Monday, April 27, 2009

Needed - A new Business Model for Television
by Gerald Trites

A Globe and Mail article today points to the difficulty that many television stations and networks are having. Their business model hasn't changed for decades, and with the advent of new technologies, the internet, internet applications like Youtube, and other pressures, the traditional industry is having a tough time. The CRTC, the industry regulator, also has a tough challenge ahead of it. Many of its policies, such as the requirements for Canadian content, have been framed in the context of an industry with lots of money. Now that is no longer the case, and so some of those policies will have to go. Which ones remains to be seen.

Essentially, television is in process of merging with the internet, and ultimately all vestiges of the traditional industry, such as the networks and local TV stations, will disappear, or become so radically transformed as to be unrecognizable.

A major shortcoming of all this change, in this industry as well as in the newspaper industry, is the decline of local stations and papers. The Internet is decidedly global in scope, and there seems little movement in favour of local or community audiences. There needs to be something to enable communities to communicate with each other. There certainly is lots if capability in the internet for such communication, but the best, most viable, approach has yet to emerge.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Greening the IT department is a major issue. The first thing people think about is printing, or power consumption. But there's a lot more to it than that. Check out the article at the following link:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=management&articleId=336339&taxonomyId=14&intsrc=kc_feat

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Communications Convergence
by Gerald Trites

Ever since the changes in business brought about by the internet became evident, there has been talk of convergence. This means that various previously extant technologies would be melded into a single new or combined technology. It meant that the companies that provided these technologies to customers, or used them to provide their services, would also have to change and converge, or merge or go out of business and be replaced by new companies more in tune with the changing times.

Some of this has indeed happened, with land line carriers moving into the cell phone space and high speed internet. Land line carriers have been at greatest risk, since they held for a long time a position of essential monopoly in the provision of telephone services. As the eBusiness revolution gained in strength, their position came to be seen as more vulnerable, with competition coming from other carriers like cable companies and cell phone companies.

But there is a lot more change to come, convergence is still the watchword in the industry, and we "ain't seen nothin yet".

That technology has been changing rapidly in the communications field is an understatement. Over the past few years, we have seen the introduction of smart phones, more powerful hand-helds like the Blackberry, Netbooks, which rely heavily on the internet for applications and storage and new software applications that make effective use of VOIP.

Traditional carriers continue to be challenged and it is worth remembering that this is an industry that held a near monopoly not so many years ago. Can an industry that was mired in the inertia of a monopolistic environment develop the new more vigorous culture that is required to adapt to the unpecedented change that is about to befall them? The question is open.

The issue is that ultimately the industry is driven by the demands of the consumer - now more than ever before because the consumers have access to the new technologies and want to use them to their greatest potential. They want to be able to communicate and obtain the information they want seamlessly, independently of the carriers, anywhere, anytime. And they don't want to, and are not willing to, pay an arm and a leg for it.

How the carriers and the rest of the industry react to these changes is going to establish the viability of these and other companies in the communications industry over the next several years. Accenture has written a white paper on these issues which provides a high level strategic overview of the challenges, and is worth a read.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Spam Hurts the Environment
by Gerald Trites, FCA

The scourge of Spam, that has plagued the internet almost since its founding, has received a lot of publicity. Spam makes up as much as 80 - 90% of the total emails sent out. We don't see all of it because most companies and people make use of spam filters, that recognize much of it and take it out of circulation. However, in order to get to the filters, the spam is consuming computer resources. And computer resources consume energy.

A recent report prepared by a consulting firm, ICF, and McAfee has revealed that spam contributes to the production of 17 million tons of CO2 annually. This is equivalent to more than 2300 cars on the road and represents more than 20% of all the energy used by computers worldwide.

While there has been some attention in the past few years to the impact of computing on the environment and what can be done to reduce that impact, there has been little attention given to the impact of spam. This is a timely study. The conclusion is that the fight against spam must proceed against its originators, and not wait until it moves through the internet and reaches the filters.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

SAAS
by Gerald Trites

Software as a Service (SAAS) is an approach that in our current recession has gained some traction. Essentially, SAAS involves outsourcing applications to a service provider who develops and maintains the application. An organization can run its data through the application over the internet and obtain much of the output it wants. As with any outsourcing activity, SAAS frees up valuable resources to work on the most critical aspects of the organizational information systems, without getting bogged down in development or maintenance activities on systems that are othersise less important but simply need attention. With the scarcity of resources inherent in a recession, SAAS is a natural direction for many companies.

