India Report: The Not So Mighty Dollar
BIZSCI IN
BRIEF
With continued weakness in the U.S. dollar
and increases in India labor costs due to greater talent
competition and wage expectations, I expected to see changes in the
shift of U.S. service work to India. Indeed, during a recent trip
to India, I did see clear evidence of a slowdown in U.S.
outsourcing growth. But based upon confidential estimates from in
country contacts, the U.S. outsourcing market is still growing
(albeit at a slower rate), and any slowdown in U.S. growth will be
more than covered by anticipated growth from Europe, Asia, South
America and Africa.
In chatting with the car driver about
prices in India, he calculated that the dollar, approaching three
to a hundred rupee, buys just a kilogram of the cheap shorter grain
rice. Calculating further, he indicated the same dollar buys just a
few cups of the prized long grain balsamati used for many local
dishes.
Customer Solutions Profit Form Updated
I've significantly enhanced the description of this profit form, adding new examples and new sections including:
Applies To
Use This When
Action Plan
P&L Impact
Link to Customer Solutions Profit Form
X86 Mainframe Update - Creating a Virtualization Beast - Part 1
BIZSCI IN
BRIEF
Virtualization. You think consolidating the
work of twenty servers onto one is impressive? Consider that fact
that a modern Dell PC can handle billions of instructions per
second, more than any thousand employees in most companies could
ever task. If that's the case, then maybe your consolidation goal
should be ALL servers onto one, .... or two for redundancy ... or
three for added Disaster Recovery. You think 100+ to one server
consolidation is not possible? Read on ...
We are a large law firm with about two thousand workstations and two hundred production servers in data centers. As a CIO with a Windows shop for most of the last decade, I have leaned to live with the predominant WinTel Cisco IT Infrastructure design. But If you know me, you know I also think that same IT architecture is absolutely nutty. Billion dollar enterprises shouldn't have to eek a computing existence from a slow network of graphical workstations that devote nearly all their tremendous resources to communications overhead, self maintenance, security monitoring, waiting on network, waiting on storage and just about anything but completing the work of the company.
But that's another thread.
Today I want to give an update on an IT topic I am enthusiastic about: Virtualization. Virtualization is amazing because it can help make the nutty, better. More...
X86 Mainframe Update - Creating a Virtualization Beast - Part 2
Our goal was to move all production and just under one hundred test and development devices to a single environment, then double the equipment in that environment (for redundancy) in the primary SF area data center and add a another environment to the DC DR site. A year ago I calculated minimum computational requirements for the firm (another project) and plugged in the numbers for the entire company. I calculated that between two and four servers (with an x86 mainframe design) could probably cover the entire firm ... that's a ratio of 100:1 or 150:1 depending on how you calculate it.
We budgeted 2-3x redundancy, i.e. 6 servers.
In Jan our engineers, Jim, Tom, Ryan, Chris, Rolando and the rest of Albert's team began working in earnest on the project. As you can guess, the hardware design required a little more than:
Step 1: Pull Dell out of box ,
Step 2: Install VMware
Step 3: Auto migrate servers.
More...
BizSci Answers: Building an Internet Strategy
BIZSCI IN
BRIEF
For most companies, the Internet should not
be viewed as a strategy on to itself, but an important component in
a total market communications strategy. To improve your Internet
strategy, first prioritize the products you want to sell to
important market segments. Next, determine where you need to
improve your Internet assets to make it easiest for segments to
both find and buy your products. This is only the first phase of an
overall profit strategy that includes Profit Forms analysis and constant
optimization of the product-segment mix. WJones
Question
I am
researching
options for developing and growing my company's
website. Experience has
provided me with plenty of opinions on what to do, but I am
interested in formalizing to a greater degree my approach and am
curious about options for utilizing existing plans or tools for
defining Internet strategy.
