Move your business or move to the cloud

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Moving physical information - the old days
In the old days moving to an other location was a hell of a job. The basement contained more than ten kilometers archive. Stored there for years to come. Most files are kept because of legislation. Although some files are kept to be sure instead of sorry.

Moving physical information - put it in the datacenter
In the last say ten years things changed. Is it possible to digitize these paper files? Can we store the data on disk to avoid the enormous growth of storage room needed? Indeed we can to a certain amount. Still legislations was a boundary or is it just us not wanting to change?

Another mind shift caused change. Why not (re)use the data? Make it available in a more profitable way to the organization? Technologie provided us with a portal, search engines to make data available. We even managed to interpreted the data and turned it into information and nowadays we taking steps to knowledge be reusing and recombining the retrieved information.

Still we suffer from cold feet. Security and access rights trow a spanner in the works. In order to satisfy our sense of security we want to keep the data closeby and keep information hidden for the organization.

I know it is not easy and can feel uncomfortable to embrace change, but you know, we have to in order to move forward. Consider the following story and decide for your self if this is what we wish to keep doing. Is this where we want to put our money?

Move your business - physically

The city of Den Bosch in the south of the Netherlands is building a new hospital. It is located near the new constructed center called 'Paleiskwartier'. In the end three hospitals will move from 6 locations to one new modern hospital in the center of the city.

Jeroen Bosch Hospital is moving to a new location

powered by Fotopedia

It will be close to the railstation and a lot of facilities you expect near to a modern hospital.
In order to manage information effective and efficiënt the hospital has there information about their patient digital available. The physician and the nursing staff have the needed information at hand immediatly when needed.

Down in the cellar their are no paper files left. All data is stored digitaly, even information is available to the organization. More than a year ago the hospital decided to move to this new location. A huge opperation with a big impact

Moving the archive (probably a more than 30km paper equivalent) which is digitized is a complete other kind of operation. The equipment where these files are stored have to be deinstalled from the original datacenter, shiped to the new location and installed in the new datacenter. This is far beyond normal operation.

System managers are used to fade out old equipement, moving data to new hardware and keeping systems operational. But once the equipement is litteraly going offline and is loaded in a truck other professionals are moved in.

Risks of moving

Moving this kind of delicate equipment, still mounted in their origional 19 inch racks with this huge amount of information installed, needs years of preperation. When the operation is started it has to be finished as sceduled till all equipment is installed, tested and proved operational in the new datacenter.

Taking out 'hibernating' information out of the safity of the datacenter is a risk for security, will interupt normal availability and continuity and therefore all aspects of risk are breached.

Moving the equipment physically will impact even more to the risk of loss. Ofcourse the data itself is backed up and the restore procedures are tested and proved. But these measures are invented in case of problems and these has to prevented in the first place. So the route from the old to the new location is analysed. Obstacles are removed, meaning litteraly removing bumps so the truck will move as smooth as possible.

The adjustments to the route made this operation complex and very costly. This made me courious. There is another way to move information from one location to the other, we use it every day. Why not removing every obstacle that is causing all these risks in the first place? The fact that the information is stored on these physical assets causes these complexity in the operation.

Moving your Business or moving to the cloud

If the retrieval of information, the collaboration services and the dossiers of the patients where located in a cloud, the operation described would take about a second. True, moving to a cloud based infrastructure is not a walk in the park. It is a big challenge and a lot of chief officers responsible for all aspects of secure and high quality information have second thoughts about moving to the cloud. But when you start planning and preparing to move your business, you might considering moving to the cloud.

The Future of productivity - Office 365 walktrough and more

Since the official worldwide launch of the Microsoft productivity suite Office 365 by Kurt DelBene last October, there has been an enormous amound of information published on the web. Most of us saw some glimps of the product and its promising functionality, few of us had the privilige to experience its real power yet. Since Office 365 is not global available and only a 'few' countries are picked to do some beta for us.
Microsoft has published a paper with an overview of the functionality of the Office365 BETA.

So what things are changed since the predecessor BPOS and what does it mean for us?

That was yesterday
Office 365 is the succesor of BPOS. BPOS was the first released business productivity suite in the Online SKU. The suite included mail functionality with Exchange, a platform for storing and collaborating on information with SharePoint and communication with the OCS platform as most important components.
In Office 365 these functionalities are still there and are now based on the 2010 suites from the On-Premise SKU. This means that functionality is based on SharePoint Server 2010 and OCS is now called Lync Server.

High Fidelity of the Future of Productivity
Business Productivity is not only about storing, sharing and discussing about information, it is also about creating information with the usual means and in a familiar way. Leverage the skills already available and support optimizing these skills to produce information for the organization as a whole.
By adding Office Professional Plus to the online suite Microsoft lowered the differences in the user experience working Online or On-Premise.

So there you are. Four main functional online services for the end user, supporting Business Productivity.

The limitation of success
BPOS for me was a rather unexpected success due to the limitations of the suite. Well there are a lot of arguments to use the suite to support Business Productivity. The suite does deliver a competitive package of services in my opinion. Till now however the limitations will block the possibility to extend beyond the standard. So what did Microsoft to diminish these limitations and to seduce partners to use the suite more in the future?

Role based access and permissions
New to Office 365 is that this suite now realy is one suite of functionalities working together instead of a knotted together package of offerings. Access to Office 365 is now role based. Just one portal to all users and permissions based on the role. So an administrator has the functions available to manage the environment and a user can access his mail and accept a call or a task assigned to him.

Signing in
Office 365 has the abillity to use ADFS. This service provides a single signon access to the environment. No hassle with other user credentials and a lot better fit supporting business integration and security requirements.

Can I have one for my self?
Yes you can since Office365 is supporting the mysite which will give you a personal page. This page however is very more than just a personal siloed site to store some information. To support and encourage you to share, the user activity and the interests you indicate by rank a article or a document for instance, is collected and 'published' to your contacts. This means you will be helped with smart and fast access to the knowledge of the organization while looking for information based on your social distance and the relevance calculated through ranking, search results and so on. MySite will fullfill this information hub functionality.

Adding value
BPOS had this limitation which partner where quit disappointed with. The possibility to deliver their stuff on top of the Microsoft platform was not possible. You can extend BPOS but it is very limited. This has changed with Office 365. Why is this so important for the Microsoft Partner Network community and Microsoft too? The model Microsoft has chosen a long time ago is delivering functionality through partners. They add a huge amount of knowledge to the basic platforms and will be able to do so based on the On-Premise SKU as well as on the Online SKU.
Focus will be a requirement for the partners too. It will be difficult if not impossible to maintain a mixed business model in the long future.

From selling licences to providing business productivity services
Microsoft is aiming no longer on selling licences in the future. This change of business model is closely related to the move to the cloud. Claiming to be All In means also adjusting your supporting business model. Selling licences does not match with Cloud services. Cloud is NOT about technology or products at all, in my opinion. Providing services is another ball game and Microsoft is changing their relation with partner ànd consumer. Now today Microsoft is changing this partner and distribution model. Future focus will be on delivering these business productivity services in all aspects.


The Power to Think Big and Be Small, to Be Big and Act Fast
The standard edition of BPOS was limited to 30.000 users (I never had the pleasure to close a deal on that much users in a standard BPOS environment). This limitation is dropped. There is no max limit on the users. Being BIG is one thing, to be able to serve even the smallest organizations with the same top notch technology available for the big enterprise is something else. The minimal amount of users is dropped too! This means that everyone starting a business can use the functionality.
So are you going to have a webconference with your self? Well no, but are you doing business with your self?

