A friend of mine just launched a new, clean look to his website, KnowTheNetwork.com. Tsudohnimh, has been working on the new look and feel for a good while now, and I am floored by the new layout.

 Here’s a little about KnowTheNetwork:

This change has been a long time in coming and I’m thrilled to have you. I hope that you find the site more readable and inviting. There are more features on the way and you can expect new posts 3 times a week. Whether you are an old friend or just finding this site for the first time allow me to give you an overview of the best content…

Stop by and say hi, or just enjoy the great reading. It’s an odd mix of technology tricks and political opinions, but somehow it works. I trust you will enjoy the opinions as much as the facts.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Let’s be honest here. You are all pack-rats with your e-mail, aren’t you? If you are reading this you probably have an affinity for technology. And that being the case, you probably spend a good bit of time in e-mail. Let’s face it, e-mail is a wonderful tool to help communicate with a lot of people often and keep track of things in writing.

I just took a look at my work account and I sent roughly 3200 e-mails in 60 days. That’s an average of 53/54 e-mails every day (including weekends). And let me tell you, I don’t always write very short e-mails…

I typically receive anywhere between 80-120 e-mails every day, just in my work account mind you, and this generates a lot of work and communication.

In our environment we use [tag]Outlook[/tag] with an [tag]Exchange[/tag] back-end. This is very convenient for a lot of reasons and offers some wonderful collaboration tools. Everybody that’s anybody integrates with Exchange and/or Outlook.

Let me tell you though, from a network administrator’s position, Exchange can be a real bear. About 18 months ago we had to conduct an emergency migration to another exchange server. That was 28 hours of pure agony as we watched many 2 GB mailboxes move 1 item at a time. It took ALL night to move 70 e-mail boxes.

That’s when I started thinking about tools that would help me groom the exchange database, called the [tag]Information Store[/tag] (IS) and increase the ability to search e-mails as Outlook’s built in search feature is pretty weak.

I began scouring sources, and found a strong candidate - EMC’s [tag]e-mail Xtender[/tag]. I kept on searching, but there didn’t seem to be anything else in the market - at least not for the SMB. So I began the long process of working with a partner company, asking questions, viewing demos, and trying to ascertain if the solution would be a good fit.

The price tag started at $5000, and then quickly went to $10,000 after some discovery - and ended around $20,000 for what we were really trying to accomplish. I found that I had to fill out lengthy technical surveys and even have EMC approve the installation.

All of this for 68 mailboxes?

I began shaking my head… I needed something to make my life easier - not more complex. Exchange with Outlook and [tag]PST[/tag] files was bad enough, but the pain of that wasn’t enough to bring us to spend that amount of money and more importantly time… With more than 5 major projects going on already, and a slew of minor ones, I just couldn’t stomach a 2-3 month roll-out.

So for now, we will continue to be pack-rats and continue with the way we do business until something comes along that can knock my socks off. For now, as much as I hate to admit it, I am going back to the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

When you think of IT, MIS, or any other acronymn used to describe the technology department of a company, what is the image that comes to mind? Does it resemble a Saturday Night Live skit Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy?

Many IT-types have bemoaned the fact that technologists have gotten a bad wrap. I wonder why that is?

Simply put, the stereotypical computer tech was always long on computer wisdom but terribly short on the softer skills in life, such as tact and social grace. I am not totally sure whether most computer guys had watched too much Gordon Gekko and fancied themselves all powerful, or if they just didn’t notice they were alienating their customers. Either way, the end result was the creation of our famous stereotype, Nick Burns…

As a manager, culture is one of the most delicate things to balance. Do you choose the talented player that can put points on the board and overlook some ‘minor’ team-fit issues? Do you sacrifice and choose a mediocre player that can get along with everyone and take direction?

That’s a trick question, to a certain extent. You choose neither. It is possible to choose talented players, but you can’t forsake the overall team concept. Combined, individuals can accomplish wonderful and extraordinary things. So don’t sell yourself short and let your ‘IT rooster” rule the roost. It won’t be as easy as pounding your fist, and you have to decide for yourself if your IT guy is your go-to-guy.

If you are an IT guy or gal, make sure you put yourself in a position to be the go-to-guy (or gal). By keeping customer service in the forefront of your mind and engaging in your culture you may not win employee of the year, but you could get a reputation for solving problems rather than being one.

Today we discuss the blurring of technology lines. In a recent article in ImageSource titled Top 10 Industry Trends, authored by John Mancini, the President of AIIM, outlines what he believes to be the top 10 drivers within the DMS space… Let’s continue our discussion with the number 8 influencer in the DMS space this year:

8. The blurring of technology lines.  What does your business need? Copiers? Scanners? Records management? Content management?  Document management? Business process management?  E-mail management?  Most likely, all of the above in some configuration. And the solution providers who can help end users figure out the appropriate configuration – they won’t all be the same – will find end users racing to their door.

John strikes a cord with this article. It resonates a simple truth, “Add value to your customers’ business and make them clients for life.” More than ever, companies are looking for answers. They hire analysts and accounts to give them a clue about what’s going on in this rat race. They hire consultants to spin a web and show them a future where they are rich and wise. They hire marketing and public relations firms to package all of this up and put a nice bow on top…

What happened to common sense?

To some extent, people are a little scared about all of this technology being thrown at them. In reality, it’s a lot of F.U.D. Combine this with the intent of some opportunistic individuals who are looking to capitalize on a little ‘man behind the curtain’ (so to speak). So what’s this common sense nonsense all about, anyway?

