New Orleans CTIA Wireless 2012 – Booth 4723 -May 9th Ice Wine party!

Come join us at the CTIA Wireless 2012 New Orleans Wireless conference at the Ontario pavilion! https://www.facebook.com/events/349768281752427/permalink/350212411708014/

 

Unified Digital Enterprise Management Mobility – Booth 4723 – International CTIA Wireless 2012

ISU Corp has extensive expertise in custom mobile application software development and has vast experience in developing Mobile Applications across diverse platforms and devices using latest techniques for all major platforms. Our solutions on all the major Tablets, handheld and Smartphone platforms help our clients achieve a faster time to market with an unmatched cost advantage.

We follow the highest standards in the industry for engineering process, product quality, delivery and support.

 

Our Success is ensured with “IS Unified”, our Proprietary Digital Enterprise Management Platform Innovation where we control, track and monitor all projects, resources and budget.  IS Unified provides Agility, Visibility, Transparency and efficiency for everyone in the Software Development Life-Cycle.

Our focus is on our clients as they are the main and only reason we are in business. W
e always go the extra mile to ensure client satisfaction. We think of our clients as our partners, and we strongly believe that if we make them succeed in their individual projects, we succeed with them.

We strive to create a win-win environment, where partnership, honesty and professionalism mandate every task we conduct for our clients.

Digital Enterprise Management Requirements – Free list template (ERP for IT) Unified IT Management

Digital Enterprise Management Requirements – quick list

The logic

Business requirements focus on what the product will do, and (to some extent) who will be using the system. Requirements should specify the user, the end result, and the criteria that define a successful end result. Gathering good business requirements up front saves time and money and is the key to the overall quality of a product design.

Use the following checklist to help ensure that business requirements clearly describe what is to be implemented and meet relevant quality standards before solution development begins.

Necessary	The requirement is essential to meet business goals and objectives. If the project can meet needs without it, the requirement is not necessary. The requirement must be traceable to a goal stated in the project charter, vision document, or other initiating document.	
Attainable	The requirement must be technically and operationally feasible and fall within the funding and timing constraints of the project. Note, that even though a requirement may be technically feasible, if it does not fall within constraints, it is not attainable.	
Measurable and testable	Testable requirements are designed to demonstrate the product satisfies requirements. Tests may include functional, performance, regression and stress tests. If the requirement is impossible to test or measure, it should be removed or revised.	
Allocatable	The requirement can be allocated to an element of the project design where it can be implemented.	
Complete	The requirement is documented and all conditions under which the requirement applies are clearly stated. The requirement must also contain all the necessary information to assist the technical team in designing, building and testing that component of the product.	
Consistent	The requirement can be met without causing conflict with any other requirement.	
Does not prematurely determine solution	The requirement allows the widest possible selection of implementation options.	
Traceable	The source of the requirement is known and can be referenced or located when needed. It should be traceable backwards to specific customers, user or stakeholder input, a use case, a business rule and the like. It should also be traceable forward and have a unique identifier that assists in identifying, maintaining change history, and the like.	
SMART	Specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, and time bound.	

Source: ITRG, adapted from IIBA BOK

 

Digital Enterprise Requirements – Free Template (ERP for IT)

Business Requirements Document: a High-level Review

A business requirements document (BRD) details the business solution for a project including the documentation of customer needs and expectations. The BRD process can be incorporated within a Six Sigma DMAIC culture. By J. DeLayne Stroud Many businesses have a process in place to assist with project management and implementation. One opportunity for improvement involves making reasonable estimates of how big a project is and how much it is going to cost. There are many different names for tools used with this process: business needs specification, requirements specification or, simply, business requirements. Business requirements are the critical activities of an enterprise that must be performed to meet the organizational objective(s) while remaining solution independent. A business requirements document (BRD) details the business solution for a project including the documentation of customer needs and expectations. If an initiative intends to modify existing (or introduce new) hardware/software, a new BRD should be created. The BRD process can be incorporated within a Six Sigma DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) culture.The most common objectives of the BRD are:

• To gain agreement with stakeholders
• To provide a foundation to communicate to a technology service provider what the solution needs to do to satisfy the customer’s and business’ needs
• To provide input into the next phase for this project
• To describe what not how the customer/business needs will be met by the solution

The BRD is important because it is the foundation for all subsequent project deliverables, describing what inputs and outputs are associated with each process function. The process function delivers CTQs (critical to quality). CTQs deliver the voice of customer (VOC). The BRD describes what the system would look like from a business perspective. The BRD distinguishes between the business solution and the technical solution. When examining the business solution the BRD should answer the question, “What does the business want to do?” For example, the business wants to serve 100 bottles of red wine each night during a three-day conference and the wine must be 57 degrees Fahrenheit when poured. The technical solution should support the business solution. For example, the company would need a wine grotto or refrigeration storage unit capable of holding 300+ bottles operating between 48 and 52 degrees Fahrenheit.