I've embedded an video from the 2010 TechEd Europe session Office 365 walkthrough of David Anderson. You could watch and listen to this recording to get more insight than I cover in this Blog. (It is a recording from TechEd, so expect some Tech talk about administration and security and so on. Productivity in the eyes of David is the productivity of the IT Pro in first place)

Social Media can be powerfull - even for Social Media

A rumour started a chain reaction. Yahoo! will shutdown the social bookmark service Delicious. The tag #Delicious ended up as a worldwide trending tag. (however a lot of the tags are just about Delicious). The twitter account @delicious must have noticed, as they are claiming in their profile: The official Twitter account for Delicious from Yahoo!. We listen to people talking about Delicious, and we respond. Yay.

So Yahoo! discovered that their early introduced services is appreciated and responded by placing a blog post : Whats next for delicious. So it looks like this early public folksonomy service will survive.

Still wondering what will hapen to Yahoo! as a company. Early 2007 their was a serious rumour about a take over from Microsoft. In the same period Microsoft took over the highend search technology from FAST. The takeover did not succeed. However mid 2009 Microsoft and Yahoo! ended up with an agreement - Microsoft will power Yahoo! Search.

Now December 17th an article describes how the employees of Yahoo! are reacting on these socialmedia attention.

Is Yahoo! preparing to sell just a little bit more than 'just' their folksonomy service?

Aan Het Werk! - Aan de slag met Het Nieuwe Werken in het MKB

In Nederland worden bedrijven van 10 tot 250 medewerkers tot de groep MKB gerekend. Dat zijn er in Nederland een slordige 800.000 waar we met 7,5 miljoen mensen ons brood verdienen . Samen vormen ze een belangrijke economische motor voor Nederland.

Ondernemers in het MKB worden gedreven vanuit mogelijkheden. Het vermogen om mogelijkheden op waarde te schatten en het lef om de eerste stap te zetten en de mogelijkheid aan te pakken zijn de kern van hun succes. Elke onderneming is op deze manier gestart en is er vervolgens achter gekomen dat het tijd werd om het werk anders te organiseren.

Aan Het Werk!

Medewerkers vragen steeds meer flexibiliteit in de invulling van hun werk, in goede samenhang met privé . De economie draait maar door, en 24/7 beschikbaar zijn is allang vanzelfsprekend, zeker in het internationaal zaken doen. Dit legt druk op organisaties, terwijl ook nog eens efficiënt en tegen de laagst mogelijke kosten gedaan moet worden. De kosten voor huisvesting zijn hoog, terwijl daar niet altijd op de meest efficiënte manier gebruik van wordt gemaakt. Medewerkers willen meer verantwoordelijkheid in de uitvoering van hun werkzaamheden, en willen hun tijd zelf invullen.

Thuiswerken of op een andere locatie werken wordt als erg prettig ervaren, onderzoek toont aan dat de productiviteit alleen maar toeneemt. Maar is de organisatie hierop wel voorbereid? Het is niet alleen een kwestie van een laptop met een dongle beschikbaar stellen, of elk ander middels zoals een smartphone.

Zaken zoals informatie, in welke vorm dan ook, beschikbaar kunnen hebben en delen wordt dan cruciaal. Dossiers kunnen zich niet meer in kasten bevinden, je neemt niet zomaar een dossier mee naar huis of onderweg. Samenwerken terwijl je niet meer op het werk bent, maar Aan Het Werk!, is niet alleen een kwestie van faciliteiten, maar zeker ook een kwestie van cultuur, beleid en organisatie. Werk je nog wel als je niet aanwezig bent? Hoe wordt je verantwoordelijk voor je eigen output als medewerker en hoe wordt je aangestuurd? Wat zijn de kaders waarin Het Nieuwe Werken door de werkgever wordt neergezet en hoe ga je met elkaar om?

Voor elke ondernemer komt het besef dat dingen anders doen tot een beter resultaat kan leiden. Er zijn verschillende aanleidingen die tot dit inzicht leiden.

• Reputatie
• Inspireren
• Duurzaamheid
• Verhuizing
• Fusie
• Meer doen met minder

De kleine opsomming is zeker niet compleet, maar in het licht van de afgelopen periode waarin de crisis een zware druk op veel ondernemingen heeft gelegd zal elke ondernemer zich de vraag hebben gesteld waar het in de organisatie beter kan.

Informatielogistiek

Informatielogistiek heeft zich hier op heeft toegelegd, de juiste informatie in de juiste vorm op het juiste moment presenteren aan de juiste persoon. Onontbeerlijk als je niet alle dagen op “de zaak”aanwezig bent maar toch je werk moet kunnen blijven doen. Efficiënter en productiever onafhankelijk van waar je bent en op welk tijdstip je die informatie nodig hebt.

Factor4Index

Vanuit deze visie kunnen organisaties worden ondersteund met scans en onderzoeken. Onderzoeken waarmee organisaties meer inzicht krijgen waarmee ze Aan Het Werk! kunnen. Het wat en het hoe, maar ook het helder krijgen waarom deze stappen tot een productievere organisatie leiden.
Factor4Index is een methodiek die het verbeterpotentieel van een organisatie in kaart brengt. Het geeft een organisatie een handvat, een start en een richting.

 

De methodiek kan grofweg opgedeeld worden in 2 krachtige stappen. Een set van 64 vragen meet zowel de huidige als de gewenste situatie. De vragen hebben betrekking op 4 categorieën:

• Inspiratie
• Organisatie
• Cultuur
• Technologie

De vragen worden via een online survey aan de medewerkers van een organisatie voorgelegd. Daarmee is deze stap snel en eenvoudig uit te voeren. Inmiddels hebben honderden organisaties deelgenomen en vormen daarmee een brede benchmark. Deze resultaten vormen een belanrijke input naar de volgende stap.
Nadat de resultaten van de survey zijn verwerkt volgt een interpretatie. Gecertificeerde organisaties zijn opgeleid om deze interpretatie uit te voeren en zodoende tot het juiste inzicht en een goed advies te komen.

De eenvoud waarmee de survey kan worden gestart en uitgevoerd maakt de methodiek geschikt voor een heel brede inzet in grote organisaties, maar juist ook voor een heel snelle en laagdrempelige tool voor bedrijven in het MKB.

Het helder krijgen van de verbeteringen die met de hoogste noodzaak moeten worden opgepakt en de grootste impact hebben op het verbeteren van de productiviteit van een organisatie is één. Het doorvoeren en succesvol begeleiden van een verandering is een logisch vervolg.

SPIL

De Standaard Aanpak Informatie Logistiek (SPIL) is een beproefde methodiek die naast het ontwikkelen van een inzicht in de informatielogistieke verbeteringen, de concrete implementatie begeleid en het bereiken van de beoogde resultaten versneld.
 

SPIL omvat een set van scans, tools en bestpractices en is voor organisaties van elke omvang toepasbaar.

Toevoeging 13 januari 2011: Whitepaper over Het Nieuwe Werken - Aan Het Werk, met Het Nieuwe Werken in het MKB

The future of productivity - changing the game with Office 365

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Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products with the latest version of our desktop suite for businesses of all sizes.

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A new name of the (same) game
After Microsoft unveiled the new name of their online suit during a webcast Oct 19th, formerly known as BPOS (and later codename UNION), they launched their dedicated site about Office 365. Bringing together cloud versions of our most trusted communication and collaboration products, so what is available in this box?