Also, SAAS is a significant step towards the much heralded cloud computing, which involves having significant chunks of an organization's system on the interenet. So far, despite the hype, the cloud has not yet formed for most companies.

SAAS, however, is being adopted. In a recent article in Computerworld, four companies that adopted SAAS are interviewed. All are happy with their decision. All mention the kinds of pros and cons that one would expect with adopting applications that are not unique to the company, not fully customized. But all enjoy the new freedom to apply their resources to areas they consider to be of the greatest strategic importance, which has got to be a major advantage of SAAS.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Changing Business Models For The Information Age
by Gerald Trites

When the impact of the information age, particlarly the internet, first started to be noticed, many observers noted that the then-new world of eBusiness involved significanly different supply chain structures. Instead of using the old supply driven approach, where production lines are fed with materials that go into production of goods that end up in inventory and become available for sale, they began using a customer driven approach, where goods are only produced after they have been sold.

One of the best examples among the new information age companies was Dell Computers, who adopted exactly this approach, building computers on demand.

The result of the customer driven approach is that the supply chain is steamlined, inventory levels are reduced and obsolescence is controlled. The approach has been so successful - not just for electronics companies - that those who do not adopt it are at risk of becoming obsolete themselves.

A case in point is the North American automobile industry, who have not changed their basic production model since they started producing cars, with the limited exception of Ford.

This lack of responsiveness to the realities of the information age, the lack of competitiveness that results from this lack of responsiveness, can perhaps explain the trouble that GM and Chrysler find themselves in. They have been asked several times by the US government to produce a viable business model, and so far have failed to do so. Their myopia is staggering. The Globe and Mail today carries a good story on this very point.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Mobile Technology - Coming of Age?

Mobile technology has been changing the world of personal computing dramatically in the past couple of years. The changes could be as great as the introduction of pc's themselves during the 1980's. Indeed, there are some who think that mobile units, like smartphones, netbooks and hybrids could largely replace the laptops we see every day now. No doubt there will continue to be a demand for large powerful laptops. However, many people, given the opportunity might be just as happy not to carry laptops around with them if they can achieve their computing needs with the smaller units. Increasingly, smartphones, pda's and other small units are measuring up to the challenge. They can be used for social networking, which is major, browsing, email, games, and many other applications. their big disadvantage now is that the keyboards are not big enough for comfortably preparing longish documents, and of course, their screens are small. With the advent of virtual screens and keyboards, this might change.

Technology Review has put together an interesting set of articles and papers on mobile computing that is worth a browse. It can be found at: Technology Review: EFlorida

Friday, April 03, 2009

Twitter, Blogs and media like Facebook have been gaining credibility as a means to keep in touch with customers. They are good for establishing a presence, getting feedback on products and generally keeping in touch. Companies that are stepping into this space are finding they need to learn how to use these tools. Not too much direct advertising. Not too much fluff. Good solid information plays out the best, it seems. This ROB article explores the area.
reportonbusiness.com: Businesses tap new markets with social media

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Payment Systems
by Gerald Trites, FCA

For years cell phone payment systems have existed, but in North America, they have been slow to take off - perhaps grounded is a better word. There are reasons for this. Lack of technology is not one of them. Likely, the reasons are more cultural than technological. Also, it is noteworthy that in North America, we have numerous options for payment systems already in place, and a good financial system (current breakdown notwithstanding) to support payments by debit card, credit card and, yes, cash.

Some countries lack this financial infrastructure, even down to lacking bank accounts and strong currencies. But in many developing areas in the world, amazingly, cell phones abound. Thus their appeal as payment systems. Nokia is investing $70 million in this potential of cell phones in the developing world. Others are doing the same.

It's an interesting scenario and one that is fairly typical of the developing world. they often lack the infrastructure we developed during the industrial age. But now they have an opportunity to adopt the technologies available in the post industrial age, and in effect skip the mess of industrialization. Another good example is the lack of a communications structure. Since they often lack phone lines, for example, traditional communications can be all but impossible. Indeed this is one of the reasons why cell phones are so popular. They don't need the infrastructure. The capabilities of wireless technologies present an interesting opportunity with potential long term benefits for developing countries.