Agile Provides both Cash and Control

The business world is going through some strange times. First, we are experiencing full employment in this economy for the first time since the 1960s. Meanwhile, inflation is the highest it has been since the Regan administration. These two factors combined make business people nervous and shareholders restless. Even bankers struggle to understand how to be profitable in an environment of full employment and high-interest rates.

Furthermore, this environment of uncertainty is being made worse by layoffs in the technology industry and the media exposure of advances in Artificial Intelligence. What is a professional to do in this chaos? It is necessary to discuss it. 

The last time the economy was such a tangled mess was during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Banks loaned money to people who had no intention of repaying them. Using sophisticated investment tools like credit-default swaps and collateralized debt obligations concealed recklessness like this. Everything was going well until people began to default on home loans, and the entire house of cards fell, triggering the Great Recession, which would linger in the economy for over eight years. 

During the panic and with the credit markets beginning to petrify, I read a book by William H. Janeway entitled “Capitalism in the Innovation Economy.” Janeway points out that during times of economic stress, venture capitalists demand two things: cash and control. When markets go sideways, shareholders want to hoard cash to lock in profits and avoid losses. For the business, the money supply from investors will slow down. For the investor, control means ensuring the business generates the profits necessary to justify the initial investment of money. Investors will allow a company to operate with little interference when things are going well. All is well as the share price increases or the dividend checks keep coming. When situations change, investors will micro-manage the money flow through the business. Executives will get fired, projects will get canceled, and ordinary workers might face layoffs. 

With interest rates increasing and tight labor markets, it is no surprise that investors want more cash and control of the businesses they are financing. The good news is that agile gives you the tools to provide the money and power that investors demand. It begs the question of what an agile professional should do when this situation arises at your office. 

First, the agile process allows for rapid iterations and inspection cycles. It is what people who desire control want. Every two or three weeks, you can show venture capitalists and investors what their hard-earned money is purchasing. If changes or corrections are necessary, the agile team can pivot to respond to those changes. It also allows people seeking control to have intimate knowledge of how the business is operating. At first blush, it looks like micromanagement, but it is close collaboration with the customers who are paying the bills for the organization. 

Next, investors and venture capitalists demand cash during uncertain times. As a professional, you must prove value for each technology decision and show how money flows into the organization from the first mouse click until the customer provides a credit card. Show skeptical investors how quickly a customer pays their invoices. Another good metric is showing how revenue improves with each technological improvement. Net Present Value is one of the most fundamental calculations an investor can make. So, calculate the figure and show the investors that the people and technology will pay for themselves quickly. The approach will calm the nerves of jittery investors. 

In these strange times for business, each professional plays an essential role in building wealth. So agile development and management are uniquely designed to provide cash and control to nervous investors. If we collaborate closely with shareholders and investors using agile methods, we will survive these strange days more robust and innovative. 

Until next time. 

Developing the professional scrum master

If you think this is ugly try
hiring an amateur plumber to fix it. 

The business world has a saying, “If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait until you hire an amateur.”  The obvious meaning being a poorly trained amateur will cost the company more money than someone who is more expensive but better qualified.  This week I want to talk about the minimum standards of professionalism you should expect from a scrum master.

I am a big believer that with enough time and training anyone can develop a useful skill.  If I devoted ten years of my life learning to be a plumber I could become competent.  Unfortunately, I know myself well enough to know that I need to call a professional when my water heater breaks.  A bonded plumber is worth the time and expense for me to have hot water.

When you get into other activities training is only a small part of the equation.  You can practice piano for years and still not be good enough to entertain an audience not composed of parents.  Jazz musicians refer to the quality of being able to improvise and perform in front of an unpredictable crowd as “chops.”  The idea is that anyone can learn to play the notes, but a real musician has chops.  Hard work, combined with talent makes a jazz musician successful.

I feel the same way about scrum mastery.  Everyone can be trained to do the job, but only a minority can do the job well.  It is the difference between having a high school student perform at your night club and having Elton John setting up a residency.  Fortunately, there are plenty of good programs to train scrum masters.  I am particularly fond of the Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Master certification because it teaches the basics of the job along with the more touchy-feely skills which come with the job.

Once they have received some training, they can then lead a scrum team.  I recommend putting a rookie scrum master with an experienced product owner. This way the scrum master can gain experience with someone who can show them the ropes of the business and the particulars of a project.  With a year or two of experience, a scrum master can help a product owner learn their trade.  Much like the ideas proposed in extreme programming an experienced veteran should partner with a rookie so they both gain from each other’s experience.

With a little luck, you will find someone who is outgoing, a good communicator, empathic, has grace under pressure and can act as team therapist.  Then and only then do you have a scrum master with chops who can take your team to the next level.  So take the time to train your scrum masters.  Next, pair them with experienced developers and product owners, so they gain confidence and experience.  Finally, make sure you find people who possess the talents which will make them successful in the job.  If you do this, you will not have to pay extra for an amateur managing your scrum teams.

Until next time.

Why good developers put up with bad workplaces.

Working in technology should
 not feel like being in a sweatshop.

