It is time Agile crushes magical thinking in business.

Working in Technology is like taming a dragon.

In the contemporary business world, one of the things which surprised me the most is how divorced people are from the technology which their careers depend upon.  Arthur C. Clark, the author of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” said, “…and sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  Today, in a world moving at the speed of the internet, tens of millions of people are wandering the world behaving like magicians.  I want to talk about what this means for you the scrum master or agile coach. 

At the click of a smartphone, a human being can summon a ride, book restaurant reservations, order clothing, and find potential romantic partners.  News and gossip travel around the globe.  We can even live in virtual spaces reshaping our bodies ignoring concepts or gender and aging.  Thanks to the world of technology and algorithms we can live in a curated rich world where there are no opposing opinions and everything is quick and convenient.  It is a seductive world. 

The world I describe is the product of millions of hours of labor and the application of fifty years of merciless engineering to make systems better, faster and cheaper.  It is the application of silicon wafer technology, advanced mathematics, and smart people doing smart things.  It is the unwritten story of our time.

Now imagine people who live in the magical age who want to implement a new payroll system or create a better way to get products to customers.  Since they are accustomed to systems which are quick and compliant, they think it is possible to spin up systems which behave the same way with the speed of downloading a phone application.  These magicians take it for granted that the data will always be correct and they do not need to proofread the work. 

This is not the reality of technology.  Developers need to get involved, and they need to be managed, so the code is clean and scalable.  Data needs to be placed on Oracle or Microsoft SQL servers.  Network accounts need to be created, and all of this costs time and money.  It is not magic.  It is hard work.

As a former web developer, it always troubled me when people told me how they expected a website to look and behave without understanding a lick of HTML code.  It is my experience these individuals rise in organizations and get budget authority.  So you have the ignorant paying the bills while someone more ignorant is giving orders to the development team.  It falls to a technology lead or scrum master to transform ignorance and magical thinking into code.   It is just as disheartening as it sounds. 

It is also why so many technology projects fail because the people involved do not conceptually understand the labor it takes to get the job done.  A construction project is easy to understand compared to a software project because the people paying the bills realize what is happening.  A typical business person does not understand the difference between Java-script and JAVA; so how are they going to know what it takes to successfully construct a web application.

As a scrum master, it is your responsibility to crush magical thinking.  Tell the truth about how long it is going to take to get something done.  Show people work in progress and ship code periodically so if adjustments need to be made they can happen in a timelier manner.  You will have to say no, and you will have to create trust between the development team and business.  This means enforcing one of the central tenants of Agile; their business sets the project priorities, and the development team says how long it is going to take.  If this social compact is not upheld, then any agile implementation will collapse into dust. 

So in this magical world, it is up to the scrum master to create a much-needed dose of reality.  Otherwise, you are confronted with an evil magic act which does nothing but disappoint. 

Until next time.

Fix Technical Debt NOW!

Technical debt is a lot like leaky pipes

I am very fortunate to spend time with smart people.  The day goes by faster when you spend it with intelligent and capable people.  One of those talented people is a former colleague of mine, Larry Gassik.  He was asking me a few questions about technical debt, and it occurred to me that I have not shared many of my thoughts about it on the blog.  Technical debt is becoming a growing concern in the agile community as more teams expand into enterprise systems and confront legacy code.  This week a brief conversation on technical debt.

When I think about technical debt, I use the metaphor of plumbing.  Indoor plumbing has existed since Roman times, but its innovations only became global in the 20th century.  Thanks to plumbing, the spread of cholera have ended.  Indoor plumbing has given millions of people clean drinking water and helped reduce pollution.  Plumbing is so ubiquitous that the only time we notice it is when it is not working.  When a toilet backs up or a pipe bursts, we become very aware of the effects of plumbing on our lives.

The “if it isn’t broke don’t fix it,” attitude we have about plumbing is prevalent in the business world.  Many business professionals in the corporate world are focused on shareholder value and profitability.  When business professionals think about technology, it is either an expense or inconvenience.  It is why many organizations have not made the switch to cloud-based systems and use old versions of Microsoft office.  To them, the investment of money is not worth the rate of return.  The reality is that not paying attention to older technology systems is just as negligent as ignoring the maintenance of your home; you risk broken pipes and greater expenses caused by water damage.

The technology of pipes and plumbing has changed over the centuries to be safer and less expensive.  In Roman times, pipes were lead.  The contaminated drinking water caused outbreaks of “Saturnism” which was a polite term for lead poisoning.  Terracotta pipes followed, but those broke down over time thanks to tree roots and natural decay.  Iron pipes came along, but they were brittle and caused water to be rusty.  Copper pipes came along and have been a good solution, but they are expensive and require welding which creates maintenance a problem.  Today, most new construction relies on PVC pipes because they do not corrode, are inexpensive, and easy to maintain.  If the materials of plumbing can change so radically, image what is happening with technology moving at the speed of the internet.

Forty years ago, while the Sex Pistols were singing “Anarchy in the U.K.” there was no personal computer market in the United States.  Microsoft and cellular phones did not exist, and a modem was fast if its speeds were 300 bits per second.  Mainframes dominated computing, and most business transactions were done over the phone or in person.  Compare that business environment to smartphones, personal computers, and Gigabit speed internet we have today.  There is no credible way the technology of 1977 could support the needs of business today.  The difference between the needs of the firm and the ability of the technology to support the business is something agile professionals call technical debt.

Technical debt is cancer threatening to metastasize and kill the business.  Here is how it happens.  Slow or ineffective systems undermine customer confidence.  Weak confidence means less use and less use guarantees less money for the company to maintain the system.  Less money translates into slower time to market for new features and updating the system.  It means employees and IT professionals will take shortcuts to bypass the pokey system.  With the system jury-rigged to address business problems, it becomes more expensive to maintain, and improvements take longer to roll out.  Finally, you create a situation where the system fails, and it does not provide benefit to the business.  If you pay attention to the technical debt, you can avoid this kind of failure.

