Category Archives: Business Consulting/Strategy

Whiteboard Session: Endless Possibilities

Posted on by
Reply

A blank piece of paper is filled with opportunity. The opportunity to express feelings, thoughts, or pictures is possible with a blank piece of paper. Blank pieces of paper can also be shopping lists, invitations, maps or contracts. The possibilities are endless.

If you consider a Whiteboard as a piece of paper, and begin to think about your company goals and objectives, the current state of the infrastructure, the number of applications, data sources, workflow and processes you have, the possibilities of enhancing productivity while improving the infrastructure may also seem endless.

And though the goal of the Whiteboard Session is not to overwhelm with possibilities, we do wish to identify valuable options. We begin by engaging the customer’s team in formal discussions to identify the strategic layers of each organization: Business Strategy, Application, and Infrastructure/IT. Next, we provide a snap-shot of the current state of the systems and processes. Finally, we look for areas of improvement to reduce risk, enhance productivity, and align strategy and systems with the organization’s goals and objectives.

Each Whiteboard Session serves as the preface to the Technology Roadmap (TR). The TR is a 90-day, 1- and/or 3-year timeline for project implementation. [Link Reference to Previous Blog about TR.] The identified projects are the result of collaboration by the customer representatives at the Whiteboard Session. After agreeing on a timeframe for the projects, we document the project in a TR for project tracking and management.

Typically, we also discover a plethora of Excel spreadsheets in use. Because Excel spreadsheets are most often created by manually inputting data, or importing information from multiple datasets, silos of data become common place. Reconciling this information to reports created by others is nearly impossible as the datasets for the two reports may be different, and/or the search criteria may be different.

We also discover infrastructure opportunities for improvement. For instance, when considering hosted or cloud applications, the infrastructure must be configured to support the user base and the hosted application. Many of the customers we meet with today are not cloud-ready. We help them budget for changes to allow for cloud adoption.

In reviewing the data sources, we identify the data sources for ERP, Sales/CRM, Data Management, Data Imaging and Line-of-Business. We look for current and missing integration points between data sources, overlaps of data, and duplicate data entry processes. It is during this review where process improvement occurs. When automation of processes and reduction of manual data entry can be accomplished, costs are reduced. Creating a system that incorporates automated processes with sharing of information throughout the organization provides a streamlined approach to managing data sources.

Once the data sources are aligned, Business Intelligence (BI) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can be mined. BI and KPIs are presented in real-time to decision makers as dashboards. Where previous information was individually and manually gathered and stored in Excel and/or Access, it is now stored in SQL databases. The SQL databases are accessible by all the users (with appropriate security) and data can be mined to provide real-time statistics.

Think of three key pieces of information that you wish you had each morning that would streamline your decision making process. As an example, for each of the roles below, the following information may allow for more informed decisions:

  • Sales Manager: Total Pipeline per Rep / MTD & YTD Deals Closed / Activity Tracking\
  • Warehouse Manager: Inventory on Hand / Number of Back Orders / Efficiency of Order Picking
  • Production Supervisor: % of Scrap / Number of Lines Operational & Issues / Efficiency of Lines
  • CFO/CEO: % Sales to YTD Goals / Safety Statistics / % Scrap to Revenue

In order to gain this valuable business information, the systems, applications, processes, data sources and infrastructure must be in sync. Through the Whiteboard Session, Pinnacle identifies, advises and assists in aligning customer’s business strategy with IT strategy to attain achievement of company goals and objectives.

“Sir, Do You Know How Fast You Were Going?”

Posted on by
Reply

If you’ve been driving for a while you probably have been there.  You’re cruising along and out of nowhere there are flashing lights in your rearview mirror.  You’re being pulled over.  You roll down the window as the policeman walks up to your car and asks for your driver’s license and registration.

And then the question comes:  “Sir, do you know how fast you were going?”

Most of the time, you know the answer to the policeman’s question. Why? Because cars come equipped with a conveniently placed array of dials and gauges that tell us at a glance all the most important information we need to understand what’s happening in car: engine temp, RPM, mileage, location (if you get the NAV package) and of course, our speed.  This is the car’s dashboard.

Cars are pretty complicated and we need to know what’s happening with them quickly and accurately so we can make necessary adjustments as we’re driving:  shift gears, stop, get some gas, speed up … and of course, slow down (I have a hard time with that one.)

Running your business can be a whole lot more complicated than driving a car, yet I find that most businesses are operating without dashboards!  With the technology readily available today, this simply should not be the case.  Applications like Microsoft Dynamics CRM and GP all contain customizable reporting that can be placed on an internal site and made available to any decision-maker in your company from virtually any place in the world.

