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.

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.

What do you do to avoid IT Project Failures?

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Prototyping – capture the look and feel of the user interface by drawing screen shots, screen flows and so on.
5. 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!

Image by RandomESHG on Flickr

I love the Sales and Marketing profession. I’ve been in the game for 15 years.

No other career gives an individual the freedom, flexibility and reward than Sales.  A sales colleague of mine likened the sales profession to being the chairman of the board, general sales manager, chief financial officer, executive vice president, janitor and chief cook.  In short being a sales professional gives you the independence of being your own boss.

Yet sales professionals are big problems for customers, prospects, bosses, and spouses.  They are cussed at parties, gossiped about behind closed doors, miss family time, travel a lot, work long hours, work flexible hours.  Sales people make a lot of noise, they interrupt, make mistakes, listen to complaints, respond positively to grievances and sometimes waste peoples time.

Yet no profession moves more freight, loads & unloads more ocean liners, freight trains and transport trucks, introduce new products, open new factories and keep the wheels of the economy rolling than any other profession.

I am proud to be a Sales Professional.

“Your job as a leader is not to have great ideas, but to create conditions in which *others* have great ideas.” ~Sir Ken #taom

The vehicle to accomplish this is through effective communication.

Whether you are a leader in business, government, a ministry or a not-for-profit the most important job you have as a leader is to communicate.  How leaders listen, engage, speak, take action and model behaviour has a direct impact on how the front line interacts with the customer, how engaged partners get results, and customers make recommendations on your offerings.

Social Media is giving leaders an unparalled opportunity to listen, engage, speak and take action.  The following video is living proof of this by way of Michael Hyatt’s explanation of how he leverages social media to lead and earn influence with his employees, customers, stakeholders and partners at Thomas Nelson Publishing.  Have a listen as to what he has to say at the Christian Leadership Alliance Annual conference in San Diego last year.

How Can Christian Leaders Get Started with Social Media? from Michael Hyatt on Vimeo.

Let me know what you think!

For the full post click here

UPS – “Enabling Global Commerce”

South West Airlines “The Low cost Airline”

All State “Your in Good Hands with All State”

Avis “We Try Harder”

Well designed abstract statements help managers & employees drive decisions and align efforts toward a common goal.  Simple abstract statements are effective.  Effective abstract statements turn into concrete statements that lead to successful sales campaigns, happy customers and consistent service delivery.

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.

A Simple How To Guide for Gathering Business Requirements

Is the recession over and are you investing in Enterprise Software?

Reasons for implementing enterprise software

Here’s the Strategy Lab Video

Reasons to implement and Upgrade Software from Scott Van Dam on Vimeo.

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