October 7th, 2009

CRM failure: A virtual town hall discussion and podcast

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 3:49 pm

Categories: CIO issues, CRM, Cultural issues, End-user impact, IT issues, Podcast, Training

Tags: Podcast, CRM, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Advertising & Promotion, Sales Strategy, Enterprise Software, Software, Marketing, Sales, Michael Krigsman

Today’s IT failures town hall discussion brought together CRM analysts, sales experts, and IT practitioners to discuss why CRM projects do not achieve planned results and how to improve these projects. Click the player at the top of this post to listen.

I was joined for this event by CRM industry guru, Mike Muhney. Beginning with the co-invention of ACT! Mike has been recognized as a global visionary and powerful speaker on the subject of effective business relationships. He has publicly spoken to over 150,000 people worldwide on improving the way they do business, and he has often been interviewed and written about in numerous global publications on the topics of entrepreneurship, market creation, penetration and leadership, global expansion, and motivational speaking.

The conversation focused closely on the role of ensuring buy-in on the part of sales people when deploying CRM systems. Since many CRM implementations suffer from poor adoption, understanding sales person needs is a primary consideration for success.

Even though the group discussed CRM project failure, the focus was clearly on business, rather than IT, issues. While IT may be a problem, it pales in comparison to making sure users want to engage a new CRM system.

Listen to the podcast by clicking the player at the top of this post to hear recommendations and insightful analysis from this highly experienced group. If you are interested in any aspect of successful CRM, this podcast is for you.

May 22nd, 2009

Recap: Business / IT alignment town hall discussion [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 8:30 am

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Governance, IT issues, Podcast

Tags: Podcast, Information Technology, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

This week’s IT failures town hall discussion raised challenging issues around relationships between business and IT. It’s an important topic because many IT failures arise precisely from poor communications between business strategists and those charged with translating goals into technology automation.

Paul Ingevaldson, former CIO of Ace Hardware, led the lively event. His background includes running Ace’s international business in addition to being CIO, all of which gives him deep understanding of issues on both the business and technical sides.

The impact of poor communication on IT project success or failure is profound. However, there’s no magic bullet for improving communication and understanding across organizational departments or silos. During the conversation, Paul suggests that training users in how to work with IT is the solution. He continues this theme in a Computerworld article:

We need to train our users to understand their role in the system development process. We must convince them that an IT system belongs to them, not to IT. They must learn that the only way to get a system that works for them is to be involved in every step of the development process. They must know that they are ultimately responsible for ensuring that IT resources are used effectively to solve their business problems. They must realize that the changes they make affect project completion dates.

While I agree to a degree with Paul’s perspective, placing blame squarely on users avoids important issues on the IT side. How many IT folks really understand the strategic intent of requests made by business users? I suggest that training IT to understand the business must also be part of the solution.

Listen to the podcast by clicking the player at the top of this post. The discussion was passionate, informed, with lots of and participation by attendees.

May 12th, 2009

CEO interview: an insider's look at SaaS vs. on-premise software

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 5:56 am

Categories: CIO issues, Enterprise 2.0, IT issues, Interview, Podcast, SaaS, PaaS, and SOA, Uncategorized

Tags:

Many enterprise buyers view software as a service (SaaS) products as a viable alternative to purchasing on-premise applications, yet there is confusion around differences between these two delivery models. To learn about some of these differences, I spoke with serial entrepreneur David Friend, CEO of online backup services provider Carbonite.

Carbonite is David’s sixth software startup. He previously co-founded Sonexis, FaxNet, Pilot Software, Computer Pictures Corporation and ARP Instruments. David’s background spans a broad range of ventures, including traditional, on-premises enterprise software in addition to SaaS.

To listen to our entire conversation, click the podcast player at the top of this post. You can also read my edited conversation notes and analysis below.

How fast is Carbonite growing?

In May 2006, we sold $12,000 of subscriptions and stored 800GB of customer data. Today, we sell that volume every 3-4 hours and maintain 13 million GB of storage for customers. Revenues in the last quarter grew 36% over the previous quarter, so the growth has been meteoric.

What are the unique challenges of managing a rapidly-growing SaaS company?

