I thought I would share our electronic team Christmas Card with you (powered by Silverlight – click to view animation).
We hope you enjoy a safe and happy holiday season – whichever holiday you choose to celebrate: Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Festivus.... Take the time be be with your friends and family, disconnect from the grid a little in order to reconnect with those that matter to you most. Get off your email, stop browsing the web, shut down your news reader. Your servers and systems will be there when you get back.
Get out the board games and challenge a loved one to a game of Scrabble or Risk.
I`m off to toboggan with my kids. With a last name of CLAUS, we really enjoy ourselves this time of year. :-)
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It’s a pleasure connecting and supporting each and every one of you through the year, both personally and from a team perspective … I am lucky to have a role and great team that is focused on supporting and helping you make a positive difference in Canada. I also feel so lucky to have this relationship with you. You’ve given us great feedback to help better support you , adjust our programs and hopefully we are earning your trust and building a foundation of satisfaction!
Canada has so many great developers and technical professionals that really make the difference in their community, business and individually. Over the year, I’ve had the pleasure to hear so many stories of heroic, life and business changing activities/solutions that you have impacted and delivered. Hearing your stories makes us even more compelled to support you. Your impact and feedback give me and my team the energy to try and do more. You are such a great group of people to support and I look forward to 2009
.
Merry Christmas to you and your families from me and mine … wherever you travel, whatever specifics you “celebrate” … may you find some time to BE with loved ones … and relax a little. Happy 2009!
As always in the new year… please feel free to contact me directly as my email door is always open ..... john.oxley@microsoft.com
John
Director Microsoft Canada
There is amazing work being done by volunteers in non-profit organizations such as in: policy, security, immigration, creating an IT profession, regulation, best practices, standards, increasing under-represented groups (such as women) into technology, addressing falling enrollments in technology, accreditation of post-secondary schools, professional-level certification, curriculum innovation, providing industry intelligence, and much more. On the international front, there’s the Seoul Accord which is about global education standards in Computer Science accreditation; the IFIP IP3 which is launching a global professionalism/certification practitioner program in 2009; the worldwide-web consortium and the work of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and the list goes on. What is not so widely known is that Canada is at the forefront of this work and Microsoft Canada is an incubator and facilitator for the contributions of volunteers and non-profit organizations. This became quite evident from a recent event that I’m sharing with you …
On October 25th I was invited to attend the awards ceremony that coincided with the 50th anniversary of ASTTBC,the association of technology professionals, and the national AGM of the CCTT (Canadian Council of Technologists and Technicians). With the awards ceremony in Vancouver BC, Premier Campbell was the invited keynote and Murray Coell, Minister of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development, the guest speaker. In attendance were academic leaders, and business and technology leaders from across the country including one or more members of the federal government. Minister Coell and Vancouver Mayor, Sam Sullivan, provided noteworthy speeches at the awards ceremony highlighting the good work and significant contributions of technology professionals.
I had the unexpected and surprising honour to receive “The Advanced Technology Award for Leadership in Information Technology” for a lifetime body of work and I felt honored to receive a congratulatory note from Carole James, leader of the official opposition, and these comments from Premier Gordon Campbell. “Congratulations on being honoured for your Advanced Technology Award…you have distinguished yourself in your field of endeavour promoting pioneering efforts in technology and this award will recognize your considerable contributions with respect to the applications and adaptations of advanced technology to new uses. I commend you for your many achievements and thank you for your commitment to industry excellence. On behalf of the Province of British Columbia, please accept my warmest congratulations on this special occasion.” During the ceremonies they talked about my work starting with a computer I built in 1965, founding companies, working with the National Council of IT Deans and with governments, authoring books, work in innovation, enabling charities, blogging and top blogger rankings, work as a MS Most Valuable Professional (MVP), supporting/leading IT associations, keynotes, … and so on.
However, it is clear that this award is also a reflection of the services Microsoft provides to the non-profit community--support from Microsoft has been a catalyst in working to meet the needs of business, industry, governments, academia, internationally, and the wider community. This fine work is accentuated by the globally “No.1 Ranked Team” out of 95 countries, consisting of the talented, dedicated advisors and evangelists at Microsoft Canada, headed by John Oxley, Director of Technical Audience Marketing and Director of Community Evangelism. You see them in the MS Canada blogs (check out the panel and links on the right to see their pictures/profiles), leading conferences, hosting webcasts, and more.