Who should be involved in the creation of the BRD?

A number of teams and partners should create the BRD:

• Project core team
• Business partner(s)
• Process Owner(s) or representatives
• Subject matter experts
• Change/project/product management, quality department and/or IT management as needed or available

Prerequisites for BRD

Prerequisite one for a BRD is the project charter, created during the define phase of a DMAIC project. The BRD provides the opportunity to review the project charter to ensure that the objective, goals, scope, project team, and approvers are accurately reflected. Prerequisite two is a current environment assessment created during the measure phase. This includes a detailed process map of the current environment highlighting areas that will be changed during the project. Detailed “as is” process maps should include:

• Clearly defined start and end points of the process
• Level two and three process functions
• Defined areas of rework and non-value added steps
• Cycle time, capacity and rework information for each process step as available
• Baseline for each CTQ for the current environment

Prerequisite three is CTQs, identified in either the define or measure phases, and validated with baseline measurements, targets and specifications.

• Current measures: Data that defines and describes current performance – sigma level of the CTQ includes a definition of how the product/service’s characteristic is to be quantified.
• Target/nominal value: What is the aim of the product/service? If there was never any variation in the product/service, this would be the constant value.
• Specification limits: How much variation is the customer willing to tolerate in the delivery of the product or service? Define upper and lower specification limits as required by the customer needs.
• Allowable defect rate: How often are the producers willing to produce a product/service outside the specification limits?

Prerequisite four is the target environment assessment, created in the measure phase, and includes a detailed process map of the target environment including level two functions. When distinguishing between level two or three functions, group the process functions into the following categories:

• People: People are processing information and making decisions [core team designs high-level design/low-level design (HLD/LLD)]
• Systems: Systems is processing information and making decisions
• Systems/people: System is processing information and people are making the decisions
  • Distinguish between employee and customer
  • Distinguish leadership requirement for associate in case decision making authority has to be moved up
• Fishbone: For each process function for impact assessment

Overall Project Details and Best Practices

The BRD appendix can be used to list a number of project details – constraints, assumptions and dependencies, business rules, scope, measurements reporting and other topics critical to the project. Consider the following issues when looking at the overall project:

• Are there any regulatory or geographic constraints (i.e., State law) to consider? If so, these constraints need to be clearly documented in the process detail table of the BRD or in the overall project details section of the appendix.
• What assumptions or dependencies apply?
• What business rules apply?
• Are there any measurements or reporting requirements that apply to the project?

Best Practices

1. Validate scope: review and refine the scope as needed based on a process detail table, identifying any changes to what is in or out of scope now that the requirements have been developed. Complete this prior to obtaining the business partner(s) sign-off and lock down the scope of the project. Any changes to the project after this phase will be handled through a change control process.
2. Create systems impacted document: Create a design-elements diagram for each level two or three process function for impact assessment for:
   • People
   • Process
   • Technology
   • Materials and supplies
   • Facilities
   • Product
   • Machinery and equipment
   • Others as necessary (depending on the organization)
3. Definitions and acronyms: Define any terms not clearly understood by all.

Packaging the BRD

Package the BRD so it has a logical flow and is easy to follow. An example of a high-level list of sections follows:

• Project overview including project charter information, scope, and objectives
• Current environment assessment and systems overview (see additional details below)
• Future process map
• Process detail table
• Overall project business rules and constraints
• Impact assessment (fishbone for process functions)
• Functional requirements (additional details below)
• Data to be held (additional detail available below)
• Schedule and budget
• Terms and definitions
• Approver information
• Team information

Business Partner Sign-off

Business partners should be active participants in the development of the BRD, but a final review and sign-off is also essential.

