Cloud Technology

                           Why should I can about Cloud Technology?
                                                Published by Dan Mason and Paul Scott

Why should I care about Cloud Technology?

Cloud Technology is a disruptive force changing the computer landscape dramatically, and forever.  All senior business leaders, not just CIOs, should understand the opportunities and risks posed by the game-changing Cloud Technology (CT) movement. From a business perspective, the promises of Cloud Technology are capital and operating cost reductions, greater cost efficiency (bang for your buck), greater agility, and better IT service satisfaction.  As CT rapidly blows past the "hype" stage into serious implementation in companies from SMB to Enterprise, leaders need to develop well-defined positions, strategies, and action plans. Even if the right strategy is to take no immediate action, you need to assess your company's potential usage of Cloud Tech both now and down the road. Almost all companies can benefit from Cloud Tech in some way; commitments to using Cloud technologies range from simple, low-risk, low-cost solutions to holistic "bet-your-company"  propositions.

 What Do I Need to Know?

In short, you need to know enough about Cloud Technology to develop your own perspective on whether it could improve your organization's IT operating model now or in the future. First and foremost, you should understand that "The Cloud" is not a single technology, nor a technological breakthrough. It is a convergence of many technologies and trends. Together new business models and architectures are enabling more efficient use of technical resources and services. A Cloud approach can replace your entire IT infrastructure, or merely enhance it around the edges.  "Cloud Technology" is an umbrella term that defies strict definition, although IT vendors are happy to take advantage of the confusion to stamp their products with the Cloud label in hopes of locking you in to a specific implementation. As the industry hype subsides, the attributes of what really qualifies as "Cloud" are becoming clearer, as are the real benefits to be gained and the real risks and obstacles to be overcome. 

I don’t want to succumb to hype; is it real and can I save lots of money?

In regard to potential cost savings and competitive advantages, every company is different.  Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to assure us of the correct answer.  Ascension has found that leaders have been asking three questions regarding the move to cloud technologies: 1) If I move early, will I have an advantage over my competition? 2) Is the moderate approach better—keeping at par with my competition? 3) Should I wait until cloud computing is fully mature, understanding that I will mostly likely lose competitive and/or cost advantage?  Ascension suggests that you assess these positions together with other members of the leadership team—finance, sales and operations.  Determine the potential for increasing competitive advantage, and whether there is a real opportunity for cost savings. There are many ways to benefit from the rapid advances in Cloud Technology, if you have effective leadership to navigate the Cloud and separate the hype from reality.

How do I evaluate my competitive risk or reward position?

When evaluating Cloud strategies, it is imperative to assess cloud technologies directly against your own long-term business strategy and current operating models.  Ascension strongly advises that companies use only the business requirements, and strategic plans that they have defined, rather than accepting a vendor's canned solutions.  Case studies from vendors do not consider specific factors such as your need for resource elasticity, capital situation, risk profile, and employees' specific demands for modern computing services.

We believe your assessment needs to be fundamentally a financial review.  Break down the current costs of managing your infra-structure and applications--associating how capital and operating expense are represented.  Use your technology group, possibly with the help of other professionals, to learn and understand how cloud offerings can assist and support your business’s strategic direction.  Compare and contrast your findings.  We have seen in many instances, that a group of applications can be moved or re-programmed into a cloud application with significant savings and improved performance.

Once you have a defensible position, you can move forward.  With this rapidly-evolving field you may need some help.  Dan, Paul and the Ascension team are here to assist you.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

PCI - Credit Card issues

Credit cards are in need of more protection. Hackers and Crackers are making millions from stealing personal and corporate credit cards. Many companies have spent millions of dollars trying to protect credit cards necessary to conduct business. But for medium size businesses, this is proving to become very costly.

The Payment Card Industry (PCI) has put forth some of the best practices to ensure companies are protecting credit cards. However, the standards and practices are very difficult to implement and enforce. Please be encouraged, there are tactics to help reduce the affect and exposure to PCI standards.

