Tiger News

6 Must New Year IT Resolutions

2011-12-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

Remember, IT is the brain of your company. So here are some recommendations to run smarter, not harder.

1) Increase Automation (and Margins!)
First, assess your entire business spectrum and rank each segment for margin gain potential with automation. Then plot that with difficulty. Then target one initiative that falls into the sweet quadrant.

2) Add "Global" & Profit Maximization To Revenue Management Techniques
Many organizations are only touching on total revenue management and not optimizing globally or real-time. Spend money on this - it's a high ROI.

3) Use Open Source Software As Much As Possible
Yes, there is a free lunch. Software that is more secure, more reliable, more maintainable, and free! Most open source projects are the pet hobby of the world's best programmers. You're crazy not to take advantage of this.

4) Become More Virtual
Virtual working buys you better employees (who don't like to move or travel), big savings in office overhead, less travel cost and productivity loss, and faster operations. Time to get over "out of sight" - you just need better work management techniques - they are there!

5) Become and Accept More Mobile
Smart phones / tablets are everywhere now. 50% of buying now via mobile. If you are not selling and operating with mobile - your company is a walking, dead zombie.

Last But Not Least

6) Singularity Is Here
You must annually re-assess your entire IT operation, including your executives to keep pace - if you don't, your competitors are.

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IT Audit / Assessments - More Than Compliance

2011-10-07T17:48:00.000-07:00

Too often IT "Audits" are limited to security and compliance issues, covering software licensing, compliance with HIPPA, Sarbenes-Oxley, DOD, and security issues.

As such, an IT "Audit" becomes almost a necessary nusiance rather than an opportunity to "assess" your entire IT capability and position the company as the market leader.

So what should a full IT "assessment" include? In addition to the typical software licensing, compliance, and security checks, you need to have your IT capabilities strategically assessed in the following 5 areas:

1) Ability to achieve the organization's goals and objectives - not only provide real-time metrics, but deliver the needed systems to meet sales goals and operational efficiences.

2) Measure the capacity and capability of both hardware and software infrastructure to deliver both present and future needs of the organization.

3) Disaster Recovery - your organization is far more likely to be brought down by a disaster than a hacker or virus. Of course security is a top concern in any audit / assessment, but the dangers and preventitive measures are fairly well known. Disasters are usually unexpected and unknown in damage yet just as crippling to organization systems.

4) IT Staffing and Planning - too often, IT is handled as a "technical black box" with all decisions such as outsourcing, cloud based SAAS, necessary skill sets, etc being made by ingrained, biased department staff. Even if they are doing a seemingly good job, you don't know the opportunity cost of different approaches.

5) Intelligent Systems - IT system intelligence will increasingly separate the winning organizations vs. the losers. Where is your organization on the relative and competitive scale?

Solid, comprehensive IT Audits / Assessments are not an option, or a necessary compliance nusiance - rather they are proactive blueprints to winning.

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Ready or Not For The Next Big Crisis

2011-07-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

"We'll Deal With A Crisis When/If It Comes"

While unspoken, this is actually the policy of many CEO's and organizations I've talked with since they cannot definitively define what it will be. This is really high stakes gambling, because it is NOT IF, just WHEN and HOW BIG.

The photos shows this year's big dust storm in Phoenix. Looks like a scene out of a Hollywood apocalypse movie. No one predicted it and there was little advance warning.

People at our Scottsdale office had no time to react or "deal" with it - it was all over them before they knew it.

If your crisis is big, you will have no time to figure out a response, or you might make very bad decisions under pressure - you need responses prepared in advance. It's really decision-tree 101. You buy other insurance - now get some really valuable insurance with an IT Audit and Scenario Planning and be ready for the big crisis.

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Do You Have a Robot Strategy

2011-07-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

Tiger Nassau Tip of the Week

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Grizzlies and IT Risk

2011-07-19T16:21:00.000-07:00

I love going hiking in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. And by now you have probably heard the stories of several Grizzly Bear attacks on hikers this year. Actually, there have been a lot more that you have not heard about.