I touched a nerve with my blog last week and it kicked off plenty of debate.  What struck me was the insight from Steve Seather who asked, “…why would anyone work in such a wrong place?”  This week why good people put up with bad workplaces.  I have been a contractor and full-time employee in the technology business for almost twenty years.  I have a lot of experience in bad workplaces.  I will also cop to the fact that I was a poor software developer for the first ten years of that career.

According to the United States Census website, approximately 7.3 Billion people live on the earth.  According to the Verge website of that roughly 18.5 million people know how to write and maintain software.  If you do the math, only .05% of individuals on the planet know how to keep the modern global economy moving.  In short, there is too much work chasing too few people able to do the job.

Since software can be written quickly in a café in Nigeria or a pub in Northern Ireland, the laws of supply and demand get twisted into a pretzel.  Domestic developers are pitted against offshore teams to keep wages low but because the skills are still rare wares are relatively high compared to other professionals.  Something has to give, so IT professionals become swamped with work.

IT professionals commonly work long hours and fight unrealistic deadlines because of this labor shortage. Software professionals become contingent workers because much of their work is project based.  They are hired and fired at will and often treated with contempt because they are often “the geeks” they have to pay.  So many people in the profession do receive excellent compensation, but they have zero security or respect.  Like rock musicians, they are only getting paid when they are working.  Unlike rock musicians, we rarely have adoring fans.

Making matters worse is the H1-B visa.  The United States immigration service provides this service.  In short, if you are a foreign national and work in the United States you need an H1-B visa.  If you lose your job you have 30 days to find a new one; otherwise, you are deported. Over my career, I attended many staff meetings where everyone was afraid to talk because if they offended the Vice President, they would be rolled off the project and deported back to the country of origin and this is why I compare the H1-B visa to indentured servitude.

Finally, many managers who lead IT teams have no understanding of the messy nature of building software and treat it like the manufacturing of machine tools.  They use project management and manufacturing techniques to lead IT professions which create numerous situations of labor alienation and crushes productivity.  IT professionals like any other employee have to put food on the table.  IT professionals put up with the lack of respect, overwork, poor security, and incompetent leadership for one reason – the paycheck.

It should not have to be this way.  The Agile reformation started because many smart people felt there was a better way.  People could do work more productively and more sustainably.  It is why I am and agilest.  It is also why I will not put up with ever working in a lousy environment again.  I am getting to old for that kind of grief.

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.

More than the Man in the Taupe Blazer

I am a guy from a state school with a
taupe blazer.  I am going to help you
get your software written on time.

I have had a lot on my mind the two weeks.  My day job is getting more challenging and my home business is puttering along as it always has.  The most interesting thing about working in technology is the pace of change.  If you don’t like something it is bound to change in the span of a week.  This week I wanted to devote more attention to the fine article in Bloomberg Business Week, entitled “What is code?”  For the beginner in technology it is a fine read, but it does get a few things wrong and in particular they get wrong the role of the “scrum master.”

In the first chapter of the rather long article they describe a “scrum master” as “The Man in the Taupe Blazer.”  According to the article:

“This man makes a third less than you, and his education ended with a B.S. from a large perfectly fine state university.  But he has 500+ connections on Linked In.  That plus sign after the “500” bothers you.  How many more than 500 people does he know? Five? Five thousand?”

In short, a Scrum master is an eccentric person who understands software development along with project management and if a project goes south they will be able to get on with their lives while the executive who hires them will be forced into early retirement.  At first glance this is not an unfair impression.

What the article missed is that a scrum master is just as invested as the executive who hires him.  One of first things a scrum master learns is the difference between involvement and commitment.  To be committed, is to put your career at risk if you don’t succeed.  To be involved, is to be a participant in a project with no repercussions should it fail.  This gets to the classic metaphor about the breakfast shop and pigs and chickens.  In my darker moments, I joke about being a pig because I live on a steady diet of garbage, live in the excrement of other pigs, am treated with contempt by the other farm animals, and when necessary butchered for someone else’s breakfast.

I am not far from the truth.  I don’t know how many times I have had a member of my business organization look at me like I am some kind of insect because I am not as; cool, professional, good looking, or credentialed as they are.  I also spend many moments of my day slopping through the mud of my company bureaucracy and infrastructure to get things done.  I have had people lie to me and get insulted when I point out they are lying to me.  I also remember the week before Christmas 2008 when I was slaughtered because I made a mistake after 14 hours of non-stop coding.

So to be clear my executive friends, many of the scrum masters you face have seen failure first hand and they do not wish to experience it again.  They also know that their success is dependent on the same things that make you a success which is getting the project finished on time and on budget.  We are not some empty shell in taupe blazers.  We are just as invested as you are.

Where we excel is that we understand software and the people who write it.  It is not a pretty job but for every skyscraper built it requires hundreds of people who understand, engineering, construction, and motivating construction workers to get the job done.  The tower may have “Trump” on its marque but it took an anonymous engineer with decades of experience to make it rise.

Unfortunately, software development is not construction in the conventional sense.  While buildings are constructed with steel, glass, and concrete, software is built using languages and systems that often do not play nice together.  We also have differing levels of training and experience which is not taught in schools but rather learned on the job so asking a developer to do something that seems routine can be a huge suck of time and money.  Also software developers, the good ones at least, see themselves as artists.  Which means they cannot be led around like construction workers.  They have to be treated like the smart professionals they are.  Instead, they are treated like expensive pigs ready to be sacrificed when a project goes bad.