Additional Details

There are a number of items included in the BRD that require detailed documentation to ensure successful implementation. Following is a high-level overview of the types of detail to consider: Sample questions for the current environment assessment and systems overview:

• Who is the intended user?
• How many users are there? Are they the same type of user or different?
• What level of computer experience will the users have (or is needed)?
• What is the required security?
• Are there hardware constraints – networked or stand-alone?
• What are the approximate numbers of records required initially plus the anticipated growth?
• What technical support is necessary and available in-house?
• What other systems need to integrate/communicate?
• Backup. Describe the current back-up regime (e.g., tape back-up one/day). How will the new system fit with this? If this is not currently defined then think how much data could be inadvertently lost. For example would it be a major disaster if the last 30 minutes of work was lost, or could yesterday’s/last week’s data be retained?
• Deliverables. What are the expectations – system, help files, documentation, full source code, training, support, etc.? Detail what is essential versus nice. Do not automatically ask for everything unless necessary. If the project manager is to maintain the system make sure he states that he requires the full source code – alternatively if the developer is to maintain the system consider settling for an escrow agreement (where the source is held by an independent third party). Be specific about tools necessary to help. If the developer is unwilling to provide the support necessary find someone else who will.

The functional requirements section should describe “what” the system is to accomplish rather than the “how.” Develop a prioritized list similar to the following:

• A detailed description of the requirement including goals, e.g., produce a report of spend/department/year on demand with the user selecting the department and the financial year required – it is necessary to know how the company defines the financial year.
• How important is this requirement (essential, preferred, nice to have, not essential, etc.)?
• Any known design/implementation issues relating to this requirement?
• Does this requirement interact with other requirements?

Data to be Held: Sample Advice

Describe expected data tables. Examples include customer records, contact details, machine records, etc. Provide as much detail as possible – a customer record might consist of a name, address, telephone number, fax, mobile number, region, business type, number of employees etc. Indicate any unique fields (such as a job number) and show how different tables relate to each other (very important). For example projects are related to customers through a customer number. Each customer can have none, one or many associated projects. Each project relates to one or more jobs. A job can exist independently of a project but will still be associated with a customer. A project will always have only one customer. It is not usually necessary to define the tables in database terms (e.g., customer number is a long integer) but examples of the data to be held in the fields is useful (e.g., a typical job number might be FH/1234 where FH indicates the department undertaking the job and 1234 is a unique number. In practice a good database designer would then recognize that the “real” job number is actually the 1234 part and the FH is just an associated field). If the maximum size of any field is known – for example, a “Company Name” field is 100 characters – then include this. If there are any table definitions from existing systems then provide these indicating any required changes.

Summary

As with any tool, the BRD can have both benefits and failure modes. Benefits derived from a good BRD include reduced changes during the improve and control phases of DMAIC and reduced time to deployment. Failure modes from a poor BRD means the system developed will not meet business requirements. Creating a successful BRD requires planning and coordination. There are a few best practices that should be followed in this process. The team should hold a dedicated off-site session to complete the BRD with all required resources 100% available. Scheduling is the key to success here. As each tool/deliverable is completed within the methodology build the BRD. Allow a one-week deadline to finish action items from the off-site session and hold a final review session two to three hours after completion of action items. About the Author: J. DeLayne Stroud is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt project manager with DeLeeuw Associates, a division of Conversion Services International. He retired from Bank of America in 2005 with more than 20 years of experience as an executive in project and change management in the banking industry. He has led multiple Six Sigma initiatives including Design for Six Sigma and Lean initiatives. During his career, Mr. Stroud was a senior project manager in some of the largest mergers and change initiatives in the history of the financial services industry, including former banks such as General Bancshares, Boatmen’s Bank, Centerre Bank, Barnett Bank and BankAmerica.

How to create a Digital Enterprise Strategy

 

IS Unified Digital Enterprise Strategy Baseline

Q1. What are your top 5 business “pain” points?

These are things that you wish you had or had a solution for. Please put the first 5 things that come to mind.

Business “pain” points:

1. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q2. What are your top 5 business “objectives”?

For example, the following are some common reasons that drive business strategy:

• Business objectives – forward action: Things that you must do to succeed
• Business objectives – risk mitigation: Things you must avoid to succeed
• Business objectives – overcoming roadblocks: Thing you must overcome to succeed
• Business objectives – other?

These can be short term or long term. They can be driven by revenue, cost, time to market, competitive advantage, risk or some other reason.

