknowledging the disruptive opportunity of the integrated cloud model is only the start. Companies that adopt the technologies and external cloud services willy nilly end up recreating a complexity and maintenance challenge that defeats two of the biggest paybacks from cloud investments: business agility and business alignment.
Virtualisation technologies, for example, have already recreated “server sprawl” in its virtual form in situations where staff are able to request new instances of virtual servers without guidance from IT policies or “cleanup” systems in place. Enterprises also need to anticipate the scalability and security challenges of systems integration in cloud environments and the impact that rapid introduction of new metadata from SaaS vendors will have on data management in integrated cloud computing environments.
3) Moving forward without a strategy.
Many companies already have elements of this emerging integrated cloud model in place; they use server and storage virtualisation, they have partially automated the management of the data centre and they use SaaS offerings. Few companies have laid out a vision and strategy for moving to a defined future of integrated clouds. A leading practice is to use a cloud maturity framework so you can proceed logically from assessment of current state to realisation of desired future state. This includes important delineations of the core component parts of this future state. PwC has established a conceptual model of exactly this architecture comprising 7 categories of technology types. By establishing this reference architecture it is possible to define your road map, avoid wasteful spending on solutions that promise “instant clouds” but introduce proprietary technologies that will not fit into the architecture, and establish an order for what comes first. Without a strategic plan of this type it is not obvious whether an individual decision to use a service or technology will get you closer to real benefits of cloud computing — agility and business alignment.
4) Failure to recognise the transformative value of cloud to the business — cloud computing is not just a better way to deliver IT.
The openness and architecture of cloud infrastructure establishes a disruptively powerful business collaboration platform that empowers companies to deeply integrate their business processes with partners. We see this already with Web-centric businesses, such as those in retail and hospitality industries. Without leaving, say, a convention Website, customers can make restaurant reservations or purchase tickets to events. The user has an integrated experience even though the convention, restaurant, and ticket service providers are separate companies. And traditional “bricks and mortar” companies, such as those in financial services, are unbundling functions like risk exposure management that were formerly parts of an integrated offerings and making them available in the cloud as “e-services.” As a result cloud is positioned to transform how we integrate and communicate between businesses. However cloud puts new demands on strategy and governance with its agile applications and infrastructure, far more so than previous generations of IT. Although ERP and CRM have had major impacts on the enterprise the focus has been almost entirely on internal processes. Cloud moves that focus to external business collaboration and integration.
Tom DeGarmo is a principal in PwC’s Advisory Practice and leader of the firm’s U.S. Technology Consulting Solutions Practice
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
5 Tips voor beleid in SharePoint
SharePoint en vooral de hoeveelheid content op het platform neemt de laatste jaren een enorme vlucht. IT moet zowel het delen van content als collaboration faciliteren als strikte policies handhaven om te voorkomen dat documenten in verkeerde handen vallen. Deze vijf vuistregels helpen je bij het afschermen van SharePoint.
Het begon ooit als een intranetbak voor Office-documenten, maar het is inmiddels het belangrijkste enterprise informatieportal geworden. Hoe je het wendt of keert, SharePoint heeft altijd al om de content gedraaid.
SharePoint’s functionaliteit bevat tegenwoordig enterprise content management, search, social networking, blogs en wiki’s, collaboration en business process management (BPM). Maar al deze onderdelen van de machine leunen op content, of het nu gaat om trainingvideo’s, financiële rapportages of vertrouwelijke beleidsdocumenten. De machine kan vastlopen als SharePoint niet goed door IT wordt beheerd.
Het opslaan van content in SharePoint is onderdeel van de uitdaging; bij het beveiligen ervan lopen organisaties tegen problemen aan wanneer er geen heldere policies bestaan en er niet nagedacht is over het toegangsbeheer.
De risico’s van onveilige SharePoint content beperken zich niet tot aanvallen van hackers of ontevreden medewerkers die vertrouwelijke informatie lekken, zegt Larry Concannon, VP product marketing bij compliance software leverancier HiSoftware.
“De meest voorkomende inbreuken op privacy zijn onbedoeld”, legt hij uit. “Vaak gaat het om slordigheid of onachtzaamheid van werknemers.”
De beste content security strategie voor SharePoint laat werknemers vrijelijk content toevoegen en delen, maar past policies toe zodra vertrouwelijke documenten naar andere afdelingen verdwijnen of zelfs buiten het bedrijf dreigen te belanden.
HiSoftware definieert vijf vuistregels voor het beschermen van content in SharePoint.
1. Maak duidelijk welke content is toegestaan
Organisaties moeten heldere, gedocumenteerde beleidsregels opstellen als onderdeel van hun SharePoint implementatie, zegt Concannon. Dat betekent ook dat je duidelijk maakt welk type content toegestaan is.
Iedere organisatie zal zijn eigen definitie hebben van welke content toegestaan is. Veilige SharePoint implementaties houden er rekening mee wie content mag bekijken en publiceren en welke content opgeslagen mag worden binnen de omgeving.
2. Leid je medewerkers op
Een ander belangrijk punt van een veilige SharePoint implementatie is dat je gebruikers op de hoogte brengt van de privacy- en vertrouwelijkheidsregels die IT heeft opgezet om zowel werknemers als de organisatie te beschermen.
“Op een bepaald niveau betekent dit simpele gebruikerstraining”, zegt Concannon. “Maar het kan ook inhouden dat je een scherm met gebruiksvoorwaarden maakt wanneer mensen bijvoorbeeld hun eigen Mijn Site toevoegen.”
3. Gebruik classificatie om gedrag in goede banen te leiden
Je kunt in SharePoint content beveiligen door bij elke keer dat een document wordt toegevoegd om een classificatie te vragen. Deze optie kan IT voor verschillende categorieën content opstellen om duidelijker te maken wat wel en niet binnen het systeem thuishoort. “Classificatieschermen laten je weten of een document wel of niet binnen een van de beschikbare categorieën past”, zegt Concannon. “Als dit niet zo is, hoeft het niet op SharePoint gepubliceerd te worden.”
4. Vergeet je beleid niet te handhaven
Zodra de regels gemaakt zijn, moet IT ze strikt handhaven en gebruikers laten weten wanneer er overtreding plaatsvindt. Een manier is om gebruikers de mogelijkheid te geven content te taggen waarvan ze denken dat deze ongepast is.
Complianceleveranciers bieden geautomatiseerde software die content vooraf checkt op policies voordat deze op SharePoint gepubliceerd kan worden. Functionaliteit als content scanning kan gebruikt worden om bepaalde regels te valideren en kan voorkomen dat vertrouwelijke content uitlekt.
5. Vind de balans in sociale tools
Iets waar je binnen SharePoint goed op dient te letten is social networking, zegt Concannon. Sociale features zoals blogs, wiki’s, communities en Mijn Site profielpagina’s en forums hebben in SharePoint 2010 een veel prominentere plek gekregen. Hoewel deze tools communicatie en productiviteit bevorderen, kunnen ze je compliant omgeving ten gronde richten.
Om een balans te zoeken tussen Web 2.0 content en ‘ouderwetse’ documenten, raadt HiSoftware een aanpak aan waarin het delen van informatie wordt aangemoedigd, maar waar elke afdeling bepaalde beleidsregels kent waardoor een bijvoorbeeld een juridische tekst over een fusie niet door verkeerde personen kan worden ingelezen.
Het begon ooit als een intranetbak voor Office-documenten, maar het is inmiddels het belangrijkste enterprise informatieportal geworden. Hoe je het wendt of keert, SharePoint heeft altijd al om de content gedraaid.
SharePoint’s functionaliteit bevat tegenwoordig enterprise content management, search, social networking, blogs en wiki’s, collaboration en business process management (BPM). Maar al deze onderdelen van de machine leunen op content, of het nu gaat om trainingvideo’s, financiële rapportages of vertrouwelijke beleidsdocumenten. De machine kan vastlopen als SharePoint niet goed door IT wordt beheerd.
Het opslaan van content in SharePoint is onderdeel van de uitdaging; bij het beveiligen ervan lopen organisaties tegen problemen aan wanneer er geen heldere policies bestaan en er niet nagedacht is over het toegangsbeheer.
De risico’s van onveilige SharePoint content beperken zich niet tot aanvallen van hackers of ontevreden medewerkers die vertrouwelijke informatie lekken, zegt Larry Concannon, VP product marketing bij compliance software leverancier HiSoftware.
“De meest voorkomende inbreuken op privacy zijn onbedoeld”, legt hij uit. “Vaak gaat het om slordigheid of onachtzaamheid van werknemers.”
De beste content security strategie voor SharePoint laat werknemers vrijelijk content toevoegen en delen, maar past policies toe zodra vertrouwelijke documenten naar andere afdelingen verdwijnen of zelfs buiten het bedrijf dreigen te belanden.
HiSoftware definieert vijf vuistregels voor het beschermen van content in SharePoint.
1. Maak duidelijk welke content is toegestaan
Organisaties moeten heldere, gedocumenteerde beleidsregels opstellen als onderdeel van hun SharePoint implementatie, zegt Concannon. Dat betekent ook dat je duidelijk maakt welk type content toegestaan is.
Iedere organisatie zal zijn eigen definitie hebben van welke content toegestaan is. Veilige SharePoint implementaties houden er rekening mee wie content mag bekijken en publiceren en welke content opgeslagen mag worden binnen de omgeving.
2. Leid je medewerkers op
Een ander belangrijk punt van een veilige SharePoint implementatie is dat je gebruikers op de hoogte brengt van de privacy- en vertrouwelijkheidsregels die IT heeft opgezet om zowel werknemers als de organisatie te beschermen.
“Op een bepaald niveau betekent dit simpele gebruikerstraining”, zegt Concannon. “Maar het kan ook inhouden dat je een scherm met gebruiksvoorwaarden maakt wanneer mensen bijvoorbeeld hun eigen Mijn Site toevoegen.”
3. Gebruik classificatie om gedrag in goede banen te leiden
Je kunt in SharePoint content beveiligen door bij elke keer dat een document wordt toegevoegd om een classificatie te vragen. Deze optie kan IT voor verschillende categorieën content opstellen om duidelijker te maken wat wel en niet binnen het systeem thuishoort. “Classificatieschermen laten je weten of een document wel of niet binnen een van de beschikbare categorieën past”, zegt Concannon. “Als dit niet zo is, hoeft het niet op SharePoint gepubliceerd te worden.”
4. Vergeet je beleid niet te handhaven
Zodra de regels gemaakt zijn, moet IT ze strikt handhaven en gebruikers laten weten wanneer er overtreding plaatsvindt. Een manier is om gebruikers de mogelijkheid te geven content te taggen waarvan ze denken dat deze ongepast is.
Complianceleveranciers bieden geautomatiseerde software die content vooraf checkt op policies voordat deze op SharePoint gepubliceerd kan worden. Functionaliteit als content scanning kan gebruikt worden om bepaalde regels te valideren en kan voorkomen dat vertrouwelijke content uitlekt.
5. Vind de balans in sociale tools
Iets waar je binnen SharePoint goed op dient te letten is social networking, zegt Concannon. Sociale features zoals blogs, wiki’s, communities en Mijn Site profielpagina’s en forums hebben in SharePoint 2010 een veel prominentere plek gekregen. Hoewel deze tools communicatie en productiviteit bevorderen, kunnen ze je compliant omgeving ten gronde richten.
Om een balans te zoeken tussen Web 2.0 content en ‘ouderwetse’ documenten, raadt HiSoftware een aanpak aan waarin het delen van informatie wordt aangemoedigd, maar waar elke afdeling bepaalde beleidsregels kent waardoor een bijvoorbeeld een juridische tekst over een fusie niet door verkeerde personen kan worden ingelezen.
Microsoft CRM 2011 speelt in op social media
Microsoft introduceert Dynamics CRM 2011 in Nederland in een on-premise en online versie. Het pakket is opgebouwd volgens een rolgebaseerd ontwerp. Gebruikers hebben aan de hand van hun functie bepaalde gebruikersprofielen en rechten. Voorbeelden van rollen zijn medewerker verkoop, marketing of klantenservice. Het nieuwe pakket speelt onder andere in op klanten die gebruikmaken van social media.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 werd onlangs op de Nederlandse markt geïntroduceerd. Dat gebeurde officieel in theater Het Spant! in Bussem, waar ongeveer vijfhonderd zakelijke en it-beslissers aanwezig waren. Annemarie Brandsen, product marketing manager Dynamics CRM bij Microsoft Nederland, zegt dat het nieuwe crm-pakket op drie peilers is gebouwd. ‘Ten eerste een Microsoft Outlook-omgeving die nauw geïntegreerd is met de nieuwe crm-software. Om de gebruiksvriendelijkheid van de software te verbeteren is het crm-programma volledig geïntegreerd in Outlook en werkt net zo makkelijk als e-mail. Ten tweede een intelligente omgeving, waarmee gebruikers onder andere zelf dashboards kunnen aanmaken. Ten derde is het crm-pakket geschikt voor koppelingen met andere software voor het uitwisselen van informatie. Zo werkt CRM 2011 nauw met Microsoft Sharepoint om documenten uit te wisselen met andere medewerkers.'
Grip op klanten
Een belangrijke ontwikkeling is de koppeling met sociale netwerken, aldus Brandsen. Het aantal communicatiekanalen neemt fors toe. Social media-platformen zoals Facebook, LinkedIn en Twitter spelen een belangrijke rol in de interactie tussen bedrijven en klanten. Daarom is CRM 2011 gekoppeld aan sociale netwerken om grip op klanten te houden.
Microsoft spreekt hierbij van een ‘nieuwe klant die overal is maar toch lastig is om te grijpen'. Klantloyaliteit is tegenwoordig niet langer meer vanzelfsprekend, aldus Brandsen. ‘De nieuwe klant wil zelf kunnen bepalen hoe het contact wordt gelegd met een organisatie. De klant rekent erop dat alle gegevens voortdurend up-to-date zijn en het systeem te allen tijde functioneert en bereikbaar is.'
Partners
Tijdens de introductie van de nieuwe Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 demonstreerden een aantal partners van Microsoft aanvullende software voor verticale marktsegmenten. Zo heeft Avanade een oplossing ontwikkeld voor marketingmanagement met Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Dat kan worden ingezet voor cross- en up-selling en klantensegmentatie.
Ciber liet een branche-oplossing voor verzekeringen zien, dat beschikbaar is op Microsoft CRM 2011 en geïntegreerd is met Microsoft Office en Sharepoint. CRM Resultants demonstreerde CRM2011 for Finance. Dit is een oplossing voor verzekeraars, intermediairs, vermogensbeheerders en private banken, die bestaat uit een reeks van elf geïntegreerde modules. CRM2011 for Finance biedt financiële instellingen verkoop, customer service en marketing functies, ondersteuning van diverse distributiemodellen. Het accent van de oplossing ligt op 'customer due dilligence', centraal klantbeeld en klantbedienmodel.