A business with significant technical debt will have trouble attracting talent.  Computer professionals being smart, know what technologies the market supports, and they are terrified of having skills which are obsolete.  It means they will gravitate to businesses and projects which have a smaller portion of the technical debt.  It also means that college graduates will avoid working for companies with old technologies.

Technical debt is the difference between what the business needs and what they technology systems support.  If you do not address technical debt, it is a threat to the success of the firm.  Finally, the mitigation of technical debt is no different than routine household maintenance.  Do the right thing and focus on technical debt before the pipes burst in your business.

Until next time.

If it isn't broke you better fix it.

This didn't have to happen.

I have been off line for a week as I attended the Gen-Con game fair in Indianapolis and tried to get back into the swing of things at work.  While I was away, I had a chance to recharge my batteries and have a good time playing board games with friends.  I also got to have a little fun with the people at Big Potato Games which is seems like a fun group of people who are making a big splash in the industry.  When I came back two things happened which got my attention which illustrated the paradox of contemporary business and modern technology.

The first was the problem with Delta Airlines and its reservation system which grounded the company for two days.  The second was a small article in the technology press about Windows 10 updates.  Both articles illustrate to me that the business maxim, “…if it isn’t broke don’t fix it,” is seriously wrong.  If you are a company in the 21st century if you want to remain in business it is your responsibility to upgrade your technology infrastructure and applications.

First, Delta airlines relies on its reservation system to be managed on AS/400 systems and mainframes using the IBM Transaction Processing Facility software.  The software was last upgraded by IBM ten years ago and the only people who can fix something if anything goes wrong are IBM consultants.  If something goes wrong a CIO and their company is forced to call IBM to make changes and corrections.  In the same ten year span, Microsoft has had four operating systems; Windows 7, Vista, Windows 8 and Windows 10.  Presently, there is an entire ecosystem of developers outside of Microsoft who can alter, improve or fix these systems.  So if an airline wants more availability to labor and more up to date systems they should go with a Microsoft solution.

This did not happen for a few reasons.  First, airlines for all their talk of customer service and being high tech are notoriously stingy with money to upgrade and improve their technology infrastructure.  So what they did is graft other technology systems on to their old IBM infrastructure.  If the AS/400 went down, it would create a cascading effect which would shut down the airline.  According to the news, that is exactly what happened as numerous technology professionals scrambled to get the systems back up and running.  It also lead to the CEO of the company publicly admitting they are doing the best they could to fix the problem without knowing exactly what went wrong.    Next, the people who make the decisions about the funding felt this risk was so unlikely that they decided that the system was not broken and so they did not need to make improvements.

This kind of thinking is foolish.  Software is like any other machine but it manufactured out of ones and zeros instead of steel.  Machinery needs to be maintained or it will break down.  Fail to change the oil in your car and see what happens after 100,000 miles.  That is the exact situation which happened at Delta. The people driving the organization put off or ignored routine maintenance to its systems because it would cost money to do so.  As long as everything was working, there was no need to do maintenance and upgrades.  As you can see, this cost the company millions of dollars when the system failed and hurt its reputation for quality service.

The other new item I saw this week was a brief blurb about how Windows 10 updates are not an iron clad guarantee that a system will not be compromised by hackers because people generally do not upgrade the other software on their machines.  As a technology professional we have seen people with Windows 10 machines with copies of Office 2007 on them.  This mixing and matching of software in the real world is common because people don’t have the money to upgrade everything.  This creates openings for hackers and people willing to do bad things.

This is short sided like a person not changing the oil in their car.  When you upgrade an operating system you should be able to update the software which is on that operating system.  This is why I am a big fan of Google Documents and Microsoft’s Office 365 software because these cloud based systems update automatically and do not rely on the user purchasing and installing upgrades.  The burden is no longer on the consumer but on the company providing the software which is what it should be.

So in one week the world witnessed an object lesson in why the phrases, “…if it isn’t broke don’t fix it,” is wrong.  Old and outdated software which was not maintained properly failed spectacularly.  The only people who could fix the software was a third party vendor which was not responsive.  The pennies saved on upgrades and improvements became millions of dollars in technical debt which shut down the company.  Finally, the reputation of the company was hurt by this kind of thinking.

It is also clear that just upgrading operating systems is not enough the applications which run on those operating systems need to be improved.  I understand that in the world of technology bragging about your new data center or software upgrades to your core business is not as glamorous as web application or phone app but it is just as important because when those systems fail they fail in an embarrassing and spectacular fashion.  So it is up to everyone from the largest company to the personal consumer to pay attention to how they maintain their software.  If not, expect to be grounded.

Until next time.

Why do we treat customers like users

It was a big week in technology.  Microsoft had a massive press conference to promote its new operating system.  E3 had a big technological breakthrough which will lead to new products which I will share more about in a later blog.  Finally, there was the state of the Union address which almost devolved into playground insults.  It was not a bad week.   What struck me most about the week was a tweet from Yahoo technology critic David Pogue he said the following,

Microsoft CEO Nadella just now: “We want users to love Windows.” You could start by not calling us “users.” http://t.co/kgtlt2Ux15
— David Pogue (@Pogue) January 21, 2015

The over-caffeinated pundit from Yahoo is right there is something wrong with software engineers because we refer to our customers and consumers as if they are drug addicts instead of full partners in the software experience.  This week I want to talk about that.

The term “user” has been around as long as I have been working as a software developer.  My suspicion is that I can trace its origins back to the early days of corporate computing.  Large Mainframe and AS/400 systems housed tremendous amounts of data centrally and the “operators” of these systems the network administrators and programmers allowed “users” to run programs to gather data.  Ever since the 1960’s, the term has stuck and I feel it poisons the relationship between those who make software and those who use it.