It's true - there is a growing bear population. Grizzlies are the most dangerous. Black bears are generally less aggressive but if they attack, can be equally vicious. Note the picture of a black bear cub on our website - it would be insane to get that close to a Grizzly. Bears can out run, out climb, and out wrestle any human. If they attack you, you either need strong repellant or a prayer. Even a gun won't normally help.

So how dangerous is it out in the Parks? Well, it depends on where you go, what time of year, and how prepared you are. I've never seen a Grizzly while hiking (I really do not want to), but my friends have seen them. Is that random chance ? Partly. But it's also because I won't go hiking by myself or even one other in areas where Grizzlies are know to be. And friends that do, usually carry bear bells and keep bear spray in close reach. The publicized attacks you heard about were on people who ignored warning signs.

Attacks on your IT are similar to hiking with bears. If you don't pay attention and certainly if you ignore warning signs, attacks can be deadly to your company. On the other hand, if you take precautions, you will minimize the risk of having an attack and be more prepared when one occurs. Like Grizzlies and Black Bears, there are varying types of hackers and dangerous incidents that can occur.

Be smart about it and minimize your risk.

(c) Copyright 2011 Tiger Nassau, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Mobile Wallet

2011-07-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

Featured in our Tip of The Week:

The Mobile Wallet is here. What is it? Well, it's making payments via a mobile device via bluetooth.

According to the Kurzweil AI Newsletter, payments by traditional wallets will be dead by 2015 and everyone will be making payments by mobile devices.

All the big US bank players already have mobile payment programs such as: Google Wallet, Visa Wallet, American Express, Paypal (just buying Zong), and ISIS (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile).

Mobile payments are already common in Europe and other parts of the world.

So, are your sales strategies incorporating mobile payments ? 2015 is only 4 yeears away - that's not much time to completely change your sales and marketing strategies. What about your in-store operations ?

Are you using QR Codes ? These codes work with mobile devices and can offer immediate or delayed coupons. Welcome to the age of digital, real-time coupons. Do you have analytical programs in place for digital coupons ?

IT in The Boardroom

2011-06-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

It's not that common for IT to be discussed in the Boardroom - you know, it's one of those technical issues that remains for the COO or CFO to handle in the light of other "major" corporate level issues.

But IT is really becoming the brain of an organization. And as the brain, it's pretty logical that it should be one of the key issues to be reported on at each board meeting

Various IT expense disasters have been well reported on - usually stemming from major ERP project overruns, sometimes driving organizations into bankruptcy. I doubt project management techniques were discussed at Board meetings in these organizations but it should have been - after all, it killed the company - more than health care costs, more than sales, more than international tax issues.

Less reported, is where IT has been the major strategic issue in determining the organization's future. For example, take Blockbuster, the video rental company. Blockbuster was eclipsed by NetFlix, a company that is highly systems driven. NetFlix has continually sponsored a major $1,000,000 dollar prize to programmers who can develop artificial intelligence algorithms that dramatically increase efficiency. I doubt the Netflix programming challenge was either brought to the attention of the Blockbuster Board, much less, discussed at a Board meeting, since it is one of those geeky things in the IT world. But again, this IT geeky issue was a major strategic threat to Blockbuster. And today Blockbuster is in bankruptcy and NetFlix is gaining strength. Which company would you rather be holding stock options in?

Is Wal-Mart Following GM ?

2011-02-22T08:21:00.000-08:00

In the 1990's General Motors, faced with huge competitive disadvantages in both cost and quality to the highly automated Japanese, experimented with robots for car assembly and painting - they had problems - robots were scratching cars, malfunctioning..... Rather than work hard to resolve the robot issues, GM management thought it was more expedient to discard the robots, and go back to using human labor. 20 years later they were bankrupt, mostly due to high labor costs.