Microsoft is a keystone: on many international initiatives; ACCC National Council of IT Deans, increasing enrolments, providing faculty/student support, and hosting their meeting this year; managing security initiatives (see a 3-part series here with Chief Security Advisor, Bruce Cowper); hosting academic forums connecting faculty and deans to create solutions for current challenges; connecting charities with IT volunteers through MatchIT ; providing valued solutions/services to governments/business/industry/wider-community; supporting startups with BizSpark; providing foundational support to associations, user groups, and students; supporting the skills and career growth of IT professionals (EnergizeIT, TechDays, Ignite Your Career webcasts), sponsoring awards (IgniteIT Awards) and student innovation (imagine cup), and much more.
In May, I completed my role as Chairman and President of CIPS and in reviewing the annual report, Microsoft Canada was a key partner in providing value and support on every front. My hats off to Microsoft Canada, Mark, John, and to the innovative technical advisor/evangelist team (here in IT Manager Connections, there is Rick and Ruth); the work of Bruce Cowper as Chief Security Advisor; the marketing team, managed by Barnaby Jeans; Daniel Shapiro and his team of architects and academic advisors; Sasha, Ljupco, Sim (MVP leads in Canada); plus so many others who work tirelessly to make our experiences so much better.
Best regards and thank you to all,
Stephen Ibaraki
Stuart R. Crawford
Success Creator
You Factor Inc.
http://www.stuartcrawford.com
1-403-604-9464
Did this thought ever enter in your mind about a relationship or partnership? How did I ever get into business with these guys? How did I end up partnering with them? What do I have to do to get out of this relationship? These are normal thoughts that a lot of entrepreneurs, business owners and small business IT professionals deal with almost daily. Partnerships can be a very difficult ship to steer.
Getting into business with another person or entering into a partnership relationship with a bigger outfit or just the small IT firm down the street can be a great and very rewarding experience and it can also become one of the most stressful times of your life. Just like marriage, business relationships need to be nurtured, fed and contributed to by all parties involved, no one can be excluded. This includes those in your business and the vendors that you work with. Many times in business a partnership may appear to be one-sided, where one person feels like they are doing all the work or investing all the time and effort, this why some of the items below are very critical to the success of a partnership.
What can you do to ensure that everyone involved has a pleasurable partnership experience?
Date – Just like meeting the perfect match in your life, you will never rush into marriage, so don’t do this in your business relationships or partnerships. It is important that you have a dating period to feel each other out, learn about what each other offers, what strengths does the other party bring to the relationship and where there maybe some weaknesses. Also you need to make sure that everyone understands what you can bring to the table.
Show appreciation – Everyone has to feel like they contribute to the overall relationship. If you have business partners or a partnership with a vendor, all people in the relationship must feel like they are making a difference and that their contributions matter. Nothing will drive a partnership apart faster when parties in the relationship do not feel like they are contributing and making a difference and that they are appreciated.
Communications – Many great partnerships break down because of poor communications or a conceived indifference with regards to communications. When parties don’t communicate effectively, lots of thoughts and inconsistencies start to occur. It is critical that business partners communicate regularly. I recommend daily and that no secrets are kept from all parties. If you are unhappy with something, it is important to let the other party know right away, if a success comes then it needs to be communicated with all parties.
Exit Strategy – Every great partnership and business relationship must come to an end eventually. The exit strategy needs to be very clear from day one. What would happen if one person or party wishes to leave the partnership to pursue new things or even when a breakdown in the relationship occurs? What steps need to occur so that everyone can move on with their lives and businesses after the exit occurs by one person or a party in the partnership. It is not a bad thing to set the stage for the exit from day one.
Partnerships in business exist at all levels. Many professionals see partnerships just between individuals that go into business together and this is very true however partnerships go much deeper just some professionals starting a practice together. Many of these individuals join up with each other with dreams of creating something big and realize sometimes years into it that it was not a wise move and then some flourish and do create that company or relationship that sets a new precedence. This happens when individuals as well as companies work to make it work, partnerships are not a “set it and forget it” attitude. All parties need to be open to sharing, contributing and also celebrating all the victories that came their way in business.
Stuart Crawford freelance consults with You Factor Inc. helping Small Business IT Firms deliver their consulting services to their local market. Stuart has helped many IT partners throughout the world and he can help you win in today’s marketplace, sign up for his daily email of the day to help your business at http://www.stuartcrawford.com. He can be reached via email at stuart@stuartcrawford.com or through his blog at http://blog.itsuccessmentor.com.