Business Objectives (Long Term/Short Term):

1. LT/ST________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. LT/ST________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. LT/ST________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. LT/ST________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. LT/ST________________________________________________________________________________________________

Q3. How do you plan to achieve these objectives?

For example:

• �
  • If revenue increase is an objective, then enhancing the scope and reach of your distribution channel is an imperative. This can be achieved by going direct to customer or getting more distributors for your product.
  • If reducing cost is an objective, then sending electronic statements can reduce printing costs
  • If margins is the issue then selling direct can reduce broker/distributor commissions

	Opportunity	Imperative
Revenue
Cost
Risk
Customer Satisfaction/Retention
Other

Q4. What is in the way of achieving your imperatives?

For example:

• �
  • If revenue increase is an objective, then enhancing the scope and reach of your distribution channel is an imperative. This can be achieved by going direct to customer or getting more distributors for your product. Complication: you do not have the money to invest
  • If reducing cost is an objective, then sending electronic statements can reduce printing costs. Complication: you do not have the technology staff to pull this off
  • If margin is the issue then selling direct can reduce broker/distributor commissions. Complication: you do not have the technology to pull this off or this will offend your current distributors who might leave.

	Imperative	Complication/Implication
Revenue
Cost
Risk
Customer Satisfaction/Retention
Other

Q5. What will we gain by leveraging IT capability across the business?

	Opportunity	Rationale
Sales and Marketing
Manufacturing and Operations
Procurement
After Sales Service

Business Analysis

Q6. Who is your “customer”?

1. What do you know about their demographics?
2. What do you know about their psychographics i.e. behavior and preferences?
3. How do you know your customer demographics and psychographics?

Customer Demographic:

Customer Behavior and Preferences:

Q7. What is our current business model?

Q8. What are the strengths/weaknesses/gaps in this business model?

Q9. What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing your business?

Strengths	Weaknesses
Opportunities	Threats

Q10. What is each product’s profitability by market and channel?

	Market	Customer	Product	Purpose
Instructions	“S”, “M”, and/or “L”	“C”, “B”, and/or “P”	List applicable products	“S”, “B”, and/or “V”
Direct
Sales Force
Brokers/Dealers
Phone
Wireless (Phone)
Wireless (Palm/Other)

Q11. What are some of the key areas in which your competitors are better than you? Is this “gap” of importance to our customer?

	Gap	Rationale
Sales and Marketing
Manufacturing and Operations
Procurement
After Sales Service

IT Strategy Analysis

Q12. What is in the way of achieving your business imperatives?

For example:

• �
  • If revenue increase is an objective, then getting more enhancing the scope and reach of your distribution channel is an imperative. This can be achieved by going direct to customer or getting more distributors for your product. Complication: you do not have the money to invest
  • If reducing cost is an objective, then sending electronic statements can reduce printing costs. Complication: you do not have the technology staff to pull this off
  • If margin is the issue then selling direct can reduce broker/distributor commissions. Complication: you do not have the technology to pull this off or this will offend your current distributors who might leave.

	Imperative	Complication/Implication
Revenue		People:Process:Technology:Other:
Cost		People:Process:Technology:Other:
Risk		People:Process:Technology:Other:
Customer Satisfaction/Retention		People:Process:Technology:Other:
Other		People:Process:Technology:Other:

Q13. Can IT help achieve your business imperatives?

	Complication/Implication	Solution
Revenue		Application:Information:Infrastructure:
Cost		Application:Information:Infrastructure:
Risk		Application:Information:Infrastructure:
Customer Satisfaction/Retention		Application:Information:Infrastructure:
Other		Application:Information:Infrastructure:

Q14. What will we gain by leveraging IT capability (selling, manufacturing, buying or servicing) across the business?

	Opportunity	Rationale
Sales and Marketing(Hint: Usually theopportunities are on the revenue and some on cost side)
Manufacturing and Operations(Hint: Usually the opportunities are on the cost side)
Procurement(Hint: Usually theopportunities are on the cost side)
After Sales Service(Hint: Usually theopportunities are on the cost and customer retention side)

Environment trend Analysis

Q15. Top 5 business trends? Which of these will affect you? How?

No.	Trend	Impact	Rationale
1
2
3
4
5

Q16. Top 5 technology trends? Which of these will affect you? How?

