November 23rd, 2009

Social computing in the enterprise, part two

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:19 am

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, End-user impact, Enterprise 2.0, IT issues, Salesforce.com

Tags: Social Computing, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Michael Krigsman

Salesforce.com’s new product, Chatter, sparked a conversation on what happens when social computing hits the enterprise.

This video, filmed by Forrester CRM and customer service analyst, Natalie Petouhoff discusses challenges associated with cultural change and knowledge management when an organization introduces social computing.

The video records a conversation on these issues between Natalie, fellow ZDNet blogger Dion Hinchcliffe, and me. We used Chatter as a starting point, but the topics we discuss are broadly applicable to social computing and collaboration projects.

November 23rd, 2009

Social computing and the enterprise, part one

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:03 am

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, End-user impact, Enterprise 2.0, IT issues, Salesforce.com

Tags: Social Computing, Social Networking, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Michael Krigsman

Salesforce.com’s new product, Chatter, raises a variety of questions about what happens when social computing hits the enterprise. In some organizations, the openness of social computing creates tension with established corporate cultures in which resistance to information sharing is a real fact.

This video, filmed by Forrester CRM and customer service analyst, Natalie Petouhoff covers key organizational issues associated with enterprise social networking. The video records a conversation on these issues between Natalie, fellow ZDNet blogger Dion Hinchcliffe, and me.

Although our focus point was Chatter, the topics and challenges we discuss are applicable to any Enterprise 2.0 project involving business or organizational transformation.

November 16th, 2009

Resistance to change: The real Enterprise 2.0 barrier

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 10:29 am

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Enterprise 2.0, Failure 2.0, Governance, IT issues, Project strategy, Research and statistics

Tags: Barrier, Enterprise 2.0, Michael Krigsman

Large organizations continue to embrace Enterprise 2.0 as a viable addition to the corporate business process toolbox. As evidence, look no farther than the rapid growth of The 2.0 Adoption Council, which was founded this past June and currently boasts more than 100 member organizations, each of which has more than 10,000 employees.

Despite clear interest from the enterprise, discussion persists around obstacles to large-scale adoption of Enterprise 2.0 approaches, tools, and methods.

ZDNet’s Joe McKendrick summarized key obstacles in blog post at Fast Forward:

Resistance to change	52%
Difficulty in measuring ROI	42%
Integrating with existing technologies	41%
Security concerns	32%
Budget	25%
Product knowledge	23%
Tools not enterprise ready	22%

It should not surprise us that the top issue is resistance to change. Readers of this blog know that business projects of every kind suffer from issues related to poor communication, conflicting agendas across information silos, and related organizational causes of failure.

A recent study from The 2.0 Adoption Council also describes resistance to change as the significant barrier. This compelling slide clearly summarizes that message:

Read the rest of this entry »

November 9th, 2009

Enterprise unplugged: Riffing on failure and performance

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:39 pm

Categories: CIO issues, CRM, Cultural issues, Governance, IT issues, Project strategy

Tags: Performance, Outcome, Naomi Bloom, Nenshad Bardoliwalla, Nenshad, Podcasts, Performance Management, Business Intelligence, Financial Accounting, Enterprise Software

My favorite part of blogging is the opportunity to learn from fascinating people who are at the top of their game. I recently chatted about enterprise issues and IT failure with Naomi Bloom and Nenshad Bardoliwalla, two articulate folks whose expertise is matched only by their willingness to share what they know.

Listen to the podcast to hear how their conversation ebbed and flowed like a great jazz improvisation.

Nenshad Bardoliwalla is a creative entrepreneur who most recently was CTO for Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) at SAP. Nenshad is author of the book, Driven to Perform, a 700-page reference on managing performance with systematic metrics. When I have questions about BI, metrics, and related topics, you can guess to whom I turn for advice.

Naomi Bloom is a top consultant, analyst, writer, and thought leader throughout the HRM delivery system (HRMDS) industry. Her specialty is the application of HR technology and innovative service delivery models to achieve breakthroughs in organizational business outcomes. Check out her formal bio–it’s pretty darned impressive.

Pulling these two folks together for an IT failures podcast presents an interesting challenge because their backgrounds and areas of professional focus are so different. However, they share an abiding interest in improving business transformation with technology-related projects. In other words, these guys understand how technology and business interact to produce useful results (or not, as the case may be).

The podcast recording session was informal and fun; really, three friends getting together to chat about the drivers of business success and failure. If that means I hang around with geeky friends, then guilty as charged.

Here are a few excerpts from the podcast, just to give you a flavor of the discussion. These are notes and not meant to be a transcript.

