Making IT Happen

The Register are running pics today of what's supposed to be RIM's first touchscreen model. I like the look of the rotating 'keyboard'. RIM won't confirm the story.

Six months into the year, and mindful of the credit crunch, we've set the challenge of out-turning 10% less than last years budget on IT - with inflation running at 4% that's 14% of efficiencies.

When we started looking at this we thought there would be carnage, but do you know what? In reality it is driving a bunch of sensible and reasonably straightforward projects to achieve specific cost savings. Applications will be consolidated. Rack space will be reduced via vm ware. Why not set yourself the 14% challenge - you may be surprised what it throws up.

We're also targetting the same efficiencies next year - and again, although we thought it would be extremely tough we are already coming up with ideas. Watch this space.

I have grumbled once or twice about suppliers on this blog - so it's good to be able to sing the praises of a recruitment consultant. Alex Lawless at Computer Futures sent an unsolicited e-mail a few months ago in something I was interested in (business intelligence people) and I got in touch. Since then not only has he sent relevant cv's (an apparent baseline but lots of people in his industry don't), he also put me in touch with a consulting firm if we wanted to use them rather than employ our own people. He has also offered other bits of value add along the way, and having just spoken with him to tell him we wouldn't be using his firm for recruiting as we have decided not to employ anyone in this area he immediately e-mailed me some other contacts that might be helpful. Swoon.

Have you ever sat in one of those sales presentation which has gone so completely off the rails that you have to step in, stop the thing and put it back on the tracks? This happened last week when we had Microsoft in (at short notice) showing off PerformancePoint. We'd allocated 60 mins for product intro and demo so that we could spend 2 hours talking about what we wanted. Well the introductory presentation took 45 mins and we were almost another hour (and maybe 25%) into the demo when I pulled the plug.

After the meeting some of my colleagues were more or less ready to ditch the product there and then.

Fair play to Microsoft though, they took it on the chin, spent the rest of the week and the weekend working with one of their partners - IM Group - and came in on Monday with a presentation that was spot on. They had a fully configured prototype that answered many of our questions and demonstrated that they had listened and learned. They are now in with a good chance of getting the work. Provided the numbers are right, of course....

I saw this Google Evilometer post in Steve Clayton's geek in disguise blog this morning - it reminded me of the Process Indicator that I saw a while ago. It is only a prototype at present but it hooks up via a USB to whatever you want to monitor. I particularly like the amber tube - which glows more intensely as whatever you are measuring increases.

Not sure which 3 things a CIO should monitor - stakeholder happiness, talent growth and strategic contribution spring to mind - now how do I measure those. And what should I hook up to the red light?

My test of a truly smartphone is 'could you go on a three day business trip and just take it, not your laptop?'

The launch of a T-Mobile phone with Google's Android mobile operating system is a key stage in the development of the corporate market for 'smartphones'. Whilst some corporates have used mobile devices for specialist applications they have not had a huge impact of general corporate applications - except of course e-mail, calendar, contacts and other MS Outlook type functions.

Having another big player in the market can only help the process of making smartphones a more credible replacement for laptops for people on the move.

Following on from yesterdays bog about new approaches to this, i went to three offices in Holland. The first was DELA, a company that insures funeral costs and provides funeral services

Each of their meeting rooms is known by its colour

and there is a wide range of types of workspace

We then went to the offices of Veldhoen, the consultants that developed all three projects. they had a curious chandelier in their reception. I know what it reminded me of but this is a family blog

This is one of their meeting rooms with a North African theme but also developed around the verbal culture of the region - no tables for taking notes - everything is discussed

Their general work areas are more like a club than an office

And finally to Interpolis, as mentioned yesterday. The main underlying themes here were:

• people - everyone is empowered and trusted. I know this sounds a bit trite but there were many examples of this in action - for example they ring up their own food items in any of the 11 restaurants in the building.
• workspace - you can see for yourself the wide range of spaces
• process - everything is based around digital flow - so you'll in the call centre photos there is no paper - in fact it doesnt look like a call centre
• technology - this ends up being fairly low key - everyone has a laptop and they just hook it up wherever they want.
• culture - the Dutch are a wonderful people (similar to the English in that they are tall, independent minded and enjoy toilet humour, but different in that they are all healthy and attractive and have good teeth - at least that makes them different from me). This shines through at Interpolis where the overall impression is one of relaxed order, good sense and vitality

Looks more like a starbucks than an office 

This is one of their call centres. An example of empowerment is that each of the call centre staff can negotiate and close claims themselves. There is literally no paperwork, and you could feel the efficiency in your fingertips.

...another type of workspace...

...and another....

...and another - I like the lights...

...a very smart meeting room - the one next dor had 5cm pile carpet on the table surface

In summary I have never seen the five things referred to in the title of this post brought together so well and to the obvious benefit of all stakeholders - why cant every workplace be like this?

I've heard a lot over the years about flexible working but have never seen anything to match the Interpolis head office in Holland. 3,000 people work there but the space is hard to recognise as an office - it's a mad mixture of all different types of space. I've seen this kind of thing in groovy PR companies but not on this scale - there's over 5,000 square metres of this on the ground floor in 10 completely different 'club' areas - and in a 'boring' insurance company.

I'll post some more pictures of this and other offices I've seen over the past 2 days on a trip to look at new ways of working, new combinations of people, place, process, culture and technology. This was oragnised by Phillip Ross at Unwired - a leading thinking in this area. Here's a few tasters...one of their meeting rooms...

...an 'office'

a room that defies description, but is used for confidential meetings - the chairs have acoustic deadening on the inside and no sound escapes - you really cant hear what they are saying

...

...and a more traditional conference room

the technology is pervasive but unobtrusive - more on this tomorrow, but in short - I'm inspired

We're currently trialling HSPA as part of the iPass mobile office service. Other elements of the service, including a nice little pc client that manages all your connection options, are good. HSPA access is a long way behind GPRS in terms of coverage, and makes the solution very unreliable if you are on the move. I'm told that it will switch to GPRS if 3G not available but my own experience is that it doesn't. It does work well if you are in one place and have reasonable coverage, and there is great WiFi coverage under their pre-paid all-you-can-eat agreement.

Analysts such as Analysys Mason are forecating a huge uptake in HSPA over the next few years - from 70 million in 2008 to 2.1 billion in 2015.

I was intrigued to see a link for Business Continuity Planning at the bottom of the homepage of the Lehman Bros website. Follow the link and the blurb says "Lehman Brothers has instituted industry-leading best practices for business continuity". Maybe we need a broader definition of business continuity?

Mind you their careers page is still up.