"We need just Information; Vendors can keep the Tech"

Michael Krigsman predicts end of IT –

“Since the days of punch cards, IT has believed itself to be guardian of precious computing resources against attacks from non-technical barbarians known as “users.” This arrogant attitude, born of once-practical necessity in the era of early data centers, reflects inability to adapt to present-day realities. Such attitudes, combined with recent technological and social changes, are pushing IT to share the fate of long-extinct dinosaurs.”

Yes. Complexity can no longer ensure CIO’s job security and worse, he has to make way for user onslaught.

To that, Vinnie Mirchandani brings out a stellar insight –

"I am amazed how arrogant the category of social software really is. Why does it feel the need to boil the ocean, change the enterprise? It has its role particularly in collaboration - but along side not instead of CRM, SCM, ERP, security, telecom and a bunch of other software categories. It needs to do its job well, not worry about the rest of the enterprise.

When it hones its focus and shows appropriate payback, it will find the CIO or IT is not the enemy. Just a bunch of folks trying to juggle a wide range of competing technology initiatives."

I agree with both. But I have this user perspective –

Enterprise IT faces extinction if it does not progressively busy itself with envisioning where a company is going and take over its IT complexities. Clients have just Information needs; spare them the pain of Technology. Enterprise IT vendors can very well keep it.

Here are some more areas where Enterprise could play a larger role. Think of Master Data Management, Meta Data integration, App streaming and moving from process centric to information centric architecture. In effect, transform Business Intelligence to much wider Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) that yields the big picture. In that I see the end of licensing model as we know it. Transition to significantly more flexible memory based pricing or even by the no. of virtual cores.

Darwin said "extinction presages evolution" and in all this, they sure will be doing Darwin a lot proud :)

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That....is some idea !

Some people have an unintended, truly honest way to win fans - by their innate brilliance and simplicity. Twice before - here and here I have openly admired the blog posts of Vinnie Mirchandani, the Deal Architect. Here’s yet another gem from him, a nice, ingenuous tip for airlines to lock in their customers or may be a new business model for crafty entrepreneurs (Travel portals) – to run the process without having to own airplanes, no need to issue tickets – just monthly statements.

Excerpts –

“Know of any other industry which forces long term customers (and routine ones) to make decisions at each transaction level? And spends tons of money trying to optimize at the transaction level versus holistic customer revenue - and is successful only a small part of the time? Breaks most rules of CRM and building customer loyalty.

Ten years ago I sent Delta a simple proposal. Bill me 10c a mile for 100,000 miles each year (and allow me to top off or carry forward). Send me a monthly statement based on usage. No tickets necessary. I would use the statement for client billings and internal accounting. If I choose to upgrade on certain segments charge me 20c a mile. Simplify your systems. Reduce head count in yield management and reservations. Lock me in so I don't comparison shop every time.”

Find the full post here. Do tell me what do you think of it.

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The outsourcing contrasts

I was reading this nice post by Shantanu Bhagwat, which is in fact a good compilation of varied perspectives on oustsourcing by people across the developing world. Mostly all of them acknowledge it as a real benefit and sensible economics to companies that offshore jobs overseas which far outweigh the economic costs of job losses caused by it in the home countries.

A quote from this article in International Herald Tribune by Anand Giridharadas.

“There is no job that is done in Cisco that a guy in India can’t do,” said Samu Devarajan, a Cisco managing director in Bangalore. “If this theater becomes successful and grows the way we want it to grow, I see no reason why the CEO of Cisco couldn’t sit in India.”

It symbolises the level of confidence Indian firms have on their competence. The article gives several other instances where high end jobs have started flowing to India.

“Boeing and Airbus now employ hundreds of Indians on critical tasks, including the design of next-generation cockpits and systems to prevent airborne collisions. For about one-fifth the cost, investment banks like Morgan Stanley are hiring Indians to analyze U.S. stocks, a job that can pay $200,000 a year or more on Wall Street” etc.

Shantanu’s post as well cites several other articles on globalization and off-shoring. As Presidential election approaches in the US, the shrill gets louder en route to 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue.

I think it could do with a little contrast that you’d find in my previous post.

Can’t agree more. What do you think ?

When Vinnie met Vivek...

I was reading vinnie mirchandani’s excellent article on India’s inflexion point in terms of our `illusion of control’ ( Vinnie credits Vivek Paul with that coinage ). Read and enjoy. Some excerpts -

“ I met Vivek Paul at the Enterprise conference a couple of weeks ago. Vivek, now an investor, was the number two guy at Wipro and helped grow its US operations rapidly in the first half of this decade. Vivek ribbed the work I do for clients in helping source technology - "You give customers the illusion of control".

We both laughed, but I walked away thinking Vivek's "illusion of control" was a more apt description of where Indian firms like Wipro find themselves after the last few years of sustained success. Their growth was particularly striking in contrast to the flat or negative growth at many Western firms.

The core strength of Indian firms continues to be in application maintenance. They have not made meaningful dents in the systems integration market - especially in projects which call for complex program management, industry knowledge or change management (something their focus on engineering talent has actually prevented them from developing organically).

But as Vivek would say - a good first step would be to get over their "illusion of control" over the IT services market.”

A real good read on the current Indian IT scene.

I have always maintained that when at least 15% of our population ( 1.1 billion that is ) take to internet for at least 50% of their daily needs of education, healthcare, shopping, career, business, leisure, travel etc., we’ll have our internet inflexion point.

Currently it is widely held that less than 2% of our population are active computer users. Most of it still use it only for routine word processing, e-mail or IM chats. This needs to improve significantly to make a dent.

That said, my benchmarks for an inflexion point/era in Indian Internet space should be viewed from a mass adoption perspective. It could be when -

a) even a kirana shopkeeper is as efficiently networked with his suppliers and customers as much as the back end of a large shopping mall.

b) we show the world how to start "positive" internet epidemics of their own in new applications ( like how we try to ape Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Facebook etc.). The virtue of an epidemic, after all, is that just a little input is enough to get it started, and it can spread very, very quickly.

c) The ideas and local talent available tempt even Valley VCs ( the John Doerr, Paul Graham, Peter Rip types ) to open their de facto branches in India, shifting in with their bag and baggage.

d) A few internet startups made on shoestring budgets end up making hundreds of millions of dollars and we are not surprised.

Is that too much to ask ?

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