Skype coming to a Blackberry near you

eWeek is reporting that Skype will be available for free on Blackberry Curve and Bold phones starting in May.

Skype COO Scott Durchslag commented:
"With Skype on BlackBerry smartphones, we are making Skype available in the briefcases and purses of BlackBerry users around the world. We have heard loud and clear that our users want Skype on whichever smartphone they choose to use.”

Extracting value from EA

I think by now most companies know that investments made to Enterprise Architecture are paid back after time. What most companies don't know unfortunately is how to extract value from EA. Here's a great report I came across on CIO Index that provides guidance on this tricky topic. This is definitely a must read for all architects.

Download paper

Twitter commercial accounts on the way

eWeek reported today that Twitter has announced that they will soon offer commercial accounts for an extra fee. This is just one step in what Gartner predicts that 80% of social software platforms will include enterprise blogging features by 2011. For the full story, read the article here.

Social Networking Within the Enterprise

Blogs, wikis, social networks is all the latest buzz, but has the enterprise truly caught on? The Burton Group recently conducted a study investigating whether companies are really using web 2.0 technology. Their in-depth research also helps businesses understand the business, organizational, and technical factors to consider when formulating social networking strategies and initiating internal projects.

Read the Burton Group Report

Business Process Management (BPM) - Leveraging Competencies and Streamlining Processes to Achieve Operational Excellence

This morning I came across this white paper written by IBM in which they go over a study of 354 end users which believe that their organization as a whole are at "process ignorance" rather than "process excellence" or "process acceptance". Take some time to view this 22 page white paper as I'm sure you'll find it informative.

Twitter now fastest growing social network

According to a new article at Read Write Web, Twitter had 7 million unique visitors in February of 2009, as opposed to 475,000 in 2008, which is a growth rate of 1382% over the year. Surprisingly, the largest age group using Twitter is between the ages of 35-49. The article also states that 62% of the users access the application from work. Read the full article here.

Financial Services in Germany Lead in BPM and SOA

This latest post on eBizQ discusses how financial services are ahead of many different industries in terms of SOA and BPM adoption. Since banks and other insurers are using SOA and BPM to achieve flexibility, agility, and transparency to drive overall business growth, the financial services industry will bounce back quicker than most.

The results come from an AG-sponsored survey of German operations which 64% of the financial companies surveyed viewed IT as a strategic resource. These results are monumental in the case of BPM, but what are similar results here in the US?

Mobile work force increases

According to eWeek, the number of people using their mobile devices to access content using their mobile phones increased to 22.4 million. There were 63.2 million users who in January 2009 who accessed some kind of information with their mobile phone.

What are your collaboration rules?

Brett Young recently posted his collaboration rules at his blog Collaboration Tech. I thought they were worth sharing:

1. Capture once.
2. Process once.
3. Resist printing.
4. Don't use email to collaborate, use it to communicate.
5. Send links, not attachments.
6. Store in a searchable, likable repository.
7. Be a sharer, not a hoarder.
8. Use real time communication, instead of voice mail or email, to reduce cycle time.

For an indepth look at these eight tips, read the blog here.

Hirewall: The digital way to manage the hiring process

Over at Read Write Web, they feature a new software that could help a department simplify the hiring process. The software ensures that the best candidates are seen for the jobs and that they are seen by the right people. By breaking down the hiring process into simple steps, and using email as reminders, this software helps ensure that the right candidates are interviewed for the job.


Hirewall Launch Video from Tim de Jardine on Vimeo.

Software AG Launches AlignSpace Social Network for BPM

According to PCW Business Center, Software AG's business is helping applications talk to one another, but now it wants to get people talking -- about BPM (business process management).

The company is branching out from its existing businesses of legacy application integration, SOA (service-oriented architecture) governance and BPM to build a social network, AlignSpace.com. It hopes enterprises will use the network to discover information about their business processes and then automate those processes effectively -- perhaps using Software AG's tools.