Yes, I have a taupe blazer.  Instead of a Bachelor of Science, I have earned a Master’s in Management and I have earned numerous credentials in my field to prove to executives that I know what I am doing.  I also have over 17 years writing software and learning how to adopt to the new technologies.  I am your ally.  I am just as invested in the success of the project as you are.  Finally, if you give me what I need to succeed, I will.  So have a little respect for the scrum master’s in your life executives, we are the steady hands which make software work for your business.

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. 

My Commencement Speech

If I gave a commencement speech this is what I would say.

This time of year is filled with commencement speeches and pockets of wisdom from many public figures directed at college students.  My favorite was by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Twice in my academic career, I asked to be a commencement speaker when I received my associate’s degree and when I received my masters.  Both times, academic and community politics got in the way with me sharing that message.  Someday, I am going to be a successful entrepreneur and when I am there this is the speech I am going to give.  Enjoy.

Thank you Madam President and fellow students, I am deeply honored to be here and to be a small footnote to your lives.  You see on a day like this you have a lot more things on your mind that what some middle aged portly man has to say about life, the universe and everything.  As many of the fine arts students who have read Douglas Adams can attest the answer is 42.  All kidding aside, you are more interested in where you are going to have dinner, visiting with your parents, and figuring out what to do with the rest of your lives.  This is heady stuff and important.  You know how hard it is to get a dinner reservation in this town tonight.
 
That said I do want to leave you with something besides my vain attempts at humor.  Today is one of the biggest successes in your life you have entered a very elite group of people you are college graduates.  According Harvard and the Asian Development Bank, only 6.7 percent of the world population holds a bachelor’s degree.  You are not quite the 1% but you are damn close.  You are roughly the one in twenty people on this planet that can boast this kind of education and experience.   But you didn't get here on your own it took your family and community to get you here.  So for a brief moment can all the parents, siblings, spouses, friends, and significant others please stand up.  Give yourself a hand because these graduates are here because you helped them get here.

Like I said, today is a big deal.  This may be the biggest success you have in your entire life but I want to leave you with a little nugget wisdom on this big day.  Today you embrace success, but now that you are graduates you will be confronted with failure.  How you deal with failure and hardship will define you for the rest of your lives.  I am sorry, I am harshing this happy occasion but it would be wrong of me not to share the wisdom I have accumulated over the years.  Failure is necessary.  Failure is pure.  Failure educates in ways that will remain with you the rest of your life long after your American Literature finals.  Many of you have been scared of failure and have done everything in your power to avoid it.  I have some bad news for you.  Failure will find you and grasp you in its unjust embrace.

My father had a sign on his desk which said, “The only people who never fail are those who never try.”  It was a dose of wisdom that as a twenty year old graduate, I mocked.  As a middle aged man launching his own business, I understood.  As a culture we are frightened of failure.  I have known people who have failed who were treated like those afflicted with leprosy by their friends because they were afraid that failure was contagious.  I have seen careers end because of failure. I have seen people end their own lives because they could not cope with failure.  It is sad because I have learned that failure is just another way that human beings learn and grow.

I have failed in so many ways in my life.  I am twice divorced.  I do not have any children to carry on my name.  I have been fired from several jobs because I struggled to conform to what I thought were ethically dubious situations or take grief from someone I though was not my equal.  On paper, my life looks like a failure.  I beg to differ.  I am my own boss and lead an organization that employees many people.  I have finally earned some financial independence and I can support my parents in their old age.  Finally, I wake up in the morning and can look myself in the mirror without feeling profound levels of contempt and rage for the petty compromises I have made in my life.  I have gotten to this point because of failure.

The playwright Arthur Miller said, “…possibly the greatest truth we know, have come out of peoples suffering.”  This from a man who was married to Marilyn Monroe; I get the feeling he did lot of suffering.  We suffer because of failure.  People are greedy, mean, selfish, and crazy.  And that folks is just on the good days.  Add personal pride, money, and sexual gratification to the mix and you have a recipe for suffering and failure.  I know.  I have been in those situations and I am sad to report they don’t sell t-shirts.

What I have discovered is that during these profoundly dark moments, I have learned something.  Failure educates in ways that cramming for an exam does not.  It enlightens because I illustrates who your friends are.  They are the ones who will stand by your side and support you went others will turn away.  Failure shows you what your limits are and what you need to do to overcome them.  Failure is the reset button of your life because when you fail the only way to go is up.

It is said that there is nothing worse than a failure.  I disagree.  There is nothing worse that someone who doesn't learn from failure.  There is nothing worse that someone who doesn't grow after failure.  There is nothing worse than someone who repeats the same mistakes to fail.  Finally, there is nothing worse than someone who wallows in failure.  It is not wrong to fail.  It is wrong to fail and not gain something anything from the experience.