Introduction of a revolution?
Betsy Frost Webb - who hosted the webcast where the new suite was unveiled, calls the introduction of Office 365 a game changer for all kinds of businesses all over the world.

I intend to believe it will shape the future of productivity. All functionality in this box is available today, but it is the way it is delivered that will make the difference. In an earlier blog about the future of productivity in small and medium businesses I mentioned that the only concern of the entrepreneur is spotting opportunities and turn them into succesfull business. The way most ICT is delivered to these businesses have proved themselfs to be quit complex to implement. These efforts are killing for productivity (a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input). Functionality from flagship products like SharePoint 2010 and Exchange 2010 are way too big because of this complexity for the small businesses.
If you can manage to take away the complexity of implementation and provide the right fit functionality right away, business can be productive from the start. That's exacly what Office 365 promises.

Technique without the technology
Organisations are looking for an 'easy' way to use technology to get more insight in their business. If you sell cookies, you want to know how much sugar and weat is needed for your next production batch. Selling cookies is not about technique, but a lot about technology to make it possible. It is not about backing a lot of cookies, but the right cookies considering production resources, market and taste.

You will be interessted in the developments of the prices of sugar and weat, the influences of the weather and European laws. To discusse this you want to be able to capture this information and to discusse these with your team, your suppliers and transform that information, share that knowledge within your organisation. In the end your success depends on the right information to make the right choices based on real knowledge.

If your business is helping other organisations to succeed, you do not need a productionline. You do have the need to capture the knowledge in your organisation, even if the organisation is just you. You do have the need to have insight in your business, who are my customers? What is happening in the marketplace? How can I get in contact, provide my customer with the right information, create a platform to share information with a partner and so on and so on.
Likely you are an expert in your field, more likely you are not an IT professional, do not know and do not want to know about networks, servers, mailprotocolls and security settings. The technology though is essential to your business.

"Office 365 is more than a new brand. It’s a progressive approach to cloud applications,” said Kurt DelBene (succesor of Stephen Elop), president of the Microsoft Office Division. “We designed Office 365 to work for a business of one – or a business of one million and one.”

"To date, only the largest businesses have been able to take advantage of modern, enterprise-caliber IT solutions. Office 365 changes that."
 
The Cloud? Are you serious?
If you question the intentions of Microsoft in getting this right check out my earlier blog on Cloud. Chris Caposella describes it as follows:
 
“Chapter one in Microsoft’s history was about putting a PC on every desktop. Chapter two was dedicated to transforming the enterprise data center. Chapter three is, without a question, devoted to bringing the power of the cloud to our customers and partners."
 
So what is in the box?
Key benefits for Office 365:
 
• Access to e-mail, documents, contacts, and calendars on nearly any device
• Simple and secure collaboration with colleagues and business partners
• Works seamlessly with Microsoft Office and the other programs people use today
• Business-class features including IT-level phone support, financially-backed 99.9% uptime, geo-redundancy, disaster recovery, and robust security and privacy controls and standards
• Comprehensive solutions including desktop productivity applications, portals, extranets, external Web site, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing, Web conferencing, e-mail, voice mail and unified messaging
• Pay-as-you-go pricing options which provide predictability and flexibility for all or part of an organization

Basic 'backbone' functionalities are mainly deliverd by three core platforms working together:

• Exchange Online
• Cloud-based e-mail, calendar and contacts with the most current antivirus and anti-spam solutions.  Includes the ability to get e-mail on virtually any mobile phone and options for voice mail, unified messaging and archiving
• SharePoint Online
• Cloud-based service for creating sites to connect colleagues, partners and customers.  Includes enterprise social networking and customization options.
• Lync* Online
•  Cloud-based instant messaging, presence, and online meeting experiences with screen sharing and voice and video conferencing

Besides these well known components Microsoft Office itself is a major addition to the functionality.

• The world’s leading productivity tool on the desktop (Office Professional Plus) and on the Web (Office Web Apps) now seamlessly connected and delivered with cloud services – for the best productivity experience across the PC, Phone and Browser.

(*NOTE: Lync is the Unified Communications (UC) platform, formely known as Office Communication Server (OCS) and the Live communications functionality)
 
All these platforms are build to work together seamslessly. Functions are made available to almost every device from the cloud (three screens and a cloud).
On the technology part a lot more has changed. Partners are given the opportunity to add value to the platforms as they are when implementing on the customers location. Developing value add customer components will enrich the platform functionality dramatically.
 
Changing the game not only the name
Microsoft promisses these developments will change the game. Delivering the technology through services to all businesses realy is a change. To date implementing a enterprise business productivity platform was not a walk in the park for even big organisations. Now the infrastructure itself can be made available as simple as 1,2,3.
Business productivity is NOT about technology as I mentioned before. Having the right information and documents available to be able to make the right descision is more about information strategy. The larger your organisation, the more difficult the implementation or change of this strategy will be. This is why I am possitive about the changes in this game.
Smaller organisations will have the opportunity to setup needed infrastructure and are more flexible to use the power available instantly. The larger organisations will be able to choose for more business focus deminishing the burden of technology, knowing exactly what it will cost the organisation.

The Future of Productivity - the sweetspot of eReaders and Business Solutions #li #il #yam

The worlThis post was published before july 2010. The information in this post was asked to take offline until now to make sure that Ricoh Innovations had room to wrap up the release of their first production version.

This year Microsoft World Partner Conference me and my collegue had the opportunity to meet Ron Barr of Ricoh Innovations. Our goal was to get to know each other since we are collegues in the Ricoh family and share some developments and ideas. Ron had this prototype with him of a Ricoh eReader. The device has a WIFI and 3G connection, the surface is based on the kindle technology on top of that a pen interface is implemented. Writing on the surface realy feels like wrinting on paper. Not to smooth, and a lot like writing with ink on paper.
Ron informed us that this was the first time he was able to show a prototype of Ricoh so upfront and I´m really glad we experienced the tablet. Some things are changing. As Steve Balmer announced several times now, The Cloud demands smarter devices and Microsoft COO Kevin Turner mentioned a sweet spot in their ´three screens and a cloud´ vision on the future of productivity during his WPCDC speech. An open space between the consumer focused space of the apple iPad and the fat desktop devices on the other end. Actualy he positioned the Kindle on the the far right end of the spectrum, but that is the kindle static ´read only´ interface. Well this Ricoh device rocks, it is able to go beyond the crisp display of books and is able to deliver support to business processes. The layer on top of the Kindle infterface is able to capture writen input and will integrate that interaction with business processess.
There will be a SDK available. We think it should be free of charge. The community will take care of the huge opportunity. We discussed the need in logistic processes and other paper and information appended processes. The possibilities are infinited. How should we price the product itself. Well in our opinion the added value of the product is not the issue, it´s the huge added value of the process behind that. Maybe free of charge is not the way to go, but look at the US eReader forecast and the prediction the prices of a stripped down device will drop to less than $50.

The device will launch in the US april 2011. We in the front line of Europe will try to support the device as soon as possible.

Pay with a tweet

Stumbled upon a way to promote products whitepapers and so on wih pay with a tweet. Worthwhile exploring and sharing.

Try the concept by downloading the whitepaper on Information Logistics

The Cloud? It is truly amzing!

During a cloud event mid march 2010 organised by ICT~Office in Utrecht, Gartner analyst and VP Jeffery Mann unveiled his view on the battle field of the Cloud. Cloud computing in his opinion will be dominated by just a few big players. During this event only a few suspects where present: Google NL(Erik de Muinck Keizer) Microsoft NL(Peter de Haas) and Jeffery Mann from Gartner to give his opinion.

