Mar07

I’m not the only one

I posted some thoughts yesterday about the ramifications of the demise of Essential Business Server for the SMB and particularly Small Business Server market. I was reading through Susan Bradley’s blog and was interested to see that she raised many of the same concerns in a recent blog post including:

 

“Make no mistake the chatter is less about a concern over the future of "M" and more over the future of "S"”

 

and

 

“What's the future hold?  I'm not going to lie to you and say that Response Point, Office Accounting, MPAN program and now this, doesn't put a slight bit of chill up my spine.”

 

When people of Susan’s stature start voicing these concerns you really need to be paying attention I believe. Again, this not about the product or the market segment, I truly believe that it is bigger than this. If you still have doubts have a look at this article:

 

’Cloudy days ahead from Microsoft’

 

as the subheading says here:

 

“MICROSOFT has switched its cloud computing marketing from half-hearted to full bore.”

 

This means that the focus has shifted (rightly or wrongly) from infrastructure to cloud. This is where Microsoft is throwing its resources. Maybe Microsoft’s solution is half baked but that doesn’t stop them allocating their resources there. History shows us that Microsoft tends to start slow and awkwardly in many markets but eventually, usually through sheer brute force, they take a dominate stake. I see no reason why the same won’t occur here.

 

Now you can quote me that this time it is different because of Google and guess what I totally agree with you. Why? Because it again reinforces my point that this online stuff, for better or worse, is not going away. The reality is that it is the traditional in house stuff that is.

 

You shouldn’t need to ‘read the tea leaves’ as Susan says in her post, to see that markets generally go where the dollars flow and Microsoft is currently tipping its bucket into the cloud. To reap the benefits you’ll have to probably follow their lead because in the end it is their products that people sell and support.

 

Technically, maybe the cloud stuff isn’t quite there but guess what that doesn’t matter because it is not the greatest driver here. Because the IT industry is being commoditized here major decisions are now based on cost. The cry is no longer ‘I want the best technology’ it has become ‘I want the cheapest technology’ because to the customer, most technology now looks identical whether it is delivered in house or from the cloud. Therefore in a world where there are few differences between products price becomes the differentiator and the cheaper one always wins. It would certainly seem that this is what we are seeing now.

Published: Mar-07-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Mar06

Big news day

The first bit of news is that Microsoft is officially killing off Essential Business Server (EBS) which was sorta a bigger version of Small Business Server. The announcement came as a surprise to many and disappoints some who have been building a business around a product that suits larger businesses. Some of the reasons for the death of EBS?

 

“midsize businesses are rapidly turning to technologies such as management, virtualization and cloud computing as a means to cut costs, improve efficiency, and increase competitiveness.”

 

so says the Official Microsoft EBS blog.

 

Next bit of news is that Microsoft plans to release Office and SharePoint 2010 on the 12th of May which was announced on the SharePoint Team blog.

 

Even though the Official Microsoft EBS blog says, discontinuing EBS:

 

“will not impact any other Windows Server products and solutions, including the next version of Windows Small Business Server (SBS)”

 

you gotta wonder eh? It certainly only seems like a matter of time before that which instigated the demise of EBS starts to white ant the SBS end of the market. Most IT people will tell you that what happens at the larger end of town ultimately end up filtering down to the smaller end.

 

Almost two years ago now, in this blog, I speculated that SBS 2008 would be the last version of SBS we would see. I still believe that is the case, however I believe we may see something called “SBS” which really isn’t. I’m not going to split hairs on what ‘being SBS’ actually is, because I will still content that the fate of SBS will be the same as EBS. It will take longer to eventuate because the SBS product has a longer history and greater support base but it will happen in the end.

 

The imminent release of Office 2010 further marks a march to cloud computing and change in the landscape. Why? Because not only will Microsoft make available a version of Office available for free download but it will also have versions (including a free one) available via the web.

 

Office and SharePoint 2010 will survive because they can go to the cloud, EBS didn’t because it couldn’t. As I said, I reckon that the same logic applies to SBS, it is going to struggle as a product to survive a move to the cloud. Personally, I wouldn’t be betting my business on SBS at the moment.