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April 27th, 2009

SAP Americas' president, Rob Enslin, on avoiding IT failure [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:27 am

Categories: CIO issues, Devil's Triangle, Governance, IT issues, Implementation, Interview, Podcast, Project strategy, Project success, SAP, Uncategorized

Tags: Project, Podcast, Information Technology, Customer, SAP AG, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

As one of the largest enterprise vendors, SAP holds a unique position to influence the outcome of software implementations around the globe. To understand SAP’s significance in global IT projects, look no further than a statistic tossed out earlier this year by Executive Board member Jim Hagemann Snabe: “Seventy percent of world financial transactions touch an SAP system and sixty-five percent of world chocolate is produced with SAP systems.”

Given this, I welcomed SAP’s invitation to this discuss the important IT success and failures topic with Rob Enslin, president of SAP Americas. Rob is responsible for all of SAP’s operating activities in this region and has worked at SAP for 16 years. His background includes senior positions in consulting, finance, and account management.

Our conversation covered a range of issues including the IT Devil’s Triangle, why projects fail, and how organizations can run successful implementations. Although I’ve summarized key points below, to really understand Rob’s views, I strongly urge you to listen to the podcast. To hear it, simply click the player at the top of this post.

Please offer advice to help customers successfully navigate IT Devil’s Triangle relationships?

It’s important to get the personal goals and agendas of each participating organization quickly out of the way, to focus everyone on defining success for the customer. Document the specific role of each participant, determine how decisions will be made, and document who will be responsible for making them. The project steering committee should include executives with P&L responsibility from the participating organizations. These steps will focus the participants to make operational decisions based on achieving customer success.

How can customers ensure that system integrators work for the project’s benefit?

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April 13th, 2009

Interview: SAP's global head of project operations [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:39 am

Categories: CIO issues, Devil's Triangle, Governance, IT issues, Interview, Podcast, Project management, Project portfolio management, Project strategy, SAP, Uncategorized

Tags: Project, Podcast, Information Technology, Project Manager, SAP AG, Paul, Project Management, Tools & Techniques, Strategy, It Operations

Sound business strategy and solid execution are the foundation stones of all successful IT projects. For organizations running multiple projects, execution means consistency across an entire portfolio.

As one of the largest enterprise software vendors, SAP’s core competency includes precisely this kind of portfolio management. To better understand SAP’s strategic thinking on managing complex IT projects, I spoke with Paul Ritchie, the company’s Head of Global Project Management Operations.

Paul’s team is responsible for the project management processes, tool, methodologies, and training used by 1200 SAP project managers around the world. He’s also Chairman of the Global Corporate Council at the Project Management Institute (PMI), which suggests the broad importance and influence attached to this SAP role.

The podcast (see the player at the top of this post) offers an intimate glimpse inside SAP’s work on project portfolio management, governance, and project delivery strategy. Here’s a summary of key issues Paul and I discuss in the podcast:

What does “project management operations” mean?

Project management operations (or project management office, also called PMO) represent the critical link between a company’s strategy and it’s actual project delivery.

Four pillars support SAP’s PMO:

1. Process, such as project management methodologies that describe how to run projects and programs

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April 8th, 2009

IT failures town hall: Risks of survival [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 4:08 pm

Categories: CIO issues, End-user impact, Governance, IT issues, Podcast, Project management

Tags: Podcast, Information Technology, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

For this installment of the IT failures town hall discussion series, I spoke about failures during these challenging economic times with independent industry analyst Jonathan Yarmis.

As you can see from the slide presentation below, Jonathan and I covered a range of failure-related issues affected by the economy. Although our perspectives are different, which comes across as good-natured debate in the podcast, we agreed on several points:

• Economic tensions have exacerbated built-in conflicts and organizational agendas to the detriment of running successful IT projects.
• IT has an uphill battle fighting low cost, easy-to-deploy solutions brought in by end users. The IT / business divide remains a significant issue, but wise IT departments will make strong efforts to reach across the fence.
• While cloud computing solutions do not offer an IT failure panacea, reduced implementation scope combined with outsourced infrastructure can reduce some failure rates.
• Many organizations make expedient short-term decisions that will come back to cause problems later. Although it’s hard to consider medium- or long-term consequences in today’s tough environment, avoiding this critical issue will eventually make things worse.
• Fear militates against project success. We discussed this important issue toward the end of the conversation and it’s mentioned as a concluding point on slide 13.