Steve Ballmer
Op 17 januari 2011 introduceerde Microsoft-directeur Steve Ballmer Dynamics CRM 2011. Bij die lancering werd eerst de online-versie beschikbaar gesteld.
bekijk reacties (1) print stuur door
GERELATEERDE ARTIKELEN
31-01-2011 IBM en SugarCRM sluiten samenwerking
01-02-2011 Superp zoekt CRM-talent na interne crisis
19-01-2011 Gebruikersvereniging Oracle richt CRM-tak op
17-01-2011 Microsoft levert CRM-pakket eerst online
15-12-2010 Microsoft koppelt eindelijk CRM aan ERP
13-09-2010 Microsoft geeft bèta Dynamics CRM 2011 vrij
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/crm/3787731/2333360/microsoft-crm-2011-speelt-in-op-social-media.html#ixzz1Eqj1ojv8
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 werd onlangs op de Nederlandse markt geïntroduceerd. Dat gebeurde officieel in theater Het Spant! in Bussem, waar ongeveer vijfhonderd zakelijke en it-beslissers aanwezig waren. Annemarie Brandsen, product marketing manager Dynamics CRM bij Microsoft Nederland, zegt dat het nieuwe crm-pakket op drie peilers is gebouwd. ‘Ten eerste een Microsoft Outlook-omgeving die nauw geïntegreerd is met de nieuwe crm-software. Om de gebruiksvriendelijkheid van de software te verbeteren is het crm-programma volledig geïntegreerd in Outlook en werkt net zo makkelijk als e-mail. Ten tweede een intelligente omgeving, waarmee gebruikers onder andere zelf dashboards kunnen aanmaken. Ten derde is het crm-pakket geschikt voor koppelingen met andere software voor het uitwisselen van informatie. Zo werkt CRM 2011 nauw met Microsoft Sharepoint om documenten uit te wisselen met andere medewerkers.'
Grip op klanten
Een belangrijke ontwikkeling is de koppeling met sociale netwerken, aldus Brandsen. Het aantal communicatiekanalen neemt fors toe. Social media-platformen zoals Facebook, LinkedIn en Twitter spelen een belangrijke rol in de interactie tussen bedrijven en klanten. Daarom is CRM 2011 gekoppeld aan sociale netwerken om grip op klanten te houden.
Microsoft spreekt hierbij van een ‘nieuwe klant die overal is maar toch lastig is om te grijpen'. Klantloyaliteit is tegenwoordig niet langer meer vanzelfsprekend, aldus Brandsen. ‘De nieuwe klant wil zelf kunnen bepalen hoe het contact wordt gelegd met een organisatie. De klant rekent erop dat alle gegevens voortdurend up-to-date zijn en het systeem te allen tijde functioneert en bereikbaar is.'
Partners
Tijdens de introductie van de nieuwe Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 demonstreerden een aantal partners van Microsoft aanvullende software voor verticale marktsegmenten. Zo heeft Avanade een oplossing ontwikkeld voor marketingmanagement met Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. Dat kan worden ingezet voor cross- en up-selling en klantensegmentatie.
Ciber liet een branche-oplossing voor verzekeringen zien, dat beschikbaar is op Microsoft CRM 2011 en geïntegreerd is met Microsoft Office en Sharepoint. CRM Resultants demonstreerde CRM2011 for Finance. Dit is een oplossing voor verzekeraars, intermediairs, vermogensbeheerders en private banken, die bestaat uit een reeks van elf geïntegreerde modules. CRM2011 for Finance biedt financiële instellingen verkoop, customer service en marketing functies, ondersteuning van diverse distributiemodellen. Het accent van de oplossing ligt op 'customer due dilligence', centraal klantbeeld en klantbedienmodel.
Steve Ballmer
Op 17 januari 2011 introduceerde Microsoft-directeur Steve Ballmer Dynamics CRM 2011. Bij die lancering werd eerst de online-versie beschikbaar gesteld.
bekijk reacties (1) print stuur door
GERELATEERDE ARTIKELEN
31-01-2011 IBM en SugarCRM sluiten samenwerking
01-02-2011 Superp zoekt CRM-talent na interne crisis
19-01-2011 Gebruikersvereniging Oracle richt CRM-tak op
17-01-2011 Microsoft levert CRM-pakket eerst online
15-12-2010 Microsoft koppelt eindelijk CRM aan ERP
13-09-2010 Microsoft geeft bèta Dynamics CRM 2011 vrij
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/crm/3787731/2333360/microsoft-crm-2011-speelt-in-op-social-media.html#ixzz1Eqj1ojv8
Vereniging Eigen Huis integreert contract in Sharepoint
Vereniging Eigen Huis heeft inzicht gekregen in meer dan vijftien verschillende soorten contracten. Zij hebben een intranetsite op basis van Sharepoint 2007 en beschikken ook over kennis van Sharepoint zodat zij zelf onderdelen kunnen ontwikkelen en beheren in het programma. Voor contractbeheer heeft Vereniging Eigen Huis aanvullende software ingezet, die 100 procent is geïntegreerd met de bestaande Sharepoint-omgeving.
De hoogste prioriteit kreeg de oplossing voor contractmanagement. Het project bestond uit het inrichten van vijftien contractsoorten met behulp van ecspand. Het doel is om meer inzicht te krijgen in de lopende contracten, de looptijden bij te houden en de betrokken personen te informeren over de status wanneer bijvoorbeeld een opzegtermijn nadert. Vereniging Eigen Huis wenste contracten snel en makkelijk terug te vinden en wilde geen lades meer doorzoeken.
Door consultants van Docdynamic zijn vijftien verschillende contractsoorten ingericht, elk met eigen specifieke kenmerken. Tot op heden werd van elk contract een papieren versie bewaard en gearchiveerd in ladekasten. Een aantal afdelingen hield een Excel-sheet bij. Het was lastig om de looptijden bij te houden en de betrokken personen op tijd te informeren over opzegtermijnen, omdat deze alleen op de papieren versie stond vermeld. Een consultant van Docdynamic regelde uiteindelijk alles en implementeerde ecspand bij Vereniging Eigen Huis.
Fase 2: Inkoopfacturen digitaal archiveren
Nadat het contractmanagement was geïmplementeerd bij Vereniging Eigen Huis is het vervolg ingezet met de implementatie van inkoopfactuurverwerking met ecspand. De software is ingericht om facturen te scannen en te koppelen aan leveranciersnummer en deze zo op te zoeken in het contractbeheersysteem. De toegevoegde waarde hiervan werd onvoldoende prioriteit toegekend door de afdeling inkoop en F&C, waardoor is besloten hier nog niet mee te gaan werken.
De inkoopfacturen scannen met ecspand, al dan niet voorzien van een barcode en vervolgens digitaal archiveren. De barcode bevat het boekstuknummer uit Navision. Hiermee worden alle kopgegevens van de inkoopfactuur uit Navision opgehaald.
Toekomstplannen
Het proces van beoordelen en goedkeuren van facturen kan in veel organisaties versneld en verbeterd worden. Door de workflow van ecspand in te zetten voor het digitaal beoordelen en het versnellen van het goedkeuringsproces van inkoopfacturen wordt een enorme efficiencyslag gemaakt. Hiervan wordt de toegevoegde waarde wel erkend door de afdeling inkoop en F&C. Deze afdelingen zullen samen alle mogelijkheden inventariseren en de uitbreidingen van ecspand in de toekomst invullen.
OPDRACHTGEVER: VERENIGING EIGEN HUIS
Vereniging Eigen Huis behartigt de belangen van de eigenwoningbezitter. Dit uit zich op drie vlakken: diensten en producten, informatie en advies en collectief ledenbelang. De ontwikkeling van de diverse diensten en de partijen waarmee ze als vereniging samenwerken, worden zorgvuldig geselecteerd. Eigen huis behartigt de belangen van ruim 680.000 eigenwoningbezitters. Er werken ruim tweehonderd medewerkers.
REDENEN VOOR ECSPAND VOLGENS VERENIGING EIGEN HUIS
- Perfecte aansluiting op MS SharePoint Server
- Snel de gewenste informatie beschikbaar.
- Overzicht van alle contracten.
- Makkelijk en snel zoeken naar bijbehorende documenten.
- Gemakkelijk lopende contracten inzien.
- Tijdig de juiste persoon informeren over contractstatus.
- Digitaal notities toevoegen aan documenten.
- Webgebaseerde oplossing.
- Gebruiksvriendelijk.
- Snelle implementatie.
- Onderhoud in eigen beheer.
Voordelen contractmanagement:
- Tijdbesparing door snel terugvinden van contracten op leveranciersnummer, boeknummer, datum bereik etc.).
- Kostenbesparing door inzicht in alle lopende contracten en (opzeg-)termijnen voor de betrokken personen.
- Tijdig per e-mail informeren over de status van een contract.
- Snel en op elk gewenst tijdstip contracten inzien.
- Databeveiliging, toekenning gebruikersrechten op contractniveau.
- Kostenbesparing: geen papieren archief meer nodig.
- Overzichtelijke administratie per leverancier.
- Volledigheid, alle documenten zijn per leverancier in één digitaal dossier revisiezeker opgeslagen.
DOELGROEP
ecspand is bestemd voor middelgrote tot grote (inter-)nationale bedrijven die Sharepoint hebben ingezet en dit wensen uit te breiden naar een bedrijfsbreed informatieplatform. Ecspand is een 100 procent geïntegreerde dms/ecm-oplossing met Sharepoint 2007/2010.
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/erp/3791074/1276992/vereniging-eigen-huis-integreert-contract-in-sharepoint.html#ixzz1EqhovxRN
De hoogste prioriteit kreeg de oplossing voor contractmanagement. Het project bestond uit het inrichten van vijftien contractsoorten met behulp van ecspand. Het doel is om meer inzicht te krijgen in de lopende contracten, de looptijden bij te houden en de betrokken personen te informeren over de status wanneer bijvoorbeeld een opzegtermijn nadert. Vereniging Eigen Huis wenste contracten snel en makkelijk terug te vinden en wilde geen lades meer doorzoeken.
Door consultants van Docdynamic zijn vijftien verschillende contractsoorten ingericht, elk met eigen specifieke kenmerken. Tot op heden werd van elk contract een papieren versie bewaard en gearchiveerd in ladekasten. Een aantal afdelingen hield een Excel-sheet bij. Het was lastig om de looptijden bij te houden en de betrokken personen op tijd te informeren over opzegtermijnen, omdat deze alleen op de papieren versie stond vermeld. Een consultant van Docdynamic regelde uiteindelijk alles en implementeerde ecspand bij Vereniging Eigen Huis.
Fase 2: Inkoopfacturen digitaal archiveren
Nadat het contractmanagement was geïmplementeerd bij Vereniging Eigen Huis is het vervolg ingezet met de implementatie van inkoopfactuurverwerking met ecspand. De software is ingericht om facturen te scannen en te koppelen aan leveranciersnummer en deze zo op te zoeken in het contractbeheersysteem. De toegevoegde waarde hiervan werd onvoldoende prioriteit toegekend door de afdeling inkoop en F&C, waardoor is besloten hier nog niet mee te gaan werken.
De inkoopfacturen scannen met ecspand, al dan niet voorzien van een barcode en vervolgens digitaal archiveren. De barcode bevat het boekstuknummer uit Navision. Hiermee worden alle kopgegevens van de inkoopfactuur uit Navision opgehaald.
Toekomstplannen
Het proces van beoordelen en goedkeuren van facturen kan in veel organisaties versneld en verbeterd worden. Door de workflow van ecspand in te zetten voor het digitaal beoordelen en het versnellen van het goedkeuringsproces van inkoopfacturen wordt een enorme efficiencyslag gemaakt. Hiervan wordt de toegevoegde waarde wel erkend door de afdeling inkoop en F&C. Deze afdelingen zullen samen alle mogelijkheden inventariseren en de uitbreidingen van ecspand in de toekomst invullen.
OPDRACHTGEVER: VERENIGING EIGEN HUIS
Vereniging Eigen Huis behartigt de belangen van de eigenwoningbezitter. Dit uit zich op drie vlakken: diensten en producten, informatie en advies en collectief ledenbelang. De ontwikkeling van de diverse diensten en de partijen waarmee ze als vereniging samenwerken, worden zorgvuldig geselecteerd. Eigen huis behartigt de belangen van ruim 680.000 eigenwoningbezitters. Er werken ruim tweehonderd medewerkers.
REDENEN VOOR ECSPAND VOLGENS VERENIGING EIGEN HUIS
- Perfecte aansluiting op MS SharePoint Server
- Snel de gewenste informatie beschikbaar.
- Overzicht van alle contracten.
- Makkelijk en snel zoeken naar bijbehorende documenten.
- Gemakkelijk lopende contracten inzien.
- Tijdig de juiste persoon informeren over contractstatus.
- Digitaal notities toevoegen aan documenten.
- Webgebaseerde oplossing.
- Gebruiksvriendelijk.
- Snelle implementatie.
- Onderhoud in eigen beheer.
Voordelen contractmanagement:
- Tijdbesparing door snel terugvinden van contracten op leveranciersnummer, boeknummer, datum bereik etc.).
- Kostenbesparing door inzicht in alle lopende contracten en (opzeg-)termijnen voor de betrokken personen.
- Tijdig per e-mail informeren over de status van een contract.
- Snel en op elk gewenst tijdstip contracten inzien.
- Databeveiliging, toekenning gebruikersrechten op contractniveau.
- Kostenbesparing: geen papieren archief meer nodig.
- Overzichtelijke administratie per leverancier.
- Volledigheid, alle documenten zijn per leverancier in één digitaal dossier revisiezeker opgeslagen.
DOELGROEP
ecspand is bestemd voor middelgrote tot grote (inter-)nationale bedrijven die Sharepoint hebben ingezet en dit wensen uit te breiden naar een bedrijfsbreed informatieplatform. Ecspand is een 100 procent geïntegreerde dms/ecm-oplossing met Sharepoint 2007/2010.
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/erp/3791074/1276992/vereniging-eigen-huis-integreert-contract-in-sharepoint.html#ixzz1EqhovxRN
T-Systems helpt Shell aan Sharepoint
Olieconcern Shell heeft Microsoft en T-Systems de opdracht gegeven om een op maat gesneden Sharepoint-oplossing te leveren. Beide ict-leveranciers hebben voor die opdracht de bestaande samenwerkingsbanden aangehaald. Voor april 2011 moeten de eerste medewerkers van Shell bestanden uitwisselen via Sharepoint.
Het is niet bekendgemaakt om hoeveel accounts het gaat. T-Systems schrijft in een persbericht dat op termijn alle Shell-medewerkers wereldwijd kunnen samenwerken en informatie uitwisselen via het gestandaardiseerde platform op basis van Microsoft Sharepoint. Shell heeft wereldwijd bijna honderdduizend medewerkers.
Medewerkers krijgen via cloud computing toegang tot de software voor gegevensuitwisseling. Het gaat om een zogenoemde hybride oplossing. Dat betekent dat informatie zowel lokaal als in datacenters verspreid over verschillende vestigingen wereldwijd is opgeslagen. Het prijsmodel is op basis van gebruik.
Cloud computing
T-Systems en Microsoft werken al sinds 2004 samen. In 2009 kondigden de bedrijven gezamenlijke plannen op het gebied van cloud computing aan. Daarbij bieden de ict-dienstverlener en de sofwareleverancier werkplekken aan via het bedrijfsnetwerk.
Door de opdracht verbreedt T-Systems zijn hosting en opslagactiviteiten naar applicatiebeheer en collaboration.