Fast forward to 2010 - I have seen first-hand some of the problems Wal-Mart has experienced with it's self-service check-out lanes. I have witnessed Americans so dumb, that they struggle with the machine use, and I have myself experienced mechanical problems. So as a result of the problems, and following in the steps (or missteps?) of GM, Wal-Mart is replacing the self-service aisles with human cashiers. Like GM, it is probably easier and cheaper in the short-run to apply labor than to fix the machine problems. And of course Wal-Mart scores a few political points by creating jobs for America.

Like GM, Wal-Mart's focus on the short-term result will be costly, if not fatal, in the long run:
* Machine operating costs do not rise with inflation.
* Machines do not file lawsuits or go on strike.
* Machines do not require supervision, or job training.
* Machines keep a consistent level of customer service.
* Machines don't add another pair of germ filled hands on your items.

The oil industry invested heavily into automation during the 1970's and 1980's and as a result have very few labor problems and high profits.

Short run automation pain or long-term bankruptcy. Take your pick.

Business: Saguaro Style

2011-01-24T11:03:00.000-08:00

We can learn a lot from Mother Nature. We love and believe in intelligent machines, but still, nature endures and will outlive us all. ie. The long-living saguaro cactus teaches valuable business lessons.

When young and sprouting, it lives under a bush to protect itself from weather and predators. It focuses on growing straight up - only when it gets to 75 or 100 yrs old, does it start to branch out.

To avoid being eaten, the cactus has long, hard, sharp nails. Birds actually will land on a cactus and will peck holes to nest inside as a protected sanctuary.

The saguaro expands (bloats) to store water doing wet periods and then contracts as water is used up during the mostly dry, hot periods. And it sips water, even when it's bloated.

The Saguaro is most vulnerable at it's foundation since it has shallow root system to maximize water capture.

Is your organization running like a Saguaro cactus ?

2011 - The Machines Take Over

2010-12-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

"The Year of the Machine" is here. This might be a subject you're afraid to really accept - but it's reality - machines (really intelligent software) are taking over and if you're not both accepting that and implementing it in your own company, you will simply be left behind. There is no alternative. You will be assimilated.

In the military we now have self-directed drones.

On Wall St. we now have automatic trading.

On Main St smart retailers like Wal-Mart and Kiva Systems now have automatic inventory forecasting and ordering and even robotic warehouses.

At Norfolk Southern, you have a Princeton team (go Tigers!) effort to control trains remotely

It's here - get on board - we can help.

Creating A Legacy Park

2010-10-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

So last year you took in $22 mil in compensation. Sure, the govt. took it's share, and you have your houses to maintain, and a lot into investments, but really, what are you doing towards a legacy ?

Today I'm hiking the trails in the Laurence Rockefeller Preserve in Jackson Hole. It's on the site of the JY Ranch, the Rockefeller homestead surrounded by the Grand Teton National Park mostly created by John D. Rockefeller. It's simply some of the most beautiful, spectacular property in the world, attracting millions of tourists from all over the world.

But rather than keep their property bottled up for their own family's enjoyment and privacy, Laurence has not only donated the property, but a visitor center, meeting and restroom structures, utilities, trails, bridges, and an organization to maintain it. And with sufficient money and attention to the architecture, all the structures blend beautifully into the woods environment. Even the restrooms are beautifully designed buildings.

The preserve is free for the public to enjoy. And as I'm hiking along to Phelps Lake, I hope I meet Laurence at an alumni function or some event, so that I can say a huge thank you for giving me one of the most enjoyable days of my life.

Now isn't this a true legacy? Does your legacy compare to this ? If not, it's time to get on it. Leave a wonderful park for the public to enjoy at whatever location appeals to you the most. It could be centered around beaches, woods, mountains, or maybe a downtown cultural center. And spend enough money to do it right - cut no corners.

You can afford it. Just Do It!

Are You BP Ready ?

2010-07-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

Stuff happens.

It's only a matter of time and to what degree.