Click the slide presentation below to follow along as you listen to the recording:

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March 30th, 2009

Ed Yourdon on IT governance and failure [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 9:29 am

Categories: Cultural issues, Governance, IT issues, Interview, Podcast, Project strategy, Risk

Tags: IT Governance, Governance, Information Technology, Ed Yourdon, Strategy, Podcasts, Management, Internet, Michael Krigsman

Ed Yourdon is a seminal figure in understanding and interpreting software failures. Among Ed’s many accomplishments is writing 27 books and almost 600 articles on this subject. I interviewed Ed to learn his views on the relationship between governance and IT project failure.

Governance is an important topic and a key driver toward aligning IT activities with an organization’s broader strategic goals and interests. Given Ed’s stature in the field, this is an important podcast. To listen, just click the start button on the audio player at the top of this post.

I’ve summarized and edited some of Ed’s comments, but listen to the podcast for the best experience.

What is IT governance?

Governance is usually the province of organizations managing large projects. It comprises five areas:

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February 23rd, 2009

Forrester CRM analyst discusses IT failure [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 4:22 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Devil's Triangle, End-user impact, IT issues, Interview, Podcast, Research and statistics, Vendor relationships

Tags: Information Technology, Failure, CRM, Forrester Research Inc., Natalie, System Integrator, Podcasts, Strategy, Internet, Management

Strong executive leadership and organizational transformation are essential determinants of successful IT projects. Any IT initiative that does not properly address these strategic points is doomed to fail.

I spoke with Forrester CRM, customer experience, and call center analyst, Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, to explore these issues. Click the podcast player, located at the top of this post, to hear our engaging conversation.

Natalie’s 2008 report, Customer Service: A Keystone Of Your Corporate Revenue Strategy, includes an important timeline listing historical research regarding the impact of corporate culture and executive accountability on project failures.

The timeline graphic, which Natalie and I discuss in the podcast, is shown below. It strikingly demonstrates how little progress we’ve made in improving basic conditions needed to achieve successful projects.

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February 9th, 2009

Roche CIO on SAP, consultants, certification, and system integrators

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 8:00 am

Categories: CIO issues, Devil's Triangle, IT issues, Interview, Podcast, SAP, Vendor relationships

Tags: CIO, Certification, Consultant, Roche Holding AG, SAP AG, Blogger, Enterprise Blogger, Jon Reed, Quality, Podcasts

Last week SAP unveiled its new ERP upgrade, called Business Suite 7. As part of the launch event in New York City, the company invited several enterprise software bloggers to meet with Jennifer Allerton, CIO of Roche and a large SAP customer.

You can listen to the meeting by clicking the podcast player located at the top of this post.

The discussion was interesting for several reasons:

• As CIO of an organization employing 75,000 people in 120 countries, Jennifer is responsible for running a huge IT infrastructure. This conversation offers insight into the CIO’s view of a large-scale IT operation.
• SAP purposefully did not include any of its own folks in the room to ensure the conversation would be open and without restriction.
• Enterprise bloggers are a tough and sometimes ornery group; the podcast recording lets you be a fly on the wall while seven bloggers ask hard questions of this CIO.

Aside from me, the following bloggers participated in the session:

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January 12th, 2009

Former Ace Hardware CIO on IT failure [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 10:30 am

Categories: CIO issues, IT issues, Interview, Podcast, Project strategy

Tags: Project, Podcast, CIO, Information Technology, Ace Hardware, Alignment Thing, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

Complexity rules any discussion of why IT projects do not achieve planned or expected results. Many projects cross traditional organizational boundaries, requiring collaboration between business and technical groups to achieve successful IT results. The high rate of failure suggests this collaboration is fraught with difficulty and needs improvement.

Paul Ingevaldson, former CIO of international retailer, Ace Hardware, is in a great position to offer insight into why IT succeeds or fails. While CIO of Ace, he was simultaneously Senior Vice President of International, had P&L responsibility for stores in 70 countries, and ran the company’s Ace Canada subsidiary, all of which made him a large business consumer of IT services. Paul also writes and speaks on IT and CIO issues.

As you’ll hear in the podcast, Paul is direct and not hesitant to speak his mind.

On the cause of poor business / IT alignment:

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