 

On the other side of the ledger I think that it is good for Microsoft to reduce the number of products it sells and focus more of its energy on making those that sell well better. If all the resources from EBS get thrown into SBS to make it something better, then that can only be good? Microsoft needs to do what it believe is right for its business. At the end of the day that is going to burn some people who believed in the EBS product but in all my travels I have never seen an EBS installation and have only heard of one actual client who had installed it. Now I will readily admit that I am not as well travelled as other IT Professionals and I probably move in the limited circles of the ‘S’ in SMB, however I would have expected to have seen and heard more of EBS in all the time it has been released.

 

To say that current IT trends are not having an effect on customers and resellers is naive. Technology people need to appreciate that many aspects of traditional IT are being commoditized and perhaps sadly coming to be the domain of accountants rather than technicians. Someone told me once that change takes longer than you think to occur but when it does it ends up being much greater than you could have imagined. I certainly wonder what even the next 12 months will bring. The only certainty will be change but the uncertainty is just how much.

 

When a volcano erupts it can reek some of the most drastic changes on our environment, causing, flooding, tsunamis, earthquakes, solar winter and so on. Yet at the same time the earth that is brought to the surface during a volcanic eruption is some of the most fertile. In a nutshell every change brings threats and opportunities, what the end result becomes is only determined by a reaction to these events. A rational person appreciates that if they can’t change their circumstances then they can only react to the circumstances they find themselves in.

 

As much as I appreciate people will suffer because of the loss of EBS, I also see great opportunity in the changes that are brought to the IT landscape. It is up to myself to determine how best to exploit these for my business, because quite simply they are a fact of life and will always continue to be so. I may not like them but in the end I’ve just gotta deal with them.

Published: Mar-06-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Mar04

Australian SharePoint Conference

image

 

If you are not aware the Australian SharePoint conference is being held on June 16 and 17, 2010 in Sydney. You can see all the details and register via - http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=804948

 

I am also happy to announce that I have been selected as a speaker. Not sure exactly which session(s) I proposed will be running and when they will be running just yet, but I’ll provide that information when it comes to hand.

 

So if you interested in SharePoint (and who isn’t with the new version now in beta?) then I’d recommend you register for the event now so you can get the early bird discount. Let me know if you are going to be attending and we can catch up.

 

More information about my sessions soon.

Published: Mar-04-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Feb24

Productivity Part 3

Here is a copy of the last of three guest posts that I’m doing for Wayne Small over at www.sbsfaq.com on productivity. You’ll find Part 1 and Part 2 there also

 

Many of the concepts developed here come from my upcoming book on productivity – Being busy is just an excuse.

The last two articles have hopefully given readers a starting point as well as destination, we now need to look at getting from the one to the other. This article will provide you with a some techniques that can be used to become more effective and productive to ensure you enjoy your life more.

Probably the biggest drain on productivity most people face is their email. It is normally the first thing they open every day and the thing they always have running. The problem is that your inbox is a priority list set by someone else and unless you take steps to manage it correctly it will steal away your time. The first major issue with email is that it promotes distraction. If your workstation dings, flashes a warning and leaves an icon telling you there is an email the temptation to go and see what that email is can be extremely overpowering. Chances are that the email wasn’t important but what has happened is that you have been distracted from what you were doing and now need to spend the time refocusing. Some studies show you can lose up to 15 minutes when a distraction like this happens and if you multiply that by a week or a month the lost time really starts to stack up. So, step one should be to turn off any email notification in your software.

Step two is that you should limit your email use to three or four times a day, say 10am, 1pm and 4pm. Don’t open your email in the morning until you have accomplished some other task because the chances of you finding something in your email to distract you is very high. When you do work on your email process your emails until your inbox is empty. When you go to your letterbox at the end of your drive you don’t take just a few items and leave the rest for storage do you? Why should your inbox box be any different? You need to process it to zero. This means you need to have a good folder structure in which you can move emails for later if needed. A good system is to have folders like, archive, hold and followup as a minimum in which you can place items from your inbox.

Another huge boost in productivity can be had with the use of multiple monitors, not just a single large monitor but actually two physical monitors. Studies have shown that productivity can be raised by over 38% by simply connecting up an additional screen. Having more screen real estate allows you to more easily ’spread out’ rather than constantly having to swap windows.

