Death of the Laptop

This weekend the first version of the iPad was released.  The price starts at $499 for the Wi-Fi 16GB version.  Later this month a Wi-Fi + 3G version will be available for $629.  One article I read said that the unlimited data plan for the 3G version will be $30/month.  Now that I have gotten to spend some time with an iPad, I feel like it is the first signs of the death of the laptop.

Due to the clam shell design of the laptop, it puts a physical barrier between the user and a person on the other side of the table during meetings.  This often leads to what feels like a social barrier as well.  The tablet design of the iPad eliminates this barrier.  In addition it is no bigger than a pad of paper which makes having computers in meetings feel as comfortable and natural as notepads.

The iPad boots up as fast and is as easy to use while standing as an smart phone, so productivity during short opportunities is better than a laptop.

The price of an iPad is so low that it can be less expensive to purchase an iPad + desktop computer than it is to buy a powerful, large screen laptop. This combination offers the benefits of a small portable device for casual use and a powerful large screen computer for longer term work sessions.  In addition, if the user’s data is stored in the cloud then it is easily accessible from multiple devices.

I don’t think laptops will disappear immediately, but as I look toward the future I’m thinking in terms of phones, tablet devices, and very large screen desktops rather than 15″-17″ laptops.  In addition I see all corporate applications being delivered via the browser and data being stored in the cloud rather than applications and data running on the user device.

Vook

I just learned about a new technology based product called a Vook. It basically is a combination of a video and a book.  As I think of Apple’s new iPad, this becomes a very useful combination.  I could see us using the vook idea for technology training, spiritual development, and leadership development.  The iPad makes a vook mobile and easy to consume.

www.ccci.org migration

CCCI migrated our public facing corporate website www.ccci.org to Oracle’s Universal Content Management (also known as Stellent) on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.  The cut-over went very well, transparent to users and has been running since then without any problems.

We are now working on migrating our staff facing website, known as the Staff Web, to UCM/Stellent as well.

Content Management

CCCI has implemented Oracle’s Universal Content Management (UCM) and is about to migrate our corporate website www.ccci.org on to this platform.  UCM is an industry leading product that provides us with web content management, digital asset management, and document management capabilities.  These management capabilities will help us to share and administer accurate and up to date content across multiple websites and applications with the ability to view, collaborate on or retire content via user-friendly interfaces and roles-based authentication.

Email Enhancements

Email is a mission critical tool that many of us touch daily, so I am very excited about the upgrades that are coming to CCCI after we complete our peak donation season.  Here are a few of the highlights:

• Bigger box sizes
• Scheduling of Out of Office messages, so you don’t have to remember to turn it off.
• Remotely erase your phone, in the case it gets lost or stolen.
• Configure your email account by simply entering your email address and password.  No more needing to remember server names or port numbers or whether or not SSL is required.
• Works with MAC MAIL in OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard).  Email, Contacts, Calendar, and NOTES are synchronized to MAC Mail seamlessly!
• Restore accidentally deleted emails yourself.

Video Conferencing – Phase 2

Today I participated in a beta test of video conferencing phase 2.  It utilized audio, video, and web.  The meeting had one dedicated endpoint in a large conference room and six webcams on both Macs and PCs.  We had 11 people connected via audio only and 23 connected viewing the meeting desktop on their computers via the web.

While there are plenty of technical details to fine tune before going in to full production, the early test was a success.  Participants from all around the US were able to effectively participate in the meeting without the expense or hassel of having to travel during the Christmas season.  Online polling and chatting of questions/comments was more effective via the web than it would have been in person because people were not talking over each other, it was less time consuming, and a high percentage participated.  The Macs seemed to have better video quality than the PCs and the older webcams had very poor quality.  The audio quality was good, but I noticed that when people muted their microphones their body language appeared to show a lower level of engagement.  An opportunity for improvement was in the area of desktop sharing.  We could have shared more visual information to go along with the spoken word if all presenters and participants had been using the desktop.

When the details get worked out and this phase goes in to production, we will have capacity for the simultaneous use of 92 video ports, 220 audio ports, and 120 web ports.

Customization

Yesterday I was meeting with IT leaders from a very large company with a global footprint.  When we talked about their lessons learned in a recent CRM implementation, they shared that after purchasing the software and spending one year and $12 million on implementation, they canceled the project due to a timeline and cost that was no longer feasible.  They sited the root cause as customization ‘requirements’ that had become too complex.  Oddly though, after canceling the project the company adopted a Software as a Service solution that allowed zero customization and forced the company to change all its processes and policies to fit what the software would do.  These leaders reported that their company has been using a global implementation of this software across all divisions for the past 18 months and it is a huge success.  In fact their top salesperson is the largest user of the software.