I come from a community of technologists known as the agile community and our motto is to fail early and often.  So today on one of the greatest days of success in your life, I want to remind you that failure is coming.  Fail early and fail often.  Don’t quit trying.  Don’t give a crap about what others think; because at the end of the day you sleep with yourself and you better learn to like that experience.  Look in the mirror and know that you have done your best and then do better the next day.  Life is unfair, cruel, and short.  Don’t be like life.  It is not a question of if you will fail but when.  It is that test of your character which will define you for the remainder of your life.

Fail early and fail often, because inside each failure is a nugget of wisdom which will lead you to greater success.  God Speed, go forth and fail.  I will see you on the other side and then we will have stories to share and a world to change.

Congratulations and God bless you and your families.

Worry about Where and Not What

It does not matter what you use it is where you use it.

If you have not been paying attention to the news, the Personal computer is dying.  In the same breath other experts are saying the Personal computer is alive and well.  This kind of schizophrenic punditry is common in the technology business.  For a person like me who has spent over fifteen years in the business, I take these contradictory signals in stride.  The breakthroughs are never as big as advertised and the setbacks are never as dramatic as they seem.  Let me try to impart a little sane and sober guidance for you.  Where you compute is more important that what you compute with.

Frequent readers of this blog know that I have been discussing two major trends in computing where we are engulfed.  The first is cloud computing.  The second is the rise of mobile computing.  These two trends together are changing the nature of technology.  So it really does not matter what you compute with but where you are doing the computing.

If you are working in an office or need significant computing power then you will be using a PC.  If you are on the go but still need a significant amount of power then a laptop may be what you need. For the casual consume of web content and information, a tablet is all you need.  Finally everyone is getting a smart phone whether they want one or not.

The reason I am giving you this simple rule of thumb is because thanks to widely available access to the web via wireless networks and the access to cloud based system what you use is irrelevant compared to where you use them.  All you need is a connection to the cloud.

So, am I endorsing one kind of operating system or technology? No, I am not.  I am one of those weird people who believes that technology people should set asides our differences and work together.  As you can see in this video by Nokia that is wishful thinking.

What we specialize at E₃ systems are cloud based systems which work on any device.  So if you are an Apple iOS person or a Microsoft person you should have a reasonable expectation that your systems should work.  These systems should work any time at any place.  Finally, these systems should be easy to use and understand so that you can run your business more efficiently.  Anything else is just a wast of your time and money.

So remember where your compute is more important than what you compute with.  Drop us a line and we will explain it to you.

Until Next time.

The Other Revolution.

You might have missed the other revolution going on this
week.

It has been a rough week.  Chechen criminals bombing the Boston Marathon and the fertilizer factory explosion in Texas have sucked all the oxygen out of the national media.  What you might have missed is the more quiet and insidious revolution taking place under your nose.

This blog has been very vocal about the revolution.  The evidence also continues to mount and if you don’t get involved you and your business will be swept aside; this is the cloud computing revolution and the continued acceptance of the smart phones by the consumer market.

Your customers are using smart phones with increasing frequency and they are using them in way which is disrupting small and big business with equal ferocity.  One of these trends is called “showrooming” where customers go to appliance, book or electronics stores and window show.  Then they scan the bar codes and price check those product in an effort to get a better deal.  This is great for consumers but it is strangling the margins of many businesses.  Showrooming is not only a threat to retail business but in diverse fields like automotive insurance and philanthropy.

Furthermore social media is being used to sell products and formulate opinion about those brands.  So now unless you devote yourself full time to staying on top of social media the good name of your business could be tarnished.  They were even joking about this trend on this Sunday’s Doonesbury strip.

Finally your business needs a web presence which not only looks good on a standard web browser but it needs to look good on a tablet computer or smart phone.  For a small business, it gets to be overwhelming.  This is why I helped found E₃ systems we help take care of the many considerations you need to make when constructing a web site which needs to look good on major web platforms including smart phones and tablets.

We also understand the growing technologies of mobile bar coding and cloud computing so that you can benefit from the same technologies used by the Fortune 500.

We would love to tell you more so feel free to contact us.

Until next time.

The Gift of Time

Stressed and need more time,
we understand.

Most business people I speak to have one wish.  They want more time.  They want to spend more time with their families. They want more time to manufacture better products.  They want more time to better service their customers and they want more time to learn new skills.  There is never enough time in the day because there is always one more call to take, one more e-mail to respond to and one more customer who you need to make a sale.  I understand that wish because I say it at least every day.  It would be great if someone could give us the gift of more time.

One of the reasons, I started E₃ Systems was to help small businesses win back a little more time.  We spend hours a day doing paperwork and chasing down calls.  We struggle with obsolete and expensive software because it is “good enough”.  Many of the tasks we do in our business lives are nothing more than a colossal time suck.  I understood that and knew that I could help write software that would help.  Today, we have online systems which help you manage your inventory without having to install expensive hardware or software.  These systems also work on mobile phones, tablet computers, and laptops.  As long as you have a connection to the web they will just work.

Now, instead of calling into the office to see if you have product in stock you can just make a few taps to your smart phone and find out instantly in real time; this should save you hours of labor.  We also understand that gathering documentation together to meet regulatory requirements is a time consuming hassle.  We understand and make it easy to generate documents and reports at a moment’s notice.  Finally, with the help of Microsoft’s Tag technology we have a way for every piece of paper to communicate with the web and your smart phone so that important documents are just a click away.

