Encouraging IT innovation

CIO recently looked at how innovation can be promoted in IT. They look at the company Eurpac, and how every meeting, CIO Mike Skinner asks three questions: 1) Where are the resources invested? 2) What progress have we made? 3) What is our next goal?

Mike's goal is to constantly have his team looking forward and constantly fostering an innovative atmosphere. Do you have a similar initiative for your IT department? What do you do to promote innovation?

Web Seminar: "Is LEADER spelled with an I?" Searching for Innovation in the World of Talent Development

Here's a web seminar that is being put on by one of our sister events that I thought our readers might be interested in.

About the webinar:
The success of leadership development, leadership transitions and leadership integration vary widely across industries, organizations and individuals. Why? In a recent research review, most executives expressed doubt that new leaders can step into new roles and deliver positive results. With all of the investments being made in talent management today, there are expectations that greater outcomes will be achieved. Please join Dr. David Yudis and explore some paths of possibility.

Featured Speaker
Dr. David Yudis, Director, Global Learning and Development, Disney

Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
Find out more and register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/501492696
Use Priority Code: G1M118W1BLOG

Online Collaboration: Make Way for Microsoft

Google and Zoho watch out, Microsoft is taking aim at the same market these SAAS vendors have been eyeing. This article on eWeek highlights that Microsoft is launching several online services that will include collaboration tools and enterprise applications. Microsoft will release the following products as online subscription services: Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft Office SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Communications Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

Microsoft still seems to be light-years away in terms of online collaboration. Companies like Salesforce.com and Netsuite have integrated many enterprise applications that were designed for the Web, whereas Microsoft is new to the game. Should companies fear the arrival of Microsoft in this space?

Mozilla Announces New Version of Weave Tool

This post on Read Write Web discussed that while Google announced that they were going to cancel their Browser Sync tool, Mozilla is releasing a new version of their comparative tool Weave. In the initial version, it was not as good as Google’s but the recent updates will help browsers sync more seamlessly. This could mean a lot to enterprises who want to standardize favorites lists all of their employee’s computers. In addition to synching bookmarks, other applications of this tool include that it saves: cookies, passwords, form data, tabs, and browsing history. Combined, this could help power the enterprise to collaborate better.

Web 2.0 could lead to Fuel Efficient Corporations

In a recent post by by Bob Larrivee of AIIM, he addresses what Web 2.0 to aid corporations with the current fuel and energy cost crisis. The current cost of fuel is an average of $4.02 a gallon (Source: CNN), and companies are seeing results of increasing power everywhere. Larrivee points out that this could be a big incentive for companies to finally learn to utilize Web 2.0 technologies to their advantage, aiding both their workers who pay to commute, and their companies, who are paying for the power to fuel their companies.

Over the years, many stay-at-home workers have adopted Web 2.0 tools. Now, with increasing energy prices, companies may see it beneficial for their employees to work at home with tools that allow all employees to access each other and the information they need 24/7 in the digital realm. It would involve some adjusting from companies policy, along with strong changes in policies, work procedures, business process management, and enterprise content management.

But having these employees work from home not only helps aid the current expense to fuel the enterprise, but could result in more productivity, flexibility and innovation from the employees. They’d be able to collaborate at any time online, and wouldn’t have to pay for the fuel costs to drive into work.

Do you think there will be an increase of Web 2.0 due to the current energy price increase?

Enterprise 2.0 Still Growing

Enterprise 2.0 technologies are certainly still growing within companies, however, not without concerns of the managers or IT personnel. According to this article at EWeek, security and liability are still the most common concerns when implementing web 2.0.

Of those who have increased the use of Web 2.0 tools in their companies, 71% of those surveyed cited that they’ve started using Web 2.0 tools because of the increased and improved collaboration and communication between their staff. In addition, 46% of the users cited increased collaboration and communication with their consumers.

What are the most used tools according to this study? It’s still the common ones we’ve been addressing here at E3, which are: blogs (49% usage), wikis (48% usage), and in third place are the RSS feeds (at 43% usage). Falling farther behind was social networking, as there is a 27% usage rage.