I find it interesting that the failed first implementation was caused by trying to customize the software to fit the processes rather than fitting the processes to the software and that this company was later able to put their ‘requirements’ aside and find a way to fit all their processes to an inflexible solution when there was no other option.

What does this story teach us about IT enabled projects?  Should we be spending less time gathering requirements and more time learning how to use the standard application?  What would we ultimately lose if we did?  How much time would we save?  How much money would we save?  Would our processes become more effective or less effective?  Where did today’s processes come from?  Are they the result of an engineered solution for the best way to accomplish a task, or are they the result of ad-hoc decisions over a number of years that incorporate work arounds to limitations in tools and information?

What do you think about this story and these questions?  What can we learn?

What is Information?

Although most of us think we know what we mean when we say “information,” we sometimes confuse the medium with the message.

Passion, Creativity, Initiative

“One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested” – E.M. Forester

Passion is an amazing emotion that unlocks incredible ability.  People with passion refuse to give up and can overcome huge obstacles to turn intent into accomplishment.  Passion can transform one person’s convictions in to a mass movement.  Campus Crusade for Christ is a perfect example of that.

Passion, creativity, and initiative are gifts that people choose to give or withhold day by day and moment by moment.  Engaging these gifts requires managing less not more.  It means less directives, less checking up, and less bureaucracy. The more constricting the oversight, the less passionate people are going to be about their work and the less creativity and initiative they will give.

Inspiring people to give generously of their talents requires that they be entrusted with the mission and equipped with the tools, training, and systems to be successful.  To succeed we must let go of the managerial paradigms of the industrial age and embrace new ways of leading that engage passion, creativity, and initiative.  For example, most people are unlikely to get excited about a task that has been assigned to them versus one they choose for themselves.  So why do we still assign tasks?  Sure the work still needs to get done, but a highly committed team should be entrusted to communicate and voluntarily select tasks that accomplish the service levels, goals, and mission of the organization.

What do you think?  Which environment would you most likely flourish in: one with high levels of managerial oversight or one where people are entrusted and equipped?  What thoughts do you have about how the scope of people’s freedom should be broadened by managing less and entrusting more, without sacrificing service levels and accomplishments?

Inspired by Gary Hamel in The Future of Management

Chai Wallah vs. Versatilist

Seth Godin’s blog on the Chai Wallah got my attention because it struck me that we in the Information Technology Group of Campus Crusade for Christ are trying to accomplish the exact same benefit he describes with exactly the opposite strategy.  Seth talks about the benefits of your success living and dying on the performance of just one task and how when you go all in, it focuses your attention and effort.  The example given is the Chai Wallah whose only job is to make tea.

In IT circles that could be interpreted as having an entire staff of specialist.  That line of thinking works great if you have enough specialized work to keep all those specialist busy.  It also works if you have enough specialist to address any need that may arise.  In India where there is a huge population and demand for Chai tea, the Chai Wallah is a great fit.  What is the resource pool of staff is small and the demand varied across a broad spectrum though?  What if that demand moves quickly and in high concentration across varied types of needs?  What if the true measure of success is not how skilled an individual is at one single task, but actually in the organization’s ability to focus it’s attention and effort on accomplishing a strategy that leads to missional success?

The Information Technology Group has focused on missional success.  As a result we have intentionally moved away from the Chai Wallah specialist and toward the IT Versatilist.

“Versatilists are able to apply a depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, equally at ease with technical issues as with business strategy.” - Gartner

Having a staff of versatilists who deeply understand our organization, it’s priorities, it’s processes, and it’s people allows us to have greater agility and to deliver more effective solutions.  It allows us to move our staff resources to the highest priorities of the organization rather than increasing staffing with large numbers of costly IT consultants because we don’t have enough staff with the necessary IT skill sets.

Interestingly though, the versatilist model also leads to greater success for the individual as well.  Because we are intentional about finding staff that posses specific versatilist character traits and we continually invest in their training and development,  our staff thrive in an environment where they get to solve a variety of interesting problems and work with a variety of leading edge technologies.  In addition, their broad technical and leadership experience enhances their advancement opportunities.

While I may enjoy having the Chai Wallah make my tea, I’d rather have our IT staff be Versatilists!