Ontevreden
Eerder meldde de Duitse zakenkrant Handelsblatt dat Shell en Philips ontevereden zouden zijn over de prestaties van T-Systems.
reageer print stuur door
GERELATEERDE ARTIKELEN
18-02-2011 Logica participeert in Shell-deal van 300 miljoen
03-01-2011 'Shell en Philips ontevreden over T-Systems'
09-12-2010 AT&T en Cisco bekijken energieverbruik Shell
18-05-2010 AT&T helpt Shell aan Unified Communications
01-03-2010 IBM helpt Shell bij rekenwerk olieproductie
29-10-2009 Shell: Ook ICT’er moet vrezen voor baan
09-07-2009 Shell vraagt lager tarief van ingehuurde ICT'ers
09-02-2009 EDS: meer dan on-site werkplekbeheer bij Shell
02-02-2009 Getronics beheert alle 90.000 Shell-werkplekken
29-01-2009 Getronics helpt EDS bij uitbesteding Shell
31-10-2008 Shell niet langer de populairste werkgever
18-09-2008 Migratieklus Shell door T-Systems duurt jaren
07-04-2008 Dienstverleners pronken met Shell-contract
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/ecm/3791472/1277020/tsystems-helpt-shell-aan-sharepoint.html#ixzz1EqhCFCuC
Het is niet bekendgemaakt om hoeveel accounts het gaat. T-Systems schrijft in een persbericht dat op termijn alle Shell-medewerkers wereldwijd kunnen samenwerken en informatie uitwisselen via het gestandaardiseerde platform op basis van Microsoft Sharepoint. Shell heeft wereldwijd bijna honderdduizend medewerkers.
Medewerkers krijgen via cloud computing toegang tot de software voor gegevensuitwisseling. Het gaat om een zogenoemde hybride oplossing. Dat betekent dat informatie zowel lokaal als in datacenters verspreid over verschillende vestigingen wereldwijd is opgeslagen. Het prijsmodel is op basis van gebruik.
Cloud computing
T-Systems en Microsoft werken al sinds 2004 samen. In 2009 kondigden de bedrijven gezamenlijke plannen op het gebied van cloud computing aan. Daarbij bieden de ict-dienstverlener en de sofwareleverancier werkplekken aan via het bedrijfsnetwerk.
Door de opdracht verbreedt T-Systems zijn hosting en opslagactiviteiten naar applicatiebeheer en collaboration.
Ontevreden
Eerder meldde de Duitse zakenkrant Handelsblatt dat Shell en Philips ontevereden zouden zijn over de prestaties van T-Systems.
reageer print stuur door
GERELATEERDE ARTIKELEN
18-02-2011 Logica participeert in Shell-deal van 300 miljoen
03-01-2011 'Shell en Philips ontevreden over T-Systems'
09-12-2010 AT&T en Cisco bekijken energieverbruik Shell
18-05-2010 AT&T helpt Shell aan Unified Communications
01-03-2010 IBM helpt Shell bij rekenwerk olieproductie
29-10-2009 Shell: Ook ICT’er moet vrezen voor baan
09-07-2009 Shell vraagt lager tarief van ingehuurde ICT'ers
09-02-2009 EDS: meer dan on-site werkplekbeheer bij Shell
02-02-2009 Getronics beheert alle 90.000 Shell-werkplekken
29-01-2009 Getronics helpt EDS bij uitbesteding Shell
31-10-2008 Shell niet langer de populairste werkgever
18-09-2008 Migratieklus Shell door T-Systems duurt jaren
07-04-2008 Dienstverleners pronken met Shell-contract
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/ecm/3791472/1277020/tsystems-helpt-shell-aan-sharepoint.html#ixzz1EqhCFCuC
Monday, February 07, 2011
CRM Next-Level: Waarom eCRM net zo normaal wordt als Search of Banners
Vreemd genoeg worden veel online bureaus door haar adverteerders nog gebrieft met de boodschap veel respons, clicks of leads te verzorgen. Heel vreemd. Een bedrijf ontleent meer toegevoegde waarde door te sturen op de herkomst van klantwaarde. Met name in de UK en Amerika gaan die ontwikkelingen iets sneller. Het systeem wat bedrijven helpt te sturen op klantwaarde wordt in generieke termen eCRM genoemd. eCRM en Digitale Media zullen binnen elke jaren dicht naar elkaar toe groeien. Dus geen clicks of leads meer, maar klantwaarde en de herkomst ervan.
Keurige dahboards
Toen ik mijn loopbaan bij Andersen Consulting (nu Accenture) begon, inmiddels alweer giga lang geleden, waren ERP en CRM ‘hot’ bij alle Multinationals. Kosten noch moeite werden gespaard om de hele supply chain (SD), material management (MM) en financieel management (FI/CO) in kaart te brengen en terug te koppelen aan het management in keurige dashboards. Bij die visie hoorde het natuurlijk ook om zoiets dergelijks te doen met Marketing & Sales. Feitelijk het CRM gebied. Wat beide systemen met elkaar gemeen hadden is dat de primaire focus het registeren en rapporteren betrof, en die gegevens zoveel mogelijk werden toegepast om ontwikkelingen (lees: tekorten of overschot) te kunnen voorspellen. Mede geboren uit de wens om ‘ook’ een gave Just-in-Time organisatie te zijn.
Tweede leven
We zijn nu ruim 15 jaar verder, en er kan worden gesteld dat met name CRM toe is aan een tweede leven. Alhoewel veel trajecten, zeker de early adopters op CRM-gebied, vaak weinig ROI konden laten zien uit hun ontwikkelingen en enorme investeringen, zie je anno 2011 dat succesvolle toepassing van CRM nu een bizar hevige vlucht neemt. Oorzaak nummer 1: integratie tussen CRM en Digitale Media en Marketing. Digitale Media maakt het mogelijk om CRM systemen te verrijken met online gedrag. Hierdoor kan het eindelijk haar belofte inlossen, namelijk die van een echt actief retentie en/of sales instrument. Tegelijkertijd zijn de wat onhandige systemen van toen veranderd in in-the-cloud toepassingen van nu. Niet meer voor tonnen of miljoenen, met een leger consultants en opeenvolgende change-requests op de koop toe, maar voor een paar tientjes per user (Salesforce/Dynamics etc.) redelijk complete en easy to use systemen. Ingericht om online gedrag te koppelen.
Toegevoegde waarde
Weloverwogen integratie van Digitale Media en Marketing met CRM biedt veel toegevoegde waarde. De belangrijkste is dat online gedrag, als vertaald in relevante implicaties zoals ontevredenheid, potentiële leads, upselling mogelijkheden, identificatie beste klanten etc. direct kan worden omgezet in programma’s die duidelijke ondernemingsdoelstellingen ondersteunen. Programma’s die online in te vullen zijn. Bovendien kunnen digitale Marketeers dan beter sturen op het maximaliseren van Beste en Meest Winstgevende klanten, in plaats van leads en clicks wat resulteert in sub-optimalisatie.
eCRM
Tegelijkertijd vinden veel Nederlandse bedrijven het lastig om die voor de hand liggende toepassingen te laten plaatsvinden. Dat komt enerzijds door de Chinese walls tussen digitale media en marketing (als dat al niet grotendeels is uitbesteed aan allerlei online bureaus) en crm-verantwoordelijken, anderzijds door teleurstelling vanuit het verleden en onduidelijkheid over juridische kaders. Bovendien loopt Nederland zelden voorop waar het gaat om marketing & media Innovatie. Wellicht ook omdat veel marketeers minder affiniteit hebben met techniek en internet. Dat zal vanzelf veranderen. eCRM systemen zullen ook in Nederland aansluiting gaan vinden. En sterker nog, dergelijke systemen worden zo standaard als Search, Display, Mobiel, Social en straks IP-TV.
Voor de Nederlandse Marketing Pioniers die deze ontwikkeling volgen zou ik graag willen verwijzen naar het gratis event dat Microsoft Dynamics op 16 februari organiseert. Het programma kun je HIER vinden en tevens kan daar worden ingeschreven. Inschrijven kan ook door een mail te sturen naar annemarie.brandsen@microsoft.com Heel CRM Nederland zal er zijn. Nu online media nog ;-)
Keurige dahboards
Toen ik mijn loopbaan bij Andersen Consulting (nu Accenture) begon, inmiddels alweer giga lang geleden, waren ERP en CRM ‘hot’ bij alle Multinationals. Kosten noch moeite werden gespaard om de hele supply chain (SD), material management (MM) en financieel management (FI/CO) in kaart te brengen en terug te koppelen aan het management in keurige dashboards. Bij die visie hoorde het natuurlijk ook om zoiets dergelijks te doen met Marketing & Sales. Feitelijk het CRM gebied. Wat beide systemen met elkaar gemeen hadden is dat de primaire focus het registeren en rapporteren betrof, en die gegevens zoveel mogelijk werden toegepast om ontwikkelingen (lees: tekorten of overschot) te kunnen voorspellen. Mede geboren uit de wens om ‘ook’ een gave Just-in-Time organisatie te zijn.
Tweede leven
We zijn nu ruim 15 jaar verder, en er kan worden gesteld dat met name CRM toe is aan een tweede leven. Alhoewel veel trajecten, zeker de early adopters op CRM-gebied, vaak weinig ROI konden laten zien uit hun ontwikkelingen en enorme investeringen, zie je anno 2011 dat succesvolle toepassing van CRM nu een bizar hevige vlucht neemt. Oorzaak nummer 1: integratie tussen CRM en Digitale Media en Marketing. Digitale Media maakt het mogelijk om CRM systemen te verrijken met online gedrag. Hierdoor kan het eindelijk haar belofte inlossen, namelijk die van een echt actief retentie en/of sales instrument. Tegelijkertijd zijn de wat onhandige systemen van toen veranderd in in-the-cloud toepassingen van nu. Niet meer voor tonnen of miljoenen, met een leger consultants en opeenvolgende change-requests op de koop toe, maar voor een paar tientjes per user (Salesforce/Dynamics etc.) redelijk complete en easy to use systemen. Ingericht om online gedrag te koppelen.
Toegevoegde waarde
Weloverwogen integratie van Digitale Media en Marketing met CRM biedt veel toegevoegde waarde. De belangrijkste is dat online gedrag, als vertaald in relevante implicaties zoals ontevredenheid, potentiële leads, upselling mogelijkheden, identificatie beste klanten etc. direct kan worden omgezet in programma’s die duidelijke ondernemingsdoelstellingen ondersteunen. Programma’s die online in te vullen zijn. Bovendien kunnen digitale Marketeers dan beter sturen op het maximaliseren van Beste en Meest Winstgevende klanten, in plaats van leads en clicks wat resulteert in sub-optimalisatie.
eCRM
Tegelijkertijd vinden veel Nederlandse bedrijven het lastig om die voor de hand liggende toepassingen te laten plaatsvinden. Dat komt enerzijds door de Chinese walls tussen digitale media en marketing (als dat al niet grotendeels is uitbesteed aan allerlei online bureaus) en crm-verantwoordelijken, anderzijds door teleurstelling vanuit het verleden en onduidelijkheid over juridische kaders. Bovendien loopt Nederland zelden voorop waar het gaat om marketing & media Innovatie. Wellicht ook omdat veel marketeers minder affiniteit hebben met techniek en internet. Dat zal vanzelf veranderen. eCRM systemen zullen ook in Nederland aansluiting gaan vinden. En sterker nog, dergelijke systemen worden zo standaard als Search, Display, Mobiel, Social en straks IP-TV.
Voor de Nederlandse Marketing Pioniers die deze ontwikkeling volgen zou ik graag willen verwijzen naar het gratis event dat Microsoft Dynamics op 16 februari organiseert. Het programma kun je HIER vinden en tevens kan daar worden ingeschreven. Inschrijven kan ook door een mail te sturen naar annemarie.brandsen@microsoft.com Heel CRM Nederland zal er zijn. Nu online media nog ;-)
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Small Business Intranets, There's More Than SharePoint
Many organizations cannot afford $50 to 150 per user for a top flight intranet. Enterprise content management systems (ECMSs) and portals such as SharePoint, and the like, traditionally cost a pretty penny up front, and a shocking amount in annual licensing, support, maintenance and staffing. The costs of these systems have naturally created a niche for small market solutions that have grown and evolved considerably in the past 10 years.
There’s More than SharePoint
“SharePoint is most certainly overkill in most cases,” says Michael Jones, Marketing Coordinator for The ADWEB Agency that produces Intranet DASHBOARD, an Australian-based intranet solution. “It's like using a commercial harvester to prune your roses, or implementing SAP at your local convenience store. SharePoint is effectively a development platform which companies can use to create an intranet, but unless they have complex custom requirements (and a large development budget), SharePoint isn't the right tool to use.”
SharePoint has become the measuring stick, and the whipping boy, by which most all other intranet technology platforms are compared. Microsoft has invested so much into SharePoint (literally billions of dollars), and markets it at so many levels, it is, in effect, a blanket solution that attempts to be everything to everyone:
Small surprise then it is deployed in about two-thirds of Western World organizations that have an intranet, even in small businesses (SMBs), but not at a price.
“Proprietary portal applications and intranet solutions are overkill for small organizations, not just because of the initial costs, but often ongoing maintenance costs; medium businesses may be able to afford, software costs, setup and support, but is the portal putting money back into the company,” says Gifford Watkins, President of Atlantic Webfitters, an Atlantic Canada implementation vendor of open source CMS, DotNetNuke (DNN).
DNN is not a pure, nor as robust an alternative to SharePoint, but it is a gradually more popular choice for many small, and medium size businesses who require web content management (WCMS). DNN allows SMBs to get their feet wet for less than SharePoint (SP) yet shares a common architecture: Microsoft's (MS) SQL Server, MS ASP.net and Microsoft's IIS are the foundations for both SharePoint (SP) and DNN. However, the similarities chiefly end there as DNN doesn’t have the bells-and-whistles sported by SP, nor is it a true portal or ECMS.
The biggest difference is price: the price tag of an SP intranet for 100 employees is often in the US$ 10,000 to $30,000 range; Atlantic Webfitters typically deploys DNN for under $5,000, and sometimes for under $2,000.
Commercial Alternatives
“SharePoint and other enterprise level CMS solutions can be a daunting task for SMBs, requiring in-house expertise, resources, development and consultants,” says Rachel Lai, Marketing Manager of Vancouver-based Intranet Connections which offers a hosted, proprietary solution with unlimited users that starts at $8,500. “Often these type of enterprise platforms require a lengthy development and deployment cycle and we often hear from our SMBs that their SharePoint project essentially withered and died before it got off the ground.”
While it is possible to deploy SP and other CMS solutions in a few weeks time, a customized SP or ECMS solution can typically require 9-12 months for planning and implementation. Solutions such as Intranet Connections can be deployed in a matter of days.
“Going with a turnkey, out-of-the-box intranet solution like Intranet Connections can allow SMBs rapid intranet implementation so that they can move on to other pressing projects and focus on what’s important in getting an intranet launched, such as "how can we best use this great new tool to communicate and collaborate with our employees,” adds Lai.
(Page 2 of 2)
Sample home page using Intranet Connections
Tim Dorey, CEO of Vialect, admits that his company’s hosted intranet solution, Noodle, is not too dissimilar from other commercial solutions, but adds that his competitive advantage is speed and customer service.
“It sounds cliché but customer service is as important as our software,” says Dorey. “Our customers love our support and the fact they speak with real people and not call centers. When our clients call they can talk to our developers, trainers or myself.”
Dorey is also quick to point out the obvious: SharePoint does very well in serving its audience, which is typically bigger and wealthier than the SMBs that comprise Noodle’s target audience.