These kinds of services make it possible to save time because you are no longer riffling through paperwork and obsolete computer systems.  It also saves you payroll because you need fewer administrative professionals to manage that paperwork. That gives you a chance to free them up to meet with clients and sell to new ones.  That is what is in it for you.  More time to manage your business and less payroll for administrative staff.

I am sure it is a luxury any business person would want.  So contact us today and ask about how we can give you the gift of time.

Until Next time.

Survival Not Manditory

Neither rabbits nor your business needs to survive.

It is nice to be part of the Easter Season.  The reflection and fasting of lent gives way to spring and growth of a new year.  I have spent the week working the phone and attempting to drum up business.  We are in the middle of a site revision right now and working with the local chamber of commerce to help grow our customer base. Something struck me this week and it was a report from showing there is a generational gap between the three major cohorts of people in business.  As a small business owner if you don’t adapt to these generational differences you might as well prepare for your going out of business sale.

First, baby boomers according to the Mitek systems use e-mail less than generation X workers and even less than generation Y workers.  So this means when it comes to communicating information the more senior cohort of business users communicate less using technology than their more junior partners.  This trend is even more pronounced when it comes to instant messaging and laptop use.  It seems that Boomers use desktop computers more than they use laptops by a significant margin.  This means there is a serious disconnect about how computers do business.  For people of Generation X, like me, and the younger generation Y, computing is not a fixed activity.  Computing takes place in coffee shops, on the train and on planes.  If you can find an electrical plug and wireless internet you are going to find smart ambitious people conducting business.

The most interesting part of the survey covered mobile phones and smart phones.  As of 2011, 83 percent of Americans own a cellphone or a smartphone.  When you break down this cell phone usage by cohort something interesting happens.  Baby Boomers use a smartphone in the workplace 35% less than generation X and a whopping 73% less than generation Y.  This means that baby boomers are missing out a huge business opportunity to sell to this younger group because they are not using the technology and tools which generation Y is most comfortable.

As a technology professional, I find this to be madness.  You want to increase our market share and sales but you do not understand the means to reach these new customers.  That is because you are not using the tools that these people take for granted.  I also notice that when I speak with business leaders and share with them this information they blanch because since they don’t own a smart phone they do not think that reaching customers by it is important.  It is a deadly cognitive bias.

W. Edward Deming used to say, “It is not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory.”  I am seeing this increasingly in small and medium sized business.  Cloud based computing, smart phones, and serious generational differences in the use of technology mean that if you cannot adapt then you are not going to survive.  How are you going to put together viral marketing campaigns, adaptive web sites, and mobile phone optimized campaigns if you can don’t understand the importance of them?  How will be able to manage your inventory and sales contacts in real time if you don’t have systems in place to do so?  Finally, how are you going to adapt to change if you don’t understand Agile methodologies and techniques?

This is where we at E₃ systems come in.  We help you understand this brave new world and act as your guides through the wilderness or smartphones, social media, and business agility.  Contact us today and we will help.

Easter is a time of rebirth but it can also be a grim reminder of our mortality particularly if you are a business person.  Survival is not mandatory but E₃ systems is willing to help.  Give us a call and find out today.

Until Next time.

About that Dell-Microsoft Deal.

This Dude is tring to build a better Dell Computer.

When news broke out that Dell computer was going private and that Microsoft picked up the part of the tab on the deal, I did not know how to react.  Mergers happen all the time in business and so Microsoft and Dell getting together doesn't seem that unusual.  Then it dawned on me that this was Microsoft and Dell making some pretty drastic moves in the market and I decided to reconsider the news.  I think this is going to be a good deal for both parties and for entrepreneurs like myself.   This also may make it possible for Windows 8 to finally take off.

Being a Microsoft professional developer is like being a New York Yankee pitcher living in Boston.  Others will judge you as a member of the "evil empire" and will not spend any time learning about you as a person or professional.  I have had to deal with that misconception for most of my career particularly from the open source crowd and Unix professionals.  I find this perception deeply hurtful because I have spent most of my career posting code on the web and helping others to make them better software professionals. 

Dell has been spending a lot of its time attempting to please Wall Street investors and hitting sales figures with its line of laptops and desktop PC's.  In fact, a simple Optiplex box on your desk is as common today as a tape dispenser or stapler is a testament to the company's ability to build economical and functional PC systems.  The problem is that Dell has gotten a little boring.  It makes most of its money selling to corporate and business customers.  Not since its "dude you are getting a Dell," advertising campaign has it had any cache with consumers.  Finally, Dell has not gotten into the tablet market like Samsung or Apple. 

These three factors mean that Dell would continue to be a profitable but boring company until it eventually lost market share as computers become more mobile.  If I was the CEO it would have scared the pants off of me.  Thus, with some creative financing Michael Dell is taking the company private so that he can make the next blockbuster innovation away from the people determined to make sure he hits his profit loss statements each quarter. 