Since the first moon landings, the powerful computers which took us to another world can now conveniently fit into a contemporary smart phone.  Instead of mainframe systems, we have the internet and cloud based computing.  In addition, an entire generation has grown up swimming in technology.  Sadly the habits and attitudes have struggled to catch up.  Daily, I see developers use the term “users” to refer to the people who depend on the software we create.  Users are stupid, selfish, clueless, and careless in equal degrees and they are the bane of the life of a software engineer because they are constantly breaking their creations.

I understand this feeling.  I spend hours working on software trying to get it to work correctly and then someone comes along and breaks it with little or no effort.  It is part of the sense of pride and skill developers have which allow us too figure out how to bend technology to our will. When someone dismissively breaks that technology, it creates a spiral of rage inside me which is difficult for me to explain.  That software is my “baby” and for someone else to call it defective or ugly is a serious insult.

What we do not talk about is that the “users” are really not trying to break our creations or insult our intelligence.  They just want things which work.  They do not plug in a lamp worrying about amperage or voltage.  They just want to plug in a lamp and have it light the room.  Software is supposed to solve problems and help make the day go easier and faster.  They should not have to worry about out of memory exceptions or properly filling out forms.  They just need to use the software on their computer, mobile device and tablet.

They are not users of software; they are consumers and customers.  Those of us in the software profession need to remember that and treat these people accordingly.

Until next time.

Smart Watches Not Ready for Prime Time

They look cool but they are not ready for prime time.

I take a few weeks off and the entire world looks like it is falling apart.  Israelis and Palestinians are killing each other again.  The saber rattling in the Ukraine has claimed the lives of innocent airline passengers and my Chicago White Sox’s continue to grapple with mediocrity.  It makes me grateful that I can concentrate on my work and my business.  This week on the blog I would like to discuss something which is all the rage; mobile computing.

It has been no secret that I have been spending the last three years talking about how two major trends are changing computing and how you run your business.  This first was the growth of cloud computing which makes it possible to manage your IT infrastructure for pennies on the dollar.  The other is the rise of mobile computing where smart phones and tablets are taking over the computing world.  As part of this trend it the rise of Google Glass and other wearable computers. 

If you are not familiar, Google Glass was a skunk works project which makes it possible to wear a computer on your face like a pair of eyeglasses.  The user can record video and surf the net just by using your glasses.  It is expensive and the users of the product have created a tremendous amount of resentment among those who aren't decked out with the devices.  As a business owner you can see the potential for the product.  Having people in your warehouse scan bar codes using glasses only.  Truck drivers could get directions beamed to their glasses.  Using facial recognition technology police could use them pull up information about criminals.  Sadly, this technology is still in its infant stages so these dreams will have to wait until the Google Glass gets cheaper and they have more useful applications.

This brings me to the next big thing in technology.  Smart watches are now being debuted for consumer public and it is clear that while they are a good next step they are not ready for prime time.  First, the products require an Android device to connect to so they cannot work on their own but rather behave like Bluetooth devices.  Next the devices are big, heavy and clunky.  You can wear the watch but it looks more like a phone strapped to your wrist than a watch.  Finally, the devices are power hungry so they need to be charged with the same frequency as your phone. 

These devices are going to be great but right now I recommend that you wait until the technology is perfected.  They remind me of an old Saturday Night live parody commercial from the 1970's for the “Chromega” digital watch; in order to tell time you needed three sets of hands to operate it. 

I am a big fan of technology and the next big thing but I am going to wait a while before I get a smart watch.

Until next time. 

The Vision Thing

We have a vision.

Technology is a shambling monster of innovation and conflicting visions.  One week, we view the future being made in virtual reality with companies like Occulus.  The next week we view self-driving cars.  It is enough to make someone’s head spin.  I myself wonder about all the new innovations and changes taking place.  As an entrepreneur, do I ride the latest trends or do I follow my own trail.  This week I want to talk about where my head and heart take me.

The two biggest trends in technology are the increase in mobile computing with smart phones and the rise of cloud computing.  I have been watching both grow for years and I have been talking about it for a long time.   I think that Microsoft has been leader in the area of cloud computing with its Azure services while they have stumbled in the area mobile devices.  I think with the launch of the Surface Pro 3 that they will have a device which will knock some competitors on their behinds.

When I founded this company four years ago I saw these trends in motion and wanted to help small and medium sized businesses take advantage of these technologies.  It is not glamorous or sexy but it felt like a niche which I could fill.  This way a small business owner has the same powers and features as a Fortune 500 firm.  They can use mobile applications and the cloud to help grow their business.  I imagine a sales person for a small firm doing a sale punching a few keys on their cell phone and the transaction going through with minimal human intervention.

This is the dream of my firm and I look forward to making it a reality.  Please contact us today and we will show you how.

Until next time.

The Insanity of Software

At times someone distills perfectly what it means to be a software developer.  This week Peter Welch posted the following article to Gizmodo and I strongly recommend it to my readers “Why a Job in Programming Is Absolute Hell”.  This week, I wanted to comment on this blog and try to let you know that while programming is hell; the trip is worth it if you can help customers try and solve their problems.

Welch’s thesis is that while software development does not require you to lift 50 pounds or dangle from a building while you wield together iron girders, it is filled with stress and insanity.  I can attest in my career that software is one of the few products we make in western civilization which is made completely by hand.  That said many of the people who build software see themselves as artists and craftsmen.  This is a recipe for mental illness and conflict.   Because no two software developers will build the same thing the same way, this means that the more software developers you have working on a project the more disagreements about how the work is going to get done.

I am going to postulate something known as Wisniowski’s theorem.  For every developer on a software team, the amount of disagreement increases by the power of the number of developers on the team.  Thus, a team of seven developers is two to the seventh power more likely to disagree about how to build something than a team of two developers.