After you have finished with the socks you are wearing today you don’t rush home and wash them do you? No, you throw them in the hamper with other clothes and wash them all together. This is because it is far more productive and efficient to do things in batches. The same concept applies to much of the work you do. From the audit of your time you conducted in the first article in this series you should be able to see how you can aggregate work and make more effective use of your time. You should also be able to determine at what time these batches are most productive for you. If you favour doing your accounts in the morning, then schedule one day a week to do all your accounts rather than at random times throughout the week.

Another excellent habit to get into is to stop and ask yourself regularly throughout the day, what is the most important thing I need to do next? What should I be spending time doing to get the maximum return? This allows you to pause and refocus on what needs to be done because otherwise you could be wasting time on something that really doesn’t have much value.

In summary, there are plenty of simple easy ways that you can improve your productivity. However at the end of the day you must determine what works for you. This will no doubt take some trial and error but you need to view this as an investment that will be rewarded in the future. If you know what your goals are then determining a strategy to get there is much easier.

I take this opportunity to thank you for investing the time in what I have laid out here over these three articles. I would like to thank Wayne Small for providing me the opportunity to write something here on his blog. I hope that it was worthwhile and if you have any feedback, comments or questions on what I have talked about here please add them as comments on this post so everyone can benefit. You can also contact me directly via director@ciaops.com. You’ll find information about myself and my business at www.ciaops.com.

Published: Feb-24-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Feb17

Productivity Part 2

Here is a copy of the second of three guest posts that I’m doing for Wayne Small over at www.sbsfaq.com on productivity. You’ll find Part 1 there also.

 

Many of the concepts developed here come from my upcoming book on productivity – Being busy is just an excuse.

In the last post I covered how there are three major tasks that you need to examine when seeking to improve your productivity. Firstly, you need an idea of where you currently stand. I covered this in the last part when I recommended that the best solution was to track exactly how your are spending your time. Next, you need an idea of how you are going to get to your destination and finally you need to know your final destination. In this second article I’ll look at determining where you want your productivity to take you, that is, your destination.

If you were financially independent and didn’t need to work what would you do? What would fill all the time  you currently spend working? When I ask that question of people many can’t answer it because they have been so busy working they haven’t even considered what they are working for. They have fallen into the trap of simply working for works sake. Likewise, when you ask people what excites them you typically get answers that are far removed from what they are doing or have done recently. This divide between desire and reality promotes frustration and stress. If you want your situation to be different from the way it is now, you are the only one that is going to make it happen.

Let’s say that you want to aim to work only 40 hours a week and leave the office by 5pm every day. That’s your goal, now you need to start working backwards to achieve that. You need to be ruthless in many ways and cull the items in your agenda which don’t allow you to achieve your goal. Likewise, you need to examine the other things you do and determine whether they can be done more efficiently. Given that you already have a detailed report of where you spend your time each week (from part 1 of this series) you should be able to determine whether you can achieve your goal. Remember it is all a matter of priorities, If you want to finish by 5pm then you need to be disciplined and stick to this goal.

Many people say that they can’t leave at 5pm because everyone else is still there in the office slaving away. My response to that is simple. What do you get typically paid for? How you do your work – or the end result? Most good bosses don’t really care how you get your job done as long as you get it done. If you can do it more efficiently than others why shouldn’t you reap the benefits? It is a sad state of affairs when we measure an employee’s worth by how late they stay in the office.  Who knows how much time those other employees in your office have wasted during ‘normal business hours’. If they have been fiddling on Facebook while you have been productive why should you feel guilty leaving at 5pm? Don’t let them dictate how you spend your time. They are just jealous that you are getting things done.

Now, just because you have created extra time in your schedule by removing bad an inefficient practices doesn’t mean that good and efficient ones are going to take their place. As I said earlier, if you didn’t have to work what would you do? What would you fill your time doing? I’m sure that most people can fill those initial hours with stuff that excites them but what about after that? Don’t you want to have more free time for the rest of your life? You need to look at how you are going to spend the free time you generate now and forever, not just for the next few weeks.

As I said in my earlier post, there is no doubt that you won’t be able to do everything you want to at the office if you plan to work 40 hours a week and leave by 5pm. However, you should certainly be able to do everything that you "should" be doing with some time left for some things that you would "like" to do. This will typically come at the expense of things that you "should not" be doing, but why the hell are you doing stuff that you "shouldn’t" be doing I ask you? Here’s the key, it is all around priorities, for remember, once you allocate your time you can’t recover what’s been spent.