No.	Trend	Impact	Rationale
1
2
3
4
5

Trend analysis leads to the creation of business impact statement and risk mitigation strategy.

Current IT Capability Analysis

Q17. How much do you spend on it? (Is it the largest single investment?)

1. Where do you spend that money? (categorize that spend)

2. Why? (How much have you earned from it?

Q18. What is your technology ROI?

Q19. Does your company have a plan for technology?

Q20. Does your business plan include a technology plan?

Q21. Where is IT being used across your business?

	IT Capability	Rationale
Sales and Marketing(Hint: Usually theopportunities are on the revenue and some on cost side)	Application:Information:Infrastructure:
Manufacturing and Operations(Hint: Usually the opportunities are on the cost side)	Application:Information:Infrastructure:
Procurement(Hint: Usually theopportunities are on the cost side)	Application:Information:Infrastructure:
After Sales Service(Hint: Usually theopportunities are on the cost and customer retention side)	Application:Information:Infrastructure:

Gartner’s Top 10 CIO Business and Technology Priorities for 2012 – “ERP for IT”

Gartner’s Top 10 CIO Business and Technology Priorities for 2012

• Increasing enterprise growth
• Analytics and business intelligence
• Attracting and retaining new customers
• Mobile technologies
• Reducing enterprise costs
• Cloud computing (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS)
• Creating new products and services (innovation)
• Collaboration technologies (workflow)
• Delivering operational results
• Legacy modernisation
• Improving efficiency
• IT management
• Improving profitability (margins)
• CRM
• Attracting and retaining the workforce
• ERP applications
• Improving marketing and sales effectiveness
• Security
• Expanding into new markets and geographies
• Virtualization

Will your business survive the digital revolution? Birth of Digital Enterprise Management Platforms

By Jonathan Reichental, Ph.D

Will your business survive the digital revolution?

Over the last few years we’ve watched in giddy disbelief as a web-based social network launched from a dorm room at Harvard University unexpectedly found its way to be an enabler of a Middle East uprising. We’ve seen how new types of media have propelled people and events into the spotlight and even helped elect a U.S. president. We’ve looked in awe as mobile devices connected to a ubiquitous network have brought global commerce to the most remote parts of the developing world. We’ve seen 100-year-old businesses vanish as cocky upstarts replace their once unshaken dominance. We’ve delighted as citizens have been empowered by a new ease in which to leverage recently liberated stores of data held by governments.

With just these few observations it’s clear to all of us that technology is no longer just in support of our lives and organizations; it’s taking a commanding and empowering position. And it’s vital that we all fully understand just how profound these changes truly are (and will be). The very survival of your organization likely depends on it.

Are we at the start or the end of this technology revolution?

We observe these incredible events unfold and this may lead us to believe we’ve reached a new pinnacle of technological innovation. Many of us might believe that we’re peaking in our capacity to make amazing things happen. To them I say: we’ve barely even started.

From economics to democracy, from health to entertainment, from retail to education, and everything else in-between, something remarkable is happening.

In my view the events described here are just the beginning of a seismic shift in our human experience. Indeed, these innovations are not reserved for a single nation or continent. This technology-based revolution is the first to quickly reach and impact every corner of the planet.

Every generation believes it lives through remarkable and changing times. And that is probably true. But the large transformations, most recently like those of both the agricultural and industrial revolutions, don’t happen that often. These changes are a railroad switch that shifts the course of human destiny. Some have coined our era as the information revolution. But the emergence of the information age has merely been the precursor and a glimmer of things to come.

The true revolution is the convergence of many things. Revolutions require more than just a few elements to be in place. Historically they have required a unique alignment of qualities such as economic and political conditions, readiness for change, demographics and a catalyst.

We see much of that today. Of course, today the catalyst is the Internet. It’s also the ease in which so many of us can now produce digital innovation (creating new value through electronic, non-analog means). It’s also about the availability of low-cost, ubiquitous global communication networks with an abundance of devices connected. It’s close to zero-cost cloud-based storage. With low cost storage comes the easy retention of massive volumes of data and when it’s coupled with the fact there are so many opportunities to collect that data; new uses and value can be derived from it.

There is a new world order that is unique to our time that is also enabling this change. Not least the emergence of prosperity in many part of the world and the breathtaking rise of the BRIC nations and others. This prosperity is creating a new class of educated, global participants. This means more competition and it means more innovation. It’s all these things and more converging to produce a significant technology-based social and business disruption.