Security concerns rank as one of the biggest problems with implementing Web 2.0 tools, as 41% of managers are worried about the security risk that the tools can bring in. The other major concern among managers was the tools would result in the leaking of sensitive information, 35% of those surveyed were concerned about that.

Innovation is another concern for those participating in the implementation process. The article takes time to point out that many of these applications can be put together quickly, and often times without the knowledge of IT. This can create issues as the tools are not fully integrated within the IT environment and increase IT managements concerns for security.

A 12 Step Guide to the benefits of Web 2.0

In a recent article at CIO Australia, they address the challenge of bringing Web 2.0 tools into Australia. Since this country is showing that they aren’t adapting web 2.0 as fast as the rest of the world, they give tweleve simple steps in order to encourage the adaption.

There are many reasons that CIOs are failing to adopt this process, but the magazine states one very important thing:

Organizations must increase their Web 2.0 awareness and capabilities now to prepare for the storm of innovation to come."

It only takes a few changes in the company in order to bring this huge collaborative machine into the picture, and CIO sees it:

"I believe the most important challenge for the CIO is to make the key decision makers in the company aware and to ensure Web 2.0 becomes increasingly embedded in their current and future strategy," Relihan says.

Training is not difficult, most of the tools used are already in common practice outside the workplace, and are seen as time wasters.

"If you want to find out what tools your staff are finding most useful at the moment, just go and see what your IT department is blocking."

The twelve guide to getting the most out of Web 2.0 into your enterprise are:

1. Wake Up Call at the Top – CIOs need to acknowledge that this is the computing and collaboration of the future.

2. Settle the Ownership question – Who calls the shots? Is it the upper level management or the IT department?

3. Borderless creativity – The value of these tools is still emerging and letting itself be seen. It can foster creativity throughout the organization whether the employees are sitting across the world from each other or on two separate continents.

4. If you’re not blogging how will you know what people say behind your back?

5. Consider the dark blog -- Companies are still figuring out how to control the blogs safely behind the firewalls. But employees can be the most valuable source of the information that flows from the blog

6. Push Co-Creation – According to this article, many CIOs see social networking as a waste of time. With the power of Web 2.0 tools, companies can be aided in inventing, developing and sending to new products to market faster due to the fact that they can communicate with other companies to see what they have done to make their enterprise work.

7. Beware of the stealth attack and stay alert – Know excalty which tool are correct for your business. If the wrong social networking tool is used, it could cause many problems throughout the enterprise.

8. Know what mashups will mess you up – Since two different web sources are combining in order to create one piece of information, the wrong source of information released could cause trouble. This could be a source of security problems, therefore it is important to know exactly what to use in these powerful tools.

9. Use web 2.0 for talent attraction and retention -- Most companies block these tools on the internet because they believe it is a great way for employees to waste time. But, if older generations and younger generations come together to work on these applications together, the possibilities are endless.

10. Use it for green computing—These tools allow people to access information faster, leading to a reduction in the need of power for computers. The carbon emissions dramatically decrease if computers are used right.

11. Use it to fix enterprise search – Many times, employees find it easier to find the information online than on the intranet. These tools can correct that.

12. Accept That Good Governance Reduces Exposure – The board and upper level management are the key to the success of these tools. With the correct guidance and exposure, these tools can lead to massive amounts of collaboration and innovation that could not otherwised be found without web 2.0 tools.

Microsoft/Yahoo! Deal Officially Off

With Microsoft officially receding their offer to buy Yahoo! this week, Google is now in a prime position to overtake the enterprise software market within a few years, according to this recent news article at EWeek.

Even though Google is a small player now, the shift in the software business is moving towards “in the clouds” and SAAS. This primes Google to be a front runner within five years of this new, emerging way to operate. Inevitably, Microsoft is now going to have to catch up with Google, and find a way to launch themselves ahead of the already innovation-heavy giant.