Some things we’ve learned at Pinnacle about dashboards:

  • Dashboards should be different for the various roles in the business (CEO, COO, CFO, etc.) and their specific requirements for business data.
  • Dashboards usually contain 7 to 10 dashboard components.
  • Dashboards should NOT be manually created – that just uses labor and increases the odds of not being correct.
  • Dashboard should NOT USE FINANCIALS THAT ARE IN EXCEL.  This is just very wrong to me. the breakdown begins and the spreadsheet abyss gets bigger (too much $$$$ is wasted in this situation).
  • Any system to be fully utilized and to recognize the ROI of a system must be accurate with all the data sources coming from as few data bases as possible.

Dashboard are here and now and are best practice.  So, if you’re going to win the business race, I suggest you look further into implementing dashboards into your systems and processes.

Almost any format can be created.  Here are just a few examples:

Microsoft Licensing Changes May Impact EA Customers

Posted on by
Reply

A quick follow up on my earlier post and promise to provide an update for EA customers impacted by the upcoming licensing changes in Server 2012 -

To recap:

  • EA Customer with Enterprise Server licenses will have their licenses automatically converted from a single Enterprise Server license to two (2) Standard Server licenses when the new Server 2012 licensing become effective.
  • Standard Server 2012 licenses are functionally equivalent to DataCenter Server 2012 licenses.
  • DataCenter Server 2012 licenses provide for access to unlimited VMs.
  • Standard Server 2012 nlicenses provide access to two (2) VMs per license.
  • Standard Server 2012 licenses may be “stacked” on a single server to provide for. hosting additional VMs

Most customers will have no issues with Enterprise Server licensing as:

  • Standard and DataCenter Server editions are functionally equivalen.t
  • The conversion of one Enterprise 2008 R2 server license to two Standard Server 2012 licenses provides for access to the four VMs previously provided via Enterprise Server 2008 R2.

It is worth noting, however, that a Step-Up license is available for EA customers to upgrade existing Enterprise Server 2008 R2 licenses to Data Center Server 2008 R2 licenses. The Step-Up license must be executed before October 1st, 2012. Cost for the step-up license varies depending on the actual Enterprise Agreement, but should be in the neighborhood of fifty (50) dollars for each Enterprise Server 2008 R2 license being upgraded to a DataCenter Server 2008 R2 processor license.

A two processor server requires two (2) Data Center Server 2008R2 licenses, one per processor, whereas the current Enterprise Server 2008 R2 product is licensed per server.

$100 and two Enterprise licenses increase licensed VMs from 8 to unlimited.

Please contact your LAR responsible for your EA and ask about Enterprise Server Step-Up licenses if you are interested in taking advantage of this licensing opportunity.

Don’t Forget the “I” in IT

Posted on by
Reply

I think people have forgotten what the “I” in IT means:  information.  When you put the “I” and the “T” together, people usually think about computers, servers, networking, and so on.  For me, it’s about data, which is the information.  And when you bring information and technology together, you have something powerful, something more than just making things run faster (of course newer computers, networking, Internet, do make things faster.)  When I talk with clients and prospects during systems whiteboard strategy sessions, I usually start by asking this question, “Where is the data?”  Usually, I find data in several places: in an accounting system, in a CRM system, in some type of Line of Business (LOB) system, and then of course, you have the spreadsheets.

This is where the danger lies for companies but also where some real opportunities can take shape.

Yes, we usually conduct a detailed whiteboard, complete with pictures, visio diagrams, etc. with some recommendations for improvements we call a Technology Roadmap, but for purposes of this article, let’s just focus on the data that lies within the BIG 4:

  1. Accounting (makes sure you are making money and staying out of jail)
  2. CRM (now called XRM)
  3. LOB (applications usually specific to your industry)
  4. Spreadsheets (all the stuff you don’t know where to put)

There are always improvements that can be made to any of these systems, but something everyone should perk up and start paying a lot of attention to is the duplication of effort by employees to maintain data accurately across the systems.  Fortunately, most of the time, you can setup integration points between the systems, which we do a lot at Pinnacle; but more often than not, we find companies are paying people money to maintain data manually.

The risk here is inaccurate data which leads to reports that are inaccurate and that don’t match across systems.  IT departments can’t control this because it is in the end users’ control.  This is usually where the breakdown occurs and why companies fall into the spreadsheet abyss.

Spreadsheets have their place.  I see them as good analytical tools for pivot tables, quick sorts, groups, graphs, and so on, but the data should be delivered TO the spreadsheets – not maintained IN the spreadsheets.  The systems we implement allow us to “live link” the spreadsheets and refresh on demand.  This is a one way to securely pull the data and refresh the spreadsheet with the current data.

I could go on and on about this, but watching out for what is being entered into spreadsheets vs. pulled would be something I would keep my “right” eye on.