As this technology revolution unfolds, does your business have a survival plan?

The evidence is clear

The signals are in both the destruction of existing paradigms and in the creation of completely new ones. We’re watching entire industries disappear or be reinvented through digital transformation: newspapers, books, movies, music, travel agents, photography, telecommunication companies, healthcare, fund-raising, stock-trading, retail, real estate, and on and on.

Digital innovation has few geographic boundaries, so the disruptor can emerge from almost any place on earth.

Completely new models are emerging: location-based services, mobile apps, gamification, payment systems and new forms of payment, cloud computing, big data analysis and visualization, recommendation engines, near-field communications, real-time knowledge, tablets and other new form factors, augmented reality, gesture-based computing, personal medicine, large scale global social networks, microblogging and more. Many of these did not exist five years ago and many more will exist in the next five years. In fact, the next major disruptor is probably already underway. This kind of change is equally exciting and terrifying for organizations.

Why it is different this time

When the Walkman became the Discman, the music industry flourished. But when the digital MP3 player was introduced, the music industry was fundamentally and forever reinvented. Digital transformations are not subtle or calm. They are equal measure painful, chaotic, and exciting.

When mobile phones were introduced they enabled people to untether themselves from a fixed wire and talk almost anywhere. That was useful and convenient. But when smartphones freely enable the coordination of people and events that facilitates the overthrow of a corrupt government, this is not business as usual. That’s a fundamental shift in how humans communicate and coordinate their activities.

It will be a rough ride

Sure it won’t all be rosy and bad people will do bad things using more of this technology. But that’s certainly not news. The vulnerabilities will grow but so will our ability to fight attacks. Opportunities in security will remain in high demand.

There will also be booms, bubbles, and busts. That’s a normal part of the economic lifecycle. In fact, outside of the obvious pain it causes, a bust can be a valuable response to irrationality in the market. We will see many of these cycles through this transformation, but I believe we will net out with a continued exponential growth in digital innovation.

The big stuff is yet to come

When you observe how digitization causes significant economic restructuring and the emergence of completely new forms of business, and you factor in an entirely new level of social connectedness, it’s hard not to conclude that big things are ahead.

It’s also easy to be unfazed by the digital change underway, particularly if you’re working deep within it. In addition, it’s equally easy to become fatigued and even cynical about further change. But stop, elevate yourself above the chaos and noise, and the digital transformation is a palpable societal disruption.

At the heart of this blog is not a regurgitation of change that many of us already recognize and embrace; moreover, it’s about urging each one of us not to underestimate this transformational shift. It’s also neutral on the subject — but recognizes — the social and economic negatives that may result. Big shifts like these do evoke, for example, strong feelings of nationalism (somewhat ironically). But I’ll steer away from this subject for now.

Failure to anticipate, prepare and respond sufficiently is a significant organizational risk. In other words, delivering your product or service to the market of yesterday and today without constantly exploring reinvention for the market of tomorrow may be certain business suicide. And while that’s largely always been true, it’s seldom been so necessary and urgent.

Once we recognize the magnitude of change that digital innovation is causing and may bring in the months and years ahead, it will help us to think bigger and to think in ways that may previously have seemed absurd.

As inventors and facilitators of the future we would do ourselves a great injustice to underestimate the change.

The digital revolution: my own personal experiences

Let’s just take a quick look at my world for a moment. In many areas of my life it’s fascinating comparing how I did things in 2001 vs. how I do them now in 2011. By the way, it’s worth noting that while I immerse myself in technology and innovation through my work, I’m not particularly unique in the way I use technology outside of work.

So let’s take a look at some of the changes over the course of 10 years: I no longer wear a watch. No need, I get time from my smartphone. I got rid of my landline phone. My phone is my smartphone. I never go to a bank. Done online. I don’t know anyone’s phone number by heart. I select a name and my phone dials the number. Outside of a radius of a few miles, I don’t know how to get anywhere anymore without my GPS. I never use a map. I barely mail a letter. My use for stamps is diminishing. I seldom print anything. Everything that can be reserved, I do online. I don’t watch scheduled TV. I watch shows off my digital video recorder or computer when I want (in HD, no less). I use my smartphone for less and less voice calls. I text. I read, take classes, post photos, write, research, play, watch movies, listen to music, comparison shop, order insurance, complain and more all online.