Can your company withstand a BP type accident? Or maybe a Tylenol scare? Or a Bohpal toxic gas leak? Or maybe a helicopter crash which sent the Trump empire reeling? Or a financial crisis which wiped out AIG? Or even a personal scandal?

Okay, maybe your company has been diligent and has run a set of disaster scenarios and have prepared responses. But what about the unknown crisis ?

In planning meetings for the 2002 Winter Olympics, we were told by the Atlanta Summer Olympic staff to prepare for the unknown accident. Their "unknown" was the Metro derailing and shutting down the prime transportation link - who guessed that would happen ?

When a crisis hits, you will not have time to select a team and then have them take over your conference room, study your company, and build business models to assess your response scenarios. You need to already have all of that in place and running. You will need results in hours and all done discretely - after all, predicted outcomes or even the recommended approach might be an even bigger political disaster if leaked to the press, or maybe worse, your biggest competitor.

At Tiger Nassau, we cannot prevent your firm from having a crisis, but we do help you handle a crises by having intelligent systems in place, running 24x7. A midnight phone call will have you prepared for a morning press conference.

We believe in the old Boy Scout motto: "Be Prepared".

Why IT's BI or Die (Part II)

2010-04-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

"...it's really simple: companies that are automating and using intelligent systems are growing, those that aren't are dying."

This expression sounds "pat", like a cliche. Yet, it's amazing that maybe 1/2 of established organizations are not really using intelligent systems.

There are 3 main reasons why intelligent systems are necessary for survival:

1) Global Competitiveness
With firms like McDonalds where 60% of sales are outside the U.S., most organizations have to operate in a global context - that means currency flucations, tax implications, vastly different labor costs, and varying shipping rates. In short, firms are now totally dynamic operations which requires real-time smart systems to handle and optimize the variables.

2) Productivity, Leanness, Adding value, Innovation
To compete, firms must automate not only for reducing labor costs, but to maintain quality consistency, be able to scale up, and quickly adapt to new innovation Automation requires intelligent systems - period.

3) Speed of Change
Call it Moore's Law or Kurzweil's Age of Singularity, but either way, technology is advancing exponentially. In many cases, technology is advancing faster than people can implement it. Yet, intelligent systems, such as machine learning, have no problem advancing along with the technology.

The answer is so simple, it's ignored by many organizations: Apply intelligent systems or die.

Why IT's BI or Die

2010-02-28T20:29:00.000-08:00

Geez, another week of talking with a few execs who don't get it. Their eyes glaze when I mention Business Intelligence and say it doesn't apply to them. They are like the walking dead people in "Dawn of the Dead". And their companies will pay the price. Conversely, the real smart execs I've met ask a lot of IT questions. And the real upstart companies, (the ones the "walking dead" are so scared of), they're past asking questions, they're asking to get more of intelligent systems in place, yesterday!.

Because it's really simple: companies that are automating and using intelligent systems are growing, those that aren't are dying.

Wal-Mart has a super sophisticated IT approach. They optimize their sales per floor space down to the square inch. Their predictive systems have the right products being restocked on a just in time basis. They know when to discount.

On the other hand, GM still sells cars with "Joe the Sales Guy" pushing overstocked cars off the lot. And they thought it was cheaper to have expensive union labor put on hub caps than robots because they couldn't get the robots to work. I guess Rick Waggoner never visited Blue Bunny's ice cream factory where automation does work.

Well, here we are, this blog went off topic from what I originally wanted to write about - yet, the lack of technical understanding of the power of business intelligence in key executives is so prevalent, it needs to be broadcasted. If you are sitting on a Board, you need to raise this question. For if the firm or organization is not adopting BI, it will surely die.

CEO - CIO: Bridging The Chasm, Part I

2010-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

When talking to CEO's and CIO's, I notice a big difference in outlook. The differences seem to fall into 3 key areas:

1) CEO's want change - CIO's tend to resist it. Most CEO's I've talked to are keenly aware of the global competitive landscape and know they have to change to stay relevant in the marketplace - they at least say they want change. But many CIO's are running by their business goals of "keeping the lights on" or more appropriately, "keeping the servers running", with less money. Thus, any large scale or maybe even any change at all is not high on many CIO's list.