So what should you do?  Below are just a few items to consider, but conducting a whiteboard session to layout where your data is would be the place I would start.  I simply love doing that because it’s almost like going hunting or solving a mystery …

Quick Technology Tips to get on your Technology Roadmap

  • Discover where your data is – we have a four step data discovery process we use
  • Whiteboard (process map and diagram the interconnectivity of your systems
  • Determine how open your systems data is and what kind of tools you may have
  • Centralize your data into the BIG 3 (The BIG 4 minus the spreadsheets)
  • Integrate across the BIG 3

Sounds easy right?  If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, hire someone to whiteboard your system for a day.  It is a great investment because then you will know where the DATA is.  Then you can rough in your plan to integrate your data, reduce duplication, and gain insight into your business through graphs, dashboards, key performance indicators, and business alerts.  These tools will save you time and help you make accurate decisions about where the business is REALLY.

Technology Roadmaps – It’s not a GPS device.

Posted on by
Reply

Technology Roadmap…

As I consider the term “Technology Roadmap”, I begin to think about what that term could mean.  Is it part of a research and development process for designing new products or processes?  Or, is it collaboration among countries to develop the means to integrate like-technology for a common goal?  Or, is it used by NASA to identify a wide range of pathways to advance the Nation’s current capabilities in space?

Truth is… it’s all of the above and more.  Technology Roadmaps, originally developed by Motorola in 1987, were a way to provide business managers a comprehensive assessment of their technologies and everyone else a long-range perspective of future product needs.  Since that time, Technology Roadmaps (TRs) have been used in various forms of business to provide a framework around the management of technology improvements.

A quick Internet search provides a plethora of information about how various organizations from software developers, to foreign countries, to NASA have adopted the use of TRs within their respective industries.

At Pinnacle, we have adopted the Technology Roadmap to use as a tool in managing customer expectations to meet their goals and objectives.  The TRs are the result of a collaborative effort between the customers’ team and Pinnacle.

Following in-depth meetings (whiteboards) where the customer and Pinnacle discuss, identify and document the technology goals and objectives for the up-coming year, the TRs are created.  The Pinnacle Account Manager will create the TR in a 90-day, 1-year and 3-year (as applicable) timeframe.

During the course of the timeframe, the Account Manager will update the TRs as the projects move from initiation to completion.  The TRs keep both the customers’ and the Pinnacle teams’ expectations of project completion on the same page.

The Technology Roadmap offers a snap-shot of the future technology projects to assist in making key business decisions such as resource allocation and budget commitments.

How to Spend Money

Posted on by
Reply

With a title like that, many of you are likely thinking that I will be authoring a biographical article about my wife.  However, that is not the case.  What I would like to discuss are some different “styles” of spending specifically related to IT Hardware and Software.

In the past, it was common for companies to have a very sporadic spend style.  For example, a Company may desire to purchase a new ERP Software system – that required updated Hardware, so they would go to their Management / Board of Directors and ask for approval to spend up to $100,000 on the project.  The Board (with much deliberation and stress) considered the request and would ask if this was a one-time spend, or if it was going to have recurring annual costs to the Company.  It was typical that the response would be that it was a “one-time” spend item.  Then the Company would try to go 3 or 4 years without spending any additional money on IT Hardware or Software.  After 4 years, the computers would get slow or breakdown and then another Capital Spend request would be sent to the Board asking for a very “material” amount of money so that all of the equipment could be replaced.  Then the realization set in that the new hardware would not be compatible with the old software – so now a software upgrade was necessary – which made the spend request even higher.  This was greeted with much tension and stress again because of the amount of money being requested.

Due to the weak economy of the last few years, many of our clients have become more “budget” driven and the above sporadic spend style has fallen out of favor.  Most businesses are looking for a more consistent spending style, which is more in line with budgeting concepts.  Below would be an example of the transition that we are witnessing:

Spend Style 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 TOTAL SPEND
Old-Sporadic $100,000 0 0 0 $75,000 $175,000
New-Balanced $35,000 $35,000 $35,000 $35,000 $35,000 $175,000

This new style of spending makes so much more sense, and is much more reflective of the way almost ALL of the other expenses of a Company are managed.  For example, if the “Sporadic” way of investing made financial sense, why don’t we just pay all of our expenses for the next 4 years with a check today?  Another benefit of the balanced spend style is that in many companies, a financial threshold is established for items that require Board approval.  If that amount is $50,000 for the fictitious Company described above, then no one will ever have to approach the Board again and ask for money.

We are working with many of our clients to develop formalized “Technology Roadmaps” that manage the spend process for the future – can we help your Company do the same?

SharePoint for Public Websites: Top 6 Things to Consider

Posted on by
Reply

In only 10 years, websites have greatly evolved from their beginnings as simple sites. “Gone are the days of static text, flat images, and broken links,” as Eric Riz wrote in his article, SharePoint: Should you use it for your public website? And as the landscape continues to change and people do more and more business over the Internet, today’s Internet visitor demands more from their website experience. They not only want a website to be informative and to look good, but they also want it to provide real-time information, dynamic content, social interaction, and an immersive interface. In other words, today’s sites must be interactively pleasing, not just aesthetically pleasing.