So now with your current situation and your destination in hand all you need now is a plan to get from one to the other. That’s what I’ll cover in my final part which will give you some techniques to help you improve your productivity and give you more time so you can meet your goals and be able to do more of the things that excite you.

As always if you have any feedback, comments or questions on what I have talked about here please add them as comments on this post so everyone can benefit.  You can also contact Robert direct via director@ciaops.com. You’ll find information about myself and my business at www.ciaops.com.

Published: Feb-17-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Feb14

Productivity Part 1

Here is a copy of the first of three guest posts that I’m doing for Wayne Small over at www.sbsfaq.com on productivity.

Many of the concepts developed here come from my upcoming book on productivity – Being busy is just an excuse.

If I asked you whether you have enough time your most likely answer will be no. If I then ask you what are the most important things in your life most people will reply something along the lines of their family, partner, friends and so on. Next, if I ask you what really excites you I’ll hear a variety of answers from exotic travel, writing a book and maybe even ballroom dancing. Finally, if I ask you what you actually spend your time doing most people will simply reply – working. That situation doesn’t make for happy and contented life does it?

How is that we live in the most technological advanced age and yet we more stressed, have less time are generally unhappier with our lives than previous generations? What is more precious time or money? Time, simply because you can’t get any more. Yet most people allow their time to be wasted in meaningless and low priority tasks. They allow it to be stolen away by the simplest request. They allow a variety of devices to constantly interrupt and defragment their day. In short, it appears as if they are doing almost anything they can to waste their most precious resource.

Why are you not spending more time on things that excite you? Isn’t that what life is supposedly all about? You wouldn’t stick your money under a mattress would you? You invest it somewhere to get the maximum return. Why aren’t you trying to get the maximum return for your time?

The most important things to learn about your time is that there is only a finite amount each day. Only you can decide how you spend that time. You only get one shot at it, because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. The next point to understand is that you are not going to be able to do everything. There are simply things that you won’t be able to fit in your day. That’s where developing a discipline and priorities help you achieve the things that need to be done not the things you necessarily like doing. This leads to the point that there are always going to be things we don’t like doing but they still need to be done. If you don’t have the discipline and systems to achieve these then you end procrastinating and creating greater levels of stress for yourself.

Before you embark on any journey you need at least three things. Firstly, where you are. Secondly, where you want to go and lastly a map of how to get there. When it comes to improving your productivity the first step is to closely examine and record how you spend each day. Spend at least a week monitoring as much of your day as you can. Record how much time you spend on email, how much time you spend on phone, how much time you spend surfing the web. You need to be totally honest here and ensure that you record exactly what you are doing rather than what you would like to be doing!

By far the easiest method if to use a pen and paper, however there are plenty of digital time recording methods available. The important thing is not how you record your time but that you do. This method is exactly what other professionals like accountants and lawyers use, because they realize the value of their time as it directly equates to income. As you continue to record you will probably start to see patterns emerge, however ensure that you keep recording for at least a week or more.

Once you have enough data sit down and spend some time analysing the results. Where did you allocate your time poorly? Where did you allocate it productively? You may wish to use something like Excel and categorize your time usage to allow you to see patterns better. Many people would see this as a waste of time. The difference is that you are investing some time up front so that you’ll have a bigger payoff further down the track. That’s what investment is all about isn’t it? A little extra sacrifice up front for greater returns down the track. I can assure you that if you are constantly busy and don’t know why tracking your time is a very worthwhile exercise.

So now you have a starting point. This is now your baseline from which my next post will build on.

As always if you have any feedback, comments or questions on what I have talked about here please send them to me via director@ciaops.com. You’ll find information about myself and my business at www.ciaops.com

Published: Feb-14-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan20

Work/life balance

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For those who are interested in an experiment on lifestyle design and the work/family balance then I would suggest you have a look at the TV show “The Nest” which is shown on SBS Australia currently on Friday nights from 8.30pm.

 

As with all TV shows these days there is also a web site you can visit:

 

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/thenest/episodes/page/i/1/h/Episodes/

 

that allows you to watch past episodes (although you only seem to be able to watch the very last one).