I am kind of excited about this.  First, I think that Dell will improve the XPS line which features a tablet which also behaves like a laptop.  I am also interested in further innovations like Skype devices which will make the tablet behave like a personal conference center.  Finally, with Microsoft along we are going to see some cool Windows 8 devices which will be able to perform a range of duties.  On my personal wish list is a 17 inch laptop which behaves like an XPS.  I could just see reading the paper on the train with that beast.

I am not going to get all gooey about this deal because things like this in the past have gone horribly wrong. With both Microsoft and Dell betting their futures on each other, it is clear to me that they are going to come up with many truly innovative products.  I can't wait. 

Until next time. 

Google Makes Another Smart Business Move.

The Cloud and Google are about making
money on the web and this is a good thing

Things happen for a reason in business.  This week is a classic illustration of that maxim.  Google announced that they were going to start charging for its online application suite which includes Google docs and Google drive.  This does not surprise me and I want to take some time out and explain why.

Many people outside the technology industry wonder how companies make any money building web sites and providing services.  During the first dot com boom, it was a simple strategy.  Generate lots of web traffic and buzz.  When that happens sell advertising to clients who are paying for those eyeballs.  It was a great strategy but it burned through millions of dollars of venture capital.  It also created spectacular failures like Pets.com; which generated loads of attention but lost eighty cents for each bag of dog food it sold online.  I still keep a few trinkets from the company to remind me how not to run a business.

More recently companies like Groupon have done a similar dance with death.  They have lots of attention but in doing so they have not figured out a means to make money with all that attention.  With the advent of cloud based computing and companies like E₃ systems, we have turned to a different model for making money.  It is a subscription model.  Servers, technical professionals, and infrastructure cost money and in order to pay for it we charge a low monthly subscription.  Google does the same with their Ad words product and the numerous numbers of services they provide.  Now they are treating Google docs just like any of the other for-fee services they provide. 

Being a Microsoft partisan, I still think that Office and Office 365 are superior products to Google Docs.  However, if you are a business person who is struggling to pay for licenses from Microsoft then Google Docs is a good option.  What Google is doing is keeping their product in line with the Microsoft and providing another stream of revenue. 

I am not surprised by this.  Google became the 600 pound gorilla of the web by providing and fantastic search engine and charging customers using the old model of revenue during the glory days of the dot com bubble.  Then something changed.  They started diversifying with their Android mobile phone system.  The Chrome browser is now an accepted standard on the web and they have made tentative steps into social media with Google plus.  What this creates another means to generate revenue and sell advertising.  Google Apps are different because there was no really good means to sell advertising.  So they could give the product away as a means to destroy Microsoft or they could charge a nominal fee and increase their profits.  If I am Larry Page, I know what I would choose and that would be more money for my organization. 

So what you are seeing is business people using the web in a much more sane fashion than during the dot com days.  Gone are the lavish parties and millions of dollars in corporate losses replaced with slow and boring revenue growth as more people use the web as the backbone of their business.  As someone who owns his own business and is following that model, I think this is a positive development. 

Drop us a line and find out about us.

Until next time.

A Trillion Dollar Trend

One Trillion of anything is huge.

I hope that everyone had a good holiday weekend.  During the time off, I stumbled upon an interesting article about Silicon Valley investment banker, Sanu Desai. For those who don't know who this individual is, he helped Amazon go public back in 1997.  As a venture capital banker he seems to know where all the bodies are buried in Silicon Valley and all the latest trends regarding money.  He said something this week which is directly relevant to our business this week.  The times are changing and we are about to the transfer of over one TRILLION dollars from companies involved in business to consumer products to companies involved in business to business products.  This is good news because it is part of a trend which we caught early.

E₃ systems has been pioneering a new cloud based systems which makes it possible to track your invoices, bills of lading, purchase orders and inventory online.  This is perfect for small and medium sized businesses.  You don't need to install software.  You don't need to purchase expensive servers and you don't have to worry about hassling with software upgrades.  We take care of this.  We are also perfectly focused on business users who don't have a lot of time for training their people to use new systems.  This is what makes Desai's commentary so heartening.  The technology business has spent the last twenty years making life easier for consumers.  Now it is time to make life easier for business owners. 

As technology has gotten to resemble magic more and more it is becoming hard for the small and medium sized business to provide the same kind of customer service which larger companies provide.  This is a big deal because you are now at a competitive disadvantage.  What I felt was needed was a technology service which makes it possible to provide the same tools the big firms have at a fraction of the cost.  What makes this even more important is that consumers are becoming more technologically savvy.  They will just take it for granted that they can track their products online and via mobile phones. 

This is where the one trillion dollars of wealth transfer comes from.  Larger firms like Oracle, Amazon and Microsoft will not be able to fill this important business niche. And so it will be up to smaller companies like mine to fill in the gap.  So E₃ systems is competing for over a trillion dollars of money up for grabs.  If we receive just a fraction of it then we will have accomplished our mission. 

If you want to learn more about how you can be part of this growing trend please give us a call we will be glad to help. 

I can't even fathom a trillion dollars of wealth.  There has never been a trillionare in the history of human kind.  Still it is hard to ignore when this amount of money is moving in your direction.  It is nice to know you are part of a positive trend rather than swimming against the tide.  I look forward to having you join us. 

Until next time.