“SharePoint has its place just like many of the CMS on the market but both require time and money commitments,” adds Dorey. “To get the most from SharePoint your SMB needs to know exactly what they need. In many cases it’s difficult to get a SMB to clarify exactly what they need.”
Sometimes, in fact, big business has looked to these smaller vendors to power their enterprise intranet. Both Shell and Panasonic use Intranet Dashboard (iD) as their corporate intranet solution, and yet iD is priced at only $2 per user, per month, for businesses with 250-500 users. At 1000 users, iD’s price falls to $1 per user per month.
Small Intranets Become Social
Following hot on the heels of the bigger platforms many small market solutions have heard the stampede of socially inclined users and have answered by integrating social media tools into their platform: blogs, wikis, social networking, even Twitter-like micro-blogging.
However, it’s a myth that big business is paving the way for social media adoption on the corporate intranet (intranet 2.0); the little guys are more prone to use social media. The results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Study (2010, Prescient Digital Media) found that 56% of organizations with fewer than 100 employees have blogs on the corporate intranet, almost 10% higher than all other organizations combined.
“Two years ago we started adding social networking features that are resonating with customers and indirectly improving the success rates of the deployments,” says Dorey who deploys a 50 user solution for only $2,950 with hosting at $250 per month. “The addition of the social networking pieces like Twitter-like status updates, personal profiles and co-worker lists are advantageous. Noodle also monitors Corporate Wisdom, Corporate Wisdom monitors the content a user creates and reviews providing (reporting with) a live percentage (per user) that tells administrators who are the champions of the site and maybe more importantly who is not.”
Open Source solution DotNetNuke is replete with social media features including social networking, blogs, wikis, even real-time instant messaging and knowledge centers, even a user-driven folksonomy for tagging content with keywords.
Intranet Connections (IC) has become a “social intranet” offering that is now branded as “turnkey intranet 2.0 software” and includes out-of-the-box social features such as employee profiles, blogs, live chat, employee comments and ratings, discussion forums, and even an application that allows employees to share recipes.
No longer is the small business intranet merely a shared drive or an online mash of shared documents; small business intranets are increasingly dynamic, progressively more social, and transformative: evolving from static, corporate-driven newsletters into dynamic social communities.
About the Author
Toby Ward, a former journalist and a regular e-business columnist and speaker, is the CEO and Founder of Prescient Digital Media. His white paper “The Social Intranet” is a free download at www.PrescientDigital.com.
There’s More than SharePoint
“SharePoint is most certainly overkill in most cases,” says Michael Jones, Marketing Coordinator for The ADWEB Agency that produces Intranet DASHBOARD, an Australian-based intranet solution. “It's like using a commercial harvester to prune your roses, or implementing SAP at your local convenience store. SharePoint is effectively a development platform which companies can use to create an intranet, but unless they have complex custom requirements (and a large development budget), SharePoint isn't the right tool to use.”
SharePoint has become the measuring stick, and the whipping boy, by which most all other intranet technology platforms are compared. Microsoft has invested so much into SharePoint (literally billions of dollars), and markets it at so many levels, it is, in effect, a blanket solution that attempts to be everything to everyone:
Web content management
Enterprise content management
Portal
Development platform
Business intelligence
Social networking
Enterprise search
Etc.
Small surprise then it is deployed in about two-thirds of Western World organizations that have an intranet, even in small businesses (SMBs), but not at a price.
“Proprietary portal applications and intranet solutions are overkill for small organizations, not just because of the initial costs, but often ongoing maintenance costs; medium businesses may be able to afford, software costs, setup and support, but is the portal putting money back into the company,” says Gifford Watkins, President of Atlantic Webfitters, an Atlantic Canada implementation vendor of open source CMS, DotNetNuke (DNN).
DNN is not a pure, nor as robust an alternative to SharePoint, but it is a gradually more popular choice for many small, and medium size businesses who require web content management (WCMS). DNN allows SMBs to get their feet wet for less than SharePoint (SP) yet shares a common architecture: Microsoft's (MS) SQL Server, MS ASP.net and Microsoft's IIS are the foundations for both SharePoint (SP) and DNN. However, the similarities chiefly end there as DNN doesn’t have the bells-and-whistles sported by SP, nor is it a true portal or ECMS.
The biggest difference is price: the price tag of an SP intranet for 100 employees is often in the US$ 10,000 to $30,000 range; Atlantic Webfitters typically deploys DNN for under $5,000, and sometimes for under $2,000.
Commercial Alternatives
“SharePoint and other enterprise level CMS solutions can be a daunting task for SMBs, requiring in-house expertise, resources, development and consultants,” says Rachel Lai, Marketing Manager of Vancouver-based Intranet Connections which offers a hosted, proprietary solution with unlimited users that starts at $8,500. “Often these type of enterprise platforms require a lengthy development and deployment cycle and we often hear from our SMBs that their SharePoint project essentially withered and died before it got off the ground.”
While it is possible to deploy SP and other CMS solutions in a few weeks time, a customized SP or ECMS solution can typically require 9-12 months for planning and implementation. Solutions such as Intranet Connections can be deployed in a matter of days.
“Going with a turnkey, out-of-the-box intranet solution like Intranet Connections can allow SMBs rapid intranet implementation so that they can move on to other pressing projects and focus on what’s important in getting an intranet launched, such as "how can we best use this great new tool to communicate and collaborate with our employees,” adds Lai.
(Page 2 of 2)
Sample home page using Intranet Connections
Tim Dorey, CEO of Vialect, admits that his company’s hosted intranet solution, Noodle, is not too dissimilar from other commercial solutions, but adds that his competitive advantage is speed and customer service.
“It sounds cliché but customer service is as important as our software,” says Dorey. “Our customers love our support and the fact they speak with real people and not call centers. When our clients call they can talk to our developers, trainers or myself.”
Dorey is also quick to point out the obvious: SharePoint does very well in serving its audience, which is typically bigger and wealthier than the SMBs that comprise Noodle’s target audience.
“SharePoint has its place just like many of the CMS on the market but both require time and money commitments,” adds Dorey. “To get the most from SharePoint your SMB needs to know exactly what they need. In many cases it’s difficult to get a SMB to clarify exactly what they need.”
Sometimes, in fact, big business has looked to these smaller vendors to power their enterprise intranet. Both Shell and Panasonic use Intranet Dashboard (iD) as their corporate intranet solution, and yet iD is priced at only $2 per user, per month, for businesses with 250-500 users. At 1000 users, iD’s price falls to $1 per user per month.
Small Intranets Become Social
Following hot on the heels of the bigger platforms many small market solutions have heard the stampede of socially inclined users and have answered by integrating social media tools into their platform: blogs, wikis, social networking, even Twitter-like micro-blogging.
However, it’s a myth that big business is paving the way for social media adoption on the corporate intranet (intranet 2.0); the little guys are more prone to use social media. The results of the Intranet 2.0 Global Study (2010, Prescient Digital Media) found that 56% of organizations with fewer than 100 employees have blogs on the corporate intranet, almost 10% higher than all other organizations combined.
“Two years ago we started adding social networking features that are resonating with customers and indirectly improving the success rates of the deployments,” says Dorey who deploys a 50 user solution for only $2,950 with hosting at $250 per month. “The addition of the social networking pieces like Twitter-like status updates, personal profiles and co-worker lists are advantageous. Noodle also monitors Corporate Wisdom, Corporate Wisdom monitors the content a user creates and reviews providing (reporting with) a live percentage (per user) that tells administrators who are the champions of the site and maybe more importantly who is not.”
Open Source solution DotNetNuke is replete with social media features including social networking, blogs, wikis, even real-time instant messaging and knowledge centers, even a user-driven folksonomy for tagging content with keywords.
Intranet Connections (IC) has become a “social intranet” offering that is now branded as “turnkey intranet 2.0 software” and includes out-of-the-box social features such as employee profiles, blogs, live chat, employee comments and ratings, discussion forums, and even an application that allows employees to share recipes.
No longer is the small business intranet merely a shared drive or an online mash of shared documents; small business intranets are increasingly dynamic, progressively more social, and transformative: evolving from static, corporate-driven newsletters into dynamic social communities.
About the Author
Toby Ward, a former journalist and a regular e-business columnist and speaker, is the CEO and Founder of Prescient Digital Media. His white paper “The Social Intranet” is a free download at www.PrescientDigital.com.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Still they are fighting for dead men’s shoes
By Samuel Brittan
Published: February 3 2011 19:57 | Last updated: February 3 2011 19:57
“One of the great growth industries of the English-speaking world is the exegesis of the writings of John Maynard Keynes. What exactly did Keynes say? When did he say it? Who were his precursors? What did he really mean? What should he have meant? What would he be saying if he were alive today?” I wrote these words many more years ago than I like to think. Since then this industry has grown still further, spurred by the financial crisis. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary in Britain’s coalition government, wrote an article in the January 17 issue of the New Statesman entitled “Keynes would be on our side”. The following week, the economists David Blanchflower and Robert Skidelsky published a riposte, talking of “the foolhardy project of enlisting Keynes on behalf of the coalition’s policy”.
I always try to be fair. Both articles contained interesting reflections on the world and British economies and were on a much higher level than most of what passes for economic debate. But these could have stood on their own without enlisting a dead man in support. Nor is it only Keynes. Francis Wheen, in his Financial Times review of the historian Eric Hobsbawm’s How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism, does much the same when he argues that Marx would have rejoiced at the fall of the Soviet model.
This is getting ridiculous. As some FT readers pointed out during earlier outbreaks of the Keynesian controversy, what a reflection all this is on the would-be scientific standing of political economy – and Marx was a political economist as well as an unsuccessful revolutionary. Can one imagine physicists trying to advance their views by showing that they were implicit in some obscure passage in Einstein or Isaac Newton?
Nor does one have to stick to physics, which economists try too hard to copy. Evolutionary biologists read Darwin and rightly. He was a very attractive writer; most of what he wrote can be understood by the non-specialist; and I hope it will not lower the tone if I refer to the delightful animal drawings that enliven his work. But not even the most fervent Darwinian would use a quotation from him to clinch an argument or would dispute that, in ignorance of the still-to-be revealed principles of genetics, he mistakenly believed that acquired characteristics were normally inherited.
The logical point is this. If Marx were alive today he would be 193 years old. Keynes would be 128. Discussions of what they would think today implicitly assume that they would have retained the intellect of their prime and adjusted their thinking to later events. How can anyone know how they would have done this? I first realised the absurdity involved when, as a student at Cambridge, I came across a lecture by the veteran economist A.C. Pigou entitled “What would Alfred Marshall have thought of current developments in economics?” Marshall was a quintessentially Victorian figure who founded the Cambridge school of economics, and who died in 1924. Milton Friedman remarked to me that Pigou had simply not understood modern developments. Would it not have been simpler if Pigou had simply made his own observations and argued them out with Friedman?
One can imagine thinkers so unflinching that they might utter the same thoughts indefinitely, although they are not that easy to find. Take Adam Smith. Arguments about whether he would have been a Thatcherite or a social democrat are absurd. His insights can be developed in either direction. On the other hand one can easily imagine his remark about “that insidious and crafty animal vulgarly called statesman or politician” being repeated today, reflecting the same Scottish shrewdness. Even the Ten Commandments do not reflect a single unchanging view. The sixth commandment “Thou shalt not kill” is followed in Exodus by an enumeration of various offences deserving of the death penalty.
As anything that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood, I must emphasise that there is no harm in proclaiming the insights of past thinkers for their contemporary application. I myself have tried to use some of the ideas of Keynes’s General Theory to criticise the priority being given to fiscal retrenchment by so many European governments and have preferred the US stimulus route. But is that what Keynes himself would say? I have no idea. Nor has anyone else in the case of a thinker so well known for changing his mind. Indeed, if I could have got away with it I would have spelt Keynes with a small “k”.
Some academic figures will say that the whole argument about what great men would have thought reflects political and journalistic preoccupations far removed from the hard grind of modern mathematical economics. The editor of the Economic Journal, looking at the submissions he has received, remarks that the much-discussed crisis of economics “either has not happened or not been recognised by the profession”. Take what comfort you like from these words.
www.samuelbrittan.co.uk
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Published: February 3 2011 19:57 | Last updated: February 3 2011 19:57
“One of the great growth industries of the English-speaking world is the exegesis of the writings of John Maynard Keynes. What exactly did Keynes say? When did he say it? Who were his precursors? What did he really mean? What should he have meant? What would he be saying if he were alive today?” I wrote these words many more years ago than I like to think. Since then this industry has grown still further, spurred by the financial crisis. Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary in Britain’s coalition government, wrote an article in the January 17 issue of the New Statesman entitled “Keynes would be on our side”. The following week, the economists David Blanchflower and Robert Skidelsky published a riposte, talking of “the foolhardy project of enlisting Keynes on behalf of the coalition’s policy”.
I always try to be fair. Both articles contained interesting reflections on the world and British economies and were on a much higher level than most of what passes for economic debate. But these could have stood on their own without enlisting a dead man in support. Nor is it only Keynes. Francis Wheen, in his Financial Times review of the historian Eric Hobsbawm’s How to Change the World: Tales of Marx and Marxism, does much the same when he argues that Marx would have rejoiced at the fall of the Soviet model.
This is getting ridiculous. As some FT readers pointed out during earlier outbreaks of the Keynesian controversy, what a reflection all this is on the would-be scientific standing of political economy – and Marx was a political economist as well as an unsuccessful revolutionary. Can one imagine physicists trying to advance their views by showing that they were implicit in some obscure passage in Einstein or Isaac Newton?
Nor does one have to stick to physics, which economists try too hard to copy. Evolutionary biologists read Darwin and rightly. He was a very attractive writer; most of what he wrote can be understood by the non-specialist; and I hope it will not lower the tone if I refer to the delightful animal drawings that enliven his work. But not even the most fervent Darwinian would use a quotation from him to clinch an argument or would dispute that, in ignorance of the still-to-be revealed principles of genetics, he mistakenly believed that acquired characteristics were normally inherited.
The logical point is this. If Marx were alive today he would be 193 years old. Keynes would be 128. Discussions of what they would think today implicitly assume that they would have retained the intellect of their prime and adjusted their thinking to later events. How can anyone know how they would have done this? I first realised the absurdity involved when, as a student at Cambridge, I came across a lecture by the veteran economist A.C. Pigou entitled “What would Alfred Marshall have thought of current developments in economics?” Marshall was a quintessentially Victorian figure who founded the Cambridge school of economics, and who died in 1924. Milton Friedman remarked to me that Pigou had simply not understood modern developments. Would it not have been simpler if Pigou had simply made his own observations and argued them out with Friedman?
One can imagine thinkers so unflinching that they might utter the same thoughts indefinitely, although they are not that easy to find. Take Adam Smith. Arguments about whether he would have been a Thatcherite or a social democrat are absurd. His insights can be developed in either direction. On the other hand one can easily imagine his remark about “that insidious and crafty animal vulgarly called statesman or politician” being repeated today, reflecting the same Scottish shrewdness. Even the Ten Commandments do not reflect a single unchanging view. The sixth commandment “Thou shalt not kill” is followed in Exodus by an enumeration of various offences deserving of the death penalty.