To prevent this from spiraling out of control, scrum masters and project managers were created who were supposed to act as guides and leaders to prevent conflict from spiraling out of control and get work done on time.  This has created an entirely different set of problems because many project managers and scrum masters do not come from a technical background.  So they do not know how to mediate conflict in a technical team or even what questions to ask.  This means that developers become insubordinate and work around the project leadership to get work done.  By the time someone has realized what has happened, it is either too late or the developer has decided to switch jobs working someplace else.  If this sounds like madness, it is.

So what company to do?  Well many people purchase software in the hope of never having to figure out how it is constructed.  Others pay millions of dollars for consulting companies to build the software and hope that it works.  Finally, the truly brave hire developers and IT professionals and hope that they can keep the organization afloat.  I have lived it for over 15 years and I have to scars to show it.

This is why I founded E₃ systems.  I wanted to help businesses with low cost and low hassle solutions to fleet maintenance and inventory management.  Contact us today and we will tell you how.

Software development is filled with stress and insanity.  It has rewarded me with a modicum of independence and a middle class lifestyle but I know for a fact that there has to be a better way to practice my profession.  So enjoy that working software because someone had to go a little insane to make it a reality.

Until next time.

Some thoughts about the retirement of Windows XP

Technology changes that is why we have to say
good-bye to windows XP

The world of software development is filled with constant change.  Development paradigms come and go.  One year MySpace is the social media king and the next it is Facebook.  You slave away at a keyboard for years and then you become an overnight sensation with Kid Rock performing at your IPO party.  During the entire cycle of technology boom and bust one company has been a constant for good or ill and that has been Microsoft and its windows operating system.  This week we hit a major milestone as Microsoft officially retired its Windows XP operating system.  In this week’s blog post, I want to talk about this change and how it will affect you the small business.

As I have said before software is a living and breathing thing.  Thousands of smart people around the world are writing, testing, and hacking software for a living.  This means that weaknesses and new features are constantly being tested in the Darwinian world of the internet.  At a cocktail party I was asked what my job as a software development was like. I compared it to being a carpenter who builds a house and then turns it over to others with sledge hammers and chainsaws to see if it will stand up to an afternoon of demolition.  This is what is happening all the time on the internet and in the tech world.  People are testing the limits of software.

This is what makes the longevity of Windows XP so remarkable.  According to Microsoft windows XP came into being on the last day of 2001 and stopped selling to the public in June 2008.  This seven year run was a huge accomplishment and spawned the seeds of resistance to change.  It was the culmination of the Windows 95 project with a clean interface, a snappy web browser, and finally strong infrastructure which could handle most third party devices and software.  It was the pick-up truck that most people needed to do their jobs at the office and at home.

As time wore on cracks began to show in Windows XP.  Internet Explorer 6 became the laughing stock of the web community with its lack of support for common standards.  Windows XP did not work very well with the emerging cloud based systems.  Finally, hackers with seven years of time on their hands found exploits which could harm the security of data.  Windows was growing old and failing to adapt.

The funny thing was that the technology industry was also falling into this rut.  Large businesses had created complicated systems to manage process with Window XP infrastructure and to upgrade to a new operating system would mean they would have to make sure these complicated systems would work with the new operating systems Windows Vista and Windows 7.  Like many business people who are risk adverse they decided to keep XP to avoid having to do the hard work of upgrading their systems.    It also did not help that windows Vista did not support many third party controllers for printers and peripherals.  Apple computers mocked Microsoft marvelously about these problems in a famous series of commercials during the time.

Now, it is six years later and Microsoft has stopped support for XP and office 2003.  According to the Net Market Share website the number of people using XP is about 27% off all computer users with another 49% using Windows 7 this is three quarters of the entire PC market with the rest divided between Apple and Windows 8.  What this means is that 27% of the PC using population is now running software which is not supported so if it breaks or is compromised by hackers you and the consumer are out of luck.  This means as a business you will have to upgrade because using Windows XP has now become a risk to your customers and their data.

We are E₃ systems anticipated this when we created our software Tony and Sully.  We constructed our software to work on the web.  This means that it does not matter what operating system you have it will work on a contemporary web browser.  This cloud based outlook means that you do not have to install any software or worry about upgrades; we take care of it for you.  All you need is a user name and password with a browser and we will set you up with easy to use systems which work on all major browsers and all major types of devices.

Now that Windows XP is fading into the distance like the elves of middle earth, you are going to have to face a new reality.  Computing has changed dramatically.  It is not enough to run office applications.  You need to be able to share your information with social media, deal with mobile device revolution at your workplace, and be able to store data in the cloud for safe keeping.  Fortunately, Microsoft anticipated this and made sure that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 can deal with these challenges.  They also support the latest web standards, almost every type of peripheral device on the market, and be used on numerous devices from a PC to a tablet.  It is an exciting time.  I am glad that I am bearing witness to it.

The world of software is always changing; even Microsoft has to change with the times.  So do not mourn the passing of Windows XP but celebrate what has come after it.  We will be standing by to help you and to provide you with the help you need to upgrade your systems.

Until next time.

We were mobile before mobile was cool

The future is mobile computing

Last week, I discussed a few trends you missed. I want to follow up on that blog post because we are depending on technology more.  The technology with the most influence is mobile technology and it grew last year by 115%.  This week in the blog I want to remind you why you should pay attention to this.

In 2013, mobile application use increased by 115%. The use of smart phones and the dominance of data means that as a professional and business person your business is going to depend more on how you view your information.  This means, that systems should not be tethered to desk top computers and clunky systems.  Today, it should be possible to follow up on invoices, bills of lading and other important activities inside your organization via your mobile device.  So software vendors who sell you solutions which do not work on mobile devices are not doing their job correctly.