2) The Fear Factor. In college sports, it's accepted that a new head coach brings in his/her team of assistants. I've heard teams will pay another $10 million or so in hiring and severance payments to give a new coach "his" team of assistants. Wholesale team changes are done in Washington with every new President. And even when Shirley Tilghman became president of dear old Nassau, there were suddenly a bunch of Dean changes. Yet, it's far less common to see new CEO's quickly bring in "their" IT team of a new CIO with maybe 1-2 levels of top execs below that. Thus, it appears many CIO's seem to be less secure about moving aggressively on IT issues because they are not that confident in their relationship to the CEO or other high level execs.

I recently had a nervous CIO explain to me that the "board would kill him" if he was to spend money on a consultant after the $x million purchase of large enterprise software - failing to even look at how with small additional consulting money it could make huge business differences with his purchase and help address the complaints I heard at several operational units. I heard one CEO say he would like to make more changes but had to deal with the team he had inherited - that sounds like a real recipe for losing and a severe disconnect between the CEO and IT.

3) The Black Hole Syndrome. You know the stories. How CEO's have watched tens or even hundreds of $$ millions go into some IT project fiasco. This leads to the "safer" but wrong action of hiring "cheaper" people to replace the automation. I've just witnessed where a CIO added expensive full-time staff to perform tasks that lend themselves to computerization - in an industry that is getting national attention for poor cost control. Possibly a short term cost savings, but almost always a devasting long-term business mistake. Little wonder that CEO's often shake their head with IT. But one CEO argued with me that it is always cheaper for him to farm something out to a "3rd world" country - you know what the arguments are - but he wouldn't hear it. Big and bigger disconnect.

Next we'll address how these "chasms" can be addressed.

2010: Decade of Intelligent Machines

2010-01-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

It's happening - machines are running themselves. We've seen it in movies, now it's happening in real life. Predator aircraft, cars that park themselves, on-line credit approval. These are all examples of machine led operations that formerly required humans.

Applying Moore's Law or Kurzweil's Singularity, in the next decade we can expect gigantic advances in "intelligent machines". The entire IT department of today will start to look more like your data center - humming machines with a couple of employees hanging around to solve problems.

What does this mean to you today?

Standards - both hardware and especially software need to be open standards compliant - not vendor driven. Many eyeballs will be the key to "safe" software.

Decision Systems - In a 99% automated world, you will not have the time or breadth to analyze problems, you need the help of other automated systems.

Outside Software - Decision problem solving software will need to be outside your main systems to avoid being compromised.

Smarter Staff - IT departments will/should have fewer people, but they will have to be very smart & knowlegable to handle the complex systems.

Web 3.0 Will Be Here Shortly

2009-12-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

Okay, in the 1990's we had the web. In the 2000's we had Web 2.0 with desktop features, long tail, .... So in the 2010's, (less than a month away), we'll have Web 3.0.

So what is Web 3.0 ? One aspect will likely be "global intelligence". Global intelligence will be the inclusion of everything that's going on to find better answers, and make better predictions and recommendations. Not only will systems tell you what should go on sale and at what price point, it will predict what next year's hit will be. A sort of R2D2, C-3PO, and Spock put together.

Of course in a corporate environment, none of this will appear automagically. Successful companies are already implementing pieces of this in an agile fashion. Some predictive technology here, some optimization there, and some decision support over there. Are you moving on these fronts ?

Automating Wall St Style

2009-11-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

I often hear executives express concern about the ability of computer based automated decisions - not really believing that much of the decision making going on in their firm can be automated or that their decision making is too complex to automate. I heard these very words from a CIO the other day.

But look at Wall Street. Buy/sell decisions worth billions of dollars are being decided and completed in micro seconds - all via automated trading, based on intelligent systems decision making. Wonder why the Wall Street firms are so profitable and employee bouneses are so big?