As anything that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood, I must emphasise that there is no harm in proclaiming the insights of past thinkers for their contemporary application. I myself have tried to use some of the ideas of Keynes’s General Theory to criticise the priority being given to fiscal retrenchment by so many European governments and have preferred the US stimulus route. But is that what Keynes himself would say? I have no idea. Nor has anyone else in the case of a thinker so well known for changing his mind. Indeed, if I could have got away with it I would have spelt Keynes with a small “k”.
Some academic figures will say that the whole argument about what great men would have thought reflects political and journalistic preoccupations far removed from the hard grind of modern mathematical economics. The editor of the Economic Journal, looking at the submissions he has received, remarks that the much-discussed crisis of economics “either has not happened or not been recognised by the profession”. Take what comfort you like from these words.
www.samuelbrittan.co.uk
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Friesland kiest Sharepoint voor subsidies
De provincie Friesland gaat subsidieaanvragen en de archivering van bijbehorende stukken automatiseren met een document- en dossiermanagementsysteem op basis van Microsoft Sharepoint. Het gaat om het product 360 van de Zweedse leverancier Sofware Innovation. Het pakket is door Microsoft-dienstverlener Wortell uit Lijnden in het Nederlands vertaald en aangepast aan de in Nederland geldende wet- en regelgeving van de Archiefwet. De subsidie-aanvragen werden voorheen handmatig verwerkt.
Voor de provincie Friesland is dit het eerste project volgens de methode zaakgericht werken. Bij die werkwijze worden alle officiële documenten die bij een subsidiezaak horen, zoals inkomende en uitgaande brieven, besluiten, controlelijsten en mailwisseling in één digitaal dossier opgeslagen.
360 (360 graden) is gebaseerd op Microsoft Sharepoint en maakt het mogelijk de complete informatiehuishouding van een organisatie te digitaliseren.
De provincie werkt aan de implementatie van een servicegeoriënteerde architectuur om aan te kunnen sluiten op de Nederlandse Overheid Referentie Architectuur (Nora). De provincie heeft de ambitie om steeds meer te gaan samenwerken met andere instanties. Daarnaast wil de provincie bezuinigen door zo efficiënt mogelijk te werken en hebben de Friezen tot doel gesteld om zoveel mogelijk zonder papier te werken.
Vijfduizend subsidie-aanvragen
Het contract heeft een looptijd van drie jaar. Het zaaksysteem wordt gebruikt door zeventig medewerkers van de afdeling subsidies. Jaarlijks worden vijfduizend subsidie-aanvragen gedaan. In totaal werken ongeveer duizend mensen bij de provincie.
bekijk reacties (2) print stuur door
GERELATEERDE ARTIKELEN
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07-09-2010 SharePoint 2010: standaard document management-functies
28-06-2010 Nederlander is trots op 'zijn' Sharepoint 2010
12-11-2009 EMC Documentum ondersteunt SharePoint
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/ecm/3751888/1277020/friesland-kiest-sharepoint-voor-subsidies.html#ixzz1C3Sc0z9Z
Voor de provincie Friesland is dit het eerste project volgens de methode zaakgericht werken. Bij die werkwijze worden alle officiële documenten die bij een subsidiezaak horen, zoals inkomende en uitgaande brieven, besluiten, controlelijsten en mailwisseling in één digitaal dossier opgeslagen.
360 (360 graden) is gebaseerd op Microsoft Sharepoint en maakt het mogelijk de complete informatiehuishouding van een organisatie te digitaliseren.
De provincie werkt aan de implementatie van een servicegeoriënteerde architectuur om aan te kunnen sluiten op de Nederlandse Overheid Referentie Architectuur (Nora). De provincie heeft de ambitie om steeds meer te gaan samenwerken met andere instanties. Daarnaast wil de provincie bezuinigen door zo efficiënt mogelijk te werken en hebben de Friezen tot doel gesteld om zoveel mogelijk zonder papier te werken.
Vijfduizend subsidie-aanvragen
Het contract heeft een looptijd van drie jaar. Het zaaksysteem wordt gebruikt door zeventig medewerkers van de afdeling subsidies. Jaarlijks worden vijfduizend subsidie-aanvragen gedaan. In totaal werken ongeveer duizend mensen bij de provincie.
bekijk reacties (2) print stuur door
GERELATEERDE ARTIKELEN
24-01-2011 Dienstverleners zetten Sharepoint in de cloud
24-11-2010 Smart SharePoint Solutions biedt Financial Suite
04-11-2010 Sociale software en Microsoft SharePoint 2010
07-09-2010 SharePoint 2010: standaard document management-functies
28-06-2010 Nederlander is trots op 'zijn' Sharepoint 2010
12-11-2009 EMC Documentum ondersteunt SharePoint
Read more: http://www.computable.nl/artikel/ict_topics/ecm/3751888/1277020/friesland-kiest-sharepoint-voor-subsidies.html#ixzz1C3Sc0z9Z
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Your task for today is doing more with less
By Stefan Stern
Published: February 1 2010 22:11 | Last updated: February 1 2010 22:11
If only more people could live up to the standards set by the new Nokia N900 handset. You may have seen one of the adverts for the Nokia N900. A picture of the smart black device is supported by the one-word slogan (and neologism): “Multimultitasking”.
In 2010 we need all the multimultitaskers we can get. Headcount has been reduced in many workplaces, and there is only limited (if any) rehiring going on. People are being stretched. Whether in the public or private sectors, we all have to do more with less.
I predict that “more with less” is going to become the key management mantra of the decade. But as with most of these buzzwords or phrases, the simplicity of the language conceals the difficulty of making it happen. Worse, there are dangers for those who enthusiastically adopt the mantra without thinking through all the possible consequences.
Some managers might have hoped that the start of the new year, with its incipient recovery, would mean that the worst was behind them. But leading a business in slightly better times with limited resources will be just as hard as the period of retrenchment that preceded it.
Large parts of the workforce, while relieved at still having a job, will be worried about the future. Trying to get higher productivity from anxious colleagues is not easy.
And it is not as though traditional “performance management” is being carried out well in the first place. The annual management survey conducted by the UK’s Roffey Park, a management institute, published last month, showed that the number of managers who felt that their organisation handled performance badly has more than doubled in the last year. Recession has tested some basic management skills – and found them wanting.
The response to this among employees is clear, to judge from the large number of workplace attitude surveys that have appeared recently. In the US, Right Management, an HR consultancy, reported that many workers are unhappy with their present jobs, with 60 per cent intending to leave and another 25 per cent actively networking and updating their CVs.
In the UK, job satisfaction has fallen to record lows, according to research published last week by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
But feeling sorry for ourselves is not an option. Customers want and demand more. Businesses have to provide it. How can managers achieve this?
Employees cannot be battered into producing more. They have to be persuaded. That persuasion can be forceful and urgent. But it will also have to make sense. So managers need to be able to tell a convincing story about the future.
Then there is the need for technology taming. Of course new technology makes a lot of things possible: new ways of working, and a chance, genuinely, to do more with less. But new technology can also be, as Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired magazine, pointed out recently, an unruly child. “Technology ... has its own agenda,” he said. “[It] can deliver tremendous benefits to us, but the downside is that it’s selfish.” As with children, boundaries have to be set. We are supposed to be in charge of technology, not the other way round. Many of us can achieve more with less, but not if we are “always on”, 24 hours a day.
What if, in our anxiety to drive the business harder, we end up destroying the quality of what we do? It is a real risk. Budgets cannot be cut or frozen indefinitely without there being an impact on the organisation. “More with less” may not mean doing more of everything. It may also mean choosing which things we have to stop doing altogether.
Only last week Toyota, that former paragon of quality, was forced into announcing humiliating product recalls, a sure sign that even the best companies cannot push harder and harder without something going wrong. With glorious symbolism, Toyota’s problem turned out to be a faulty accelerator pedal. It shows that business leaders cannot just “step on it” unthinkingly.
In the end, though, there is not really much choice about this. In the 21st century we will have to work smarter and harder. That means efficiency savings and increased productivity. It is the great management challenge of the age.
“So much to do, so little time,” a Facebook friend complained on her updated page the other day. She soon received some helpful advice from her social network. “Get off Facebook then,” someone responded, almost immediately.
For more on management, visit www.ft.com/managementblog
stefan.stern@ft.com
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Published: February 1 2010 22:11 | Last updated: February 1 2010 22:11
If only more people could live up to the standards set by the new Nokia N900 handset. You may have seen one of the adverts for the Nokia N900. A picture of the smart black device is supported by the one-word slogan (and neologism): “Multimultitasking”.
In 2010 we need all the multimultitaskers we can get. Headcount has been reduced in many workplaces, and there is only limited (if any) rehiring going on. People are being stretched. Whether in the public or private sectors, we all have to do more with less.
I predict that “more with less” is going to become the key management mantra of the decade. But as with most of these buzzwords or phrases, the simplicity of the language conceals the difficulty of making it happen. Worse, there are dangers for those who enthusiastically adopt the mantra without thinking through all the possible consequences.
Some managers might have hoped that the start of the new year, with its incipient recovery, would mean that the worst was behind them. But leading a business in slightly better times with limited resources will be just as hard as the period of retrenchment that preceded it.
Large parts of the workforce, while relieved at still having a job, will be worried about the future. Trying to get higher productivity from anxious colleagues is not easy.
And it is not as though traditional “performance management” is being carried out well in the first place. The annual management survey conducted by the UK’s Roffey Park, a management institute, published last month, showed that the number of managers who felt that their organisation handled performance badly has more than doubled in the last year. Recession has tested some basic management skills – and found them wanting.
The response to this among employees is clear, to judge from the large number of workplace attitude surveys that have appeared recently. In the US, Right Management, an HR consultancy, reported that many workers are unhappy with their present jobs, with 60 per cent intending to leave and another 25 per cent actively networking and updating their CVs.
In the UK, job satisfaction has fallen to record lows, according to research published last week by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
But feeling sorry for ourselves is not an option. Customers want and demand more. Businesses have to provide it. How can managers achieve this?
Employees cannot be battered into producing more. They have to be persuaded. That persuasion can be forceful and urgent. But it will also have to make sense. So managers need to be able to tell a convincing story about the future.
Then there is the need for technology taming. Of course new technology makes a lot of things possible: new ways of working, and a chance, genuinely, to do more with less. But new technology can also be, as Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired magazine, pointed out recently, an unruly child. “Technology ... has its own agenda,” he said. “[It] can deliver tremendous benefits to us, but the downside is that it’s selfish.” As with children, boundaries have to be set. We are supposed to be in charge of technology, not the other way round. Many of us can achieve more with less, but not if we are “always on”, 24 hours a day.
What if, in our anxiety to drive the business harder, we end up destroying the quality of what we do? It is a real risk. Budgets cannot be cut or frozen indefinitely without there being an impact on the organisation. “More with less” may not mean doing more of everything. It may also mean choosing which things we have to stop doing altogether.
Only last week Toyota, that former paragon of quality, was forced into announcing humiliating product recalls, a sure sign that even the best companies cannot push harder and harder without something going wrong. With glorious symbolism, Toyota’s problem turned out to be a faulty accelerator pedal. It shows that business leaders cannot just “step on it” unthinkingly.
In the end, though, there is not really much choice about this. In the 21st century we will have to work smarter and harder. That means efficiency savings and increased productivity. It is the great management challenge of the age.
“So much to do, so little time,” a Facebook friend complained on her updated page the other day. She soon received some helpful advice from her social network. “Get off Facebook then,” someone responded, almost immediately.
For more on management, visit www.ft.com/managementblog
stefan.stern@ft.com
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
A little knowledge is deadly dangerous
A little knowledge is deadly dangerous
By Stefan Stern
Published: January 11 2010 23:23 | Last updated: January 11 2010 23:23
It is the “unknown knowns” that can kill you. But this was the category of information which Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence secretary, left off his famous list (“known knowns”, “known unknowns”) a few years ago.
A pity. One of the lessons of the September 11 2001 hijackings, as well as the recent attempt to blow up an aircraft on Christmas day, is that organisations may already possess the information they need to avoid disaster. It is just that they do not know that they know.
In criticising his security services last week, Barack Obama summed up this management dilemma well. “This was not a failure to collect intelligence,” he said. “It was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.” His colleagues had neglected to “connect the dots”, he observed.
This is a familiar story to business leaders. “If only Unilever knew what Unilever knows,” went the old lament. And you can substitute the name of almost any other company into that last sentence.
It was this lingering sense of unconnectedness, of dots not being joined up, that led to the emergence of “knowledge management” as a business discipline two decades ago. It was based on the idea that all sorts of valuable information – about customers’ preferences or what employees knew – was simply disappearing into the cracks that separated teams and business units. People within their silos could not or would not share knowledge.
Tom Stewart, chief marketing and knowledge officer for consultants Booz, moved the debate on with his 1997 book Intellectual Capital – the New Wealth of Organisations, which described what properly managed knowledge could do for businesses. Surely things were about to change?
Maybe knowledge management was too drab a label to hold people’s attention. Perhaps it all sounded too much like hard work. But “KM” soon fell prey to the curse of the management fad. It was talked about, popularised, then – too often – forgotten. Today too few companies can be confident that their employees share the knowledge and information that they need. Do their people know what they know?
The events over Detroit this Christmas confirmed the danger of ignoring the information that circulates, whether unprocessed or imperfectly understood, within organisations. In a blog post last week, Harvard Business School’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter said that dispatching e-mails or entering comments into databases is not enough. Only “relentless follow-up” would hold colleagues accountable for what they were supposed to be doing.
Smart knowledge management involves spotting useful patterns in the data that you have. Leaders should reward “pattern recognisers”, she said. They should also “stress the importance of passing on items of value to others”.
But while Prof Kanter is hopeful that social networking technology will lead to a greater sharing of information, others are not so sure. Morten Hansen, professor at Berkeley and Insead and author of last year’s well-regarded book, Collaboration, sees other factors at play. The failure of colleagues to communicate effectively “requires a change in culture and incentive systems, not an IT fix”, he says.
Obama’s first year
Obama Barack
In depth: news and analysis of Barack Obama’s first year in office as US president
It is not always easy to recognise the value of the information you have. The father of the alleged Detroit bomber, a former banker from Nigeria, warned US officials about his concerns over his son. For whatever reason – fatigue, overwork – the crucial tip-off was ignored. Too casual by half. The son’s name was even mis-spelled by one official, confusing his identity.
But information must be taken seriously. Managers need more than gut instinct and past experience to help them make good decisions. This means that knowledge has to be seen as an asset, something to be both respected and exploited.
This is why the collective corporate memory is so important. People forget – or just never get to learn – crucial details about the markets they are operating in. Veteran CIA officers understand this. As one former field operative, Bob Baer, told the BBC last week, it is no wonder his former colleagues seem “clueless” about where the next threat is coming from. “You’re seeing the price the CIA is paying for getting rid of so many people in the 1990s,” he said. “We fired people or let them retire.”
If we didn’t know then how unwise that approach was, we know now.
For more on management, visit www.ft.com/managementblog
stefan.stern@ft.com
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
By Stefan Stern
Published: January 11 2010 23:23 | Last updated: January 11 2010 23:23
It is the “unknown knowns” that can kill you. But this was the category of information which Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence secretary, left off his famous list (“known knowns”, “known unknowns”) a few years ago.
A pity. One of the lessons of the September 11 2001 hijackings, as well as the recent attempt to blow up an aircraft on Christmas day, is that organisations may already possess the information they need to avoid disaster. It is just that they do not know that they know.