 

If you are interested in productivity then it is not only worth watching but also reading some of the comments that are made about the episodes by web site visitors.

Published: Jan-20-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan17

Pictures in my blog

I have had a few people say that they can’t see the pictures in this blog. I know about the issue and it seems to comes down to the reader you are using. As you can see, the two readers I use:

 

image

 

www.bloglines.com

 

and

 

image

 

www.google.com/reader

 

both work fine. The major issue seems to be with Outlook. Interesting that Microsoft Outlook does read Microsoft SharePoint correctly eh?

 

I do have it on my list of things to look at if I get a chance but I am still pondering whether I should move this blog into my updated www.ciaops.com web site. Still mulling that one over.

Published: Jan-17-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan16

We are not an island

InAweofGod’screation

 

The other day my optical mouse decided to pack up. As you can probably appreciate it is pretty hard to work a PC these days without a mouse. Of course I didn’t have a spare so I took a walk down to the local PC shop. Now I had passed the store many times but never actually gone inside so I was intrigued to see what it was like.

 

The staff were friend enough and pointed me towards a suitable replacement mouse. As I was paying for it I started to ask about their business, how it was going. I told them that I was in IT and so on and so on. The reaction I received was basically, here’s you receipt, have a nice day, goodbye.

 

Now, sure I didn’t buy the most expensive item in the shop but is that much trouble to engage with someone who maybe an opportunity for your business? I’d shown some interest in who and what they were and basically I got totally shut down. Thank you, have a nice day.

 

I started to think about the wider circle of IT people that I know, who typically run their own business and most are quite the opposite. However, that is probably because of a relationship that has been built up over a number of years. When I think about some IT businesses that are acquaintances it made me realize that many of them are like my local PC shop, all they seem to be apparently interested in is their own business.

 

Maybe they have seen too many tire kickers to be bothered any more but most smaller businesses would tell you that receive most of their business through referrals. Typically these referrals are not a direct connection they are a friend of a friend. It would seem to me that the more contacts you can foster the better your chances of picking up business.

 

I myself have been guilty of believing that customers choose you because they admire your knowledge or what you are technically capable of. The reality is that customers give you the business because they ‘like’ you more the next business. They get some sort emotional gut reaction which tells them that this person is worth doing businesses with.

 

Irrational and illogical it maybe but if you stop and think about your interactions with businesses you deal with (provided you have a choice) they you tend to go with the one you ‘like’. In many cases you can’t definitively say what you ‘like’ but you have a ‘gut’ feeling and that has a surprising amount of sway when it comes to making a decision.

 

Perhaps the point that I’m finally coming to realize after all these years is that business is more about person relationships, gut feelings and perceptions than anything rational. I think the road to success is at least partially paved with firstly understanding this and secondly utilizing it. Maybe a good investment in your business is to get to know your peers better or perhaps getting to know people who aren’t your peers and exploring outside your normal boundaries.

 

How will you treat the next unknown that ‘walks into your shop’? After this experience of mine I’m certainly going to try and be more engaging and attempt to build some sort of relationship. Even if they simply end up a Facebook friend you just never know do you?

Published: Jan-16-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

Jan12

Computers as well?

emsisay

 

Here’s a report that details how watching too much television can severely affect your health. The article “TV's deadly effects: study proves box link to early grave” details:

 

''People who watch four or more hours of television a day have a 46 per cent higher risk of death from all causes and an 80 per cent increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.''

 

My question is, doesn’t that perhaps also apply to computer usage? How many of us spend more than four hours behind a screen, sitting in the same chair everyday? Now imagine if you went from your chair in front of a computer to a chair in front of TV. You would certainly seem to significantly shorten your life span doing just that wouldn't you?

 

The most logical thing you would think you could do to counter such effects would be to exercise more. But:

 

''The risks associated with prolonged sitting are also not necessarily offset by doing more exercise, because in this study, even people who were exercising, if they also watched high amounts of television, they also had an increased risk of premature death.''

 

This means that you need to make sure you move around a bit at the office and in front of the TV. The article recommends that you get up and move around every 20 minutes or so.

 

I’m off to do just that now.

Published: Jan-12-10 | 0 Comments | Link to this post

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