This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Kelly Gotlieb, "the" Internationally Renowned Pioneer in Computing - Kelly talks about his classified work.
Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
This week, Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P. continues his exclusive interviews with computing pioneer, Calvin C. (Kelly) Gotlieb, C.M., M.A., PhD.D. (University of Toronto), D. Math. (Hon., University of Waterloo), D. Eng. (Hon., Technical University of Nova Scotia), Fellow CIPS (FCIPS), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the British Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery.
Kelly Gotlieb is currently Professor Emeritus in Computer Science and in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto (UT). He is a computing pioneer, whose innovations and accomplishments helped lay the foundation of an entire worldwide industry, educational stream, and profession. His contributions are so profound and their impact so diverse and in so many areas that the lasting value cannot be comprehended. Have a look at this blog to find out more: http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/archive/2006/09/29/459971.aspx
To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link
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In this episode I talk with Greg Patchev (IT Manager from Gerrie Electric) and Andy Papadopoulos (president of Legendcorp) on how they came about deploying a Microsoft based Unified Communications solution to replace an end of life PBX system for 17 offices. At first they were only looking for a collaboration / presence solution, but they soon discovered that Office Communication Server 2007 met most of their needs without having to introduce more complexity to their IT environment by going with one of the typical VoIP PBX vendor solutions. Now that they are fully deployed, they are already positioning themselves to take advantage of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 due out later this year.
Additional Resources
More information about the IT Manager Podcast series can be found on the IT Manager Podcast web page.
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With the holidays around the corner, it brought to mind this study and two interviews I did for CTV’s Canada AM and 57News. The interviews center on how technology is bringing the world closer together.
There is a MS Instant-Messenger study that suggests there are really Six.Six Degrees of connection between people -- much like the game surrounding “6 Degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.” The study received wide interest after an article appeared in the Washington Post by Peter Whoriskey.
“With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances…The database covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world's instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said…For the purposes of their experiment, two people were considered to be acquaintances if they had sent one another a text message. The researchers looked at the minimum chain lengths it would take to connect 180 billion different pairs of users in the database. They found that the average length was 6.6 steps and that 78 percent of the pairs could be connected in seven hops or less.”
I have some added thoughts on this study, which didn’t get into the interviews so I’m sharing them with you…
Enjoy the holiday season!
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
1. How surprised are you that they’ve been able to determine that there is 6.6 degrees of separation?
Not surprised since social technology use is so pervasive and growing at the grassroots level. This widespread usage allows for this research and for these findings that people are quite connected. Let me give you some examples:
- In the IT professional space, for CIPS, Canada’s Association of IT professionals, our members use social connection technology to actively build relationships, manage projects, share best practices, and this use exposes added relationships and connections amongst friends and relatives as well. In fact we just launched a new web site at www.cips.ca to better leverage this connections value for members.
- In August, my mother celebrated her 88th birthday. She never touched a computer before but for her birthday gift and without external influences, she requested a laptop so she could practice social connections. I found this amazing!
- I had a recent discussion with a famous Canadian computing pioneer and he was struck and amazed at how his great grandson at 5 was so adept on a computer working seamlessly with it.
- Not too long ago, cell phones, e-mail, the internet were considered niche phenomena, so I ask, how many in the audience use these tools?
- With social networks such as Windows Live Messenger, LiveSpaces, Facebook, and MySpace, it is estimated that 50% are 35 or over and more than 70% over 18. So, it’s not just something that is happening with the younger group but older demographic as well—look at the coverage in the media and how the political campaign in the US used social media. And it is just going to get bigger due to heavy use amongst the youth. More than 80% of college-age Generation Y use these kinds of services. These social communities are much larger than 100 million which would rank them amongst the top countries in size. How many in the audience use at least one of these social tools or text message? We even have the Governor General, Michaelle Jean, using blogs, videos to connect with Canadians.
- Mass collaboration is occurring on a global scale and this is the present and future reality.
The internet provides a grassroots data warehouse of relationships, connection, and community that will yield tremendous insights into humanity and our common base. There are 400 million blogs worldwide and a new one coming up every second. Even in new economies such as China, there are more than 600 million cell phone users which allows social connection on an unprecedented scale through texting, video, internet sharing, and this now yields the world's greatest connected population. This is bigger than the next 3 countries combined. The Network Effect says the value derived is the square of the nodes (participants) and this is what is happening through social networks.