I’m pretty sure your experiences are fairly similar.

Perhaps it is a little bit of an exaggeration, but I mostly only emailed and consumed static content online in 2001.

Almost every one of these areas represents an industry. And as a result of these enabled behavioral changes over the course of a mere 10 years, within these industries many organizations have been created and destroyed.

If this kind of transformation can happen in the past 10 years, with everything we know about how things are trending, what might our lives look like in 10 years from now? While not necessarily a novel question, I’m simply suggesting each of us are being forced to think bigger and more innovatively than ever before about the realities and possibilities of the future.

So what should organizations do?

I’m confident most enlightened organizations have some form of a strategy in place. That’s good news. For those that don’t or are hesitant, it’s time to act. In either case, the following are just a few fundamentals worth considering:

• Recognize the magnitude of the digital revolution in acceptance and in action.
• Invest in understanding how your organization can anticipate and respond quickly to change.
• Monitor and interpret trends and new technology entrants.
• Audit your vulnerabilities and score progress and risk on a regular basis.
• Prepare by taking greater risks.
• Innovate as standard practice (this doesn’t just happen, you need a strategy).
• Make bold changes in order to continue to succeed when disruption is a certainty.

Technology used to be the domain of a few. Now it’s the fabric woven into how we all live, work, and play. Today it has the power to create and destroy value in an unprecedented manner. That’s a big deal for every organization.

It’s likely a very big deal for you, too.

Unifying the world of information and services more naturally into our daily lives “ERP for IT” ERP4IT

Unifying the world of information and services more naturally into our daily lives, enabling insight, inspiration, and interpersonal connections.

For many years CIO’s and IT Executives have been vendor-media-bombarded and led to believe that Point-to-Point solutions would provide the Silver bullet but in the end the harsh reality sets in and in the final analysis the gaps are still evident.  No matter how good each individual solution to the IT Puzzle is it still requires integration and added administrative tasks.  Tasks equates to time that a resource could be working on the next solution, innovation, client service or just plainly supporting a tight project deadline.  Poor visualization vastly reduces leadership capability to pro-actively view a situation, estimate on future initiatives and govern effectively.

Today many IT departments look like independent islands floating ever so apart from each other and from the enterprise.  Isolation welcomed and promoted by vendors who actively seek out personal gain without truly looking at the real cause of the problem. How can IT be a prominent Business Partner to the Enterprise if they believe they are not shown that they communicate and live within the same Organizational State?  CIO’s want to be able to express value to the Executive Board and deliver Innovative products to its clients.

IT SPLICING Solutions makes more work for everyone and the costs become an organizational burden.

A different approach that aims at providing a simple solution with massive value.

A singular scalable, adjustable, Compliant, process Driven platform that BOTH Business and IT can come together and work together.  This is where Business and IT become Unified however we like to call it “IS Unified” Digital Enterprise Management.

We invite all Business and IT brethren to come and see a radical approach with insurmountable value to the Digital Enterprise.

Digital Enterprise Demo                        

Point-to-Point IT Solutions VS Unified Digital Enterprise

In the diagram below is a depiction of the ‘IT vendor Industry’ solutions-mapping & Enterprise IT’s Department dilemma when dealing with multiple point-to-point solutions to help them manage all Enterprise digital dependencies.  Though there are many wonderful and spectacular applications that solve individual points of pain the real problem lies in the amount of time and integration which clogs the IT department with backlogs of administrative tasks and not to mention the security issues.  This is the precipice on which IS Unified was created.  Business Departments and IT are now united in a singular platform to better communicate, create, account, monitor, learn, deliver, process, and deploy best business practices across it’s clients.               http://www.isunified.com

 

IS Unified Premiere ERP for IT Solution to convert Service Tickets into Project Events automatically

One of the many issues that plague Business and IT Departments is data redundancies.  Taking the same data and replicating the process over and over again across multiple software applications to help manage service needs.  One of the many features of IS Unified is the capability to follow industry standards of change management practices while eliminating the task compilation redundancies.  Meaning that while a ticket approval process is in place the same ticket can then be automatically added into Project Management Module.  This vastly reduces time and enables a smooth transition of events.  Also there is a transference of costs of said event into Project it was assigned to.  This capability can be turned on or off according to each enterprise Service practice.