 For those of you who haven’t read Jim Collins’ Good to Great, get it, read it, and sleep with it! I can’t tell you one book that a business should live by… It’s not a bible by any means, but it has some good ole fashion common sense advise. Collins goes on to say that you have to have the right people in the right seats on the bus and get the wrong people off.

With all of this waving of fists and frothing of mouths going on about the ‘document industry’ people keep missing the one truth that a business is not four walls and a roof, it is a group of like minded and passionate individuals working as a team. File that!

Well, it looks like Scoble did it again. In his article ‘Why enterprise software isn’t sexy‘, Scoble sends a shot across the bow at Bill Gates, calling him out on whining about the lack of enterprise software coverage in the blogosphere. Albeit an older article, I found it compelling, so here are some thoughts…

Scoble asks:

Well, how many people in the world actually buy business software? … Instead, let’s look at the business of journalism or even of blogging. We’re paid to deliver page views. Advertisers call it “CPM” (cost per thousand viewers). Now, what’s going to get more of you interested? Consumer software that you actually have a role in adopting or purchasing or enterprise software where some CIO somewhere else in your organization decides on?

Scoble bemoans having to use SAP because some CIO in his ivory tower made a business decision and forced him to use it. Why not look at end user adoption as a key metric? Can you live by the subjective metric of customer satisfaction? Embrace this simple fact, when you really meet the needs AND wants of your customers, it becomes a game changer… it’s ultimately the greatest metric for true success (see my previous posting Are You Focused on What Your Customers Need, or What They Want?)

Scoble also asks:

Any of you have any ideas on how to make business software sexy?

Sexy? Some of the pundits are asking why make enterprise software sexy? That’s not the point… well not exactly. Maybe I’m sick in the head, but I think it’s uber-sexy to get paid well to help a business run well and keep customers (internal and external) happy!

My contention is business software doesn’t necessarily need to be sexy, but it definitely needs a PR make-over!

For those of you in the “copier dealer” channel (although I’m loath to use this term) you are probably wrestling with the realities of Document Management Systems (DMS). In a recent article in ImageSource titled Top 10 Industry Trends, authored by John Mancini, the President of AIIM.

In this article John outlines what he believes to be the top 10 drivers within the DMS space… Being in the business of documents, I found the article compelling.  Not surprisingly, taking the number 1 spot was the momentum SharePoint is garnering. John goes on to say:

1. The entry of Microsoft SharePoint as a serious player in the document and records infrastructure marketplace.  This is one of the most important developments in evangelizing these technologies that we have ever seen. Suppliers and consultants will debate what MOSS can do and what it can’t.  But it won’t matter; it will spread like kudzu through the end user community.

John could not be more dead on with this. With the advent of SharePoint 3.0, whether it be the enterprise or SMB offering, Microsoft has taken root in the document space. We use it daily for both an Intranet solution as well as for dashboarding and workflow. Microsoft has once again bundled a core offering into the OS; since it is free to get started, meets some entry needs for the SMB, and is extremely compatible with the predominant desktop OS and Office suites it is indeed “spread[ing] like kudzu” (John must’ve been to South Carolina recently)!

While this solution is great for “evangelizing” the DMS/CMS market, I have quickly discovered it is not a very good DMS solution. Don’t mistake the fact that it has some wonderful collaborative tools and is extremely solid in ad hoc workflow solutions. However, SharePoint offerings are not true DMS’s in and of themselves.

Education is a tough thing here because many people don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to store a document within a database, as part of the SQL table record. It took me seeing what happens when you hit your first 20,000 documents stored - or worse have a client hit 3,000,000 pages 3 years early!

The performance takes a huge hit, and backups are a nightmare simply because you are handling 1 huge file instead of incrementally dealing with each file as needed. Think about your entire customer base calling you on Monday morning demanding a service call! You’re service team would crumble.

In closing, SharePoint will give your dealership the opportunity to talk to more customers about DMS, but if you don’t get there first and have an education strategy for them - you are the one that will get schooled.

My suggestion is to partner or acquire talent that can bring SharePoint knowledge into your company. It’s a technology that has its place - so you can either learn to use it to your advantage or see how much longer selling copiers with Paperport will last…

Tomorrow we discuss the entry of “alternative” delivery systems… what does that even mean?

A colleague of mine once told me that people in the IT field were classified as one of two personality types: a farmer or a pioneer. He went on to explain that a farmer is one who patiently plows the land reaping small rewards and taking what nature gives him or her. The pioneer, however, is out exploring the vast and undiscovered wilderness, setting trails where no one has dared travel before.

I have worked with many people over my short career in technology, and what I have found staggering is the amount of individuals in IT that are just that – individuals. Let me explain… First, they do not participate as part of the larger team – and most certainly do not ‘get’ the grander business needs. Second, their customer service focus is wholly lacking so they often resemble the computer guy off of SNL. Third, they view themselves as guard dogs, taking care of the corporate computers – which is not an dishonorable position in and of itself; but they settle for the scraps of meat thrown from the corporate table…

With all this said, a bit tongue-in-cheek, many IT professionals still do not seek out ways to decrease costs, increase revenues, and improve employee job satisfaction through advances in USABLE business technology applications and initiatives. To some extent, I can understand the mentality of protecting your little corner in the maze of corporate cubicles, but what I cannot stomach are those that have no vision or inkling of corporate strategy and how to positively impact this. Instead, they plod along picking the land dry instead of blazing a trail looking for new paths that others may follow one day.

If you are a manager, director, or C-level individual – and are not a pioneer, you may want to stand up and peek outside your door to make sure there isn’t someone younger and hungrier coming your way! Get a clue people… align yourself to your customer and add-value to what you are offering; if not you may be put out to pasture like an old mule…

Regards,

Ken