Here are three tactics to help reduce the PCI scope in your environment and to reduce unnecessary duplication:

Tactic #1
For audit and management purposed, reduce the network and processes that touch payment cards to a separate network. Basically, you need two networks. Firewalls, segregation of duties and other divisive tactics will help keep the effect of the PCI requirements focused to only it's scope. PCI should only be restricted to PCI systems and processes.

Tactic #2
This may sound like a contradiction to the first tactic, but it helps your management of resources and talent. Align as many of your overall standards and practices with the PCI standards. Simply, developing and managing your standards and practices with consistency will save money, reduce errors and eliminate many redundancies within your organization.

Tactic #3
Do not wait to audit at the end of the year. Conduct small, random audits, every month throughout your organization. This will help ensure that standards, practices and processes are compliant. This tactic will help your employees know that they must continuous comply--which keeps the errors low and compliance high.

PCI is difficult, but very necessary. Do not take this standard lightly, but find efficiencies to help make this requirement helpful for all.

New Venture in tough times

New Ventures in tough times -- GO WEST--
It has been interesting to see the new venture landscape change significantly over these past few years. There are many great ideas waiting for development, however, capital has, for all intensive purposes, dried up.
Creativity is the way out of this drought. The American way can reign supreme, if we look back to our roots. The west was settled by boats and wagon trudging through thick and thin. It was tough times for the United States. However, the country was established and we became the strongest country in the world. Maybe we have forgotten the lessons of our country. Hard work equals progress and success.
--Go West--

Failure is not always bad. We can learn and move on. Edison had to fail over a thousand times to get the working light bulb. Our failures leads us to our successes.
--Go West--

I would encourage us all to look inside ourselves and hearken our American spirit. It is not a dirty word, or a bad thing to be AMERICAN. Stop believing the Kool-aid of others or the diplomacy of "working together".
--Go West--
Go forth, build and make a new frontier with your ideas and ventures.
--Go West--
How does one go west with ideas. Build the prototypes yourself. Find partners to come along side you and work together to build your idea or venture. The pioneers of the past did not have Capital investors telling them where and how to go west. The pioneers went forth. Let's go forth and make the life we want. It is hard, but you can do it.
--GO WEST ENTREPRENEUR, GO WEST--

Business Alignment - Part Two

If the Business says “Go West!”, IT needs to get a compass.

Central to many problems and issues facing IT is the disconnect between business goals and IT goals.   It is not an issue of focus; it is an issue of communication.  Ascension has repeatedly observed that when IT sits at the table of high-level business decision, IT tends to move in line with the business.  IT must respect the direction of the business, and the business must respect the ability for IT to help or hinder business.  We advise that IT and business sit at the table together on strategic issues.

Matching IT burns rates with revenues: a marriage made in heaven.

This concept is relatively new. Ascension promotes the concept of a two-tier IT budget. The first tier is ongoing expenses that "keep the ship afloat,”  such as infrastructure, systems maintenance, and base wages for necessary staff. The second tier is a quarterly re-forecasted budget of new projects or initiatives based on last quarter’s revenue performance.  Agile budgeting focuses on access to real funds and involves the business as an integral part of the decision-making.  This is in contrast to the old methods of budgeting.  This new construct forces IT to behave in alignment with the business and forces the business to seek IT's services to directly help increase revenues.

We hope these observation are helpful.  Please let us know if we can help you in your business endeavors. Ascension has experience and a long tradition in technology management, such as

¨ Information Technology and Product Development Management

¨ IT Services and Best Practices

Please call us at 425-750-0760 or email us at info@ascension-tg.com.

Business Alignment

 

Questions to ask yourself

¨ Do you know if your IT goals are aligned with your business goals?

¨ Does your IT department have a close relationship with Sales and Marketing? Can the relationship improve?

¨ Do business revenues/vision correlate with IT’s budgets and burn rates?

¨ Have your customers experienced problems from your IT systems?

 

According to the Society of Information Managers “Top IT Trends” report, IT leaders ranked business alignment as one of the top three concerns. It's not about technology; it's about the business.  The following simple practices will help you bring IT in alignment with the business:

Finding Customer Voice, It’s not just a survey

Your customer will inevitably be affected positively or negatively from services provided by IT.  It is critical that IT staff be able to hear your customer’s voice.  We have found simple and efficient means to have  IT hear what customers say and in turn, IT leaders and staff become more customer centric.  One way is to have various IT staff participate in customer focus sessions or customer service calls asking the customer for direct feedback.  We also believe strongly in having all management participate in a ‘day in the shoes’ activity—be a novice customer service or sales person for one day.