At E₃ systems we have two major releases which work on both a laptop, tablet, and mobile device.  Our Sully 2.0 system helps you keep track of bills of lading, invoices, and purchase orders from the desktop to the phone.  We have also made the transition from Microsoft Tag to QR coding which gives us way to connect pieces of paper to the web.  We are also proud to announce the release of our Tony software which makes managing your fleet of vehicles easy.  Now drivers and upload documents via their phones, receipts are accessible and you can track the maintenance of your vehicles.  This will help you with your insurance premiums and when accidents happen protect you from liability.

At E₃ systems we saw this trend years ago and it has shaped how we have created software ever since. Contact us today and find out more.  This is one trend you should not miss.

Until next time.

Three trends you may have missed

You missed something pretty important
this week if you were not paying attention.

This is a bad week to be a technology entrepreneur.  Three things happened this week which both taint the image of tech professionals am make it harder to do business.  This week, I want to discuss how security guards for Google, a loss of net-neutrality and the growth of mobile computing are creating a witches brew of discontent.  

I have make a pretty big bet financially and professionally on net neutrality.  This week a judge threw out FFC regulations which prevents phone companies and broadband operators from giving preferential treatment to one kind of content over another.  This is the antithesis of how the web is supposed to work.  All content is supposed to be equal it is up to consumers to determine what is popular and what is not.  Thanks to this ruling that is going to change.  

Now big content providers like Facebook, Google and the NYTimes can pay bribes to your cable company or mobile phone provider to give their content preferential treatment over those who did not pay the bribe.  Thanks to the ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals this is perfectly legal conduct.  This hurts bloggers and small entrepreneurs like me because it will hurt us growing traffic and gaining venture capital.  This decision is bad for business and will not liberate the invisible hand of the marketplace; instead, with will unleash a hammer of big money and it will crush innovation.  I hope that the local chamber of commerce organization will help lobby for net neutrality.  

Next Will Oremus and Reuters are reporting that Google is using private security to protect its employees from protesters.  This has a faint whiff of similar behavior from the Pullman train car company.  Relations between locals and technology firms have grown sour over the last 10 years in the San Francisco Bay area.  This break down has occurred because those in the technology business are making tremendous wealth.  This wealth has driven up housing costs.  In addition, the libertarian world view of many tech professionals has created a serious gap with locals who see tech professionals as people who gentrify neighborhoods and could not give a flying leap about their neighbors who do not work in the profession.  

The optics of that are just bad; educated, wealthy professionals running roughshod over an existing community while the locals harbor deep resentment of the wealth and privilege of these professionals.  From a business perspective, I understand why Google is chartering the private buses and hiring the security guards to make it easier for employees to get into the office.  This creates a need for serious outreach to the community because I feel that a successful business should be a cause for celebration instead of a source of civil unrest.  As my business grows, we will make an effort that we will try to share the wealth and become a respected member of the community.  We say so on our mission statement.  

Finally, CNET.com has reported that mobile application use has grown by over 115% in 2013.  This says, if you are a small or medium sized business your website and applications are going to need to work on mobile devices.  The mobile web is no longer optional.  

So what do these three stories have in common?  The Net-Neutrality ruling gives your wireless phone carrier tremendous power to pick winners and losers in the technology marketplace.  The reason why they will have this power is because more of us are using our mobile devices to gather information.  What this will do is eventually create more income inequity and tension between those who understand technology and those which don’t.  

At E₃ systems we can help your organization take advantage of the mobile web. Contact us to learn more.  These three trends together represent a huge challenge to the National economy and the local one in Joliet.  Together working with the Chamber of Commerce and our elected representatives we will win back net-neutrality.  E₃ systems wants to be part of this community rather than apart from it and we want to build your mobile web application to make your organizations more successful.  

The witches brew of discontent could be a recipe for success we just have to make sure we watch the pot and make sure it does not boil over.  

Until next time. 

Our Values Mater.

We think about our values each day.

E₃ systems suffered a major loss last week as the founders experienced a death in the family and took time off for the funeral.  If you have visited the company web site, one of our company values is respect.  With the passing of one of our founder’s relatives, it only seemed right to take time off and pay our respects.  During this difficult time, I reflected on my values and the values of the company I founded.  This week on the blog I want to discuss those reflections.

I founded this company three years ago out of frustration with my technology career.  I spent too much time in meetings and taking orders from people who could not use a mouse.  I concluded, in this fit of career darkness, I would found my own business and help others use technology to improve their business.  It was a crazy dream but I was determined to see it through.  Since then, I spent countless hours writing software and meeting with potential clients.  I have affectionately referred to the company as my mistress.  We have released two major software projects in that time and we are launching sales efforts to support those products.

Along with coding, I spent a great deal of time to think about what kind of company I wanted to build.  I wanted a firm where people respected each other, the customer and the communities they server.  I wanted to be able to grow so that I could reward our stake holders and employees.  I look forward to hiring my first employee and the only way that is going to happen is by growing and improving sales.  When we hit that first million dollars in revenue we will let you know.

The other two values of E₃ systems are agility and development.  I strongly believe that to be successful a company needs to respond to customer demands.  This is why I have embraced the agile manifesto and why agility is one of my corporate values.  If you do not like something we are doing give us two weeks and it will change.  This is one of the reasons why smaller firms seem to be having more success that larger ones in today’s environment.

Finally, I believe strongly in personal development of my employees.  Unlike traditional businesses a good technology company demands that its employees get smarter and better at what they do. A technology worker needs to relearn their job every eighteen month. Each employee, should learn how to be better at what they do and become more knowledgeable of the world around them.  Continuing education and training just makes sense as the world becomes more complex.  People are not machine tools to be used up and then thrown away.  Only be investing in people and helping them develop will you be a successful postmodern business.

I strongly believe in these values; growth, agility, development, and respect.  I have place them on my company website and I have struggled to live them as I have launched my business.  This organization counts on two things the quality of our product and the trust of our customers.  If we do not have those then we deserve to fail.

We know that in order to earn your trust and provide quality we have to have values consistent with theat.   I know we do.  So reflecting on this journey, I can say we are doing it the right was and look forward to future success.