In the presentation of his analyses Mann predicts that a few big enterprise players are going to dominate the cloud vendor market: IBM, Cisco, Google and Microsoft. Google is the young cowboy, they are trying hard and doing OK, but have some trouble getting there.

Google
Back then it was Security. 'China gate' dominated the news and Google tried to downplay the issue. Now mid October 2010 a new issue arrose about collecting WIFI data during taking pictures for Google streetview, again a big failure.

Google has "no plans" to resume the collection of WiFi network data via its world-roving Street View cars, according to a report by Canada's privacy commissioner reprimanding the web giant for collecting WiFi payload data as well as network info.


"Google still intends to offer location-based services, but does not intend to resume collection of WiFi data through its Street View cars," the report said. "Collection is discontinued and Google has no plans to resume it."

IBM

In the last month I visited and studied the vision of IBM on their market and cloud in particular. IBM is a wonderfull technology company. They do understand what technology is comming, what technologyis needed... But cloud is NOT about technology! It is about technique withhout the technology, predictable services for predictable cost.

Mann thinks IBM will play a important roll as a technology leader in the future, but have no clear vision on cloud.

Microsoft
The best bet on Cloud leadership is Microsoft according Mann.

Seven Month Later...
Now October 2010, seven month later Microsoft launched their 4th evolution of SharePoint as part of their WAVE14 releases May this year. Just Five month later Microsoft launched the beta of Office365, the online suite, in 13 countries.

I never experienced such a rapid addoption of a new platform as with SharePoint 2010. Now just a few month later end users demand solutions based on this new version. Today just one week after the beta release of Office365 customers are asking for solutions based on the new generation of the online suite, even though it isn't released in The Netherlands yet as beta!

In their analysis presented in the "Cloud Computing: Changing the Vendor Landscape" presentation, two other Gartner analysts (David Cearley and David Mitchell Smith) predict that two vendors will be perceived as both leaders in cloud computing as in enterprise computing. That's a lot of market for two leaders!

Again Microsoft is part of this analysis and together with VMware, Microsoft is one of the two future leaders according to these analysts. In this analysis Gartner is looking for future leaders in this combined area of Cloud and Enterprise computing. Candidates are typically origine from one of these domains.

Overall, Crearly and Smith say only Microsoft and VMware have full lines, although their offerings are very different from each other.


Smith said Microsoft's choices were "insanely complex" as it offered all sorts of products in all sorts of ways. It is an enabler of cloud services within companies, a provider of its own services, and also sells services through third parties. It has products for both public and private clouds, and it offers lots of SaaS applications (some hosted, some really cloud-based, and some moving in the cloud direction), and its Azure products, which offer a hybrid of infrastructure and platform as a service.


Microsoft has "one of the most visionary and complete views of the cloud," Cearley said. In some respects, he said, in a few years, you may think of their enterprise offerings as private versions of their cloud offerings. On the other side, he said, many of the specific offerings aren't fully mature yet. But Smith noted that software moves faster on the cloud.

That last sentence is what seems to happen at this moment. Even before changes are there or mature they seem to be addopted. It is truly amazing.

Collaborating on content delivery and production

I stumbled upon a article by Kyle Studstill titled the future of content delivery and production published on PSKF. Thinking about future developments of content and the opportunities for new business models keeps me busy. The article focusses on the production and delivery of movies and the way Edward Burns is experimenting with new mediums like iTunes since the release of Purple Violets in 2007.

What cought me in this article was the way Burns experienced the opportunity's ahead.

Below are some key notes from the discussion on the future of content delivery and production, wich I copied from the article of Kyle.


When experimenting with these new models, you can’t immediately expect a home run just because you’re being innovative. The wins will be small hits, from which producers will learn what works and what doesn’t.

Indeed it will take some time and experiments to figure out what works. It looks like Burns is a believer and uses some kind of a mashup approache. The platform provided by the channel iTunes is a first step to figure out how the market on the other end of the channel looks like.

By distributing content on more fragmented channels, you can worry less about press and marketing concerns influencing the creative integrity of the film – you can just produce the content and let it find its own market.

I do not know about this one. Yes when posting a BLOG or a tweet the channel provides a mean to the message to find it's own audience. But when you take the concerns about press and marketing influencing the creative integrity of the film, can you worry less on these issues when distributing content on a more fragmented channel?

Digital distribution is indeed changing the filmmaking landscape, but it’s important to remember that big-budget productions are still going to have a place in traditional channels – it’s always going to be fun to watch a new film with 200 other people in a theatre.

Digital distribution is a mean to reach out to other markets, effecting the traditional market of film theatres. In this context it adds speed and ease to the digital distribution through the video tape and later carriers like DVD.

Platforms that allow for episode-by-episode releases open the opportunity for innovation in the way the story is put together; there’s the potential to allow the audience to impact the way future episodes unfold.

This remark cought my attention. Indeed in my belief using the possibility to collaborate on producing content (movies as well as music or documents) can add enormous vallue to the end product. The digital channel provides the needed reach and speed to make interaction possible. These talkback fases have some interesting effects. The story develops toghether with the audience. Every part as well as the end product is very unpredictable at the start.

By splitting up larger works that would normally exist as one film into smaller episodes, producers can now explore freemium revenue models where the first parts of of production are free, charging for future episodes further down the line.

Besides of the more creative approache of the former item this one is the money machine which could safe the movie industrie. Binding together the techniek to interact and collaborate and a creative revenue model is a start to earn money early in the production process. Even financing a production from the very start with a open model is one of the possibilities. The production of the film will make it to it's collaborative end product in a way the audience likes or won't make it at all.

BPOS became 'UNION' becomes Office365

Oct 19th 2010 Microsoft Unveiled the new name of their Microsoft Online proposition formely known as BPOS and codename 'UNION'. The new Name of the suite is Office365 and since the announcement a lot of content came available. Content about features, prices, markets, beta availability and roadmaps beyond.

Roadmap
The Beta came available for 13 countries/regions. These countries/regions include: Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States. The Netherlands is not amoung the lucky ones, looking at the roadmap I think a safe bet is that it will be general available within 6 mounths.

Notice that the existing customers (BPOS) will have to wait a little longer until transitions of services are available.


Do you feel lucky?
Notice that the existing customers (BPOS) will have to wait a little longer until transitions of services are available. So are those new customers lucky or why are existing customers sorry they have to wait a little longer?

Microsoft explains these questions as follows:

Q: Is Office 365 still BPOS?
A: Office 365 is the introduction of new online services and capabilities, new user experiences, and new online platform capabilities related to the introduction of new underlying “2010” server software into Microsoft Online Services datacenters as well as other major new service and platform investments. The name may be new and includes new offerings, but you are subscribed to the same service – just significantly enhanced. It will just give you a lot more features and functionality once you make the transition.

Q: I am not on BPOS now. Should I wait for Office 365?
A: The benefits of Microsoft Online Services are realized as soon as services are deployed, whether on BPOS or Office 365. Customers who do decide to purchase BPOS now should deploy BPOS with the new system requirements to make the transition experience as smooth as possible.

So Microsoft explains that Office365 differs from BPOS and that all these benefits will be deployed when available. Even when you feel like going online, do it now, no need to wait...