In the BizSci Spotlight: Airline Service (part 2)
BIZSCI IN
BRIEF
Southwest and JetBlue constantly work to
understand the expectations of their customers, then quickly make
their businesses a menu for meeting those expectations. As a
result, they have been able to focus their service models,
generating higher customer satisfaction with simpler, more
efficient business design.
Finally, a Flight That Meets Expectations
Of course I was sad to leave Grande Lakes Orlando. It's a beautiful property and I had completely missed every opportunity to enjoy it for three days as I attempted to prepare a budget and meet with suppliers.
Just before checking out, I realized I had booked a slow connection through Raleigh when there was a better direct flight to Baltimore. I had arranged the trip late and too quickly picked the first flight after my last conference session. Now I realized my seven p.m. flight would land only minutes before a later direct flight. So, an hour before check-out, I began to consider the possibility of a warm dinner (and even a dip in the pool) and changed my flight. Fortunately I had flown Southwest and was charged only a small fare difference (max fare was just $70 more). Changing the flight and checking-in online (from my room) was fast and uneventful. I saved my boarding pass as a PDF and e-mailed it to myself. I then put on a swimsuit, grabbed my conference dinner ticket and made optimal use of my momentary time windfall.
Ninety minutes later, dry and fed, I checked out of the Ritz. I had expected to use a PC or printer near the front desk to print my boarding pass, but the system was locked. There was no access to webmail or direct access to the printer. Unfortunately, the hotel and I had been out of sync all day (a first). Earlier that day, the cleaning staff had mistakenly disposed of all my personal toiletries and then hid my wireless headset in a drawer. After discovery, I had to make two calls and wait two hours simply to get a replacement toothbrush & shaving kit from the front desk. Cutting my losses, I skipped a five minute walk to the business center and jumped in a car for the airport.
Attempting to circumvent a stand in the Southwest ticket line, I sought help from a kiosk agent with a brief attempt to explain that I had printed but did not have a boarding pass. The kiosk agent didn't understand my situation (or so I thought) and pointed me to a kiosk as if I hadn't checked in yet. Knowing that it is easier to show than to explain. I inserted my credit card expecting a quick check-in failure and a Go Directly to Counter Agent card. Instead a virtual button appeared on the screen titled "Re-Print Boarding Pass". As soon as I touched it, the boarding pass fluttered into my hands. I looked up to see the nicest, "we know our stuff" expression on the kiosk agent's face.
That brings me to today's topic.
There may be just two U.S. domestic airlines that really get domestic passenger aviation: Southwest and JetBlue. More...
On the Road: VoIP IP Telephony RFP Presentation ILTA (Updated)
ILTA is by far the best legal technology conference in the US, and the Orlando Ritz one of my favorite places to stay. It was at this same hotel that my youngest son learned to walk, and it was also this hotel that treated my mother like a queen on the last full day I would spend with her before her passing. Several people asked why I skipped the popular shorts and tee shirts during the week and stuck with my customary Armani business attire. The simple answer is that I wore what felt best.
Topic: IP Telephony / Voice Over IP Implementation and the RFP Process
Venue: International Legal Technology Association's 2007 Conference in Orlando.
Data/Time: 2:00 pm, August 23, 2007
Speakers:
- Warren Jones, Chief Information Officer, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
- Dean Leung, Director of Information Technology at Davis LLP
Downloads
Presentation
- Flash (click each page to advance)
- Keynote '08 (6.8MB zip)
Dean's presentation and full ILTA event content will be available on the ILTA '07 website.
Downloads: VoIP Requirements List (Updated)
It may also be useful when preparing a project plan or performing project due diligence either as part of contracting or an audit of an implementation partner's plan.
VoIP Requirements List for IP Telephony RFP
Multi-Format Archive - Includes PDF, Text, HTML, OPML, and OmniOutliner formats (80kb)
More in Projects - Pillsbury Law - Telecom
In the BizSci Spotlight: Airline Service (part 1)
BIZSCI IN
BRIEF
Many U.S. domestic air carriers still
struggle to stay one step ahead of bankruptcy, despite the examples
of standouts like Southwest and JetBlue. These airlines have yet to
fix holes in their service infrastructures that result in frequent
unmet customer expectations. Until these airlines inventory all
customer expectations and ensure they are met at each customer
touch point (ticket counter, web, call center, gate, and aircraft),
their businesses will continue to suffer.