2. How is it that technology has been able to bring people together?
Technology involves social media which includes Instant Messaging, Blogs, Wikis, Videos, Pictures, and social platforms like Windows Live Messenger and Facebook … An example, cell phones are everywhere and they allow you to share pictures and videos and to use social media.
Social media is about people, places, process, platform, patterns, participation. There are 6.7 billion people and technology provides a flat world, mass collaboration, grassroots participation that knows no boundaries. We are moving towards 2 billion users of the Internet and social connections rapidly growing to involve hundreds of millions. The internet, mobile connections enables all of this and without limits. You see this with 3G cell phone networks, broadband high-speed access, global internet access, smart phones (iPhones); this is just the start of huge revolution. There is much written about this and this will only continue.
3. How accurate do you think the science was in the research of this study?
The science is a reasonable estimate for those who have access to this ubiquitous technology and this provides a picture of what is to come. The science will also improve as this Wikinomics or connection (Tapscott and mass collaboration) revolution continues through pervasive low-cost connectivity. Nicklaus Negroponte at MIT has his low-cost computing projects and there are so many others attempting to put connectivity in the hands of everyone. Good examples of low-cost computing are Mobile technologies with enhancements like you see in Windows Mobile, iPhone, Google Android, … this is the pervasive tool for the future for enabling relationships. There is an interesting platform call LiveMesh (mesh.com) where you can share anything on any device all enabled through the Web!
4. With advances in wireless technologies, do you see the degrees diminishing?
You have PCs, and then mobile phones as connection platforms, and cloud computing (where services are provided all on the internet—LiveMesh is an example). And other examples like, Windows Live Messenger, Youtube, Facebook, SecondLife Virtual Worlds...or Club Penguin being brought by Disney (pre-teen virtual world), and more. Essentially you have seen this connectivity grow by leaps since the mid-90's and it will continue to expand. The degrees of separation will diminish as a result as we get more connected. We also have a generational revolution with Gen-Y and Gen-I who feel as comfortable reaching out and using technology as previous generations did using telephones. These new generations are also very much about collaboration, trusting their friends for information, personalization and entrepreneurship, and feel uninhibited in connecting with anyone—for example, in the workplace they are not intimidated by hierarchy. They typically have a richer experience outside the workplace than at the workplace so this is changing our work environments too. Another interesting phenomena is the online gaming environment or e-sports which is an 18B marketplace and bigger than the 9B for movies in NA. There's even online e-sports federations supplanting traditional sports in popularity such as in Korea. This movement is now building globally.
5. Why do you think it’s important for people to know that they are so closely tied together?
When we can identify with others through relationships, this builds common ground and commonality breeds collaboration and fellowship versus conflict, and wars. This is good for all. Here are some examples. CIPS is now working with Generation-Y serial entrepreneur Michael Furdyk. He co-founded TakingITGlobal.org which about using social media platforms to drive innovation and participation supporting social causes. Famed negotiator, Stan Christensen (of Arbor Advisors), relates an interesting story about the value of closeness or relationships. There’s a negotiation conducted between Ecuador and Peru over a dispute lasting more than 50 years. The negotiations were at an impasse until the two principals [a General and Politician] involved got into a room for about an hour to discuss everything but the negotiation. They found out they both had disabled children and they shared stories about the tremendous effort by their spouses to provide support and this led immediately to coming to an agreement. They wanted to work together since the common ground built trust. For this reason, it’s important for people to know how closely we are tied together.
October 2008 articles
I wrote an article, “The Future of IT: BAITing the right skill sets,” for the October issue of Canadian Government Executive Magazine about a consensus happening in the market…so I’m sharing it with you.
Enjoy!
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
This is old news, but still relevant, because government still isn’t getting it right enough of the time: you should not make an IT investment without good business justification, and IT success depends on the interpersonal and networking skills of IT specialists as much as any other discipline
Take, for example, the November 2006 Auditor General’s Report where only two out of seven projects sampled met all the criteria for success – many of the challenges were on the business side, not the technical.
Unfettered, unplanned technology – once the route to organizational agility – ended with the dot-com implosion. IT, like every other area, is now squeezed to get more results from limited resources. Today, there must be real value returned to the organization from IT investments. Driving this global trend are people with the right skills and competencies, who can justify the IT investment, make the “necessary” continuing business case while communicating and working effectively with the business side of the organization – all leading to comprehensive, unified technology business solutions.