I have no experience with the transition from BPOS to Office365, besides a few from Microsoft nobody has. Still I wonder if this is entirely thrue. There are some ´system requirements`?!?! and Microsoft has a Transition Checklist that looks quite straight forward.

The biggest defects of BPOS may be the biggest guarantee to successful transition.

BPOS ´defects´
BPOS is a productivity suite. In this package of functionality SharePoint plays a major role as it does in the on premise based functionality stack. In this package SharePoint online is based on the 2007 version also called MOSS. The biggest complaint from customers and even more the Microsoft Partner is that there are very limited options for customization available. The gap between the feature set available in the online version and MOSS2007 is huge.

Since the SharePoint2010 release last may became general available the differences between the two versions, made the demand to the release of BPOSv2 even bigger. SharePoint2010 is the 4th evolution of the platform. It's much more mature, but in relationship with SharePoint Online, it is developed with Online deployment as a starting point!

Since the MOSS2007 was not, Microsoft had a lot of problems deploying BPOS in a shared cloud environment (multi-tenant). So what is the effect of this mindshift to the cloud?

Office365
Office365 looks promising in this area. A lot not all features are available or are expected to become available shortly in the SharePoint Online version.

The feature set available to the end-user became very rich. Nice integration with the Office Webapps, full fidelity across devices, real WIKI everywhere and so on and on. Again more important is that the Microsoft Partner finally will be able to deploy their added value solutions on top of the platform.

The starting point to develop the platform with a multi-tenant cloud for the SharePoint2010 platform (and all other 'members' of WAVE14) changed the way resources are are used and managed. Simply said, a buggy application of one company cannot hurt another, not even when they are deployed in the same infrastructure.

Management capabilities are also available to administrators in SharePoint2010 Online. This 'feature' was just very limited available to the Microsoft Partner in BPOS.

BPOS became 'UNION' becomes ? -

During a webcast Microsoft Office Division will announce changes a lot of partners are waiting for a while now. My biggest disapointment during my visit to Microsoft World Partner Conference in Washington last summer was the lack of information in the area of BPOS or codename UNION.
My expectation was that the new name, functionality and more important the release dates would 've been unveiled during this biggest partner event of the Softies. Well the anouncement is there:


Announcement From Microsoft Office Division
Oct. 18, 2010


Microsoft Corp. will announce news from its Office Division, live from San Francisco via webcast, on Oct. 19 from 8 to 8:30 a.m. PDT. Check back here to watch the webcast live!

I do hope they will meet up the expectations.

Communicatie boeit toch niet! - Retail - #esmr

Boeien en Binden met Enterprise Social Media in de retail

'De uitdaging is hen te boeien en te binden. ‘Betrokkenheid is een grote uitdaging binnen onze organisatie. En de synergie tussen mensen van verschillende filialen en verschillende afdelingen kan beter.’

Een uitspraak van een retailer tijdens een rondetafel gesprek bij Microsoft Nederland over het gebruik van Enterprise Social Media in de retail branche.

Boeien! met communiceren
Voor retailers speelt het thema boeien vanuit een aantal invalshoeken.

De medewerker karakteristieken van een retailer zijn eenvoudig herkenbaar als je rondloopt door de HEMA, C&A, de Bijenkorf, de Blokker of bij V&D.

Veel dames, vaak van middelbare leeftijd bemannen de vloer. Zowat allemaal werken ze parttime. Dit is overigens ook het gevolg van het feit dat een retailer over elke week zo'n 50 uur open zijn voor publiek. Neem daarbij het uurtje voor de openingtijd waarin de winkel klaargemaakt moet worden en je begrijpt dat een 40 uurige werkweek niet goed past. Dit betekent dat personeel flexibel inzetbaar moet zijn en dat daar dus ook beleid op gevoerd wordt. Boeien en binden wordt dan een vak appart.

Het versturen van een memo in een brief vanaf het hoofdkantoor of de vestiging dekt een deel van de 'communicatie' af. Echt veel ruimte voor communicatie en interactie geeft dat echter niet.

De maandelijkse nieuwsbrief geeft personeel een platform om haar meer informele informatie en interesses uit te wisselen. Welliswaar heeft een nieuwsbrief vaak het doel om ook het geluid van de medewerkers te laten horen, interactief is het echter niet.

...en als het dan fout gaat?
Beide vormen van communicatie missen buiten interactie ook snelheid. Snelheid die beperkt wordt door enerzijds het medium maar ook zeker de gestructureerde organisatie die daarvoor is gekozen. Dit wordt helder als de zaak onder druk komt te staan.
De retail branche is in de afgelopen jaren nogal in beweging geweest, fusies, overnames en durfinvesteerders hebben management en medewekers nogal eens tegenover elkaar geplaatst. Daar waar de 'gangfax' rules in een kantoor, neemt de vrouwelijke medewerker van middelbare leeftijd het communicatiemiddel ter hand waarmee zij met haar vriendinnen in contact blijft - Hyves. 
De koetjes en kalfjes die eerst onderwerp van gesprek waren veranderen in onderwerpen waarin serieuze zorg over de ontwikkelingen op het werk worden uitgesproken. Een kettingreactie van bijval, commentaar en discussies tot gevolg hebbende. Het sociale netwerk doet haar werk...
Er onstaan fora waarin op serieuze wijze collectieve meningen worden ontwikkeld. Bedrijf en management worden totaal verrast en erger, zijn niet betrokken in het geprek. 0-1.
 
Communicatie, maar dan anders!
Belang van communicatie die aanslaat, betrokkenheid in het gesprek, draagvlak. Het zijn redenen die de revue passeren als je nagaat waarom retailers nadenken over nut en onnut van social media. Bovenstaand voorbeeld geeft daarbij al aan dat betrokkenheid in het geprek een eerste vereiste is en dat eerder genoemde snelheid en interactie andere elementen zijn die van belang zijn. Opdracht tot onderzoek van de mogelijkheden komen vanuit bedrijfsleiding enerzijds en ondernemingsraden anderzijds. Engagement van het bedrijf bij de discussie blijkt een gezamenlijk belang te zijn.
 
Van Boeien naar Binden
Het medium wat gekozen is door de medewerkers zelf blijkt van een oncontroleerbare kruiwagen met kikkers verworden tot een kans om de communicatie van beleid vanuit het management en betrokkenheid bij vorming van mening vanuit het personeel bij elkaar te brengen.
Goede inzet zo is de overtuiging van deelnemers aan deze discussies kan zelfs helpen met een positieve bijdragen om het gevoel van eenheid, de uitwisseling van kennis te ondersteunen. Naast betrokkenheid, snelheid en interactie horen hier nog een tweetal andere elementen aan toegevoegd te worden, transparantie en vertrouwen. Helderheid wie communiceert en met welk doel, respect voor ieders mening vormen deze basis. Niet enkel in het klassieke communicatie proces, maar ook dubbel en dwars in sociale media.
 
Daamee wordt boeien binden.

The Cloud? Are you serious?

Microsoft is claiming to be a very seriouse player in The Cloud Business. The latest campaign with a kickof at the Washington University by Steve Balmer is called 'We are all in'. So what is the status and where are they going?

Microsoft is well known by most people. Most of the people ever using a PC since about 1980 is a customer (paying or not) of this company. Most company's are using one or more software products of Microsoft. Over 6 million copy's of their most famous product Microsoft Office sold.

The world is changing

The way Microsoft is delivering their software to the users is changing. They do not actualy delivering software, but aiming to deliver services. Office delivered this way is called Office Web Apps. If you question the strategic move to The Cloud check out the succes: in the first 100 days it went live, Microsoft picked up 20 million users for Office Web Apps.

