Developing a Training Plan

Goals for 2011 are set and it is now February. It is time to plan 2011 training and personal growth. Think about the personal and professional growth goals you set. What training and when will you need to attain those goals? Investigate any training you are looking at to make sure it is the right training for you – Don’t just let your manager decide for you. Schedule the training and embrace it. Start reading the materials to prepare for the training. In addition, plan personal and professional development through personal studying and reading. Reading is probably the best way to learn and stimulate your mind.

Solid State Drives

Solid State Drives (SSD) have been around for a few years now and although they seem like the obvious choice long term they are still relatively slow in adoption. The notebook computer space appears will adopt these quickly - I would expect significant percentage of notebook computers to be solid state by the end of 2011. There is tremendous upside for SSD in notebooks. SSD provides faster start up and less risk of damage in transport. Typically the notebook consumer is willing to pay the extra for these benefits.

SSD is making gains in the data center but at a slow pace. There are now SSD SANs and most hard drive manufacturers are offering SSD options. The technology to manage these drives still needs advancements and cost is still significantly higher so it is still probably two to three years before significant adoption.

Global IT Spending will be a steady 5%

Gartner is expecting Global IT Spending for 2010 to come in at 5% and 5% again in 2011. 2010 Global IT Spending gorwth of 5% is lower than perdictions this time last year of 6% - 8%. The spending in 2010 appeared to be largely in the second half of 2010 with the first half dragging down the overall growth rate.

5% Global IT Spending Growth in 2011 may be indicating a slight decrease in growth rate compared to Q3 and Q4 2010. It is an increase in IT spending no less so a good sign for a healthy industry.

Nortec is in the infrastructure business and this has been a very active area of technology spending recently. Nortec has seen significant growth in the second half of 2010. We anticipate continued strength in infrastructure IT investment in 2011.

International Business Times Article - “Gartner projects 5.1 pct rise in global tech spending for 2011”:

http://tinyurl.com/2wjplaz

2011 Goals

Now is the time to make goals for 2011. Start with values and think in terms of what you value from a business, personal and family perspective. Once you are clear on your values you will be able to create goals that align with what you believe is important! It has been demonstrated that if you create goals and write them down you will gravitate toward them. This is true even if you do not look at them for another year. Besides if you don’t know where you are going, how can you possibly get there?

Here is the format I use...

Values:

1 Year Goals and 5 Year Goals:

Career:

Earnings:

Personal Relationships:

Family:

Education and Learning:

Health/ Fitness:

Improve Home:

Free Time/ Hobby:

7 Skills for IT Leadership

I read an article in CIO Magazine: 7 Essential CIO Leadership Skills That Get Results by Thomas Wailgum regarding a recent study and book on this subject by Graham Waller of Gartner Executive Programs, and Korn/Ferry's George Hallenbeck and Karen Rubenstrunk.

The 7 Essential Skills are:

1. Commit to Leadership First
2. Lead Differently than You Think
3. Embrace Softer Side
4. Forge the Right Relationships to Drive the Right Results
5. Master Communications
6. Inspire Others
7. Build People not Systems

The #2 skill “Lead Differently than You Think” is a little vague - They mean the natural tenancy for a technical professional is to outsmart everyone and this is counter to being effective as a CIO. The interesting thing is that all these skills are related to interaction, relationships and success through others. Note that none of these 7 key skills involves technical superiority or technical vision. Clearly to be an effective CIO a broad technical understanding is necessary but these are table stakes.

Article link for CIO Magazine: 7 Essential CIO Leadership Skills That Get Results by Thomas Wailgum:

http://www.cio.com/article/626991/7_Essential_CIO_Leadership_Skills_That_Get_Results_

Planning IT Projects

There is enormous power in sitting down and planning out an IT project before getting started. This is one of the keys to effective consulting. Typically a consultant has to follow a fairly rigid document path involving several planning steps. The plan should be created, then reviewed and revised by the team. As simple as this sounds, often IT projects get stated and move forward with little planning beyond the description of the work to be performed – “Cowboy Style”. If you find yourself moving too quickly with little planning, step back and re-assess the IT project. Develop a complete plan!

Values

Nortec has our company values: Excellence, Integrity, Responsiveness, Follow-up, and Flexibility. These values are guiding principles for success as an Information Technology consulting company and generally good personal values as well. Company values are important and should align with individual values. Chances are individual values will be prioritized differently and should not be compromised.