The fact is, good automated decision making systems are faster, better, and cheaper than having employees make the same decisions. Smart systems can benefit by utilizing knowledge bases of numerous experts and the very best decision making people. In addition, intelligent systems can perform "machine learning" to improve decision making as more feedback is received.

Most decisions being made manually in an average company are probably nowhere as big or complex as on Wall Street. So what's holding your company back from introducing more cost saving automated decision systems ? Really smart systems are what is going to differentiate your company from the rest of the pack.

Is Your Business Running On China Time

2009-10-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

As you are meeting on a new product, you are drawing, sketching, and feature listing on your Motorola handheld tablet - you then click and send these out to the production folks, who respond within 12 hrs with estimates to get an initial product shipped within one month. Meanwhile the specs are sent to marketing who send out customized press releases within 24 hrs. With estimates back in 12 hrs, pricing details are sent out to customers within the next 12 hours. Customer orders are received within the next 24 hrs to size production. With production quantities known, vendor orders are requested within the next 12 hours and orders placed.

In short, your product goes from concept to production and sales within 24 hours and product is shipped and cash received with 30 days. All done electronically. Of course if your decision-making was automated, you could do it within a couple of hours.

Sound like some megatrend prediction? It's how things are running in China today. Are your IT systems up to it ?

Automate or Go Under

2009-10-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

In one of my rare, unscientific opinions, I have stated that most American companies need to reduce their staffs 30-50% thru automation in order to compete and survive in the new normal global economy.

The new sign of a prosperous, prestigious company is how FEW employees they have, not how many. I love to hear our competitors boast how many offices or employees they have - it just means we're killing them on overhead expense.

The real metric today is productivity - either revenue/employee or fully allocated cost per product. And the best way you can boost those numbers is thru automation. Not just on the factory floor, but in the office. And automation means IT. Is your organization increasing it's automation efforts with more IT budget or trying to hang on to employees?

In the 80's and 90's General Motors, Chrysler, et al tried out robots - they deemed them too unreliable and stayed with employees. Look where that strategy got them. Even the infamous "Clunkers" stimulus gave highly automated Toyota the abundance of sales. Why? Automation gave them higher quality and reliability.

But automation software is not just for the factory floor - it's even more important for the office! Today many companies make most of their money from services. And guess what, many services can be automated.

I've heard it said that software can't make decisions the same as old Joe - that's right - it can make BETTER decisions. By having a good knowledge data base, you can be pulling in the advice of numerous experts, not just one. And 24x7. And no H1N1 staffing headaches! This can be another "quick win" for your department.

Are Your Dashboards Dumb ?

2009-10-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Look at most presentations on business intelligence and you will see most of the emphasis on beautiful, jazzy dashboards - gauges, drill downs, ... They give you lots of factual information, but little help in figuring out what to do.

So most dashboards are actually dumb in the intelligence sense - they don't think, they don't give advice, and most times they don't even predict. Did your dashboards warn you about the big Wall Street crash? Or that your business would not get the capital it needed ? Or even that you should have cut your expenses 10% more than you did? Or that your sales demographics are changing big time?

Actually, I know that a few smart companies and hedge funds really do have "smart" dashboards - the kind of systems that reveal, predict, and advise.

At Tiger Nassau, we use the slogan "more than just dashboards" to emphasize that business intelligence should not be about fancy looking dashboard gauges, but rather, ... intelligence!

We are not yet at the point where computers can out think the average human - Big Blue, the chess game, wins against grand masters, but only because the rules of the game are constrained (size of board, number of pieces, types of moves, etc).

However, it's likely we are reaching, or have reached, the 80-20 point - where intelligent systems can sift thru or take you to the 80% point, freeing your brain to spend time on the last remaining 20% of really complex analysis and decision making. In short, your systems should be answering not only "what happened", but, "what is likely to happen", or even "what are the likely outcomes if we do x or y or z".

This is the key to your success for making highly productive, excellent decisions. So, are your dashboards intelligent or just dumb ?