In criticising his security services last week, Barack Obama summed up this management dilemma well. “This was not a failure to collect intelligence,” he said. “It was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.” His colleagues had neglected to “connect the dots”, he observed.
This is a familiar story to business leaders. “If only Unilever knew what Unilever knows,” went the old lament. And you can substitute the name of almost any other company into that last sentence.
It was this lingering sense of unconnectedness, of dots not being joined up, that led to the emergence of “knowledge management” as a business discipline two decades ago. It was based on the idea that all sorts of valuable information – about customers’ preferences or what employees knew – was simply disappearing into the cracks that separated teams and business units. People within their silos could not or would not share knowledge.
Tom Stewart, chief marketing and knowledge officer for consultants Booz, moved the debate on with his 1997 book Intellectual Capital – the New Wealth of Organisations, which described what properly managed knowledge could do for businesses. Surely things were about to change?
Maybe knowledge management was too drab a label to hold people’s attention. Perhaps it all sounded too much like hard work. But “KM” soon fell prey to the curse of the management fad. It was talked about, popularised, then – too often – forgotten. Today too few companies can be confident that their employees share the knowledge and information that they need. Do their people know what they know?
The events over Detroit this Christmas confirmed the danger of ignoring the information that circulates, whether unprocessed or imperfectly understood, within organisations. In a blog post last week, Harvard Business School’s Rosabeth Moss Kanter said that dispatching e-mails or entering comments into databases is not enough. Only “relentless follow-up” would hold colleagues accountable for what they were supposed to be doing.
Smart knowledge management involves spotting useful patterns in the data that you have. Leaders should reward “pattern recognisers”, she said. They should also “stress the importance of passing on items of value to others”.
But while Prof Kanter is hopeful that social networking technology will lead to a greater sharing of information, others are not so sure. Morten Hansen, professor at Berkeley and Insead and author of last year’s well-regarded book, Collaboration, sees other factors at play. The failure of colleagues to communicate effectively “requires a change in culture and incentive systems, not an IT fix”, he says.
Obama’s first year
Obama Barack
In depth: news and analysis of Barack Obama’s first year in office as US president
It is not always easy to recognise the value of the information you have. The father of the alleged Detroit bomber, a former banker from Nigeria, warned US officials about his concerns over his son. For whatever reason – fatigue, overwork – the crucial tip-off was ignored. Too casual by half. The son’s name was even mis-spelled by one official, confusing his identity.
But information must be taken seriously. Managers need more than gut instinct and past experience to help them make good decisions. This means that knowledge has to be seen as an asset, something to be both respected and exploited.
This is why the collective corporate memory is so important. People forget – or just never get to learn – crucial details about the markets they are operating in. Veteran CIA officers understand this. As one former field operative, Bob Baer, told the BBC last week, it is no wonder his former colleagues seem “clueless” about where the next threat is coming from. “You’re seeing the price the CIA is paying for getting rid of so many people in the 1990s,” he said. “We fired people or let them retire.”
If we didn’t know then how unwise that approach was, we know now.
For more on management, visit www.ft.com/managementblog
stefan.stern@ft.com
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Creative thinkers: innovative lawyers on the shortlist
Creative thinkers: innovative lawyers on the shortlist
Published: October 19 2010 13:10 | Last updated: October 19 2010 13:10
What defines the innovative lawyer? Three qualities: deep attention to client needs, respect for the way things have been done in the past, and an imaginative adaption of traditions to novel circumstances.
Last year’s Legal Innovator of the Year was Benedikt Wolfers of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who provided a dramatic example of this. Mr Wolfers designed the legislation that enabled the German government to repair the banking system – no easy task in a country deeply sensitive, for historical reasons, to anything smacking of bank expropriation.
In 2010, we are dealing with the aftermath of the banking crisis rather than the crisis itself. Businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and protect their activities, while rethinking the ways they carry them out. The 10 shortlisted candidates reflected these priorities. All provided strong evidence of innovation, but four in particular attracted the judges’ attention.
Neville Eisenberg is managing partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner, which has taken over all the legal services of Thames Water. The firm intends this arrangement – familiar from the world of information technology – to be the template for further deals.
David Lowe, a partner at Wragge & Co, won plaudits for the range of his activities, including advising the Greater London Authority in its bid for the 2012 Olympics, and helping Birds Eye Iglo with the arrangements for its frozen-food warehousing.
Judging panel
Leah Cooper
Director of legal services outsourcing, CPA Global
Peter Cornell
Managing director of stakeholder relations, Terra Firma, and former managing partner, Clifford Chance
Michael Peel
FT legal correspondent
Michael Skapinker
FT special reports editor and chairman of the panel
Paul Solman
Lead editor, FT Innovative Lawyers
Geoffrey Timms
General counsel, Legal & General
The runner-up for our award was Sandra Esquiva-Hesse, a partner in the Paris office of US firm Paul Hastings. Ms Esquiva-Hesse has been involved in a number of restructuring operations, the most eye-catching of which was the reorganisation and sale of Acument Global Technologies’ French automotive fastener business to Lisi Automotive and Agrati France. She made use of the conciliation process normally employed to ratify agreements between debtors and creditors. For the first time, a French commercial court used this process to ratify a restructuring and sale.
But our winner was Kevin Jaquiss, a partner at Cobbetts, who has helped fashion a new form of ownership for mutual organisations, allowing them to be funded through shares rather than, as has traditionally been the case, through debt. Innovative aspects include shareholders not being able to buy control and being locked in for a set period of time. There is potential for investors to earn a return, but only after the community has benefited.
The model has been applied to FC United, an organisation formed by disgruntled Manchester United fans who want to take over a disused stadium and run it for the benefit of a deprived part of the city.
Mr Jaquiss has also helped establish a co-operative trust model that is being used for more than 100 schools, and developed a model for football supporters’ trusts. During a period of austerity that demands fresh thinking, Mr Jaquiss’s innovations captured the mood of the times. – Michael Skapinker
Kevin Jaquiss
WINNER: KEVIN JAQUISS
Partner, Cobbetts, Manchester
Kevin Jaquiss is an expert in community benefit societies. Described by a client as pioneering a form of “punk finance”, which enables people and community organisations to “do it themselves”, his work is creating new legal structures for community enterprises in sport, housing, care, utilities and leisure.
Community benefit societies are incorporated industrial and provident groups that conduct business for the benefit of their community. Traditionally, profits are not distributed among members or external shareholders, and the basic model has existed for more than a century. The law in this area has remained dormant since the 1960s.
Crucial to making the societies a viable future mode of social organisation was to transform the conditions under which they are financed. Historically, mutual organisations have not been able to issue shares and have been funded largely from debt. The recession has made affordable credit hard to find.
Faced with these issues, Mr Jaquiss worked to develop a form of share ownership for mutual organisations. This entailed heavy involvement in a Treasury working group, with Cobbetts the only law firm at the table helping to shape new legislation in this area.
Mr Jaquiss’s solution modifies the usual idea of share ownership in two ways. First, shareholders cannot buy more control with more shares, and the societies remain one-member-one-vote organisations. Second, shares cannot be easily traded, and shareholders are effectively locked in for a set time after their purchase. There is also a potential return on any investment, but only after the intended benefit has been accrued.
This has been applied notably in the case of FC United, a community benefit society formed by Manchester United supporters in the wake of continuing disputes with the Glazer family, owners of the football club. The new club aims to take over a disused stadium, refurbish it and run services for the benefit of the deprived local community.
These principles can be applied to energy, water and housing companies, schools and even foundation trusts.
Dimitry Afanasiev
DIMITRY AFANASIEV
Chairman, Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners, Moscow
Dimitry Afanasiev co-founded Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners in 1993, and has chaired the 180-lawyer partnership for more than a decade, overseeing offices in St Petersburg, Moscow and London.
He attributes his success to his western training, his connections and his creativity as a lawyer – a claim that could just as easily have come from the mouth of any successful international lawyer. But with Mr Afanasiev, this troika of legal attributes must be put in the context of a jurisdiction where he cites corruption as his biggest competitor.
After studying at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, Mr Afanasiev had his start in law when Jerry Shestack, a former president of the American Bar Association, hired him to join his Philadelphia law firm. Mr Afanasiev later followed his mentor to Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen. These formative experiences encouraged him to transplant the western-style law firm model to Russia.
Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners’ “east meets west” approach has helped the firm win instructions to act both for and against the Russian government.
But its success also stems from its ties to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, and Dmitry Medvedev, president, that stretch back to the firm’s roots at the St Petersburg Institute of Law. The firm’s clients also include the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, chief executive of Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium group.
Stephen Cirell
STEPHEN CIRELL
Partner, Eversheds, on secondment to Cornwall Council
Stephen Cirell is responsible for putting in place measures that will see the English county of Cornwall become energy self-sufficient by 2025.
In his non-legal role as director of Green Cornwall at Cornwall Council, this Eversheds partner has spent the past year designing and implementing a £150m ($240m) environmental programme for the newly created “super” local authority.
Mr Cirell’s initiatives relating to climate change, sustainable energy, low carbon and behaviour have ambitious designs on harnessing Cornwall’s abundance of wind, wave and solar energy (see page 16).
A new fleet of electric cars for council workers is one of the most highly visible aspects of his carbon-reducing proposals. The next challenge for the Green Cornwall programme is to obtain a grant from the Department for Transport to install recharging plug-in points across the county.
Mr Cirell spent 12 years working in the legal departments of local government before he joined Eversheds in 1993. He built up a leading local government practice at the firm, and has since managed to combine that with a personal interest in green issues.
What began as advice to local authorities on setting up renewable energy companies soon evolved into an approach to Cornwall Council about a partner secondment, and the Green Cornwall programme represents the pinnacle of his 30-year career in local government. As his secondment at Cornwall Council draws to a close, Mr Cirell is turning his attention to writing a book on climate change for local government. This cross-fertilisation of theory and practice is consistent with his approach to the law.
Neville Eisenberg
NEVILLE EISENBERG
Managing partner, Berwin Leighton Paisner, London
Berwin Leighton Paisner consistently scores highly in the FT Law 50, and much of this achievement stems from the leadership of Neville Eisenberg. As managing partner of BLP, he has sought to maintain the momentum of the firm’s 2003 merger through an ambitious emerging markets strategy and a pioneering approach to efficiency.
In 2009, Mr Eisenberg identified the need for BLP to develop a presence in emerging markets. The resulting merger between BLP and the Goltsblat half of Moscow’s largest law firm, Pepelyaev, Goltsblat & Partners, created the first Russian international law firm, Goltsblat BLP.
Mr Eisenberg has since led the firm to develop a radical resourcing product, which is on the leading edge of an “arms race” towards more efficient ways of providing legal services to clients.
BLP’s Managed Legal Service, shortlisted in the client service section of this year’s FT Innovative Lawyers, involves the firm taking on and managing most of a client’s in-house legal team.
Mr Eisenberg believes the best way to engender an innovative environment within a law firm is to work on establishing a culture where lawyers feel comfortable experimenting, and are able to shift between the often risk-adverse mind-set of the traditional lawyer towards a more entrepreneurial one.
Sandra Esquiva-Hesse
SANDRA ESQUIVA-HESSE
Partner, Paul Hastings, Paris
The career of Sandra Esquiva-Hesse has been fuelled by the global cycle of refinancing and corporate restructurings. The current wave, as she puts it, began for her two years ago when she represented Marvel and Spider-Man Merchandising in relation to the insolvency of Smoby, the French toy manufacturer.
As the partner in charge of developing Paul Hastings’ finance and restructuring practice in Paris, her transactional work in the intervening period has culminated in one of her deals – the reorganisation and sale of Acument Global Technologies’ faltering French businesses – being shortlisted in the corporate section of this year’s FT Innovative Lawyers.
Ms Esquiva-Hesse has worked and studied in both the US and France, and she attributes much of her success to her training at Shearman & Sterling in New York. The early incentives and encouragement she received to be creative, and the knowledge she acquired of the more prescriptive US Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedure, moulded the legal approach she took back across the Atlantic.
This mixture of systems and jurisdictions is in keeping with her partnership role at a US firm in Paris, and her “yes you can” approach is pushing forward the nebulous insolvency law in her native France.
Mike Francies
MIKE FRANCIES
Managing partner, London office, Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Membership of Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ management committee has not damped Mike Francies’ appetite for doing deals.
His extensive career in corporate, private equity and restructuring has seen a number of achievements, including the first private equity bid in Europe and the first European private equity initial public offering. In 1998, he was one of the first “magic circle” partners to be poached by a US firm in London, when he left Clifford Chance for Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
But it is the restructuring arm of Mr Francies’ CV that he has been flexing of late. The management buy-out of Neuberger Berman, the former asset management arm of Lehman Brothers, was one of the bankruptcy sales that was highly commended in the FT Innovative Lawyers research last year. At the same time as Mr Francies was wading through the remnants of the US bank’s collapse, he played a critical role in the sale of a majority stake in Cobra Beer, the UK lager brand, to Molson Coors, the North American brewer.
The latter deal hints at the food and beverages flavour to his recent deal activity. He advised Patak’s on the sale of the Patak family’s Indian food brand to Associated British Foods; he has worked on various acquisitions, a placing and the initial public offering of Premier Foods, food manufacturer of Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes; and he acted for the Seafood Company on its acquisition of Pinneys of Scotland.
Much of Mr Francies’ work in this sector comes through his relationship with Lion Capital, the consumer-focused investment firm.
High-profile deals in other sectors include the $3.2bn IPO of Yell, producer of the Yellow Pages, which he says might not have happened without the lawyers’ contributions.
Alex Hamilton
ALEX HAMILTON
Partner, Latham & Watkins, London
Alex Hamilton has been a consistent presence in FT Innovative Lawyers, having led three of Latham & Watkins’ previous entries in the report.
Law firms traditionally lag behind other industries when it comes to embracing new technology, but Mr Hamilton, who co-chairs Latham & Watkins’ global technology transactions group, has pushed forward both his firm and the legal sector as a whole.
In 2006, he was behind the implementation of the Diamond Methodology, which enables clients to do better, quicker and cheaper deals, and redesigned the way the firm approaches contracts. In 2008, he led the development of a wiki-based knowledge management system that promotes better practice through increased sharing of data.
The following year, Mr Hamilton continued to push technological solutions within the firm with Capture, a set of dynamic documents to record client requirements in outsourcing deals where speed and cost are critical. The technology has boosted client instructions of the firm, including a recent $500m transaction.
His most recent initiative, an application to manage complex contracts, allows lawyers and clients to search contracts hosted on the firm’s private network, define terms and link any term to comment wikis.
The emphasis is on helping clients understand their obligations following the signing of multiple transaction documents, and users have described it as the “kind of tool that you get from consultancies such as Deloitte and Accenture”.
Known as Context, the application is the latest example of Mr Hamilton using technology as a catalyst for collaboration.
David Lowe
DAVID LOWE
Partner, Wragge & Co, London
David Lowe is a relative rarity in the highly specialised world of corporate law, because as a commercial contracts lawyer he operates in a swathe of sectors, ranging from food and drinks to real estate, outsourcing, the motoring industry, procurement, supply-chain management, manufacturing, logistics and international trade.
This breadth of experience is the spur to many of Mr Lowe’s best ideas, which can often be of critical importance to his clients.