Knowing your vales is the first step in living by them. Since values change and are influenced by parents, peers, friends, media and such they may change over time. They should be periodically reflected on. It is hard to align yourself around your values if you do not take the time to reflect on what they ought to be. Since we are approaching the end of the year it is a great time to reflect on our values. What is important? What should our goals be for 2011?

What are your values is an interesting question. If you say “I value a healthy lifestyle” but live an unhealthy life style does this mean you really do not value a healthy life style? Do actions speak louder than words? I believe this is an example of misalignment with values and action. I believe this is what creates a lack of integrity within oneself and causes stress and unhappiness.

“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!”

Polonius’ last piece of advice to his son Laertes in Hamlet by William Shaekspere

Sometimes we do not really think enough about what are values are and what is important so this makes it difficult to live by our values and results in misalignment without understanding why. The other challenge to living up to what we value is that sometimes it is hard and takes more discipline then we actually have. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live a healthy life style sometimes. You also have to define what living a healthy life style means for you.

Be clear in your values and what you want in life and then aggressively pursue the activities that will drive those results.

Enrique Salem, CEO Symantec Presentation at Partner Conference

Last week I attended the Symantec Partner Conference. Enrique Salem, Symantec CEO outlined the trends he sees in the IT Industry. He gave a similar presentation last year so I thought I would compare! Here are the five trends he outlined in 2009:

1. Virtualization
2. “We are under attack” – Businesses are under attack by criminals trying to gain financially through hacking into corporate information
3. “Consumerization of IT” – Consumers adopt and implement new technologies before businesses
4. Storage is growing extremely rapidly: A) 51% businesses plan to spend more on storage next year B) 33% businesses plan to spend the same on storage next year C) 16% businesses plan to spend Less on storage next year
5. Executives are targeted with IT attacks

This year Enrique Salem outlined the first five consolidating 2 and 5 as “Threat to Landscape” and added 4 more trends:

5. IT – ification
6. Mobility
7. Cloud
8. Social

IT – ification being that everything we do is becoming integrated with information technology. I suppose this explains the consumerization of technology….

Enrique Salem continued his presentation by painting a picture of the future with these four concepts:

1. Everything revolves around people and information
2. Business and personal merge
3. Simple and secure access to information is expected
4. The enterprise is more scalable and cost efficient

These trends do appear accurate. Nortec is engaged in most of these areas in some form or another. We saw the wave of cloud computing a few years ago and have been very active in our cloud offering, Nortec 24/7 since 2006.

Getting Results Using Checklists

Pilots have known for a long time the importance of checklists to avoid error. My father was a pilot and having flown with him many times, I still remember his check list for take-off: Trim, Temperature, Fuel, Flaps, Gills ….. Ok I don’t remember it all but he always said it before take-off and it was for a good reason. We humans forget little details when we do not have a check-list.

Creating simple checklists can deliver a consistent process with fewer errors. The key is creating checklists that are in fact simple and then getting everyone to buy into the checklists. Atul Gawande in his book “The Checklist Manifesto” examines a series of examples where simple checklists have added tremendous value in complex environments. One example he gives is that of a Critical Care Unit at John Hopkins in 2001. The problem was 4% – 11% of IV lines become infected and 10% of these lead to death. This is a very serious problem. The solution was a 5 step checklist: 1. Wash your hands with soap 2. Clean patients skin with chlorhexideine antiseptic 3. Put sterile drapes over entire body 4. Wear a mask, hat, sterile gown and gloves 5. Put sterile dressing over insertion site once line is in. The result was that the infection rate dropped to almost zero. Over the next 15 months only two patients were infected. The checklist is estimated to have prevented 43 infections, 8 deaths and 2 million dollars. There is tremendous power in a simple checklist especially if you are one of those eight who will never know it!

“The Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande:
http://tinyurl.com/36892wt

Cloud Computing Update

Cloud computing is currently at under 10% of the IT market. Predictions by Goldman Sachs indicate growing to about 50% by 2015 and higher by 2020 to as much as 80%.

The four basic questions an IT leader considers when making a cloud decision are:

1. Is your data center growing to fast?
2. What is more important control or trust?
3. Is it better to have operational expenses vs capital expenses?
4. Do you need a scalable system or is fixed going to work?

The cloud can expand and contract to business needs so in a highly dynamic computing resource the cloud is very effective.