Getting Quick Wins

2009-10-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

"Quick Wins" are fast actions that deliver core value to the organization: sales increases (and subsequent increased cash flow); increased market share; and immediate cost savings.

But to be a "quick win", the action must be real, must be immediate, and must be demonstratable. This means you need the tools to both examine as well as measure.

Let's take a simple example:
Your web statistics show customers that are looking at back pain ointment also look at heating pads. But your sales statistics show only the low cost, low margin back pain ointment is selling, with little sales in heating pads. So you run a promotion with signage around the ointment display that if customers buy $5 or more of back ointment, they get 50% off a heating pad. You immediately see sales and margins go up => quick win.

As CIO, what's your role in this ? Isn't this a "marketing thing"? Actually it's a "data systems thing" and you're master of data systems. It's your data systems that sifted thru millions of product sales and web activity to identify some likely candidates for marketing to focus on. It's your data systems that evaluated the likely outcomes for different marketing initiatives. It's your
data systems that closely predict inventory levels during sales promotions to ensure they are ready for increased sales. And finally it's your data systems that measured the success of the promotion.

So don't get caught spending all your time focusing on the big, major IT investment projects and spend some time generating a few "quick wins". You need and deserve some recognition at the Board meeting.

How CIO's Can Look Good At Board Meetings

2009-09-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

With sales and profits down, and pressure of budget cuts and layoffs up, how does a CIO look good?

"Add Value To The Organization". It's an old phrase that applies in these tough times more than ever. The success consultant, Brian Tracey, talks about this often as a way to increase earning power. But it also makes even more sense for a top executive to keep this at the forefront in tough times.

So how can a CIO add more value? - simply by focusing on the pillars of the organization: increasing sales (especially short-term cash flow), increasing market share, and lowering costs. We like to call short-term value as "quick wins".

What are some ways for quick wins? On the sales side, it might be identifying some good upselling product relationships. If coffee drinkers also like chocolate chip cookies, then a "bundle" price can be established and instantly start gaining more revenue. On the cost side it might be a small department where software license fees can be cut by easily changing over to open source software. Or maybe a real-time prediction system that cuts raw material ordering quantities. Or maybe it's moving to a SAAS application.

By creating some "quick wins", a CIO can be on the offensive at an executive committee meeting, and who knows, maybe even gaining extra budget funds. Its' time for CIO's to be next in line for the CEO position.

Why Ruby

2009-07-31T18:12:00.001-07:00

When it comes to web applications, there are many languages to choose from: java, php, C#, C++, perl, ruby, python,..., even pure javascript. But after years and years of trying various languages and frameworks, we are now basing our applications on Ruby. Why Ruby?

First, we insist on something that is cross-platform and open source. The newer, higher level, dynamic languages are easier to program in and VM speeds are at acceptable levels (in Ruby at least with 1.9.1). Thus we narrowed it down to the two leading DSL's: Ruby and Python. For the past 2 years we have vacillated between these 2 pretty compareble languages - in some ways just pick your poison and get coding. Here's why we picked Ruby:

For web applications, we like to use frameworks. On the full featured side, nothing in Python can match the features, and ease of use of Rails (I've written technical comparisons elsewhere). On the lightweight side, Ruby has Sinatra, Python has WebPy - both are really nice.

On the agile / testing side there seems to be more momentum on the Ruby side with RSpec, and TDD / BDD in general.

On the community side, well Python has lots of folks with gray hair, Ruby has lots of kids that curse :) PyCon has lots of repeat speakers - is that a symptom of not enough community or too closed - not sure. And Ruby use groups seem to be dynamic, well attended, constantly discussing new techniques such as BDD.

Welcome to Tiger Nassau, Inc.

2009-01-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

Tiger Nassau, Inc. specializes in intelligent systems, helping companies gain competitive advantages thru IT. We assist companies both large and small in converting to open source and implementing agile management software development, especially in the areas of e-marketing and intelligent business systems.