June 4th, 2009

Reviewing Sapphire, user interfaces, the Devil's Triangle, and IT success

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 2:37 pm

Categories: CIO issues, Cultural issues, Devil's Triangle, IT issues, Interview, Project strategy, SAP, Uncategorized

Tags: Information Technology, SAP AG, ERP, Jon Reed, Asuret, Michael, BBD, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Podcasts, Tools & Techniques

This guest post was written by Jon Reed, an accomplished blogger, SAP expert, and author of the website jonerp.com. Jon interviewed me following SAP’s recent Sapphire conference, and we discussed a variety of topics that are of interest to readers of this blog. Listen to the recording by clicking the player at the top of this post and read Jon’s summary of our interview. Jon originally posted this as an article on his blog.

SAPPHIRE 2009, BUSINESS BYDESIGN, AND ERP PROJECT FAILURE (AND HOW TO AVOID IT)
Written by: Jon Reed
Interview Date: May 22, 2009

In the first installment of his “Sapphire in Review” podcast series, Jon Reed of JonERP.com welcomes special guest Michael Krigsman, President of Asuret and popular ZDNet blogger and Tweeter. Michael’s focus is evaluating the keys to IT project success and failure, so during this twenty-eight minute podcast, Jon gets Michael’s take on how project failure applies to ERP vendors and SAP specifically. Jon also gets the skinny on Michael’s investigations of Business ByDesign at Sapphire, and why he sees SAP’s focus on UI improvements and BI enhancements as important to ERP project success. In closing, Michael shares an inside view on what it’s like to be part of SAP’s Blogger Relations Program, mixing it up with SAP executives.

Podcast Timeline:

1:01 Michael’s work at Asuret and ZDNet, and how it all ties back into examining the dynamics of IT project success and failure. Asuret provides consulting and software on business transformation projects; on ZDNet, Michael analyzes case studies of IT project failure and evaluates why they aren’t achieving project objectives. He also looks at related issues pertaining to organizational dynamics, business and IT communication breakdowns, and the cultural issues that contribute to project success or failure.

2:32 The highlights of the keynotes from Michael’s perspective. Two things stood out: first, Michael got the sense that SAP was making an attempt to bring in more consumer-oriented, end-user interfaces into their software. This is way overdue, but an essential area of improvement. A more human-oriented enterprise will yield more successful projects. Michael also enjoy Hasso Plattner’s keynotes - all his years of experience have put him in a position “beyond reproach” where he can speak his mind and cover topics that interest him.

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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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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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March 17th, 2009

IDC Directions09: Analyst perspectives on IT failure

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 12:07 pm

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

Tags: Information Technology, Failure, International Data Corp., Business Stakeholder, Melinda, Collaboration, Groupware, Strategy, Enterprise Software, Software

While attending the Directions09 conference in Boston today, I explored why IT projects fail in conversations with two IDC analysts.

During a discussion with Vice President for Services and Technology Research, Sébastien Ruest, we touched on key reasons why projects are late, over-budget, or don’t achieve expected results. Sébastien commented:

There is still not enough governance. Projects fail because companies do not apply sufficient real-time governance to their implementations.

I agree that too many organizations allow projects to run without sufficient review and control. As a result, potentially minor disturbances eventually escalate into large, full-blown problems. In the heat of battle, I suppose many managers forget that preventive maintenance really does save time and money.

Sébastien also pointed out an overlooked implication of IT failure:

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March 5th, 2009

Roche CIO discusses IT, consultants, and the Devil's Triangle [podcast]

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 5:26 am

Categories: CIO issues, Consulting, Cultural issues, Devil's Triangle, IT issues, Interview, Project strategy, SAP, Vendor relationships

Tags: Podcast, CIO, Roche Holding AG, Information Technology, Business, Jennifer Allerton, Strategy, Management, Michael Krigsman

Jennifer Allerton is CIO of Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Roche, where she reports directly to Roche’s CEO and oversees an IT / informatics staff of 2500.

During this conversation, I asked Jennifer to discuss the CIO’s evolving role, success and failure on IT projects, and the IT Devil’s Triangle. We met at the launch event for SAP’s Business Suite 7 product in New York City.

• Related: Allerton talks about SAP, consultants, certification, and system integrators

If you care about CIO or IT issues, this seven-minute podcast is essential listening. To hear it, click the player at the top of this post.

Here are a few excerpts from the recording, just to give you a quick flavor of the conversation. I’ve edited these quotes to keep them short.

Please describe a CIO’s primary challenge?

The CIO must determine the best way to apply technology to the business. Historically, the CIO placed multimillion-dollar bets on uncertain technologies and therefore had to be a technology expert. Today, the CIO’s role should involve 80% business and 20% technology.

What about the gap between IT and the business?

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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 27th, 2009

5 tips to reduce outsourcing risk

Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 6:22 am

Categories: CIO issues, Consulting, Devil's Triangle, IT issues, Interview, Project strategy, Vendor relationships

Tags: Project, Risk, Managed Hosting, Outsourcing, It Operations, Business Operations, Outsourcing & Subcontracting, Michael Krigsman

Service providers present a special challenge to organizations involved with complex IT projects. Although consultants are integral to many projects, dysfunctional service provider relationships can increase the customer’s risk of failure.

To explore this issue, I spoke at length with Alec Miloslavsky, CEO of Exigen Services, an outsourcing supplier that specializes in Agile development. I asked him why traditional relationships with system integrators sometimes cause a gap between customer goals and consultant interests:

Traditional consulting companies base their relationship model on labor arbitrage, where the services provider gains financial benefit primarily from differences in labor costs. As a result, the consulting firm neglects key issues in IT project delivery, increasing the customer’s risk.

Alec added that projects generally face three types of risk:

• Financial risk, where project cost rises above expectations
• Time to market risk, where the project is late
• Delivery risk, where the project doesn’t achieve planned objectives

Pure labor arbitrage contributes to all these problems, especially in environments where there is insufficient governance to control results.

I asked Alec for five tips to help services customers get the most from their relationship with external consultants. Here is his list:

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