His knowledge of supply-chain management has proven especially useful. When engaged by Birds Eye Iglo in 2008 to work on relatively routine logistical documentation, Mr Lowe spotted a risk that the company had yet to consider: the potential insolvency of its sole UK frozen-food warehouse provider.
Seeing law as more of a means to an end than an end in itself, Mr Lowe’s work frequently edges into operational and commercial advice. He is active in various international trade projects, including the development of Incoterms 2010, the terms of international freight delivery.
This gives him a big-picture viewpoint from which to advise his clients and help them devise the best possible supply chains, which he has done for Birds Eye in Turkey, and on a $30m export deal involving moving an automotive plant to China.
He has also been involved in two high-profile contract procurement agreements: advising Transport for London on its cycle-hire scheme, and reviewing the contracts for the Greater London Authority in its bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Volker Potthoff
VOLKER POTTHOFF
Of counsel, CMS Hasche Sigle, Frankfurt
Volker Potthoff uses his experience as both a lawyer and a company director to push for closer business relationships between Germany and China. At CMS Hasche Sigle, he co-ordinates the German firm’s expansion into Asia, and he was involved in the first German initial public offering by a Chinese company.
Mr Potthoff believes lawyers should see the profession as a support for business, and he has assembled a multidisciplinary group of investment bankers, auditors, former colleagues at Deutsche Börse, the German exchange where he was general counsel, and partners from the capital markets team of CMS Hasche Sigle to encourage the flow of capital from Europe to China.
His hybrid legal and business role at CMS Hasche Sigle follows an unusual legal career, going from private practice to in-house and back again.
He began at White & Case in New York and Leinen & Derichs in Cologne, before moving to a client-side legal position at BHF-Bank in Frankfurt, and taking up the role of chief legal counsel at Deutsche Börse.
But it is the management positions and directorships that Mr Potthoff has occupied – including a seat on the Deutsche Börse executive board – that sets him apart from other lawyers and goes some way to explaining his business-minded approach to the law. It was while at Deutsche Börse that Mr Potthoff kicked off his network of Chinese businesses with the People’s Bank of China.
With one foot in law and the other in business, it is not surprising that Mr Potthoff takes an interest in corporate governance, and he sees board advisory roles as falling within the remit of the modern lawyer.
Andrew Vellani
ANDREW VELLANI
Chief legal officer, director and management board member, Cofra Holding, Zurich
Andrew Vellani is included in the Legal Innovator of the Year shortlist for his dynamic approach to managing the global in-house legal function for Cofra Holding, a large conglomerate based in Switzerland.
Arriving at the company in 2002, Mr Vellani was immediately involved in transforming the shape of the business before he turned his attention to the in-house legal department.
As a member of the three-person management team, which operates directly below the supervisory board of the private company, he was involved in bringing together diverse multinational businesses under the auspices of a new holding company. He then created a dedicated group legal team by separating the legal affairs of the private company from that of its controlling shareholders, the Brenninkmeijer family.
Mr Vellani’s vision for his newly created group legal function was a seamless global team that united 13 previously semi-autonomous offices around the world. In doing this, his greatest achievement has been to take a new cross-border approach to managing his diverse team.
He led the introduction of intranet systems to help manage legal matters, and established a litigation reporting system to monitor progress of cases and to facilitate a more systematic assessment of risk. Mr Vellani has also put in place a training system that gives young lawyers experience of the conglomerate’s businesses.
Mr Vellani has been involved in a series of important transactions, including selling the London Mortgage Company, American Retail Group and a big Brazilian consumer bank.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Published: October 19 2010 13:10 | Last updated: October 19 2010 13:10
What defines the innovative lawyer? Three qualities: deep attention to client needs, respect for the way things have been done in the past, and an imaginative adaption of traditions to novel circumstances.
Last year’s Legal Innovator of the Year was Benedikt Wolfers of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, who provided a dramatic example of this. Mr Wolfers designed the legislation that enabled the German government to repair the banking system – no easy task in a country deeply sensitive, for historical reasons, to anything smacking of bank expropriation.
In 2010, we are dealing with the aftermath of the banking crisis rather than the crisis itself. Businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and protect their activities, while rethinking the ways they carry them out. The 10 shortlisted candidates reflected these priorities. All provided strong evidence of innovation, but four in particular attracted the judges’ attention.
Neville Eisenberg is managing partner at Berwin Leighton Paisner, which has taken over all the legal services of Thames Water. The firm intends this arrangement – familiar from the world of information technology – to be the template for further deals.
David Lowe, a partner at Wragge & Co, won plaudits for the range of his activities, including advising the Greater London Authority in its bid for the 2012 Olympics, and helping Birds Eye Iglo with the arrangements for its frozen-food warehousing.
Judging panel
Leah Cooper
Director of legal services outsourcing, CPA Global
Peter Cornell
Managing director of stakeholder relations, Terra Firma, and former managing partner, Clifford Chance
Michael Peel
FT legal correspondent
Michael Skapinker
FT special reports editor and chairman of the panel
Paul Solman
Lead editor, FT Innovative Lawyers
Geoffrey Timms
General counsel, Legal & General
The runner-up for our award was Sandra Esquiva-Hesse, a partner in the Paris office of US firm Paul Hastings. Ms Esquiva-Hesse has been involved in a number of restructuring operations, the most eye-catching of which was the reorganisation and sale of Acument Global Technologies’ French automotive fastener business to Lisi Automotive and Agrati France. She made use of the conciliation process normally employed to ratify agreements between debtors and creditors. For the first time, a French commercial court used this process to ratify a restructuring and sale.
But our winner was Kevin Jaquiss, a partner at Cobbetts, who has helped fashion a new form of ownership for mutual organisations, allowing them to be funded through shares rather than, as has traditionally been the case, through debt. Innovative aspects include shareholders not being able to buy control and being locked in for a set period of time. There is potential for investors to earn a return, but only after the community has benefited.
The model has been applied to FC United, an organisation formed by disgruntled Manchester United fans who want to take over a disused stadium and run it for the benefit of a deprived part of the city.
Mr Jaquiss has also helped establish a co-operative trust model that is being used for more than 100 schools, and developed a model for football supporters’ trusts. During a period of austerity that demands fresh thinking, Mr Jaquiss’s innovations captured the mood of the times. – Michael Skapinker
Kevin Jaquiss
WINNER: KEVIN JAQUISS
Partner, Cobbetts, Manchester
Kevin Jaquiss is an expert in community benefit societies. Described by a client as pioneering a form of “punk finance”, which enables people and community organisations to “do it themselves”, his work is creating new legal structures for community enterprises in sport, housing, care, utilities and leisure.
Community benefit societies are incorporated industrial and provident groups that conduct business for the benefit of their community. Traditionally, profits are not distributed among members or external shareholders, and the basic model has existed for more than a century. The law in this area has remained dormant since the 1960s.
Crucial to making the societies a viable future mode of social organisation was to transform the conditions under which they are financed. Historically, mutual organisations have not been able to issue shares and have been funded largely from debt. The recession has made affordable credit hard to find.
Faced with these issues, Mr Jaquiss worked to develop a form of share ownership for mutual organisations. This entailed heavy involvement in a Treasury working group, with Cobbetts the only law firm at the table helping to shape new legislation in this area.
Mr Jaquiss’s solution modifies the usual idea of share ownership in two ways. First, shareholders cannot buy more control with more shares, and the societies remain one-member-one-vote organisations. Second, shares cannot be easily traded, and shareholders are effectively locked in for a set time after their purchase. There is also a potential return on any investment, but only after the intended benefit has been accrued.
This has been applied notably in the case of FC United, a community benefit society formed by Manchester United supporters in the wake of continuing disputes with the Glazer family, owners of the football club. The new club aims to take over a disused stadium, refurbish it and run services for the benefit of the deprived local community.
These principles can be applied to energy, water and housing companies, schools and even foundation trusts.
Dimitry Afanasiev
DIMITRY AFANASIEV
Chairman, Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners, Moscow
Dimitry Afanasiev co-founded Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners in 1993, and has chaired the 180-lawyer partnership for more than a decade, overseeing offices in St Petersburg, Moscow and London.
He attributes his success to his western training, his connections and his creativity as a lawyer – a claim that could just as easily have come from the mouth of any successful international lawyer. But with Mr Afanasiev, this troika of legal attributes must be put in the context of a jurisdiction where he cites corruption as his biggest competitor.
After studying at the University of Pennsylvania in the US, Mr Afanasiev had his start in law when Jerry Shestack, a former president of the American Bar Association, hired him to join his Philadelphia law firm. Mr Afanasiev later followed his mentor to Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen. These formative experiences encouraged him to transplant the western-style law firm model to Russia.
Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners’ “east meets west” approach has helped the firm win instructions to act both for and against the Russian government.
But its success also stems from its ties to Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, and Dmitry Medvedev, president, that stretch back to the firm’s roots at the St Petersburg Institute of Law. The firm’s clients also include the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, chief executive of Rusal, the world’s largest aluminium group.
Stephen Cirell
STEPHEN CIRELL
Partner, Eversheds, on secondment to Cornwall Council
Stephen Cirell is responsible for putting in place measures that will see the English county of Cornwall become energy self-sufficient by 2025.
In his non-legal role as director of Green Cornwall at Cornwall Council, this Eversheds partner has spent the past year designing and implementing a £150m ($240m) environmental programme for the newly created “super” local authority.
Mr Cirell’s initiatives relating to climate change, sustainable energy, low carbon and behaviour have ambitious designs on harnessing Cornwall’s abundance of wind, wave and solar energy (see page 16).
A new fleet of electric cars for council workers is one of the most highly visible aspects of his carbon-reducing proposals. The next challenge for the Green Cornwall programme is to obtain a grant from the Department for Transport to install recharging plug-in points across the county.
Mr Cirell spent 12 years working in the legal departments of local government before he joined Eversheds in 1993. He built up a leading local government practice at the firm, and has since managed to combine that with a personal interest in green issues.
What began as advice to local authorities on setting up renewable energy companies soon evolved into an approach to Cornwall Council about a partner secondment, and the Green Cornwall programme represents the pinnacle of his 30-year career in local government. As his secondment at Cornwall Council draws to a close, Mr Cirell is turning his attention to writing a book on climate change for local government. This cross-fertilisation of theory and practice is consistent with his approach to the law.
Neville Eisenberg
NEVILLE EISENBERG
Managing partner, Berwin Leighton Paisner, London
Berwin Leighton Paisner consistently scores highly in the FT Law 50, and much of this achievement stems from the leadership of Neville Eisenberg. As managing partner of BLP, he has sought to maintain the momentum of the firm’s 2003 merger through an ambitious emerging markets strategy and a pioneering approach to efficiency.
In 2009, Mr Eisenberg identified the need for BLP to develop a presence in emerging markets. The resulting merger between BLP and the Goltsblat half of Moscow’s largest law firm, Pepelyaev, Goltsblat & Partners, created the first Russian international law firm, Goltsblat BLP.
Mr Eisenberg has since led the firm to develop a radical resourcing product, which is on the leading edge of an “arms race” towards more efficient ways of providing legal services to clients.
BLP’s Managed Legal Service, shortlisted in the client service section of this year’s FT Innovative Lawyers, involves the firm taking on and managing most of a client’s in-house legal team.
Mr Eisenberg believes the best way to engender an innovative environment within a law firm is to work on establishing a culture where lawyers feel comfortable experimenting, and are able to shift between the often risk-adverse mind-set of the traditional lawyer towards a more entrepreneurial one.
Sandra Esquiva-Hesse
SANDRA ESQUIVA-HESSE
Partner, Paul Hastings, Paris
The career of Sandra Esquiva-Hesse has been fuelled by the global cycle of refinancing and corporate restructurings. The current wave, as she puts it, began for her two years ago when she represented Marvel and Spider-Man Merchandising in relation to the insolvency of Smoby, the French toy manufacturer.
As the partner in charge of developing Paul Hastings’ finance and restructuring practice in Paris, her transactional work in the intervening period has culminated in one of her deals – the reorganisation and sale of Acument Global Technologies’ faltering French businesses – being shortlisted in the corporate section of this year’s FT Innovative Lawyers.
Ms Esquiva-Hesse has worked and studied in both the US and France, and she attributes much of her success to her training at Shearman & Sterling in New York. The early incentives and encouragement she received to be creative, and the knowledge she acquired of the more prescriptive US Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedure, moulded the legal approach she took back across the Atlantic.
This mixture of systems and jurisdictions is in keeping with her partnership role at a US firm in Paris, and her “yes you can” approach is pushing forward the nebulous insolvency law in her native France.
Mike Francies
MIKE FRANCIES
Managing partner, London office, Weil, Gotshal & Manges
Membership of Weil, Gotshal & Manges’ management committee has not damped Mike Francies’ appetite for doing deals.
His extensive career in corporate, private equity and restructuring has seen a number of achievements, including the first private equity bid in Europe and the first European private equity initial public offering. In 1998, he was one of the first “magic circle” partners to be poached by a US firm in London, when he left Clifford Chance for Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
But it is the restructuring arm of Mr Francies’ CV that he has been flexing of late. The management buy-out of Neuberger Berman, the former asset management arm of Lehman Brothers, was one of the bankruptcy sales that was highly commended in the FT Innovative Lawyers research last year. At the same time as Mr Francies was wading through the remnants of the US bank’s collapse, he played a critical role in the sale of a majority stake in Cobra Beer, the UK lager brand, to Molson Coors, the North American brewer.
The latter deal hints at the food and beverages flavour to his recent deal activity. He advised Patak’s on the sale of the Patak family’s Indian food brand to Associated British Foods; he has worked on various acquisitions, a placing and the initial public offering of Premier Foods, food manufacturer of Hovis bread and Mr Kipling cakes; and he acted for the Seafood Company on its acquisition of Pinneys of Scotland.
Much of Mr Francies’ work in this sector comes through his relationship with Lion Capital, the consumer-focused investment firm.
High-profile deals in other sectors include the $3.2bn IPO of Yell, producer of the Yellow Pages, which he says might not have happened without the lawyers’ contributions.
Alex Hamilton
ALEX HAMILTON
Partner, Latham & Watkins, London
Alex Hamilton has been a consistent presence in FT Innovative Lawyers, having led three of Latham & Watkins’ previous entries in the report.
Law firms traditionally lag behind other industries when it comes to embracing new technology, but Mr Hamilton, who co-chairs Latham & Watkins’ global technology transactions group, has pushed forward both his firm and the legal sector as a whole.
In 2006, he was behind the implementation of the Diamond Methodology, which enables clients to do better, quicker and cheaper deals, and redesigned the way the firm approaches contracts. In 2008, he led the development of a wiki-based knowledge management system that promotes better practice through increased sharing of data.
The following year, Mr Hamilton continued to push technological solutions within the firm with Capture, a set of dynamic documents to record client requirements in outsourcing deals where speed and cost are critical. The technology has boosted client instructions of the firm, including a recent $500m transaction.
His most recent initiative, an application to manage complex contracts, allows lawyers and clients to search contracts hosted on the firm’s private network, define terms and link any term to comment wikis.
The emphasis is on helping clients understand their obligations following the signing of multiple transaction documents, and users have described it as the “kind of tool that you get from consultancies such as Deloitte and Accenture”.
Known as Context, the application is the latest example of Mr Hamilton using technology as a catalyst for collaboration.