So what attributes must you possess for mission achievement, project success, organizational agility through IT investment, and also for IT career growth? The acronym BAIT sums it up: combine Business skills with a service Attitude; Interpersonal skills with Technical abilities.
I will get to the details soon.
Why does BAIT matter?
Business skills with a service attitude, and interpersonal skills with technical abilities is a combination that resonates with users. It has been well received at the Strategic Architecture Forum; at the Ten City IT Executive Alignment Tour; the National Council of IT Deans Summit; the Ottawa Summit (May 2008, for 70 architects, IT and business leaders from the federal government); and the Global User Group Summit of leaders from 2000 IT organizations
There is a convergence of opinion that interpersonal and technical skills must be focused on achieving business objectives.
The UN-founded International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) has their International Professional Practice Partnership, which will launch their global IT professional certification in 2009. When you examine their underlying standards, there is a spotlight on BAIT themes.
Finally, when you analyze the social technology and business IT trends, there is an underlying need for BAIT in IT workers. Moreover, future roles in IT will have a business slant, including in new job titles. At conferences, IT architects are remarking on this movement in their organizations and verifying that it is also happening with their colleagues.
Business and core industry knowledge
On the business side, the IT worker must understand and support the business goals and long-term results desired in organizations. These goals can be summarized in the areas of:
- Development: continuing product and service innovation, capability growth, culture improvement. As a side-note, an encouraging agility-focused organizational "culture" trumps even business strategy.
- Employees: collaboration, productivity, efficiencies, satisfaction, development.
- Financial: increased funding, revenue, value; lower costs/expenses; increased surplus, productivity; doing more with existing resources; operational excellence.
- Customer/Citizen/Client: engagement, retention, satisfaction, strong relationships/intimacy.
- Competitive: entering new markets, segments, client areas; growing existing markets, client base; ensuring differentiation and distinct advantage (in the public sector, tackling new problems, renewing focus on the thorny issues).
Solid business competencies in IT workers are increasingly necessary to ensure organizational agility. This agility is formally defined by: growth; entry into new markets or new service areas; support for new customers or new users or new clients; enabling new products or services to existing customers or users or clients; providing value differentiation and distinct value advantages.
In addition, IT workers should have a good understanding of the "core business processes" in the industry they are working in: government, education, health care, private sector.
Attitude
In my travels and discussions with business and technology leaders, they also cite a good "attitude" as a core attribute they encourage. This was a particularly consistent theme from the invited panel experts in the Ignite Your Career Series. What this means is a service-orientation with a clear focus on customer or client intimacy, and a positive user experience: moving from interpersonal isolation and differentiation as a “geek” to engagement with the full team.
Interpersonal
Connecting is a foundation for all activity today. There's this rule of thumb based upon research that states: 93 percent of any engagement is message and delivery, and only seven percent is content.
Growing Social Technology usage and the rapid rise of Generation Y and Generation I in the workforce accentuate this trend. There is more in this blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/archive/2008/07/01/are-you-planning-for-generation-y.aspx.
This means strong "interpersonal" skills are needed for project management, client/customer relationship management and communications capabilities.
As part of my activities, I am the co-host for the IT Manager Connection blog (http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/), which this year received a Top 10 ranking by Computer World and a Top 6 (out of 400 million blogs) from the Global MVP Summit. In 20 years of interviewing world experts, the “interpersonal skills” connection is a consistent recommendation.
Technical
Rounding out all of this are technical skills and competencies which reflect what you can actually accomplish when confronted with problems and challenges. There is a framework for abilities – starting with knowledge, comprehension and ending with application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation – summarized below:
- Knowledge: provide a list
- Comprehension: give definitions to the items in the list
- Application: applying elements in the list to solve problems
- Analysis: ability to analyze situations to solve problems
- Synthesis: taking a wide and broad scope of experiences and frameworks to problem resolution in an integrated fashion
- Evaluation: competencies refined to the point where you can judge and evaluate the work of others.
Skills are knowledge-based but through practice and experience lead to application, analysis (of problems) and then, finally, synthesis and evaluation. Synthesis means you can take diverse subject areas and integrate them in solving situations. Evaluation allows you to act as a judge or gives you the ability to fully evaluate the performance of others. Competencies are about "application to evaluation." Competencies are the end-goal for career minded IT professionals.
Preparing for the future
From a career standpoint, where is it heading? IT specialists have narrow but deep competencies in one domain or category. IT generalists have a variety of skills though they are not deep in any one area.