Why Software Development Fails.

Software development does not have to be
a train wreck.

The greatest thing about the internet is that you are exposed to the wit and wisdom of countless professionals.  When you gather together a bunch of these people we want to talk about what we do for a living.  It is just a natural extension of our identity.  Firefighters talk about firefighting, cops talk about police work, and gather together a bunch of elementary school teachers and the topic of teaching will always come up.

Last week I was exposed to a great blog article from Headspring consulting.  In it, they talk about the latest report from the Standish group.  Software developers are getting better at delivering products on time and on budget, but the success rates still resemble batting averages from baseball instead of a mature industry.  This week I want to discuss this blog and why it is so damn hard to write software. 
The present success rate for software projects is still below 50%.  This means if you are a business owner you have a less than 50% chance of a project coming in on time and on budget.   I have to agree with blog author Jeffrey Palermo, this is unacceptable.  This is why I suspect that many business owners do not want to spend money or time on software and technology because they know that the investment is risky.

I have a few theories why software is so risky.

First, software is the only technology product which is not automated.  Computer, smart phones, and mice are all manufactured on factory assembly lines.  Software is created by a bunch of engineers by hand.  This process is similar to writing a novel but it is done by committee and under often unrealistic deadlines.  This hand crafting of software means that there are no standardized parts.  So communicating with a database can be done a myriad of ways instead of one standard fashion. 

Next technology environments are heterogeneous.  It is common for a large company to have servers which run UNIX, desktop computers which run windows and staffs which have Android phones.  This means that software developers spend a great deal of time fitting square pegs into round holes.  The data on your UNIX servers needs to get on your sales forces smart phones.  It is up to your software developer to figure that out.

Third, software engineering is a craft that needs to be learned on the job.  When you hire a welder, you know that if he is hired from a union that he has spent countless hours training both in the classroom and mentored on the job.  The same holds true when you hire a plumber.  These trades have long apprenticeships where the skills to succeed on the job are taught by more skilled artisans.  Sadly, no such system exists for software engineers.  Entry level developers can be self-taught or they can be graduates from prestigious programs.  This means that no two developers are going to have the same base knowledge.

Next, there are so many different languages and design patterns for software development and no one agrees which is best.  If you want to start a fight among software developers mention that Java is a superior language to C#.  Developers are very territorial about their skills and if they are confronted with individuals who don't see design patterns and languages the same way there is going to be conflict and non-cooperation. 

Finally, many of the people who lead software teams do not have any knowledge of how software works.  If you are going into surgery you want the lead surgeon to be a doctor just like the other surgeons.  In technology, you often don't have a software engineer leading the project.  You have a manager with project management or sales experience.  This means they do not understand the challenges of the people who are actually doing the work.  It also means that they do not have the skills to help a team when it becomes "stuck" or faces unrealistic combinations of resources, time, and money. 

This is one of the reasons why I founded E₃ systems.  I wanted to do software development properly.  Since we have launched the company we have gone through two major revisions to our Sully Business Intelligence Platform.   We do an upgrade on average every three weeks and each time a potential customer has asked for a feature we have delivered it in the next release.  We are pretty proud of that record and if you would like to know more you can contact us here.

So you can take your chances developing your own software and have a less than 50% chance of success or you can hire a team that does software development the way it is supposed to be done.  I hope you give us a call. 

Until next time. 

A Moment of Clarity

This is not how we do business. 

Business people are idealized and vilified in equal measure.  For every Geroge Bailey there is a Gordon Gekko, I live in the world of business people.  I have been fortunate to know good business people and I have been cursed to work for a lot of the bad ones.  After a particularly bad day at the office, I sat in my cubical in utter misery.  It was what alcoholics call a moment of clarity.   I decided that I was going to become a business person and I was going to make sure that no one who ever worked for me felt as rotten as I did that moment.

This was why I founded E₃ systems.  I wanted to make business easier for other entrepreneurs by streamlining their shipping and receiving work.  I wanted them to have the power of a Fortune 500 company at a fraction of the price.  I also wanted the system to work over the web so that they could transact business away from the office and spend time with their family and friends.

It was a noble goal and we are going to continue to pursue it.  This week we are releasing another batch of improvements to Sully 2.0.  One of them features the ability to filter addresses so they are easier to find.  We are also coming out with a series of new videos which will show you use our systems. 

It is an exciting time and I can't wait to share it with all of you.

Until next time.

Business Should Be Easy

Find out how we can make business easier.

Business is a difficult activity.  Each day you are grubbing for customers attempting to improve profits and build better services.  So why are you spending your time rifling through paperwork?  This week we want to discuss paperwork and how we can help.

If you are selling goods and services you have to generate invoices.  If you are shipping goods you need packing slips and bills of lading.  Finally, all the goods and services require labels in order for them to make it to their customers via the mail.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could take care of all this without having to hire additional staff? 

At E₃ systems with our Sully 2.0 system does make this possible.  We also use Microsoft Tag technology so that you don't have to purchase expensive bar coding equipment and you can stay on top of what is going on from your office via a mobile phone, tablet computer or laptop.

We want to give you more time to spend on your business and your family.  That is why we created this system for you.  Business shouldn't have to be difficult. 