Businesses are driven to the cloud for four key reasons:

1. The economy - Cost (although less so, as it is not always cheaper)
2. Access - anytime, anywhere
3. Scalability
4. Management

Quote of the Day: Gartner Analyst Philip Dawson on Virtualization

“Virtualization will continue as the highest-impact issue challenging infrastructure and operations through to 2015, changing how you manage, how and what you buy, how you deploy, how you plan and how you charge,” said Gartner analyst Philip Dawson.

Link to Article, “Gartner: Virtualization growing, but not fast enough”:

http://www.winshuttle.com/news/it-news/gartner-virtualization-growing-but-not-fast-enough-11023

Paul Moulton, Executive VP & CIO, Costco

I have written lately on the challenge IT leaders face bridging IT and business goals. Last week I attended an event that hosted a CIO panel including Paul Moulton, CIO of Costco. Mr. Moulton made a few great comments that reinforce the need for IT and business goal alignment.

Mr. Moulton stated that he preferred vendors that are not too technical and that he likes to see a PowerPoint presentation that uses business terms. If the presentation is in all technical terms Mr. Moulton immediately thinks the presenter is a gear head and wants to end the meeting quickly because “… he just makes me feel stupid.” The implication is that nothing is really translating to the business needs and the meeting is essentially a waste of time.

Mr. Moulton focuses on implementing technologies that are doable, sustainable and drive business cost efficiencies. Once the technology to be implemented is identified he asks two key questions:

1. Can we use what we have to accomplish the new technology plan?
2. Can we buy or do we need to build?

Mr. Moulton said they are looking at the cloud and what technology areas make sense to move that direction. He is in the wait and see mode primarily because of his belief in the basic principal that pioneers get a lot of arrows in their back. When anyone asks how to do something that he does not immediately know the answer his response is “Can’t the cloud do that?”

The Importance of Envisioning

Nortec uses Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) project management methodology. MSF has five phases – Envision, Plan, Build, Stabilize, and Deploy. Envisioning, the first phase, is very important and is where the technical professional bridges the gap between business goals and technology.

The technical professional needs to engage the business unit leaders that will be involved with the technical solution being created and understand their key performance indicators (KPIs). He then determines how the technical solution being created will impact the KPIs. Once the information is gathered the envisioning document can be created. This envisioning document should be reviewed with the business leaders to be certain that there is alignment around the technical solution to be created and that there is no miscommunications.

Engage the different business leaders, and understanding their goals to bridge the technology business gap.

7 Keys to Mitigate Risk in IT Projects:

1. Challenge assumptions
2. Manage dynamic changes
3. Maintain operational discipline
4. Take the right risks
5. Focus on long term
6. Maintain margins of safety
7. Anticipate failures

Dealing with Work Overload

IT professionals have skills that are in high demand and it is easy to become over committed. Managing time becomes extremely important and doing it professionally can be challenging. The IT professional typically is getting hundreds of emails a day and constant requests.

How can the IT professional possibly manage in today’s busy environment and not let things slip through? The key is managing priorities and pushing back in a professional manner when necessary. Take action as quickly as possible and avoid “I will deal with this later.” Make decisions on emails – delete, take action or schedule. Keep very few items in your in box. Plan your week and if too much work is scheduled than find work you can delegate or eliminate. Communicate the work that will be incomplete – “push back”. Be focused on the priority work and not just the most recent request or the work that is making the most noise.

Time management and communications are the keys to managing through when there is too much work to be done. There will always be more work that can be done than hours in the day. Prioritize, communicate and use time management to accomplish more than expected!

“The Next Leap in Productivity” by Adam Kolowa

I read “The Next Leap in Productivity” by Adam Kolowa and he makes a strong case for getting the CEO and other senior management involved with the information technology strategy. “Who is driving the IT Strategy?”

Implementing information technology provides cost reduction through process automation and this is the primary role. The secondary role is to drive strategic competitive advantages through “speed, agility, and consistency.”

“CEO’s and CFO’s are not expected to understand how IT works. But they are required to ask the write questions:

When approached with a new project the CEO should ask:
1. How much money will it save the company?
2. How much will it increase operational capacity?
3. When will it be done?

Of course the CIO can prepare the answers in a FAQ type format and here are some of the other important questions from the book I like:

1. What other processes can we auotomate?
2. Which legacy systems can we moth ball?
3. What are realistic expectations for IT?
4. How will IT performance effect other parts of business?
5. Is IT budgeting driven by business needs?
6. Does the company have an information strategy?
7. Does our IT infrastructure support our information strategy?