What's
Broken?
It's 11:30 pm. After a two hour delay, I had
finally boarded a commuter plane at Atlanta's Hartsfield
International en route to Dulles and home. Instead of taking off,
it seemed that something was very wrong. Although the passengers
had been asked to take their seats, fifteen minutes had passed with
no one to close the door. Worse still, the flight attendants looked
like anxious parents at a child's birthday party hoping it
really was a good idea to reserve a clown just returning
from rehab.
Lemmings Can Stay Seated
A meticulously
dressed business woman in the isle seat to my right was more than
concerned about the delay. She first asked and then demanded to
know what was going on. I paused my iPod long enough to determine
she was not armed, and continued listening to an audio rendition of
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Twenty minutes later, I noticed
the passenger had returned, her black pumps slightly wobbly and her
matching skirt slightly wrinkled. She was quietly saying something
with an expression that begged attention, so I paused my wireless
headset again. With a tenor that could have been a sob if her tear
ducts were working, she quietly heaved,
"They said I have to leave the plane. ..... Was I
threatening?"
A woman behind her, seemingly fully occupied with the tag team
effort to subdue a two-year old lifted her head and offered, "Yes,
you were rude."
The Entertainment Arrives
Before the
passenger was removed, she had been successful with short words to
gain an attendant's assistance in "allowing" her to remove her
seat-belt and pose a question to a person in-charge. She had then
walked to front of the plane, unfortunately finding the person in
charge was the same efficiently listening attendant. Incredulous
that there was no pilot or co-pilot AND that she was
expected to sit indefinitely without explanation, I surmised that
she began making quiet demands ... first that someone call to find
out what the !*_k happened to the pilots and then that someone tell
the passengers when the !*_k they would be departing.
I didn't hear her directly, but the next two announcements told the
story. Three minutes after she left her seat came the first
announcement,
"This is the flight attendent. As I am sure you have noticed our
departure is delayed. Unfortunately, our pilots have not yet
boarded the plane, but they should be arriving shortly. Thank you
for your patience."
Five minutes later came the second announcement,
"I am pleased to announce that our pilots have arrived! After a
short pre-flight checklist, our plane will depart
momentarily."
Based upon the short time between the arrival of the pilots and the
ejection of the passenger, it seems the pilots must have been
greeted by the same senior attendant, requesting authorization to
immediately remove a disorderly passenger.
Part 2: WinTel, the Luddite Revolution
This is the second article in the Forward to the Mainframe? series
Part 1: Revisiting the Mainframe Utility Computing Model
Part 3: A Virtualization Machine - the X86 Mainframe
The history of the Luddites is a interesting study, particularly for practitioners in the computer industry. In the early 1800's, Ned Ludd's textile culture defended hand looms over the new large knitting frames. This was despite the fact that the larger looms produced much more cloth with far less skilled labor.
Instead of looms, today's Information Technology workers repeatedly choose servers without the virtualization or processing redundancy needed to keep critical applications running. And they choose these servers over commercially available mainframes and other highly available systems with proven track records.
Let's look at the factors that led and continue to lead an intelligent and informed business computing market to chose lesser technologies.
More...
On the Road: Hosted Telecommunications Keynote
HOSTED VoIP EDUCATIONAL LUNCHEON
LEARN HOW A PRESTIGIOUS GLOBAL LAW FIRM—VOTED BY FORTUNE MAGAZINE READERS AS A TOP "GO-TO LAW FIRM” EVALUATED AND IMPLEMENTED A HOSTED VOIP SOLUTION
The presentation in flash format is here.
The event notice is here.
More...