Operations & Service Delivery

In spite of changes over the last decade the Microsoft Windows Server licensing is still rooted in the physical machine era of the ’90s. However, most organisations run the majority of their x86 workloads in virtual machines. Microsoft’s disconnect with the virtualisation realities of the last five years can result in licensing confusion. Organisations that choose the wrong licensing approach will either greatly over-spend on Microsoft licences or, more likely, not be compliant.

Although net neutrality is neither credible nor a legitimate concept in the Australian telecommunications market, it carries commercial leverage. The new network architecture of NBN and the associated changes to the telecoms market regulation make it irrelevant. The ‘user pays’ principle of Quality of Service (QoS) should finally eliminate net neutrality. Despite all the impending changes, the commercial and political leverage of net neutrality is too powerful to lose and will continue to stalk the telecoms market. For telecommunications providers and regulators the struggle will move to another plane. For end-users, individuals and organisations, it will require vigilance to ensure that the network is really open to everything and not armed with gatekeepers blocking access.

One of the most challenging tasks for a CIO is to implement cultural change, or transformation, so it energises people and cements the business relationship with clients and suppliers. Instant success is unlikely. This is because implementing cultural change takes time as relationships have to be nurtured, trust engendered and staff empowered.

All organisations are multilingual, and most, more so than may seem apparent on the surface. A systematic effort to minimise the likelihood and impact of communication problems can lead to significant cost savings, productivity improvements, and improvement of staff morale. Data quality, the quality of system integration, and the quality of product or system specifications often turn out to be the Achilles’ heel. It is a mistake to assume that the biggest potential for misunderstandings is confined to the communication between business units and the internal IT department. Whilst some IT departments could certainly benefit from learning to speak the language used by the rest of the business, the same conclusion applies to all other business units.

The dimming of IT kudos can be exemplified in a number of ways including: IT not being invited to the table when strategic business decisions are made, then being assigned project work post factum; having IT solutions predetermined by those outside IT, then having to implement them; having phalanxes of IT people brought into the organisation from one of the major system integration firms to deliver a major project, then subsequently having to support it. Almost without exception the behaviour and performance of the CIO and the IT organisation are the root cause of these events.

With cumulative revenue in excess of $1 billion, and penetration into the majority of ASX50 organisations, Indian based IT service providers are clearly a well-established and credentialed participant in the Australian IT environment. The adoption of these vendors by Australian organisations has continued to accelerate in recent years. An increased challenge for current and prospective customers is to understand the implications of evolving Indian provider capability and investment.

As discussed in “Backup is not Archive!”1 all IT organisations should evaluate the deployment of an archival platform to reduce storage costs and improve unstructured data management. Our 2008 survey found archiving in ANZ organisations to be immature and with many risks. A follow-up survey in 2011, and on-going client discussion, shows this situation has improved as evidenced by higher implementation success rates and customer satisfaction scores. We found the products most commonly used in production were Symantec Enterprise Vault and Commvault Simpana. These products were very well rated by the organisations that used them while EMC on the other hand continues to struggle.

The Australian Institute of Management recognises that leadership and management will need to continue to evolve to keep up with technological innovation and globalisation. Whilst organisations are usually aware of the need to keep up with technological changes, they often struggle with the practical implications for management and impact on organisational structure. On the one hand operational management can increasingly be automated, and on the other hand the ability to build and lead high performance teams is gaining in importance. Having appropriate people in executive team leadership positions is critical.

The intense focus on social media and related technologies and how it will influence organisations has increased in the last year. Nor will it dim. The catalyst for the change has emanated from four companies and their products which have significantly altered behaviour and interaction with technology – in particular with devices. Business and IT executives wishing to understand the forces of consumerisation and social media (Social IT) and its impact within organisations need to look at the compound effect brought about by network connections between those four companies and how people connect with them.

A competency centre for Business Intelligence (BI) must have an active mandate and involvement from the senior executive to sustain optimised delivery of the organisational BI strategy. This leadership is a key factor in the ability to successfully deliver the initial benefits of the competency centre within a three month development period, establishing long term benefits.