Until next time.

The Bring Your Own Device revolution

The revolution is here. 

Revolution is messy.  Protesters march in the street and buildings are burned to the ground.  In the end, the old order could become stronger than before or the rebels triumph and have to figure out how to take charge.  Today on the blog, I want to discuss a revolution taking place in the business world;  the bring your own device revolution or BYOD.

Bring your own device began in earnest with the release of the first iPhone. Prior to this date, when you joined a large company and needed a cell phone the company issue it to you.  This was great for the company because the company could control the number of minutes, configure the devices e-mail, and place primitive application on it for critical business functions.  Control and economies of scale was the name of the game.  The release of the iPhone turned that model on its head.  Hot shot executives and sale people snapped up these new devices from Apple and brought them into work.  These individuals demanded they work with the current IT infrastructure.  The BYOD movement was born.

Since the iPhone did not support Flash, CEO’s demanded web sites which worked on their new-fangled phones.  This was the primary reason why the use of flash declined on the web.  The advent of tablet computers and personal laptops make this trend accelerate.  Now companies had to maintain its own computers and support numerous tablets and smart phones which were used by employees.

At E₃ systems we have known about the BYOD revolution for some time.  We constructed both our Sully inventory system and our Tony fleet management system with mobile devices and tablets in mind.  Our software is hosted on the cloud so it does not need to be installed on your devices.  If you have a web browser on your phone, tablet or PC then you can use our product.  This is why we say that our software is easy, economical and everywhere because if you can connect with the web then you can use our systems.

People may not be protesting in the streets and building may not be on fire but we are in the middle of a revolution.  E₃ systems know how to navigate these troubling times and look forward to helping you today.  Contact us now.

Until next time.

Why You Need Tony

Tony is looking after your fleet.

After the work we put into our new Tony Fleet Maintenance program you would expect us to drop the mike and do a little celebrating.  Far from it; this week on the blog I want to talk about why you need to use this application.

If you are safety coordinator at a business or owner, insurance companies and regulatory agencies are demanding that you provide information about the maintenance of your equipment.  This is going to be particularly important if one of your vehicles gets into an accident.  Before Tony, you kept track of this information on paper or with an excel spreadsheet.  Now you can access this information with a few clicks on a PC, tablet computer or smart phone.

So when you are called to the scene of an accident by the state police you can bring along your smart phone and show the officers that all of the maintenance on the vehicle is up to date saving you potential liability.  Our system also makes it possible to settle disputes between the shop and the company.  You can find out how long work is under warranty and if something breaks prove it to the shop that they need to fix it.  So now your organization is saving money.

Finally, Tony makes it possible to save time.  Since it is cloud based system, it works on any device with a connection to the web you can enter information anywhere or any time.  You do not have to be in the office and can enter data at home or on the road.  This kind of system is perfect for people who would rather be meeting with customers instead of being tethered in the office doing paperwork.

We are pretty proud of this application and are looking forward to going out and selling it in the agriculture and logistics community.  Contact us here for more information.

Until next time.

Introducing Tony - Our Latest Product

Your Fleet Maintenance never looked
so good. 

More than cash, the common currency of an entrepreneur is trust.  If customers and client can not trust you your business is doomed to failure.  Today we at E₃ systems are proud to announce that we are releasing our Tony fleet management system.  This week’s blog post features our new product and how we kept our promise to our customers.

Tony was conceived in February of 2013; as we looked at the marketplace and realized there was no good tool for tracking maintenance on a fleet of vehicles.  Trucking companies, school bus services, rental car companies and farmers did not have a good tool to keep track of when and what kind of maintenance they did on their vehicles.  We decided to write one.

The system like all E₃ products works on a smart phone, tablet or regular PC. It is based on the cloud so there is not software to install or upgrade.  Finally, we made our system easy to use and economical for consumers.

With Tony you can QR code your vehicles so that anyone with a smart phone can view the maintenance history on a vehicle.  Paperwork is a thing of the past as a few key strokes can pull up a vehicle and the history of maintenance for it.  In addition, when you are confronted with law-enforcement or insurance requests for vehicle maintenance you can provide them with that information from any device with a web connection.

We went through an exhausting testing program to make sure we had a great product to offer you.  Now we are pleased to say it is here.  Contact us today and we will tell you more.  This is just one more way we are trying to earn your trust.

Until Next time.

Being a Jerk Does Not Make You a Better Programmer

Can you believe this A@@ Hole.
Image courtesy of Slate.com

It has been quite a week in the technology world.  The big news this week was the firing of Business Insider’s chief technical officer Pax Dickinson for a series of insensitive and sexist tweets.  As someone who has been fired, I really do not like to gloat at the misfortune of others.  I am going to make an exception for Mr. Dickinson.  This week on the blog I explain why people like Mr. Dickinson are a poison to the profession of software development and technology start-ups.

When I first joined this profession, it was male dominated.  Guys wrote code.  It was just the nature of the profession.  Diversity was usually based on experience and ethnic background as programmers from India, Asia, and the United States blended together to form development teams.  I remember quite vividly when the attacks on the world trade center took place that the developers at my firm closed ranks around the lone Muslim member of our development team because we did not want our co-workers hassling him.  People who code together tend to stick together.

As the years wore by it became obvious to me that we needed more women in the profession.  Homosexual slurs were used to describe code that wasn't acceptable.  Developers who couldn't take a joke were called “p#%&ys” and women who worked with us affectionately referred to the development work area as the “pig pen” for all the misogynistic behavior exhibited by the developers.  It was 2009 and I had finally realized that programming had far too much alpha male ignorance associated with it.