For longer-term career growth, the focus will be on multi-skilled versatilists. This group has multiple deep competencies. They will actively seek a wide range of "challenging" roles in their careers. Over time, they will develop broad experience and be recognized as possessing considerable experience in several domains. They will also demonstrate BAIT attributes.
According to some studies, though outsourcing represents only 12 percent of organizations right now – with mid-size organizations outsourcing more than large ones – the area of highest outsourcing growth, at 5.8 percent annually, is in desktop/networking or in the IT specialist area. There is also a trend towards Dynamic Environments. This is due to policy and business-rule based on real-time dynamic IT service allocation stemming from increasing automation and virtualization. Ultimately, this leads away from IT specialists and towards IT workers with BAIT attributes.
Demand for IT technical specialists will drop over time as IT roles increasingly will have a business focus. If you are an IT specialist, it will be good to start preparing for this trend now by having BAIT in your personal goal list.
And if you manage IT functions or rely on the IT function to achieve your objectives, you might want to get ahead of the curve and create an organizational climate that attracts, develops and supports business skills with a service attitude, and interpersonal skills with versatile technical abilities.
This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Bruce Cowper, Top International Security Authority, Chief Security Advisor Microsoft Canada. This is Part 3 in a 3 Part series where Bruce provides deep insights into security. Take a moment to scan the Topic Index…and then listen to the interview!
Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
As the Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft Canada, Bruce is responsible for the overall security strategy, working closely with the Public Sector, large enterprises, Industry Associations and the Community across Canada. He comes from a security background in secure system design, forensics and security risk management and as the Chief Security Advisor leverages his real life hands-on experience to relate to the challenges faced today. Bruce is a prolific speaker and can frequently be found in the media and at conferences across Canada and beyond.
Bruce is a founding member of the Toronto Area Security Klatch (TASK) and an active member of numerous organizations across Canada. Before moving to Toronto and joining Microsoft, Bruce held positions on the board of directors of several IT companies, championing the development of technical excellence and the customer experience.
To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link
View topics and Timeline
This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Bruce Cowper, Top International Security Authority, Chief Security Advisor Microsoft Canada. This is Part 2 in a 3 Part series where Bruce provides deep insights into security. Take a moment to scan the Topic Index…
Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
As the Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft Canada, Bruce is responsible for the overall security strategy, working closely with the Public Sector, large enterprises, Industry Associations and the Community across Canada. He comes from a security background in secure system design, forensics and security risk management and as the Chief Security Advisor leverages his real life hands-on experience to relate to the challenges faced today. Bruce is a prolific speaker and can frequently be found in the media and at conferences across Canada and beyond.
Bruce is a founding member of the Toronto Area Security Klatch (TASK) and an active member of numerous organizations across Canada. Before moving to Toronto and joining Microsoft, Bruce held positions on the board of directors of several IT companies, championing the development of technical excellence and the customer experience.
Bruce holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering as well as industry standard qualifications.
To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link
View topics and Timeline
Application Platform Strategy 
Recently a series of questions came up within the Global IT Advisory Council so I provided my take which I’m sharing with you.
Regards,
Stephen Ibaraki,
FCIPS,
I.S.P.,
MVP ,
DFNPA,
CNP What is an Application Platform to you?
I see this from a holistic view which includes the applications, the application platform interface, the application platform itself, an infrastructure interface, and then the infrastructure that provides for overall communications. This set of integrated technologies and tools must provide competitive advantage and agility for the organization. Competitive advantage is delivered through the 5 core drivers to organizational success: high value and clear differentiation; support for a low-cost operational advantage; increased collaboration, productivity, efficiency; support for developing areas of market focus; providing for continual innovation. Business agility is defined by: growth, entry into new markets, support for new customers or new users or new clients, enabling new products/services to existing customers or users or clients, providing differentiation and distinct advantages.
Does your firm have an Application Platform strategy? How is it working?
We do have an application platform strategy and it’s working well since it’s integrated into the whole business strategy of the organization. This goes to aligning the platform strategy to the organizational objectives. This alignment is advanced using a business plan approach and ensuring that the platform supports all of the key headings of the business plan: Purpose; Vision; Mission; New opportunities and markets; Overall business model and the SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound); Target markets and the delivery models to these markets including address the 4Ps of marketing (product/service, promotion, pricing, placement/distribution); Competitive analysis; SWOT analysis (addressing organizational: internal strengths, weaknesses—external opportunities, threats); Human capital strategies; Resource requirements; Metrics for IT success; Financial projections (TCO, ROI, Timing, Pro-forma budgets).