Techniacl Focus

Nortec’s primary success formula is being great consultants by focusing on a relatively narrow band of information technology. We focus on network infrastructure and corporate communications and specifically around four key partners: Microsoft, VMWare, Symantec and ShoreTel. This focus allows us to hire and develop the best professionals and go deeper into these technologies. We specifically focus on the following solutions: Exchange and Email Archiving, Windows Server, System Center, Virtualization, SANs, Backup and IP Telephony.

Nortec does work with a broader set of technology around infrastructure that includes switching and routing, security, web servers, SQL, and SharePoint. This is where Nortec and many consulting companies and individuals are challenged as to where do they draw the line on their skill set. When do they stretch and when do they hold the line and say “I am not the professional for this work.” This is a harder decision if you have a client that knows you are great at what you do and encourages you to stretch.

The key for staying focused is having a clear knowledge of current skills and vision of skills to be developed. When there is an opportunity to stretch, only stretch to the extent it fits in with the vision and development plans. Great technical professionals have figured this out. They know exactly how far they can stretch and avoid putting themselves or the company in a bad situation. They do stretch and when they stretch they put in the extra hours preparing and make sure the stretch is not a leap they cannot handle.

Information Technology is extremely dynamic so updating and developing skills is extremely important for a successful professional. At least once or twice a year an IT Professional should reflect on their current skills, update their vision as to where they are going, and create a plan how they will get there.

Getting Away

I just returned from a camping trip with my extended family on the French River in Canada. We paddled down the French River in canoes about 6 miles. We camped in tents for three days with no email, phone, electricity, or even running water! It was really getting away. I camped away in the wilderness as a kid but this is my first canoe trip and first remote camping trip as an adult with my kids.

The experience of paddling for four hours was great. The campsite worked out really well with a 10 ft. rock to leap off into the water – my son’s favorite part of the trip. We had some fishing and great weather - 70s pretty much the entire trip.
Remote camping is like going back to primitive life style and somehow is appealing. The kids certainly love it! I highly recommend the getting away part. The family bonding from this kind of adventure is great. Oh, did I mention the French River is beautiful?

So, take vacation, really get away, enjoy your family, disconnect from the rest of the world and decompress for a few days. It’s as good as it gets!

Refining Business Model

Nortec is now in our 20th year and it looks like it will be a good one. I am afraid to get overly optimistic with the economy and markets just recently improving. Many companies are showing good results and have used the difficult times to make the hard decisions on how to run a leaner business. Business leaders are not in a rush to add non-revenue producing overhead. The result is businesses are creating a more successful business model!

A successful business model is the silver bullet! Ok, it is not a silver bullet; I just wanted to say that! A successful business model is one of the key success criteria and something that business leaders need to continually analyze to try and find ways to improve. Otherwise, you could end up with “bullet ridden body syndrome” - essentially a business with so many holes, there is no hope. If the business model is broken it does not matter how much business you bring in and how great of work you perform you will just create more of the same problem and this is usually in the form of losses.

I used to think that scaling a low profit or break even business model would get the economies of scale and then somehow the business would go through metamorphoses with the result of a thriving well established business at the other end! This is the model that you sometimes see venture capital drive businesses toward. In some ways it makes sense, as you need a minimal size otherwise profit is not material. If you can pull this little maneuver off great! The challenge is that driving profit in a larger organization is not really any easier and may even be harder. Figuring this out and driving a profitable business in every stage ensures that the discipline needed is in place and the model works. Then the questions become: 1. Will the business model scale? 2. Will the business grow?

Cloud SaaS Growth According to IDC

IDC is predicting Software as a Service (SaaS) segment of cloud computing to be $40.5 Billion by 2014. This reinforces the high growth expectation of cloud computing.

"Figuring out how to find and capitalize on the enormous cloud services transition is the number 1 strategic goal of most IT product vendors," according to Robert Mahowald, research vice president of IDC's SaaS and Cloud Services practice. "Cloud represents both a tremendous challenge and potentially an opportunity to align with partners, create new capabilities, move into new markets, and define new leaders."

The expectation is that most software vendors will be looking to sell a cloud solution first in 2014.
“Worldwide Software as a Service 2010–2014 Forecast: Software Will Never Be the Same” by Robert Mohowald:

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=223628