Around this time, I discovered the Chicago area application life-cycle management group.  It was led by a woman smart as a whip and tough enough not to take any grief in the profession.  It was also here that I met many women who were managing projects and in the trenches writing code.  To me it was a revelation, women not only could write software but they could teach and provide proper instruction to their fellow developers.  It was a breath of fresh air and it was at that point I realized that if I ever started my own company I wanted to encourage the participation of women in the world of technology.

Pax Dickinson fits into this discussion because he comes from the “brogrammer” school of development.  These individuals are nurtured in the world of game development and the start-up community.  They are defined by their arrogance, intelligence and total lack of an internal filter.  They are not afraid to call an algebra teacher stupid if they know the answer before teacher shows the work on the black board.  They take pride being the smartest person in the room and will make sure everyone knows they are the smartest person in the room.  As it was explained to me once, “a good programmer is smart and he is arrogant enough to make sure everyone knows it.”

Really Mr. Dickinson fits the definition of an asshole as outlined by Robert I. Sutton PhD in his book “The No Asshole Rule” which are people,  “…who consistently aim their venom at less powerful people and rarely, if ever, at more powerful people.”  Dickinson has made a career of making people who are not him feel like dirt.  Women who he thinks can’t code are beneath him.  Developers who don’t understand his mode of operation are worthless.  Heaven forbid you question his business practices or products because that will make you a target as well.

As Mr. Dickinson gained wealth and fame in the world of technology, it merely made a bad problem worse.  Business Insider should have known better than to hire this guy but when they did they gave him the ultimate license to be an asshole to his fellow man.  It is not surprise that he got himself in trouble and soiled the reputation of the organization which fired him.

I suppose that this is an object lesion then in the world of technology.  Sooner or later an asshole is going to get what is coming to him.  They can hide but sooner or later they are exposed as the cretins they are and they are cast aside because people do not want to do business with them.  I have always striven not to be an asshole in the technology world.  It is why I founded my company and why I am looking forward to hiring developers who are going to make a difference in my organization.  I don’t care about gender, ethnic origin or religion.  I just want to make sure they know C# and can code responsive layouts.

So while Mr. Dickinson is packing his desk and protesting his punishment, I am going to get on with the business of running my start-up and helping small and medium businesses work in the cloud.

Until next time.

Making No Little Plans

Greatness means making no small plans.

Being an entrepreneur feels like being a wall flower at your high school dance.  You are lonely standing on the sidelines while everyone else is out on the dance floor having a good time.  More aggravating is that when you ask someone to dance they politely reject your advances or insult you for being so bold as to imply that you even had the right to dance with them.   By the end of the evening you have a sugar high from drinking too much from the punch bowl and your self-esteem is about two sizes smaller than the start of the evening.  I seems like it takes a little courage to show up at your high school dance.

This week’s blog post I want to talk about why we keep dealing with the setbacks and challenges to try and build this business.  I hail from the Chicago metropolitan area and one of the founding fathers of this city is Daniel Burnham who was an early pioneer of skyscraper construction and chief architect of the 1893 Colombian exposition.  He said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will not themselves be realized.”

I was and am tired of making small plans in my cubical.  I want to help other small and medium sized businesses leverage the power of the web and cloud based computing.  I want to get involved in philanthropy and help others with the opportunities I was fortunate to receive.  I want to be able to own my own office and lay it out the way I want.   Some of this is ego driven and the remainder is motivated by a strong desire to make the business community in my local corner of the world better.

We think that we have the tools to make that happen.  Our Sully 2.0 software makes managing inventory and bills of lading twenty four hours a day seven days a week.  We have a broad knowledge of agile management and we have the people who will help your organization manage the transition.  We are putting the finishing touches on the Tony fleet maintenance system. Finally, we can put together QR codes for you to help drive more business to your organization and web site.  This makes us poised for growth and greatness. No little plans indeed.

Contact us today and we will tell you more.

Until Next time.

The Quality Goes in Before the Software Ships Out.

I think we need to explain.

This has been an amazing week of transition for E₃ systems.  We have formally been in business for three years.  We are also on the cusp of a new software release. Today I want to talk about our new product Tony and why you will have to wait a little longer before it goes live.

Early in 2013, a potential client called us out of the blue and wanted to know if we could put together a simple contact management system for them.  We rushed a prototype out and demonstrated it to the client.  They seemed enthusiastic until we gave them a contract and said that they would have to pay for us to finish the project since it was done on spec.  We never heard from that client again.  I suppose this was a good development because if they were not going to return our calls or honor a contract I am sure that getting paid would have also been a serious problem.

The months of March and April were gloomy as we continued to sell our main product Sully 2.0 and assess the failure of our prototype project.  Some good did come out of the work because; we developed experience in MVC 4 and Entity Framework code first for rapid project turn around.  By May, we had come up with a new project and idea which we nick-named Tony after a famous Fiat mechanic.

Tony would be an easy to use system to track maintenance for vehicles in any sized fleet. Trucking companies, rental firms, and even car dealerships could use the system to keep track of when and where work was done.  It would become a living record and best of all it would obey the philosophy of all products at E₃ systems.  It would work on a smart phone, tablet, and personal computer.  We also leveraged the power of Microsoft Tag so someone in the field would scan a code on their phone and get instant information.

We had scheduled that Tony would launch in July of 2013.  It was a hectic schedule made even more dramatic by the server migration we did to upgrade our software and databases.  Something had to give and it was clear that the migration took precedence and that we would have to push back the release of Tony.  We also felt that we needed to do more work on the product before it was ready for release and sale.  I am deeply disappointed about this but as the president of the company I would rather ship quality software that release something and then expect my customers to find bugs and act as our quality assurance team.

So we are planning to release our Tony software in mid-September.  I felt that you our customers deserved and explanation.  We had been dropping hints about Tony for the last two months and felt you needed an honest explanation of why it is not here.  As a young start-up we are not in the business of vaporware so please forgive us for the delay.  If you have any questions or concerns please drop us a line and we will have an account executive contact you directly.

Until next time.