Moreover the platform strategy must support the goals and values of the organization:
- Goals are long term results driving: dependable future success and typically involve these categories: Development (innovation, capability growth, culture improvement), Employee (collaboration, development, efficiencies), Financial (increased revenue/funding, growth, profit, doing more with less), Customer/client (engagement, retention, satisfaction), Competitive (new markets, growing existing markets, differentiating).
What is the mix of platform technologies and products that makes the most sense to you?
Russell Ackoff, past Dean of the Wharton School, has noted that the performance of a system depends upon how the parts interact and not how they work separately.
This research fact determines our mix of platform technologies and products. We find that it’s simplest to focus on just a few vendors and ideally one if they can provide the best holistic integrated environment. Our studies show that this reduces the time for service implementation by 50% and a reliability/productivity boost overall. Paraphrasing Peter DeLisi, a noted business thought leader and Dean of the IT Leadership Program at Santa Clara University: while working on the functional and operational areas [maintenance areas] are important, it’s essential that IT [and the platform] direct its efforts towards the strategic level. That’s the place of maximum business advantage and essentially the Hub or Keystone of the business. By using a one-vendors strategy, this goal is supported.
Though outside of the Application Platform itself, making infrastructure choices has a ripple effect. One example of a quick route to operating cost reduction, efficiency and service quality increase, is server consolidation through virtualization. Server consolidation is the most effective when you run a unified and standardized application environment so this links to the application platform. You need less computing hardware and staffing to maintain the systems with higher up-time or reliability as a natural consequence. Integration of business information is improved thus yielding business intelligence, and collaboration is easier inside and outside your organization. Moreover, workflow and business process is simplified and consistent, business agility and productivity is improved while simultaneously lowering operating costs. However, the big new challenge is planning and managing security within this environment.
What are some opportunities and challenges for you as an IT Manager from an Application Platform standpoint?
The biggest challenge is ensuring a consistent and coherent integrated platform strategy that also makes sense to the business side of the organization. This is backed by a recent study by the Auditor’s General Office, of 7 projects they sampled, only 2 met all the criteria for success.
Security and compliance are heavy burdens and this will only increase due to the worldwide financial crisis. However, this also provides an opportunity since the platform is an essential component to the business-side.
What are some of the issues you deal with when making platform decisions at your company?
I thought Michael Miller (do a live search for more information) provided an interesting framework for technical platform decisions which is captured in these headings: Platform services; Identity and roles; Rich type library; Security; Extensibility; Process identification and execution; Solution packaging and containment; Deployment models.
Since there’s a close alignment to the business side, this also provides our biggest challenge. That is, how to translate platform choices/decision so that they support the organizational goals and objectives and we can effectively measure the gains. Measurement often proves difficult together with support of all of the SMART organizational objectives. We have found from experience, that it is key to have our platform architects working in close proximity with the business teams in cross-functional committees that meet regularly and with scheduled intervals for ongoing SWOT analysis. And there must also be executive buy-in at all levels and support
This is the next blog in the continuing series of interviews with top-echelon and renowned professionals. In this blog, I interview Bruce Cowper, Top International Security Authority, Chief Security Advisor Microsoft Canada. This is Part 1 in a 3 Part series where Bruce provides deep insights into security. Take a moment to scan the Topic Index…
Enjoy,
Stephen Ibaraki, FCIPS, I.S.P., MVP , DFNPA, CNP
As the Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft Canada, Bruce is responsible for the overall security strategy, working closely with the Public Sector, large enterprises, Industry Associations and the Community across Canada. He comes from a security background in secure system design, forensics and security risk management and as the Chief Security Advisor leverages his real life hands-on experience to relate to the challenges faced today. Bruce is a prolific speaker and can frequently be found in the media and at conferences across Canada and beyond.
Bruce is a founding member of the Toronto Area Security Klatch (TASK) and an active member of numerous organizations across Canada. Before moving to Toronto and joining Microsoft, Bruce held positions on the board of directors of several IT companies, championing the development of technical excellence and the customer experience.
Bruce holds a degree in Computer Systems Engineering as well as industry standard qualifications.