With the failure of Vista, Microsoft needs to find a way to move their current profit equation into something that is more low-margin and which is supported by selling a high volume of products. The reason Yahoo! was so appealing was the fact that they had invested and developed cloud computing. Now, Microsoft must find a way to create this internally.

At Search Engine Land Danny Sullivan thinks that Microsoft has spent the past few years chasing after Google in terms of internet search, while Google has been slowly inching in on enterprise software, and now Yahoo is left with running ads of its chief competitor on its website.

So what’s next for both companies? One thing is for sure, Yahoo! is still going to struggle to keep up with Google. And Microsoft needs to find a way to adapt to the oncoming evolution of software in the clouds.

Next Step in Enterprise 2.0 looks to Prediction Markets

The current tools used for enterprise 2.0 are blogs and wikis. As reported in the New York Times on April 16th, there is a new tool coming about: Prediction Markets.

A prediction market is a new web 2.0 tool that allows members in the company to bid on future events occurring. With a fake currency, they bid on the event they actually think will happen, and the person closest to the real outcome wins a small prize, such as an IPod. Companies now using this approach: Intercontinental Hotels, GE, Hewlett Packard, and Best Buy.

This new innovative product can help corporations see what can happen in the future. In the article they discuss how workers at Best Buy participated in this, betting on whether or not their first store in China would open early. Most participates bid no, and so Best Buy was able to prepare themselves financially when the store didn’t actually open on time.

This new, innovative enterprise 2.0 service is gradually catching on in the mainstream markets. Best Buy plans to expand the bidding process to more of its employees for other future events and efforts. So how can this help your company? The possibilities seem widespread. It will lead to collaboration among employees that you can directly measure against and help executives in their forecasts and planning. Of course, just as with other enterprise 2.0 tools, it's value depends on creating the optimal experience that gives participants a chance to feel they have a direct impact and can truly provide insight and feedback on future event. But when all of this is considered predictive markets can be a powerful tool could be an even more powerful tool with direct results to the bottom line.

Could New Firewalls Be the Answer For the Enterprise?

The name on this great article from the NY Times just caught my attention this morning... “Enterprise 2.0: A Computer Security Nightmare?” We all know that IT departments are not huge fans of enterprise 2.0 technology because of hassle it creates for them, since most of the time they are trying to restrict access completely.

What’s interesting in this article is the research done by Palo Alto Networks. Most employees are still able to bypass security firewalls and access file-sharing applications like eMule and BitTorrent. The current firewalls put into place are not effective enough to stop this from happening.

So what’s the answer for this? No it’s not a complete crackdown on all internet applications, but a better monitoring system where organizations can filter out specific characteristics of applications that they do not want employees to have access to. I’m talking about a new breed and approach to firewalls. After all, we don’t want to block out enterprise 2.0 applications; it’s a great tool for collaboration and innovation. Companies want to be able to use these apps without fear of a security meltdown.

As security becomes a growing concern for organizations, we will see an abundance of new security firewalls being put into place. Enterprise 2.0 technology is here to stay; companies will simply have to start investing in new security controls to make sure that corporate networks are safe…

Open Source in the banking industry

At a recent CNet post, Matt Asay talks about how Bank of New York Mellon has discovered the use of open source software for their banking needs. With open source software for their banking systems, they have a choice as to who they work with their programs and this choice to alter programs leads to innovation for their company. They can therefore be more competitive when it comes to the services they offer as well as operate more efficiently within their enterprise.

Open source software will become essential to many of the companies in business today. Every company uses many of the same software programs for a wide variety of actions, from banking operations to inventory at an airplane manufacturer. Allowing for the modification of the open source tools, these companies can bend the programs for their specific needs. By modifying a program, the operations performed will be quick and efficient. This will speed up the processes of the computer, leaving employees with more time for other tasks. Free time can bring about creativity which leads to innovation from the employees. They can also help in modifying the open source by providing opinions about what they feel can be better as a result of their daily operations. A company who uses and modifies their open source software will have a strong competitive advantage that may be hard to see from a competitor’s edge.