More changes

Another BIG online area of Microsoft is productivity - 'Business Productivity Online Service' or short BPOS. BPOS encompasses products like Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communication Server (OCS) and Forefront. Microsoft is preparing to move into the Wave 14 with BPOS (now called codename Union). Exchange and SharePoint will move to the 2010 version, OCS and Live meeting are becomming Linc and the Office Web Apps are added to the offering.
SharePoint 2010 is the 4th evolution of the product (products like Office are in their 10th or so) and is becoming very mature. Since the focus on online Microsoft decided to design and develop all of their products with The Cloud in mind.

Microsoft is expected to unveil more about the new name and changes in the new version Oktober 19th.

These changes are even more interessting for Microsoft partners because they will be able to add their added value solutions on top of the platforms and ship the total solution. Expectations are very high.

Are you serious?

So IS Microsoft serious? The focus on the online business is succesfull. BPOS has seen 3x growth this year, with now over 40 million paid seats. These seats are comprised of smaller businesses and many large enterprises. Well that's serious business.

Also Microsoft recognizes the importance of differentiation in the markets. Live@edu is The Cloud offering based on BPOS targetting the Educational market, BPOS Federal is aiming on the US governmental market. BPOS Federal is told to be more secure.

Are you secure?

To be able to claim this more secure environment Microsoft has added up the suite with a set of industry standards:

• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001
• Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) 70 Type I and Type II
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Title 21 CFR Part 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2
• Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) compliance

If one desides to invest in such list of industry standard compliancy's this means they are pretty serious about their goal. BPOS Federal is available for US only. The list of additional industry standards apply to the normal BPOS offering.

After five million years of evolution, is it possible that the future of humanity is humanity itself?

“Since the dawn of time, humanity’s long journey has led us to countless discoveries,”  “Yet with each leap forward for civilisation, more people have been left behind. But our quest has taken us to a completely new horizon.”

“History is about to be rewritten. This time human beings will be at the centre -- and the machines will be the ones that adapt. After five million years of evolution, is it possible that the future of humanity is humanity itself?”


These sentences where used on the E3 while introducing the Kinnect last June in LA. For those who do not know what Kinnect is: This product is the result of Project Natal, which aim is (was) a project that introduces full-body motion-sensitive controller. In other words: the controller is YOU.

The game industry is serious business estimated $48 Billion today, but potentially growing massively. When adopted by a large group not using games today because of the trouble of a controller as we know it today.

When I witnessed the Kinnect during the Microsoft WPC10 in Washinton DC I started thinking about the application of this technology in other areas.

How will the eXperience of a hotel guest change, when he is guided through the services available when entering the room for the first time. 'Real' interaction with a personal host, recognising YOU. Will a natural interactive interface change the way we will search for information, connect to our peers and share our knowledge? How will presentation of information change when we use this interactive interface browsing through the information sources. Remember the minority report, is the future now?



Me myself believe that this development will lead to a whole new way of using technology in daily life and business solutions.

The Cloud demands smarter devices - looking for the sweetspot - ereader format on a laptop screen

When I returned from the Microsoft World Partner Conference wrote a blog which will be republished in a short while. Subject of the blog is the eReader sweetspot. Microsoft has this vision  - three screens and a cloud. Steve Balmer mentioned the importance of these different devices but even more the importance of smart devices - The Cloud demands smarter devices. Microsoft COO Kevin Turner beliefs there is a sweet spot in the huge amound of screen devices.

The eReader is such device. I came across this blog by Julie Bort - Toshiba sells ebooks while Amazone puts Kindle in a browser.  Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I do like the eReader for just the goal it is meant for. Read a book. It has to have the experience of a book. The Kindle screen technology gives the reader just that experience - except the smell of ink and paper.

With Kindle for the Web, bloggers and website owners can embed a book preview into their sites (a function Google Books has offered for a year). They'll earn referral fees from Amazon when customers take the bait and buy the full version for their Kindles. Kindle for the Web will include many a feature from the e-reader. Users can change the font size and line spacing, adjust the background color. And of course, they can help promote the book -- sharing it via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail.
This part I do understand. Put a small example of the full product for free to lure a customer.

Toshiba has decided it's not to be outdone by the likes of Kindle, or of the bulging tablet market, e-readers all, or even by the new e-readers and bookstores planned by rival Sharp. On Tuesday, Toshiba launched its own e-book store, Book Place, and is offering a free Windows e-reader to all comers, available for XP, Vista or Windows 7.

Oké... It can be easy to have another device to read an ereader format book like say your laptop. Still the success of the eReader is the fact it reads like a book. A laptop does not. Not even close in my opinion. The strategy is ofcourse to make the ereader format available for everyone, even those people that do not have the device. That's smart for the business of those books.
However I do not understand the folks reacting on this article. Why should I buy an other device to read the book? In my opinion because you want to read a book and that's just the experience an ereader device will provide.

So what is smart about the device? And what about the sweetspot? I will explain in the blog article I mentioned, but picture the 'old world situation'. Paper was the most important infomation carier. I can assure you it still is in a lot of situations.
For example the forms needed to report tasks fullfilled by an engineer that need to be signed by the customer, freight documents etc. True, DHL uses those handy devices where you can sign for the delivered goods. It took the paper out of the proces, but a lot of information too.
Picture this eReader device and the forms that carry the information of the business proces and the same experience of the paper forms... That's a smarter device.

Meet IBM 2010 - Effectiveness and Efficiency

Breakout session: Efficiency and Effectiveness

Jan van der Sypt BPM specialist IBM

Despite the proven benefit and value, BPM projects tend to be very costly and take much too long. The promised ROI evaporates before any result is obtained. Although typically there are many good intentions to collaborate, the failure to transpose business requirements to a technology implementation is driven by the difficult communication between line of business people and the technology people. A BPM project requires the business to be in the driving seat, and any requirements need to be shared without losing any detail with the implementation teams. What is needed is a platform that will simplify the BPM approach to facilitate business people to provide the needed input, that will enhance collaboration between all parties involved, and that will shorten the cycles between new or changing requirements. This is what WebSphere Lombardi edition has to offer: a complete BPM solution that is covering the whole lifecycle, from modelling to optimization and monitoring, with one single product. All the different oles inside an organization will find a way to make their work smarter using this platform.

Product or Business Proces? 

The session is very product focused. I realize that this conference is very customer focused, where a lot of conferences and sessions which I attend from Microsoft are much more partner focused. Well they are people focussed as I mentioned earlier, but that is translated into User eXperience. The presenter tries to adress the business needs, but very poor.

He misses the point in my opinion. The results of a effective & efficient BPM project is NOT depended of the supporting tool. He mentioned the business is crusial, but still presented a tool focused presentation.

The Themes
Themes mentioned are indeed very important to take in consideration and base of a well designed business supporting proces:

• simplicity
• engagement
• repeatability

Well I do not know if simplicity is the right word. Business and Technology should have a common language to discusse requirements, changes to these demands to ensure the result ìs the implementation of the solution both agreed on. That is NOT simple.

Engagement is indeed a crusial element to ensure success and effectiveness of the end results. In perception of the business it becomes their system.

Repeatability should help to become more efficient, but there is more than just an object in a tool. Best practices in how organisations can be helped to analyse the business problem and what sort of solution helped simular organisations before. It is not as suggested repeatability on the level of the tool itself.