So what about SharePoint 2010? Just like any technology platform, there are pros and cons and debates over whether SharePoint is always a good fit. But with its extensibility, audio and video integration, and social capabilities, it can be a very powerful and strategic option. In fact, if you have SharePoint already within your organization, another benefit you can realize is that there is little or no duplicated staff training necessary, no separate systems required for your Intranet vs. your external-facing website.

But before we go further, let’s do some foundational work. Many are unaware of SharePoint’s public website capabilities although many already use SharePoint. So, if this idea is new to you, stop over at a site called, WSSDemo. This site lists many public-facing SharePoint sites, and even categorizes them by industry.

In addition, many of Microsoft’s sites are built on SharePoint and serve as good examples. (Tip for spotting SharePoint sites: When looking at the URL, if it has /Pages/ and the webpage ends in .aspx, then it’s likely a SharePoint site.)

So, is your business considering SharePoint for your public website? In this post, we will review 6 key things to consider when planning a SharePoint public website project.

1. Licensing and Support

In order to use the full SharePoint Server product for your Internet website, the server licensing comes in 2 flavors, Standard and Enterprise. However, there’s no client access licensing. Only the “for Internet Sites” server licenses are required, but within your production environment, you will need licenses for each running server instance.

Another nice thing to note is SharePoint’s support community. Beyond Microsoft and its partners, there are many third-party developers of management tools, web parts, and templates. In addition, there is a thriving SharePoint developer community on CodePlex with many downloadable open-source tools.

2. Planning

It’s essential to have a well-developed game plan for your new SharePoint site. As with any website project, you are likely to plan a website face-lift. Thus, you will want to take time to define and approve your brand strategy and the look and layout of your site. Do you plan to stay closer to the “out-of-the-box” look, or do you want to significantly customize? In SharePoint, the key to remember is the more Master Pages and Page Layouts you have, the more time is involved in the design and the building of the site.

In addition, SharePoint website projects often require planning and strategy regarding development. In a well planned development process, you have separate environments for development and testing. While Microsoft licensing often allows for these additional environments, hardware resource requirements still need to be planned and allocated.

3. Staging

Publishing information on a public website should always involve a staged process, that includes SharePoint. This is an important consideration regardless of whether you’re a small business or a large organization. SharePoint includes powerful publishing features from simple approval workflows to multi-farm content deployment paths. So be sure to plan out your content approval process and then utilize SharePoint to complement, or even enforce, your plan and process.

4. Web Standards and Accessibility

These two items are important to consider for any public website and SharePoint 2010 comes a long way from its predecessors in being compliant and flexible around ASP, CSS, and JavaScript. As you plan to customize, check out the many resources online to help you, for example, SharePoint’s CSS classes and IDs.

SharePoint 2010 is WCAG 1.0 and 2.0 compliant out-of-the-box and Microsoft has put a lot of work into interface enhancements such as in-browser dialogs, keyboard support, and tab access. In addition, attributes such as labels, descriptions, and tooltips, are built into SharePoint. So, as you customize and brand your SharePoint site, think about accessibility standards and ensure that added content and pictures maintain those same brand standards.

5. Custom Development

As you plan your project, you will likely customize your site’s branding and layout and will probably look at extending functionality to include powerful e-commerce functionality, such as customer order entry, order status, etc. Happily, there are some great resources to help you with SharePoint enhancements and development.

To start, check out the “Patterns & Practices SharePoint Guidance” project on CodePlex. It includes a hands-on lab and good reference material. Next, there’s a great SharePoint Dev Wiki at Nothingbutsharepoint.com. And finally, enlisting the help of an experienced consultant company such as Pinnacle, can be valuable to you in reaching your customization goals.

6. Security and User Logins

As with any website project, security is a key item to address early in your site’s architecture discussions. For most public websites, many visitors will simply browse. Thus, anonymous access is all that’s needed. However, if you are looking into an online store with checkout, a vendor or dealer portal, etc., the major benefits come from interactions after login.

SharePoint can use domain logins through your Active Directory, but most companies don’t want to be limited or exposed and choose to configure Forms Based Authentication or use a third-party authenticator such as Live ID or Facebook. SharePoint offers significantly better support for these options compared to its predecessors, so it’s important to think about which authentication method you want to use, how you want visitors to login, and how you want to manage user accounts.

Summary

Planning and strategy is key. As a platform, SharePoint has truly grown since its first release. Today’s latest SharePoint 2010 sites work well on Firefox, Safari, Chrome, iPads, and more. So while the features are there, the strategy must support your online and business goals. The result of that combination is a site your visitors can easily use and navigate to find your content.