For those of you who use BPM, will a social network increase your awareness or ability to spread the word about BPM? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Effective Enterpise Communication Tools

I recently came across this presentation from Oscar Berg on The Content Economy in which he gives us a positioning model for different communication tools used in the enterprise like forums, blogs, and email. Each communication tool in the presentation is positioned differently, so which is the most ideal for use in your enterprise?

Positioning Model for Communication Tools

View more presentations from Oscar Berg. (tags: im blog)

Sponsored conversations on yoru blog -- a good idea?

In a recent article written at Read Write Web, Marshall Kirkpatrick disagrees with a recent Forrester report that says it's a good thing to engage in conversations on blogs that are sponsored. He states that it isn't that much different from advertising, and that the new industry should not be overrun with this type of advertising yet. For more of his opinions, read the blog post here.

What do you think? Do you write a blog? Will you write about a topic on your blog if a company sponsors it?

BPM to Help Increase Efficiency if 2009

The Metastorm News Blog recently highlighted that the results of the Gartner EXP CIO report shows that IT budgets will most likely remain flat in North America and Europe and slightly increase in Latin America and Asia/Pacific.

The results of the survey also show that senior executives will try to reduce enterprise costs by changing business processes and not by cutting costs directly. Business process management is on the top list of priorities for CIOs since these solutions can help improve efficiencies.

Quick Guide to Enterprise Architecture

Here’s a presentation I came across from Colin White on a quick guide to what is enterprise architecture. Take a moment to flip through the slides and view the concepts discussed.

60 Second Guide To Enterprise Architecture

View more presentations from Colin White. (tags: enterprise architecture)

Citrix expands to visualization market

Citrix is planning on entering the visualization market with the new system Citrix Essentials. Its goal is to make hypervisions more manageable, scalable and flexible. The new system is specifically for XenServer and Hyper-V.

The pairing with Microsoft on XenServer is part of what Citrix has code-named Project Encore, and effectively expands the two companies' 20-year relationship into the arena of application management. Under Project Encore, the partnership will be expanded from applications and desktops to servers, will center on a joint marketing strategy and will "add significant enterprise value" to Microsoft's Hyper-V, the companies said.

For more, read the article here.

Human Interactivity is a Huge Problem for BPM

I came across this post on the Action Blog that discusses how the human factor and human interaction is a big problem for business process management. Ayal Steiner explains how human work is:

• Dynamic
• Tacit
• Ad hoc
• Crossins boundaries and silos
• Saturated with peer to peer interaction

Workflow that involves a human element does not fit into this rigid process. Does anyone have an examples of how they have gotten around this?

Yahoo Mobile coming at end of March

Announced yesterday, Yahoo will be releasing an a software at the end of March that will bring iPhone like capabilities to everyone's mobile phone. The program will work on the majority of mid- to high-range smart phones. This new application will be promoted with the 70 partnerships it has formed with operators. For more information, read this article at eWeek.

Browsing the web I came across this presentation from Shiv Singh, the VP & global social media lead at Razorfish entitled Web 2.0 and the Enterprise: A Symbiotic Relationship. Early in the presentation he notes 5 reasons why it is a symbiotic relationship, and his 1st reason was “Facebook enters the Enterprise.”

This does not shock me as Facebook has been around for quite some time, and only now does it seem that the enterprise is finally beginning to realize the business benefits of social media. What are your thoughts?

Web 2.0 and the Enterprise: A Symbiotic Relationship

View more presentations from shivsingh. (tags: timeshifting trust)

What BPM can do in the current economic situation

Elise Golding recently shared with WhatPC? what business process management can do for a company in this current time of economic crisis. She points out that business processes are at the core of a business, and now is a great time to start controlling the processes. She also outlines some of the major activities that go on in BPM program management: Sponsorship, Objectives and Outcome, Education and Training, Opportunity Analysis, and BPM Programme Road Map.

For a more in-depth look, read the article here.