To listen to the interview, click on this MP3 file link
View Topics and Timeline
I hope you have been following the Ignite your Career series we've put on this year for IT Managers. We're wrapping up this edition on December the 9th with a special session called "Project Management for the IT Manager - when to bring in help". I had a great conversation with one of the panellists last week - Jessica Keyes, author of "Leading IT Projects, the IT Manager's Guide". I'm in the process of contacting the other two panellists this week to ensure we have some great discussion around Project Management.
I've always been on the "consultant" side of the house - being brought in as part of large projects or leading teams that are part of multi-team projects. I was grateful to have worked with some fantastic Project Managers (Margie Daw - to single one out) who kept the teams on track and also acted as a liaison / translator amongst all the different levels of management involved with the project.
I'm very interested to hear YOUR comments and questions on this subject. PLEASE drop me an email (rick.claus@microsoft.com) with some questions or if you prefer voicemail - give a shout out to the IT Manager Podcast / Blog contact line @ tel:1-800-693-3827.
Here's the details for the episode. Be sure to REGISTER for this one - you don't want to miss it!
Project Management for the IT Manager – when to bring in help
Some individuals believe that project management knowledge is best kept in the realm of implementing projects with a fixed timeline and endpoint. Others believe that project management skills are invaluable in running day to day operations.
Here is a scenario: You are about to kick off a traditional project for implementing a new solution for your organization. You’ve brought in a partner to augment your internal staff – who is ensuring you have an achievable plan and will hold the team accountable for a smooth implementation. When should you decide to bring in a dedicated project manager with credentials or use some simple project management tips and techniques? Listen to what your peers have done to ensure a successful project implementation, ranging from a server upgrade to a global email migration and rollout, in this one hour webcast.
REGISTRATION: URL: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032386569&EventCategory=4&culture=en-CA&CountryCode=CA
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If you have not listened to The IT Manager Podcast recently – or if you have never listened in before, you should take a moment to have a listen to this show. It’s the first episode where we’ve refreshed the format and updated the production elements. It’s only 30 minutes long and this episodes topic is about reducing your data management complexity with SQL Server.
Our previous episode focused on how organizations are finding the information they are looking for in the mountain of data they have amassed over the years. This episode focuses on tools used to manage data and one organization’s strategic decision to use SQL Server to standardize on a toolset in order to reduce complexity in their data environment. Listen in to hear Erin Elofson (SQL Server Product Manager for Microsoft Canada) Rekha Jethva (City of Mississauga) and Rob Shillinger (Systemgroup) talk about the benefits and journey of moving to a single data platform, as well as lessons learned along the way.
Additional resources
More information about the IT Manager Podcast series can be found on the IT Manager Podcast web page.
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Comments, Suggestions and Ideas for Future Topics can be left below as a comment or emailed directly to the IT Manager Podcast feedback alias at itmgrpod@microsoft.com. (This address goes directly into my mailbox AND the producers mailbox).
You can now call our comment line to leave a voice message with your comments, suggestions for future episodes or anything you like.
tel:1-800-693-3827
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Over the last 6 weeks or so, John Bristowe and I, as well as Rick Claus and Christian Beauclair, have visited 10 cities for the AlignIT Tour. For those of you that attended the tour events, we thank you once again for taking the time out of your busy schedule to hear about how you can take the road to a more optimized and dynamic IT infrastructure by taking advantage of a model-based approach through the Infrastructure Optimization model. Through your feedback, you also indicated that virtualization is something that you are looking at as a technology to help you make this happen and I hope that we were able to provide some insight into virtualization from the desktop to the data centre .
For both those of you that were able to make it out to the event, as well as those that could not get away, we are now making the post-event resources available for you to download and review at your own pace. You can find the PowerPoint slide decks, video recordings of the sessions (as delivered in Mississauga), as well as additional links and resources at http://www.microsoft.ca/alignit/resources. The same content is also available in French at http://technet.microsoft.com/fr-ca/cc984534.aspx, but please note the the video recordings are in English only.
While reviewing the content, don't forget about the upcoming Webcast for IT Managers titled Project Management for the IT Manager - when to bring in help on December 9 at 12 noon EST, or the IT Manager Podcast series, which may provide useful insight and help you grown your skills.
Once again, thanks to all of you that attended the tour events. We hope that you found the content and use of your time worthwhile. To follow on John Oxley's previous post, please email me at damirb@microsoft.com with any additional thoughts and feedback on the AlignIT Tour. We also value your input in our future events targeted at the technology planners and managers so please let us know what we can do to help you do what you do better.
Thanks...Damir
