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Open World Re-Cap – 2 Versions of Cloud not Visions

Posted by scottvandam in Technology on September 28, 2010

I finally feel rested from an intense week of networking, learning, walking and attending cocktail parties at this years Oracle Open World. The massive event was a whirlwind of activity and I am just now taking some time to let it all sink in. To begin, I am always impressed at the numbers that are thrown around at the event.

I tweeted a few statistics live about the event itself:

Here are a few more interesting stats:

Oracle spends $4.3 Billion a year on R&D
Has 340,000 customers
Oracle Partner Network sells $3 billion in software licenses
4,300 transactions equaling $1 Billion of software licenses are co-sold in North America in the Oracle Partner Network

But clearly if your like me, we didn’t attend the Open World event because of the big numbers and the party. We attend the conference because it’s one of the most important conferences in the business tech world. Open World lay’s out the roadmap for the future and is a place where the big Silicon Valley players can have a debate on things that matter to the tech sector. This years debate was exceptionally fun, riveting and highly entertaining. I’m re-publishing a segment published by IDG which articulates Ellison’s view of the cloud. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a clip where Larry promotes Marc Benioff’s book “behind the cloud” which he retitles “Way behind the cloud” (if you find a short clip on Youtube – let me know, I’d love to share it)

Here is Marc Benioff of salesforce.com counter opinion on cloud computing

The cloud debate will continue to go on. My belief is that there is no one size fits all, which makes me partially side with Larry Ellison. A platform is more flexible than an application and allows for much more customization and functionality that meets my business needs. And no matter how you look at it, salesforce.com still needs to be hosted on big server’s somewhere.

applications, cloud, larry ellison, linkedin, marc benioff, oracle, platform, salesforce.com

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Defining IT Project Failures

Posted by scottvandam in Technology on August 4, 2010

It has been almost a year that my good friend Paul Hart and I started the Waggware Strategy Lab Video Blog. Things have been quiet at Waggware on the V-log front but I thought I would re-publish one of our more popular video segments.

In my current role as Director of Sales & Marketing, I serve as a principle in the various projects that we run and am ultimately responsible if the project succeeds or fails. From my vantage point the biggest reasons for failure is lack of communication which leads to missing the mark on meeting customer expectations.

Managing all of the stakeholder’s expectations is critical and great care should be used in communicating often. This includes listening, asking for feedback and constantly asking each and every stakeholder what their overall goal’s of the software project are so that those expectations are met. The following video is a discussion on what defines an IT failure, perhaps it will give you some ideas on what to do to avoid an IT project failure.

#IT Fail – Defining IT Project Failure from Waggware on Vimeo.

What do you do to avoid IT Project Failures?

Information technology, linkedin, Project Management, Software, Technology

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Selling Technology Requires Gathering Better Business Requirements

Posted by scottvandam in Marketing on July 19, 2010

An important part of selling anything is fully understanding your customers needs. This is ever-so increasingly important when selling technology solutions. This week I have a series of customer meetings with an ongoing theme to illicit business requirements that will help to assist in the recommendation of software application’s that will drive and achieve intended productivity goals. Here are a list of five illicitation techniques I use when gathering business requirements:

Shadowing/Observation – Job shadowing allows an observer to study an end user perform their work in order to understand workflow. Some business analysts will actually do the work to gain a solid understanding of the work.
Use Cases – a method that tells a story about how a system will be used to achieve a goal from the perspective of a user of that system. The goal should be to help a technical expert and non-technical people alike understand how the behaviour should be. Use cases should be used to organize and document the functional requirements of an automated system.
Storyboards – Stake holders and developers working together by drawing up the elements that are believed to be a part of the application. By leveraging story boarding along with probing questions you will gain a good thorough review of your customers workflow.
Prototyping – capture the look and feel of the user interface by drawing screen shots, screen flows and so on.
Structured demonstrations – If your purchasing an application, getting the end users to use the system for normal tasks is a very effective way of finding out what is missing in an application.

Use a variety of these techniques and ask a lot of questions. Gathering requirements is often tedious work, but is the most important activity that ensures your customer get’s what they want every time!

Business, linkedin, Sales, Software, Technology

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Silicon Halton Interview

Posted by scottvandam in Technology on March 25, 2010

I was interviewed by Silicon Halton recently talking about why Waggware does business in Burlington, Ontario and why it is important to get involved with your local community business groups.

For the full post click here

Business, linkedin

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Concrete Is the Opposite of Abstract

Posted by scottvandam in Musings on March 8, 2010

I’ve been reading “Made to Stick” by Chip & Dan Heath and I’m considering the idea of concreteness.

Concreteness is the opposite of abstract. An abstract statement sounds something like my personal computer has high performance on the other hand a concrete statement sounds more like my personal computer has a 2.13 GHz processor. Being abstract is important if you are the commander of an Army and you require military dominance in a given region. However it’s the commanders on the ground that tranlslate that abstract statement and make it concrete (actionable) “Prepare a shipment of munitions, position troops at the border, and send in the fighter jets”. The troops need instructions to win the battle and the commanders need abstraction to win the war.

What’s more important abstraction or being concrete to winning? In what context do you use a concrete or abstract statement? I’ll share my thoughts over the course of the next few days.

linkedin, marketing

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The first step in selecting enterprise software

Posted by scottvandam in Technology on August 11, 2009

I wrote another post down at the Waggware Strategy Blog. Here is an excerpt!

In my last post I outlined a series of nine steps for selecting enterprise software that will help optimize your business. In today’s post I am going to dig a little deeper into the first step which is “Defining the Project Vision.”

Before embarking on this process your organization needs to understand what major problems exist and require solving. The art of defining your organization’s problem is accomplished by communicating it via a Project Charter document; it’s the main vehicle for selling the proposed change to your various key stakeholders. Complete this document with care and communicate it with clarity. If you don’t complete this step your project may hit a brick wall and get sent to the “someday/maybe task list”.

To the article in it’s entirety log onto The Strategy Lab