Naomi: Business outcomes and achieving the mission matter most. In today’s world, the vast majority of the work we do to accomplish these goals is technology-enabled. So, if we don’t get the technology part right, then we fail.

To define success, ask people in the business whether a new system helps or hurts the day-to-day effort to accomplish their job. Looking at this way, there’s a lot of failure out there.

Nenshad: The discipline of performance management is meant to align the people in an organization with the outcomes they are trying to achieve. Failure often results when an organization implements technology without first deciding on the outcomes. If you don’t know the target, then it is difficult to design technology that will achieve your goals.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 6th, 2009

18 truths: The long fail of complexity

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 5:55 am

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Governance, IT issues, Project strategy, Research and statistics

Tags: Accident, Failure, Enterprise System, Richard Cook, Complex System, Human Practitioner, Policies And Procedures, Human Resources, Michael Krigsman

Enterprise systems are inherently complex, often involving many business processes, people, and organizations across a company. Given this built-in complexity, it’s no surprise that failures abound; it’s amazing these systems function at all.

We could make these same comments about any complex, mission critical system. For example, look no further than the space program or health care delivery. In both cases, massive complexity is connected to a need to get things right: failure means potential loss of life.

To say that complicated systems are more prone to break down than simpler systems is obvious. But there are also other, more subtle truths regarding failure and complex systems.

A paper copyrighted in 1998, called How Complex Systems Fail and written by an M.D., Dr. Richard Cook, describes 18 truths about the underlying reasons complicated systems break down. On the surface the list appears surprisingly simple, but deeper meaning is also present. Some of the points are obvious while others may surprise you.

THE EIGHTEEN TRUTHS

The first few items explain that catastrophic failure only occurs when multiple components break down simultaneously:

1. Complex systems are intrinsically hazardous systems. The frequency of hazard exposure can sometimes be changed but the processes involved in the system are themselves intrinsically and irreducibly hazardous. It is the presence of these hazards that drives the creation of defenses against hazard that characterize these systems.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 1st, 2009

Amplifying 'weak signals' for IT success

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 3:29 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Collective intelligence, Cultural issues, Enterprise 2.0, Governance, IT issues, Project strategy, Risk, Tools

Tags: Technique, Information Technology, Organization, Asuret, Productivity, Michael Krigsman

Every seasoned executive knows that gaining detailed and accurate information about his or her organization’s activities is a challenging and ongoing struggle. Disconnects between operational data and management decision-making lead to inefficiency, waste, and ultimately to extreme failures of the type described in this blog.

Usually, some members of an organization do possess accurate early warning information regarding potential problems. However, as we have seen in situations ranging from Enron to financial industry practices that kicked off the current recession, surfacing that information can be difficult.

I asked top auditing services analyst and former BearingPoint managing director, Francine McKenna, to place this issue in context. Francine told me:

It’s a classic problem rooted in human nature. Information in large, complex, and geographically dispersed organizations tends to become diluted and distorted as it flows up the chain. Even worse, some individuals redesign information flowing through their hands based on personal goals and objectives.

The best organizations recognize this state of affairs and create standardized policies, procedures, and governance monitoring activities to overcome it. Despite these efforts, however, the problem remains a very real challenge.

Detecting and amplifying “weak signals.” Techniques that reveal hidden vulnerabilities are a valuable weapon in the fight against project failure.

My recent post, Learning from the weak signals of failure, discussed the importance of methods that detect and amplify these weak signals:

Read the rest of this entry »

October 19th, 2009

Going commando: Four signs of CRM failure

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:31 am

Categories: CIO issues, CRM, Cultural issues, IT issues, Project success

Tags: CRM, Jill, Historian Barbara Tuchman, Schwarzenegger, Advertising & Promotion, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Software, Marketing, Software, Michael Krigsman

CRM failure remains a significant problem in many organizations. For that reason, it’s important to explore why so many of these projects do not achieve their potential.

• Related: CRM failure rates: 2001-2009

For this reason, I asked Jill Dyché, a Partner with IT services and management consulting firm, Baseline Consulting to write a guest post for this blog. Jill is the author of three books on the business value of technology, including her latest, Customer Data Integration: Reaching a Single Version of the Truth. You can reach Jill on Twitter (@jilldyche) or email (jilldyche@baseline-consulting.com).

Most folks involved in CRM don’t quickly recognize the warning signs of failure, causing bad projects that die a slow, agonizing death. These folks need Arnold Schwarzeneggers’ Commando to stop the madness and put their project out of its misery.

Arnold’s role of “exit champion,” in which he kills for the greater good, reminds us that not all CRM projects are fit to survive. However, most corporate cultures discourage naysayers, so even well-informed people who sense a CRM effort going sideways avoid making waves and don’t call out obvious warning signs.