Meet IBM 2010 - See IT differently

Remember
It's a strange feeling. It has been a few years since I attended a IBM business / technology conference. Nowadays I attend mostly to sessions about the same subjects seen in the perspective of Microsoft technology. When I came across this event and checked out the program I became interested.

Today there are not a lot of familiar faces, but interesting subjects. Time to look at the same subjects that interest me everyday, but from another perspective and also with another market aproach.

Host of the day Roelof Hemmen.

A vision - smarter planet
Core in the IBM vision is Smarter Systems in a Smarter World. The world is getting instrumented, interconnected and more intelligent. Kees Donker opens the event with his vision on the changing and more demanding world. He just scratched the surface of the trends where technology is used to support change, connect different fields in the communities to become more smart. IBM is using a more technology driven approach. (Microsoft is more People focused, but also uses the work smarter concept in essence).

Kees Donker is asked by Roelof Hemmen a few times when the developments described by IBM will be practically adopted and used by real people. The answer was not given, no timeline, no roadmap. Well I do support the idea that things has to change in this world. I do think lot's of technology can implement the technology to fullfill a lot of needs. Still I wished IBM had the nerve to make a good guess of what is happening when.

Also the examples are just mentioned. A trafic information system, a system at the Schiphol that processes the luguage more effective and efficient. These examples are more than just an experiment, they DO mean something to efficiency. The Smarter System is heavily supported by technology. Technology developed by IBM. The barcode, an idea of B. Silver first adopted by IBM is now evolved in RFID (IBM is one of the driving forces, making the technology affordable). This is typicaly a strong element of this company, pitty they do not magnify these investments and the measurable effect on our everyday experiences.

The vision Instrumented, interconnected and more intelligence are translated in the more practical themes:

• Insight & Action
• Efficiency and Effectiveness
• Managing risk
• Empower people
• Agile organization

These themes are the structure around the subjects of the breakout sessions during the event.

Today I try to capture the simularities and the differences in the perspectives of these to companies in the fields insight, collaboration, contentmanagement etc

The Future of Productivity - Small and Medium Business #li #il

Entrepreneurs in the area of Small and Medium Business are constantly looking for opportunities. There is no room for long lasting research and development projects. Invested money has to return to the business as soon as possible. Still a lot of innovations are rooted in Small and Medium-sized enterprises.
A lot of these companies where run by hand till during the 80's the bigger enterprises developed the competence to build their own information systems. It took a long time to figure out how to capture the business information logistics into these systems. The information and communication technology industry realized the processes where structured a lot alike and developed the BIG configurable enterprise systems. Business grew huge.
We still remember the problems that came with it. Implementing these systems was not a walk in the park. It took some time till less complex systems where introduced and implementation of these systems could fit the needs of the small-sized enterprise.
Meanwhile other systems where developed. They targeted specialized information processes like finance, or less structured objects as 'the market' or 'the customer' instead of the amount of products in the warehouse. It is not easy to capture information about these more organic processes and objects. Tasks to manage this area are carried out by a team and rarely at the same time.
The support of the information logistics needed has changed. The 'C' in the ICT of the 80's has to support Communication as well as Collaboration. Information is less structured, we call it Content and the information worker has to be able to Create it. The co-worker has to be able to access this Content, when needed at a location of choice, preferable with a device of choice cross the platform.
These developments are particularly evident in the large companies, but are these also adopted in the medium-sized enterprises? Has the economic crisis supported adoption and are Small and Medium-sized Businesses prepared to change their way of work? If the 'I' in ICT became less structured and the 'C' in ICT has changed, what happened to the 'T'?

T is still Technology

Technology is complex or is it? Well when building an information system, you need technology to create, store and access the information. You build this technology on a stack starting at the bottom - electric wires and iron. When we reach the top of the stack we discover the application that provides us with the functionality needed to implement the technology into our businesses in order to boost productivity.
Recent developments are showing that the underlying technology is becoming less important to explain. These developments are compared a lot with the development of electricity power stations. In the beginning the large companies build their own power station, which was then deployed more efficiently by sharing the central. The same development is going on within the ICT industry. Data centers are shared. It becomes less important to deploy and manage the tactical cost center and is becoming an utility.
These developments are bare technology, still no productivity in the sence of creating and sharing content. When we take a look at the top of the technology stack where the functionality is provided, a broad set of platforms become visible attempting to get you choose for the product. It would take too long to deal with all the available platforms and products. I will try to explain two sites and some of the developments of the productivity platform. I choose in this case for the products and aproach of Microsoft, because in my experience they provide the most complete vision and set of products to fullfill the need:

• Server site
• Client site

Productivity server platform

Last Fisical Year of Microsoft was a year full of new releases in the server system area. A small but not exhaustive list encompasses:

• Windows server 2008 R2
• SQL server 2008 R2
• SharePoint Server 2010
• Exchange Server 2010

Soon to be released is the product Office Communication Server (OCS) 2010. These products are part of the classic on premise server products of Microsoft. Again it would take too far to explain all changes here but I will try to explain some of the changes most important to the set of functionalities that implement productivity.
The server products form an application infrastructure that implement a broad set of functionality. SharePoint uses SQL server as an underlying database infrastructure. SharePoint hosts sites that support team collaboration. Content can be created within a BLOG. A BLOG is a way to write an article like I am doing right now. If you like the content you can react to it, link to this BLOG, create a feed so new articles show up in your outlook. New functionality in SharePoint is that you can very quickly react by push a button 'I Like' and rate an article. This will affect the relevance of an article when searched. Besides of the supported enterprise tagging system, users have the possibility to add their own index. This again influences your interests and eventually the relevance and search results of your most close contacts. These mechanisms also apply to documents. These are also stored in the content databases hosted on the SQL platform. By implementing your organizational structure into a directory structure (DNS) and using groups a relational network is established. This structure is used as a base to 'calculate' the relationship with coworkers or social distance. This together with the former discussed mechanism provides a base for building a user centric knowledge driven productivity system. This system is self-providing when used.

In combination with OCS the platform is promoted to a communication system, which helps the user to choose the most effective way to contact someone and share information or collaborate. Presence will show the best fit or will take you to the best next candidate to ask your question and get your job done. This presence is available within all information objects, so lists, documents, emails, chat sessions etc.

Imagine now these information and collaboration is about a development and sales process, supporting the meetings needed to analyze the requirements, develop the product and services, the release of a quote and the preparation of a contract. For the right customer information the CRM system is leading and integrated as well as the information needed for the product information. These kinds of processes can take a whole lot of conversation, meetings a lot of paper exchange. Supported by a platform that support online meetings and presentations, exchange of the documents under version control within a project collaboration environment can take care of a lot of coordination en will speed up high quality collaboration and team productivity.

Productivity client products

This one is relatively easy and familiar for the most of the companies. Microsoft has a broad set of distinct applications in the office suite on top of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Well there are a lot of developments in this area. The functionality in the last two versions has become very rich. Especially the Office 2010 developments are very much focused on productivity.

Most famous of course are the products Word, Excel and Outlook in this suite, but there is a lot more. In the combination with the server functionality the real power is unveiled. The new meaning of 'C' in ICT is provided by these applications. Outlook for instance supports the information worker with an aggregated view on all communication and shared activities with coworkers. Even information sources from outside the limits of the company can be used to unify the insight accessed by this view.

When trying to contact the content owner for more information the system has the capability to help you choose the most appropriate to get in touch. Even if this colleagues is not available who will most likely be the best to contact instead. Sounds like the future of productivity? Well no this future is now!