Working together for the win.

Does your IT department have a close relationship with Sales and Marketing? Can that relationship improve? Ascension strongly encourages IT leadership and Sales/Marketing leadership to have more face-to-face encounters.  Not another meeting!  We suggest IT reaches out to the business in an informal manner and discuss issues personally.   Here is an example:  Let's say IT has a critical project that needs funding.  Who has the best talent for selling a concept?  It's not IT.  IT needs to reach out to sales/marketing seeking their advice and guidance.   By doing this, mutual respect will grow between the sales and IT leaders and their respective teams. 

It's not about Technology, It's about Business Part two

Track effort, find efficiencies, and reduce cost

Use simple tracking tools to monitor all technology-based work. By tracking and reporting technology work load, your teams will find inefficiencies, duplications and unproductive work.

It's not about technology it's about business

This next practice may seem trivial, but Ascension has found it to be a fundamental cornerstone for turning technology groups into business groups. It’s not about cool technology, it’s about business.  Leadership needs to outline the business goals clearly with a firm and consistent statement regarding technology arguments surrounding  (Microsoft vs. Google) or methods (Waterfall vs. Agile). Simply put, it's not about technology, it's about business!

ABILITY TO SAY NO AND EXPLAIN WHY

Technologists need to understand that saying “No” and the ability to explain why, is an important tool in providing valuable services to the company and its employees.  We are not suggesting saying “no” to customer service or that technology teams dictate permission for business goals.  Individuals and groups within the company have “wants” that may not align with the business needs of the company.

Technologists are typically stuck in the middle, trying to satisfy individual requests without the ability to make the decision whether or not that request is in alignment with company’s goals. The team needs to be trained up with the ability to say no and explain why.

Standardized to make it easier

Find ways to provide simple standardize policy and practices that technology teams can safely and easily implement. These policies and practices should be simple, clear and concise; and relate to business performance. Consistent policies and practices will save time, effort, and money. It sounds simple, but standardizing will go a long way in matching technology effort directly to company performance.

Thank you.  Please let us know if we can help you in your endeavors.  Ascension Technical Group is a trusted advisor to business. Ascension's services encompass technology and business management.  We provide services to develop and streamline core management functions. Please call us to see how we can assist you. 

It's not about Technology, it's about business!

Questions to ask yourself
Do you have a difficult time getting a straight answer regarding total cost of information technology?
Are you uncertain about you’re IT team’s productivity?
Does your IT TEAM work in unison with the goal of the company?
Do you feel that your IT team is more concerned technology than profits?

Matching technology return on investment for many companies continues to be a challenge. You are not alone. Companies have struggled with this question for decades, “What is financially appropriate technology for our business?”
Many technology professionals continue to be enamored with technology rather than focus on the bottom line. Technologists thrive on the perceptions of being Wizards of the keyboard and need strategic direction to focus on core business needs. Scott advisory has used the following practices to help IT teams meet business expectations:

1.Tie technology tasks directly to financial goals
2.Track efforts, find efficiencies, and reduce costs
3. It's not about technology it's about business
4. Ability to say no, and explain why
5. Standardized to make it easier

Tie technology tasks directly to financial goals
Technologists are not trained to focus on the bottom line. If businesses simply tie the financial obligations of the technology group to the company’s bottom line, with clear expectations of expense control, technology professionals will try to achieve these goals. Outlining a clear and precise chart of monthly and quarterly financial goals will help guide expectations. We have seen the practice of reviewing monthly burn down reports that calculate actual expenses burn rates relative to company revenues as very effective tools. When teams understand the correlations, technologists will actively participate meeting corporate financial goals. In many cases, the issues are related to individual or group maturity. Your firm may need to move up the chain of more standardized practices. This is a good problem to have, because these issues are a matter of growth and education.

More to come...
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