Drop us a line and we will contact you with more information. 

Until next time.

Sucking It Up for the Business

We made the cut thanks to everyone who helped.

One of my early mentors when I worked in the casino industry was a 30 veteran of Harrah’s Casino Lake Tahoe.  His name was Andy LaChapelle and he said this on the first day I became a pit boss at the punkie age of 26.  He said, “I have known people who get by on charm and cuteness their whole lives.  I have no use for them.  Sooner or later you are going to have quit being charming and cute.  Someday you are going to have to suck it up and know what the hell you are doing.  Then we can work together. “ 

It was a shocking message to a twenty something college grad.  Hard work and personal debasement was something expected of you.  You were expected to sacrifice for your career and may-be the pay-off would be respect from colleges and possible security.  For someone who was accustomed to being encouraged to achieve excellence to being expected to achieve excellence, it was a very swift wake up call.  It is also a message I have passed down when I coach speech and work with young people at my church youth group.

On June 30^th, I had to experience one of those suck it up moments.  I wanted to share it with you.  For those who have been following me, it has been no secret that I have been attempting to earn a grant from J.P. Morgan Chase’s Mission Small Business program.  $250,000 would be a huge boon to our organization.  We could get some equipment, hire some people and finally devote full time attention to the business.  It would have been foolish for us not to take a chance. 

I have spent the last five weeks working with members of my board of directors to craft my submission.  It was a difficult back and forth and it took four revisions but I feel like we put together a good bid.  In addition, to our bid we needed 250 votes from Facebook to qualify for consideration.  Five days before the deadline we submitted our bid.  Then I expected, wrongly, to spend the month of July gathering votes so that when Chase makes their decision on September 15^th we would make the cut.  That was when I received a tweet from Chase which said the deadline for voting was June 30^th.  I had 35 votes and I would be locked out of the competition if I didn’t get more. 

I sent out emails to people.  I started spamming Facebook with messages and I leveraged every social media contact I could.  I even nagged my pastor to put out the word to his friends to pitch in and help out.  I had 55 votes and I had three days to get the remaining 200.  It was looking very bleak.  This was when I went on to Twitter to complain and discovered a hash tag where small businesses were swapping votes to qualify.  In a tit for tat fashion, I voted for someone in exchange they voted for me.  I got to meet all sorts of interesting people from shoe stores to consulting companies who work with business women.  I even made some friends in the process.  It was Thursday night and I had just over 100 votes. 

I went to bed with visions of failure and decided that after I worked a full day I would dive back into it on Friday night.  I met more cool people and was scolded by a woman running an organic business telling me not to be too eager.  I also used up my daily quota of 250 tweets.  I had 150 votes and as I shuffled off to bed I could see any chances of helping my business fade away. 

The next morning I got up.  I took my time showered and had some breakfast.  I knew it was going to be a long day.  I was going to need over 100 votes and I had fifteen hours to make it happen.  I started sending messages out via Facebook soliciting for votes.  After three hours, Facebook forbade the process and blocked me from sending messages.  This was when I dove into Twitter and began hustling for votes.  Saturday morning on the 30^th wasn’t so bad but as the day wore on tempers began to get shorter and people started getting more desperate.  It was madness. 

This was when a funny thing happened.  People began sharing my messages on Facebook and sending me messages of encouragement telling me they were not only voting but showing their support for us.  I had the matron of a major branch of my family put out an all-points bulletin to my cousins to cast a vote.   I was inching closer and I was at 190 votes.  The messages kept coming and people I worked with in the past began to pushing for me.  It was very humbling.  I had really abused my social network and the response was that network pitching in to help me reach my goal.  I do not want to do that again.  I certainly do not want to abuse that good will. 

It was eight hours into this exercise and I was still 20 votes short.  Many of the people still on twitter had already swapped votes.  It was pretty sad that so many good businesses could not get the votes they needed.  Finally, some new companies came on and over the next two hours we were able to swap votes.  It was 6:30 in the evening I had spent an entire day and I had gotten the necessary 100 votes to put me over the top.  I stuck around for another hour helping others and then logged off thanking everyone. 

Over three insane days, I had gone from 35 votes to 261.  I was now in.  I haven’t won the 250K grant but at least now I would be considered.  I could not have done it without the help of people on twitter and Facebook pulling for me.  I have a lot of gratitude for those people and a lot of thank you notes to write. 

For three days, I sacrificed my dignity and reputation to suck it up and make something happen for my business.  I get the feeling that this will not be the last time.  Some times during the process, I felt like a beggar pleading for the kindness of others.  It was humbling.  Still people believed in me and I was able to make a difference for my small company.

Now, all I can do is wait until September 15 until Chase decides if I am worthy of 250K.  If they can lose six billion dollars on some phantom bets on real estate stock then I think they can take a chance on a small business which actually builds something.  An entrepreneur can dream. 

So Andy LaChapelle’s wisdom lives on.  I sucked it up and sacrificed.  Now I have a chance to earn 250K for my business.  It wasn’t pretty but it was necessary.  I hope that the effort was worth it.  Thanks to everyone who chipped in and helped out.  It means a great deal to me. 

Until next time.