So where is the utility part of this client side solution? Can I have this functionality without the burden of technology? Yes you can! Since last Office release these products are available as web products. No need to install these on your laptop or desktop computer. Much but not all functionality is available by accessing the application with a browser. It is of virtual no importance where or when you attempt to access the information, even not with a smartphone or a Macintosh computer the application is available. You can contact and collaborate with colleagues or coworkers from outside your company with a total freedom of choice.

The future of productivity and The Cloud

Most valuable is the developments that implement the vision of Microsoft. Every server development is designed with the possibility of an online deployment in mind. The most important server platforms are already available in a cloud version. Microsoft is delivering their products in a software as well as a service version. This is the case for server platforms as well as client products.

Microsoft believes in the Software and Services approach. Delivering software as a service is not only about a cloud deployment. It also means a whole different business model. During the old model Microsoft sold licenses, which are owned by the customer. The hardware underneath the software was also owned by the customer. Much like the electric power plant 'owning my own power production' this computing power is moving to a utility. Power is available and used whenever needed for whatever use and payed for by use. This same business model is now part of cloud computing.

Microsoft calls the freedom of choice - three screens and a cloud, delivers software + services and is All In on this.

In the last years I witnessed the shift to more focus to the online deployments and I think this will be the end goal. It will take some time however to make this available to everyone and to change this industry.

Productivity is NOT about Technology

So the technology seems to be no limit anymore. So why not start immediately? The future of productivity is not about technology. It is a mindset, the courage to start to build a vision and take the first step into this future. To gain advantage of these first steps and invest these first revenues back into this future.

If we should have learned something from the last big information technology implementations and the impact on our organizations, it is the change needed to reach the predicted results. Too often system integrators didn't prevent organizations for mistakes in the estimation and the effort needed to prepare an organization for the new way of working with the system.

Know where you stand as an organization, how mature is your organization. Know where you want to go, have a clear vision and strategy for your productivity goals as part of and fitting in your overall business strategy. Know how to reach the goals you aim on; be sure you have a clear roadmap and understanding of the impact of every step before taking of.

These are open doors, but whatever big or small implementation - do not underestimate the importance of these rules of thumb. These are very worthwhile the effort and will ensure a much better return on your investment. There has been a tremendous development in the consulting methodology and tools to estimate the maturity, provide organizations with a clear roadmap and a broad set of best practice change interventions. For those organizations who are interested or are looking for a consultancy practice that has a fit with the Microsoft vision and technology stack, checkout the Impuls and Impact methods and for instance the Factor4Index tool to estimate maturity and provide an organization with a set of interventions.

New Way of Work not yet adopted by SMB

Developing a vision, adopting and implementing a new way of work and the technology needed to support that will take time. Investing time will cost money. Time is scarce and valuable. In this time of economic crisis the business has to go on more than ever. On the other site a crisis creates opportunities for the future; it is a turning point, a prelude to a new time.

The cost of the investments in a new technology or 'just' a new way of deployment can be calculated. The revenues of choosing for computing as a service instead of the tactical cost center too. Changing to a new way of work is a lot harder. We all know this change will take a lot of energy - mind the experience of the implementations of the ERP in the 80's. That took a lot more change in the way of work of the organization as was estimated and forecasted by the system integrators.
So what is a wise approach for the Small and Medium-sized enterprise? Adopt the developments now, or should investments be postponed? Is the focus on cutting cost more important than taking care of the future of productivity of the company?
In my opinion the technology is ready to take every size enterprise to the next level. The last developments and a few to be released in the very near future will enable the future of productivity within the small-sized businesses very naturally.

First steps needed are not about very big investments and organizational changes, but well-chosen smaller steps can make a big difference in the way these organizations are able to connect, share and collaborate or provide them with the possibility to engage with their existing or new markets. New deployments changing tactical cost centers into computing utility will enable these companies to reach out to much more distant markets, never imagined to be accessible.
The new way of work (NWOW) or 'Het Nieuwe Werken' (HNW) is a concept used by a lot of platform, solution or consultancy vendors. Some of them actually claim to be the inventor and owner of the name. Every vendor has its own definition of NWOW but are all trying to explain the same essence. It is not about technology it is not even new. It is about being productive and being able to be productive in this ever changing environment. Well we use technology to support the productivity, to be able to connect, to create content and to collaborate in an effective way. Most of all it should be fun, being able to choose your way of working at a time that suits you and with the means you choose.

Being able to choose the way a technology as a mean is deployed and functionality is consumed is a huge difference. The organization can invest in the change of the organization instead of rewiring the infrastructure and have to wait about a year for new functionality to be able to react to the ever changing environment.

A new way of work does not mean that employees of a company are given more freedom in the form of time, but that a company as a team has the ability to organize the work in a better balance with the private lives of the employees. A better fit in the value chain where a vendor or a customer is not your neighbor down the street by definition. The result is a better motivated employee, happier customers in which you can invest time and deliver high quality products at lower cost. Together, you, your company and your partners and customers.
So my advice is to take these developments into consideration and invest in the first steps of the future of productivity. Have fun.


If any questions arise please feel free to contact me. I'll be more than happy to help you out or arrange the contacts you need to get your questions answered or problems solved to your satisfaction.

ard.van.someren@ricoh.nl
@avsomeren

The future of productivity - Roadmap announcements BPOS

Wave 14 to The Cloud

This year Microsoft is releasing the last new versions of their Wave 14 program. Lot's of their major server and client products have been updated with new functionality. More important ALL of them have been redesigned and developed with The Cloud in mind.

With the launch of Exchange, SharePoint and Office 2010 earlier this year, Microsoft began to work to update BPOS* with the new capabilities that these products deliver. Microsoft started with their biggest customers. They have dedicated cloud deployments and now are fully deployed on the 2010 wave products.

In the next update, Microsoft will bring decades of on-premise innovation to the cloud for the multitennant SKU as well. Functionalality will get very close to parity with our server solutions.

WPC10 announcements

During the last Microsoft World Partner Conference in Washington DC a few announcements were made about the Online Roadmap. Microsoft did not provide exact dates for these releases. Buzz is that a preview of the new BPOS offering before the end of this calendar year. I wonder if that will happen...
More accurate and a bit more likely is the estimated timeframe of the delivery of the updates to each of the managed services and new online platform capabilities within this fisical year (Jul '10 - Jun '11).

Microsofts call for action to partners and cutomers is to get ready for this wave and the 'online tranistion', to focus on Business Model transformation and getting customers ready and deployed.

What functionality to expect?

A Lot of sessions at the WPC covered cloud services and next wave BPOS (codename 'Union'). These slides from the slidedeck of session 'CLD09 The Future of BPOS: Next Generation of Microsoft Online Services' provide insight in the updates to come.

SharePoint Online
The functionalities in this slide give insight in what to expect, check the original deck for the detail slide or drop me a note.

Office Communications Server '14' Online
OCS on-premise will be released this fall. Most functionality will move to the online services during 2011. Do not expect to be released in the first update.

Exchange Online

These are three of the most important server products that will add a lot of functionality to the Microsoft Online offering and great opportunities to extend the business solutions that support productivity. Mind that all this functionality is delivered in a total productivity suite and combined with the office 2010 client software provide a great experience in a familiar environment for the end user. Office 2010 (Web Apps) is also part of the Online offering.

* BPOS (Business Productivity Online Services) or Microsoft Online Services is a proposition of Microsoft; Enterprise class software delivered via subscription services hosted by Microsoft and sold with partners