We upgrade so you do not have to

Pay attention! We are upgrading.

This week we are preparing for the launch of our new software product nicknamed “Tony.”  We are also upgrading our servers from Windows 2008 to Windows 2012.  This made me think about why you the small business person should care about all these behind the scenes moves.  Today’s blog post will cover the reason we upgrade at E₃ systems.

One of the important powers of the web and cloud computing is that as a consumer of cloud services you do not have to worry about software, server space, or even operating systems.  All you have to do is open your web browser use the software.  It is up to the loud service provider to make sure that its systems are up and running rather than placing that burden on the consumer.  This is why we are upgrading.  We upgrade so you the consumer do not have to go through the experience.

It is up to us E₃ systems to make sure everything works in a safe and secure fashion.  It is up to us E₃ systems to bring you the latest technology including responsive websites which look good on tablets, mobile phones and regular PC’s.  It is up to E₃ systems to fine tune those systems for maximum performance.  For our customers, they can worry about their business and leave the upgrades to us.

This is not the most glamorous thing about being a cloud based company but I think it is the most important. We do upgrades so you don’t have to.  Manage your business we will worry about the upgrades.

Until next time.

Zombie Proof your Business

Zombies are coming,  is your business ready?

This week Brad Pitt is putting his money and reputation on the line with the release of his blockbuster production World War Z.   I have been reading the book in anticipation of the movie and I am looking forward how they are going to transform Max Brooks’ book into popular entertainment.  While I was reading along, it struck me that a great deal wisdom can be gleaned from a fictional zombie apocalypse. As a small business person the unforeseen and the unexpected happen all the time. If you are not careful your business can wind up like the walking dead.  In this post, I want to talk about how cloud based services and changes in the technology sphere can help you avoid this tragic fate.

The biggest challenge for any business is how to deal with disaster recovery.  If a fire, earthquake or flood hits your business how are you going to get back up and running.  Larger companies have decided that they are going to create large data centers resembling Fort Knox.  Massive Batteries, multiple generators, and numerous systems are in place.  In fact these facilities are filled with backups and redundancies that the only way to really stop business is the have an asteroid directly strike the building or a massive civil disruption, like a zombie apocalypse, to shut down the entire power grid.

As a software developer at the turn of the century, I though all these precautions were an over-reaction.   My opinion changed overnight in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the world trade center.  Merrill Lynch lost four employees to the attacks but the terrorist nearly destroyed the company causing it loose over $98 million in the course of a tragic morning.  Data-centers and disaster recover became a very serious business. No one anticipated the terrorists flying a plane into the building with your data but now it was a very real possibility.

Over the last decade, as data centers grew they had surplus space and power.  Being good capitalists, these companies began leasing out their extra space to smaller companies.  Cloud computing was born.  Soon companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft got into the act and became the principle suppliers of cloud services.  Prices fell and up-time increased.  This was technology and the marketplace doing what Adam Smith said it would.

As a small business myself for a few hundred dollars a year I have the computing power which would have cost several hundred thousand dollars during the giddy days of the dot-com boom.  It allows me to stay in business as I look for customers.  I also know that my data is secure because it exists in a data-center in the Pacific Northwest and that if something happens to me or my business, like a zombie attack, the survivors will be able to access the data and information with a few passwords.  You can have this security too.  At E₃ systems we have inventory management and fleet management software safely hidden away on the cloud for you to use so if something happens to your facility you will be ready to do business the next day.

Contact us today and we will show you how this is more exciting than a zombie apocalypse.

Until next time.

Don't Buck the Smartphone trend.

Cell phones are taking over the web.  Pay attention.

I wanted to discuss some of the latest trends in web development.  In reality, I want to recap with my readers what Mary Meeks said during her annual Internet trends address.  Mary has been at this for a while and she is considered the source for internet metrics. What she illustrates is what I have been saying for some time.  If you ignore the mobile web you are taking a huge risk with your business.

If you want to see the report yourself, you can view all slides here.  Here is my take from the discussion.  First, the total amount of time we spend on the internet is 22% of our media viewing time.  Additionally, we spend 12% of our free time on the mobile web.   This means we spend roughly a third of our free time on the internet either via a browser or the mobile web.  This is market share is growing and has the potential for 20 Billion dollars in advertising revenue.  That is only on slide five.

The next major slide is number 32 which shows that current internet traffic is on mobile devices about 15% of all web requests.  That number is expected to double to 30% by 2014.  This means that a third of your corporate web traffic in the next year is going to reach your website via a mobile device.  If your web site cannot adapt to this new form of traffic it is like turning away a third of your customers.  As a small or medium sized business do you really want to turn away a third of your customers?

The final trend you need to be aware of is that the adoption of smart phones continues to grow at a scary pace.  Currently the percentage of smart phones currently in circulation represents about 58% of the total market for cellular phones.  The growth of the smart phone adoption is also fairly large at 28%.  So, smart phones already eclipse ordinary cellular phones and the adoption rate remains high. This means that as a business you are going to have to adjust to more consumers learning about your business via a mobile device.

Already we are seeing this internet usage cause some problems in the business world.  Zynga the on-line game company is going through a second round of lay-offs cutting 18% of its staff.  The reason why is that they are not growing quickly enough in their mobile gaming offerings while traffic for their on-line games is decreasing.  Salon magazine noted that companies like Viggle as attempting to capture the second screen phenomena where people surf the net and watch television at the same time.  Why is there a company like Viggle?  I claim that it is because of the rise of mobile computing.

So as a small and medium sized business, you have two choices; you can ignore these trends and hope for the best or attempt to modify your web presence to take advantage of these trends.  At E₃ systems we did a major site revision to account for these trends.  We can help you do the same.  Contact us today and we will show you how.

The web is never a static thing and this year’s state of the web speech shows some pretty serious trends.  To ignore them is put your business at risk, and you wouldn't want do that would you?

Until next time.