David Lowe
DAVID LOWE
Partner, Wragge & Co, London
David Lowe is a relative rarity in the highly specialised world of corporate law, because as a commercial contracts lawyer he operates in a swathe of sectors, ranging from food and drinks to real estate, outsourcing, the motoring industry, procurement, supply-chain management, manufacturing, logistics and international trade.
This breadth of experience is the spur to many of Mr Lowe’s best ideas, which can often be of critical importance to his clients.
His knowledge of supply-chain management has proven especially useful. When engaged by Birds Eye Iglo in 2008 to work on relatively routine logistical documentation, Mr Lowe spotted a risk that the company had yet to consider: the potential insolvency of its sole UK frozen-food warehouse provider.
Seeing law as more of a means to an end than an end in itself, Mr Lowe’s work frequently edges into operational and commercial advice. He is active in various international trade projects, including the development of Incoterms 2010, the terms of international freight delivery.
This gives him a big-picture viewpoint from which to advise his clients and help them devise the best possible supply chains, which he has done for Birds Eye in Turkey, and on a $30m export deal involving moving an automotive plant to China.
He has also been involved in two high-profile contract procurement agreements: advising Transport for London on its cycle-hire scheme, and reviewing the contracts for the Greater London Authority in its bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Volker Potthoff
VOLKER POTTHOFF
Of counsel, CMS Hasche Sigle, Frankfurt
Volker Potthoff uses his experience as both a lawyer and a company director to push for closer business relationships between Germany and China. At CMS Hasche Sigle, he co-ordinates the German firm’s expansion into Asia, and he was involved in the first German initial public offering by a Chinese company.
Mr Potthoff believes lawyers should see the profession as a support for business, and he has assembled a multidisciplinary group of investment bankers, auditors, former colleagues at Deutsche Börse, the German exchange where he was general counsel, and partners from the capital markets team of CMS Hasche Sigle to encourage the flow of capital from Europe to China.
His hybrid legal and business role at CMS Hasche Sigle follows an unusual legal career, going from private practice to in-house and back again.
He began at White & Case in New York and Leinen & Derichs in Cologne, before moving to a client-side legal position at BHF-Bank in Frankfurt, and taking up the role of chief legal counsel at Deutsche Börse.
But it is the management positions and directorships that Mr Potthoff has occupied – including a seat on the Deutsche Börse executive board – that sets him apart from other lawyers and goes some way to explaining his business-minded approach to the law. It was while at Deutsche Börse that Mr Potthoff kicked off his network of Chinese businesses with the People’s Bank of China.
With one foot in law and the other in business, it is not surprising that Mr Potthoff takes an interest in corporate governance, and he sees board advisory roles as falling within the remit of the modern lawyer.
Andrew Vellani
ANDREW VELLANI
Chief legal officer, director and management board member, Cofra Holding, Zurich
Andrew Vellani is included in the Legal Innovator of the Year shortlist for his dynamic approach to managing the global in-house legal function for Cofra Holding, a large conglomerate based in Switzerland.
Arriving at the company in 2002, Mr Vellani was immediately involved in transforming the shape of the business before he turned his attention to the in-house legal department.
As a member of the three-person management team, which operates directly below the supervisory board of the private company, he was involved in bringing together diverse multinational businesses under the auspices of a new holding company. He then created a dedicated group legal team by separating the legal affairs of the private company from that of its controlling shareholders, the Brenninkmeijer family.
Mr Vellani’s vision for his newly created group legal function was a seamless global team that united 13 previously semi-autonomous offices around the world. In doing this, his greatest achievement has been to take a new cross-border approach to managing his diverse team.
He led the introduction of intranet systems to help manage legal matters, and established a litigation reporting system to monitor progress of cases and to facilitate a more systematic assessment of risk. Mr Vellani has also put in place a training system that gives young lawyers experience of the conglomerate’s businesses.
Mr Vellani has been involved in a series of important transactions, including selling the London Mortgage Company, American Retail Group and a big Brazilian consumer bank.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Accessing the e-book revolution
By Steven Johnson
Published: December 27 2010 22:09 | Last updated: December 27 2010 22:09
In 1467, Peter Schöffer and Johann Fust published a translation of St Augustine’s The Art Of Preaching. They were old colleagues of Johannes Gutenberg, the pioneer of modern printing. But their true claim to fame is that they were the first commercially successful printers, and this success stemmed in part from their relentless innovation with the world’s newest communications technology: the book.
One such innovation appeared in the 1467 edition, which was the first printed book to include an alphabetical index. Schöffer and Fust were not only competing by releasing new titles. They were changing what it meant to use and read a book.
Some of the first book advertisements – and indeed some of the first modern adverts anywhere – talked up their “better arranged indexes” as a selling point. The publishers of the The Art of Preaching claimed that their indexes, along with other new cross-referencing features, were “alone worth the whole price, because they make it much easier to use”.
The phrase sounds like it could be from an advert for some 21st-century gadget: “Our books aren’t just informative. They’re also user-friendly!” The echo of today’s marketing language is no accident. Thanks to a series of interrelated technologies – but especially the web, the Kindle and the iPad – we are living through a radical reinvention of the tools and techniques of reading.
One of the most thrilling digital developments of 2010 was the arms race between e-book readers. The Kindle grew amazingly small and cheap; Barnes & Noble’s Nook was rolled out on Google’s Android mobile operating system; the iBooks and Kindle apps for the iPad added dozens of features after they were released in April; just a few weeks ago, Google launched a multiplatform e-book reader that allows you to browse and buy the millions of books the company has scanned in the past few years.
Of all these innovations, though, Apple’s iPad itself stands out as the most significant breakthrough, not just because it may be the fastest-selling new technology product in history but also because it does more than any device before to consolidate book reading and web browsing. I remember sitting down with the iPad when it arrived this spring, and thinking that for the past 15 years we had been surfing the web on the wrong kind of machine. Pointing and clicking on a screen seemed suddenly unnatural when you could sit back on the couch and hold the web in your hands.
The difference between our time and Gutenberg’s is, of course, the rate of change. It took almost half a century for the alphabetical index to become a standard; Arabic page numbers were not adopted until the 1500s. There were feature wars in the new platform of the book, but salvos were fired only every 20 years.
It may have taken a long time, but when all those features coalesced into the system of citation, indices, page numbers, footnotes, bibliographies and cross-references that we now take for granted, they helped usher in the scientific revolutions of the modern age. Entire ways of interacting with information became possible because we had agreed on how to describe where the information lived and how to point people towards it.
This is a story with a direct connection to our current situation. This year is the 20th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee’s world wide web specification. The defining property of that standard was this: it established a way to describe where information lives and how to point people to it. The extraordinary run of innovation seen on the web starts with the breakthrough of web addresses and links.
For two decades, this new universe of linkable data expanded faster than any other form of information. But this year, for the first time in my adult life, unlinkable information began growing at a meaningful clip. This is part of a wider problem in the age of the iPad, captured in a much-discussed article this summer by Chris Anderson, Wired magazine editor-in-chief, entitled simply: “The web is dead”. The piece focused on the rise of “walled gardens” such as Facebook or apps created for the iPhone or Android. To give only the latest example, Rupert Murdoch is allegedly planning an app-only daily newspaper.
Of course, the overwhelming majority of apps do not contain much information that would benefit from being linked to other things on the internet. If we do not figure out a way to link directly to one level of the Angry Birds game, we will probably survive as a culture. But the danger lies in a region of the digital information landscape barely mentioned by Mr Anderson: books. Where links abound, a rich ecosystem of commentary, archiving, social sharing and scholarship usually develops because links make it far easier to build on and connect ideas from around the web. But right now, books exist outside this universe. There is no standardised way to link to a page of a digital book.
Books contain the most carefully crafted and edited text that we have – truly the richest source of information in the world – and yet all that information remains unlinkable. Google works as well as it does because people find interesting information on the web and link to it; Google then prioritises pages that attract a disproportionate number of inbound links. But if you find a fascinating passage in a novel or a book of history, there is no standardised way to link to it, which means that the rest of the web cannot benefit from your discovery.
Fortunately, a solution to this problem exists, one that merely involves a commitment to use technology that already exists. Call it the mirror web. If you create digital information in any form, make a parallel version of that information that lives on the web. A magazine publisher creating an iPad app should ensure that each article has clear links to a mirror version of each article on the web. Then, if anyone wants to cite, tweet, blog or e-mail a reference to that article, it is always one tap away. The web version can be behind a pay wall or some other kind of barrier if the publisher chooses; what matters is that there is an address you can point to.
This is already happening in an informal way – many apps for news and magazines contain links to their equivalent web pages – but this technique needs to become a new convention. When publishers create apps without web mirroring, we should be quick to condemn them, because stripping valuable information of links limits the range of its potential influence. Writing articles in unlinkable environments in 2010 is like publishing a scholarly book in 1800 and refusing to allow it to appear in any library or bibliography anywhere in the world.
The most radical premise behind this idea of web mirroring, however, is that it should apply to digital books as well. In future, every page of every book should have a shadow version of itself that lives on the web. Imagine the possibilities for readers in this environment: you are halfway through Middlemarch on your iPad and you stumble across a link to Raymond Williams’ magisterial work of literary criticism, The Country and the City, which in turn connects you to an online reading group of George Eliot fans, where someone points you to a passage in Eliot’s Felix Holt, The Radical that inspires you to read the whole book from the start.
Today there is a real danger that this art of linking to things – an art that dates back to Schöffer and Fust and beyond – will grow less and less relevant in an unconnected world of apps and e-books. But there is also an opportunity here. We could choose to become better at making connections, bringing together in a new way the two most transformative textual platforms of the modern age: the book and the web.
The writer is the author, most recently, of ‘Where Good Ideas Come From’, and co-creator of Findings.com. This essay is adapted from a speech delivered at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
Published: December 27 2010 22:09 | Last updated: December 27 2010 22:09
In 1467, Peter Schöffer and Johann Fust published a translation of St Augustine’s The Art Of Preaching. They were old colleagues of Johannes Gutenberg, the pioneer of modern printing. But their true claim to fame is that they were the first commercially successful printers, and this success stemmed in part from their relentless innovation with the world’s newest communications technology: the book.
One such innovation appeared in the 1467 edition, which was the first printed book to include an alphabetical index. Schöffer and Fust were not only competing by releasing new titles. They were changing what it meant to use and read a book.
Some of the first book advertisements – and indeed some of the first modern adverts anywhere – talked up their “better arranged indexes” as a selling point. The publishers of the The Art of Preaching claimed that their indexes, along with other new cross-referencing features, were “alone worth the whole price, because they make it much easier to use”.
The phrase sounds like it could be from an advert for some 21st-century gadget: “Our books aren’t just informative. They’re also user-friendly!” The echo of today’s marketing language is no accident. Thanks to a series of interrelated technologies – but especially the web, the Kindle and the iPad – we are living through a radical reinvention of the tools and techniques of reading.
One of the most thrilling digital developments of 2010 was the arms race between e-book readers. The Kindle grew amazingly small and cheap; Barnes & Noble’s Nook was rolled out on Google’s Android mobile operating system; the iBooks and Kindle apps for the iPad added dozens of features after they were released in April; just a few weeks ago, Google launched a multiplatform e-book reader that allows you to browse and buy the millions of books the company has scanned in the past few years.
Of all these innovations, though, Apple’s iPad itself stands out as the most significant breakthrough, not just because it may be the fastest-selling new technology product in history but also because it does more than any device before to consolidate book reading and web browsing. I remember sitting down with the iPad when it arrived this spring, and thinking that for the past 15 years we had been surfing the web on the wrong kind of machine. Pointing and clicking on a screen seemed suddenly unnatural when you could sit back on the couch and hold the web in your hands.
The difference between our time and Gutenberg’s is, of course, the rate of change. It took almost half a century for the alphabetical index to become a standard; Arabic page numbers were not adopted until the 1500s. There were feature wars in the new platform of the book, but salvos were fired only every 20 years.
It may have taken a long time, but when all those features coalesced into the system of citation, indices, page numbers, footnotes, bibliographies and cross-references that we now take for granted, they helped usher in the scientific revolutions of the modern age. Entire ways of interacting with information became possible because we had agreed on how to describe where the information lived and how to point people towards it.
This is a story with a direct connection to our current situation. This year is the 20th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee’s world wide web specification. The defining property of that standard was this: it established a way to describe where information lives and how to point people to it. The extraordinary run of innovation seen on the web starts with the breakthrough of web addresses and links.
For two decades, this new universe of linkable data expanded faster than any other form of information. But this year, for the first time in my adult life, unlinkable information began growing at a meaningful clip. This is part of a wider problem in the age of the iPad, captured in a much-discussed article this summer by Chris Anderson, Wired magazine editor-in-chief, entitled simply: “The web is dead”. The piece focused on the rise of “walled gardens” such as Facebook or apps created for the iPhone or Android. To give only the latest example, Rupert Murdoch is allegedly planning an app-only daily newspaper.
Of course, the overwhelming majority of apps do not contain much information that would benefit from being linked to other things on the internet. If we do not figure out a way to link directly to one level of the Angry Birds game, we will probably survive as a culture. But the danger lies in a region of the digital information landscape barely mentioned by Mr Anderson: books. Where links abound, a rich ecosystem of commentary, archiving, social sharing and scholarship usually develops because links make it far easier to build on and connect ideas from around the web. But right now, books exist outside this universe. There is no standardised way to link to a page of a digital book.
Books contain the most carefully crafted and edited text that we have – truly the richest source of information in the world – and yet all that information remains unlinkable. Google works as well as it does because people find interesting information on the web and link to it; Google then prioritises pages that attract a disproportionate number of inbound links. But if you find a fascinating passage in a novel or a book of history, there is no standardised way to link to it, which means that the rest of the web cannot benefit from your discovery.
Fortunately, a solution to this problem exists, one that merely involves a commitment to use technology that already exists. Call it the mirror web. If you create digital information in any form, make a parallel version of that information that lives on the web. A magazine publisher creating an iPad app should ensure that each article has clear links to a mirror version of each article on the web. Then, if anyone wants to cite, tweet, blog or e-mail a reference to that article, it is always one tap away. The web version can be behind a pay wall or some other kind of barrier if the publisher chooses; what matters is that there is an address you can point to.
This is already happening in an informal way – many apps for news and magazines contain links to their equivalent web pages – but this technique needs to become a new convention. When publishers create apps without web mirroring, we should be quick to condemn them, because stripping valuable information of links limits the range of its potential influence. Writing articles in unlinkable environments in 2010 is like publishing a scholarly book in 1800 and refusing to allow it to appear in any library or bibliography anywhere in the world.
The most radical premise behind this idea of web mirroring, however, is that it should apply to digital books as well. In future, every page of every book should have a shadow version of itself that lives on the web. Imagine the possibilities for readers in this environment: you are halfway through Middlemarch on your iPad and you stumble across a link to Raymond Williams’ magisterial work of literary criticism, The Country and the City, which in turn connects you to an online reading group of George Eliot fans, where someone points you to a passage in Eliot’s Felix Holt, The Radical that inspires you to read the whole book from the start.
Today there is a real danger that this art of linking to things – an art that dates back to Schöffer and Fust and beyond – will grow less and less relevant in an unconnected world of apps and e-books. But there is also an opportunity here. We could choose to become better at making connections, bringing together in a new way the two most transformative textual platforms of the modern age: the book and the web.
The writer is the author, most recently, of ‘Where Good Ideas Come From’, and co-creator of Findings.com. This essay is adapted from a speech delivered at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.
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