This cultural condition creates groupthink and denial, a type of organizational neglect that researcher Isabelle Royer calls “the seductive appeal of collective belief.” We’ve all seen or heard this kind of logic:

Our project must be going fine, since no one is complaining, even though we’re already over-budget and the development team is still being trained on the software. After all, CRM is a hot topic with analysts and our executives are all on board. Someone must know what they’re doing. Right?

Although the warning signs of CRM-gone-wrong may appear vague, they are actually quite consistent across companies, vendor solutions, and development plans. Here are four to watch for:

Read the rest of this entry »

October 9th, 2009

Twitter suspends security researcher's account as a threat

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 7:13 am

Categories: CRM, Cultural issues, End-user impact, Enterprise 2.0, Failure 2.0, IT issues

Tags: Customer Service, Twitter Inc., Product Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Security, Marketing, Enterprise Software, Software, Michael Krigsman

Twitter erroneously suspended, and subsequently restored, a prominent researcher’s account two months after he tweeted a security warning intended to inform his audience about an imminent threat.

Aside from poor security handling, this situation offers a case study example of immature customer service and suggests problems with the organization’s corporate culture.

Mikko H. Hyppönen, Chief Research Officer at well-known computer security and anti-virus firm F-Secure, discovered that Twitter unexpectedly banned his account without warning. Here’s a screen capture (that I edited for clarity) from Mikko’s blog:

When Mikko complained, Twitter restored his account with this minimal explanation:

I’ve unsuspended your acct.
You were suspended for using the malware URL rnyspeceDOTcom in DMs.
Be careful!
We scan evrythng for malware.

Apparently, this tweet got Mikko intro trouble:

I asked Mikko to share his thoughts on what happened:

Obviously, I was quite surprised about the whole incident. As I’ve worked with Twitter previously regarding Twitter worms and such, I really didn’t expect this. In addition, I wasn’t expecting them to ban me because of a tweet that was actually warning users to stay away from a phishing site. I think their process leaves a lot to be desired.

Twitter did not immediately respond to my request for comment.

THE PROJECT FAILURES ANALYSIS

There are several problematic aspects regarding Twitter’s handling of this matter:

1. Twitter waited two months to suspend Mikko’s account after he sent the “illegal” tweet. A two-month delay responding to perceived security threats does little to protect users.
2. This case has extreme irony because Mikko’s tweet attempted to warn followers away from a major security threat. In addition, his tweet included spaces in the middle of the address, making it non-clickable for readers.
3. For the coup de grâce, the company’s explanation is rude, blames the user, and does not even apologize. In addition, Twitter did not restore any of Mikko’s followers or the people he followed.

One might expect a small, poorly funded startup to exhibit these problems, but that’s not Twitter’s situation. According to Bloomberg, the company is valued at $1 billion, having raised $150 million.

Cute logos and web page illustrations are no substitute for genuine customer service values. If the company doesn’t improve customer service attitudes, its reputation may one day descend to the level of cable and telephone companies: hated utility services that we tolerate until a replacement comes along.

October 8th, 2009

Workday, SaaS, and failure: 'A matter of trust'

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:00 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, End-user impact, Failure 2.0, IT issues, Project failures, Project success, SaaS, PaaS, and SOA, Vendor relationships

Tags: Customer, Workday, Outage, Naomi Bloom, Andrew McCarthy, Manjit, Manufacturing, Michael Krigsman

Software as a service (SaaS) vendor, Workday, which sells human resources applications, recently had a 15-hour outage, during which time its system was unavailable to customers. In an unusual twist, this post is about success and not failure.

Background. The story begins when I heard about the outage through an anonymous source. To learn more, I sent out this Twitter message:

Naomi Bloom, a top HR technology and service delivery expert, responded:

Following Naomi’s suggestion, I checked Workday’s blog for details:

[T]he network attached storage (NAS) device that stores operating system files for our production servers detected a corrupted node within a backup RAID array. Rather than simply log the error, which is what it is supposed to do, the NAS took itself off-line. It is ironic that the redundant backup to a system with built-in redundancy caused the failure.

This type of error should not have caused the array to go offline, but it did. The most important result is that our failover plans worked as expected. Within hours, all customers were live in our secondary datacenter with all their data intact.

Workday gets in touch. Two days later, Workday’s Communications Director, Andrew McCarthy, sent me an unsolicited invitation to discuss the outage, even though I previously never had contact with the company.

The note caught me off-guard because it’s the first and only time a vendor has reached out to me proactively following a failure. I’ve written almost 750 blog posts related to IT failure, and Andrew’s invitation is unique in my experience. Here’s the full text of that email:

Read the rest of this entry »

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.