We have prepared the Questions and Answers from our recent 'Business Transformation: The New Imperative' Webinar. Declan Kavanagh [DK], CEO Sogeti Ireland and presenter of the webinar prepared these answers.
Please feel free to comment or ask additional questions using the comment feature at the base of this post.
If you would like to download the slides from this webinar or would like to view a recording, please click here.
Cloud Computing & Software as a Service
Q: Where do you think the initial focus of Cloud Computing will be?
A: [DK] Where we see activity at the moment is in area of Private Clouds. The flexible and scalable nature of platforms such as Amazon web services is a hotly discussed topic. The key advantage is the ability to move some fixed IT costs to variable costs.
The adoption of Cloud Computing will gain extra momentum in 2010. IDC project both that that the majority of spend will be on the Private cloud in the next 3 years and that:
“Cloud computing will expand and mature as we see a strategic battle for cloud platform leadership, new public cloud hot spots, private cloud offerings, cloud appliances, and offerings that bridge public and private clouds.”
We’re also seeing a proliferation more platforms and applications such as Google’s Cloud offerings.
Q: Are there any security concerns with the cloud?
A: [DK] If you are considering the use of any new technology, all the risks should be fully evaluated.
For the purposes of this webinar, I’ll focus on the overlying concern that has arisen amongst our clients. This concern is data security and it has a number of aspects to consider:
- Where is the data stored. One key concern that has arisen amongst our clients is where cloud data resides, for example if you use a US provider the data may be governed by US law even if it is a European company. These kind concerns about data protection etc. will lead to in-cloud encryption of data.
- Disaster recovery. Some Cloud services are provided at low cost and the consequences of damaged data are unclear, before choosing a provider the disaster recovery/failover processes and procedures should be clearly defined.
- Regulatory Compliance. Certain industries have strict regulatory controls on the security of data and how it is accessed (e.g. Sarbox, JSox etc.) Cloud vendors need to help ensure these access controls are fully audited and compliant.
The common theme of these issues is transparency. All of your concerns must be documented. Avoid vendors that have unclear/fuzzy documentation and those that refuse to answer your questions.
Q: If my marketing director can use his credit card to sign up for a subscription based CRM system under software as a series model what is the role of IT in this situation?
A: [DK] IT should still play a central role in this process. However, the decision is fundamentally that of the Marketing Director as they own the Budget.
If you are going to commit to a continuous annuity payment to a supplier, you need to know that they are going to be there for you. IT are an essential part of this process, their role is assistance in the assessment of suppliers i.e. understanding the reputation, reliability and quality of a supplier. For example, IT can evaluate whether the supplier has sufficient disaster recovery/failover support. IT should also see how compatible the platform is to existing Technology environment e.g. will this CRM system work with our Blackberries/iPhones etc.?
Q: Would you view Cloud Computing more of an IT vendor driven service delivery concept or customer demand led, given the concept has been around for some time?
A: [DK] I think the IT vendors are developing technologies and ways of enabling alternatives for the user community. It is largely ‘IT Business facilitated’, so the answer is yes. However, the Cloud Computing model will only succeed if the customer perceives value in what’s available.
The IT industry is creating the awareness; even organisations like us at Sogeti have Proof of Concept (PoC) facilities where our clients can try new technologies to see if there is value for them here.
Q: Should ICT be driving transformation or responding to transformation decided by corporate management? If so how?
A: [DK] Good question – What we see in the companies that are ‘Digital Winners’ for example, are that the leaders of ICT (the subject matter experts) are actually part of the corporate management team. They are more connected with the corporate goals of the organisations. Whether it’s Public Sector Organisation that needs to deliver new services to stakeholders through the web or a Private Sector organisation that sees a competitive threat and needs to enable a back-office process to mitigate that threat.
I think ICT will be a fundamental component of driving transformation. They are the enablers; they create knowledge of what’s possible. ICT are the people that can work with corporate management to evaluate what’s possible. They ensure that the mode of delivery of an IT based solution is leveraging the best aspects of the global supply chain, capabilities and competencies that exist.
ICT should both be driving transformation as well as enabling it. This all comes down to culture.
Q: What cost savings/benefits can be derived from the Cloud?
A: [DK] As the technology and software supporting the Cloud matures, the cost benefits and savings are becoming clearer. The Cloud can facilitate:
- Scaleable solutions at low cost
- E.g. a flexible IT infrastructure that can add capacity can be and be upgraded to meet changing requirements without large scale installations and configuration
- Shared Services amongst organisations and groups in both the Public and Private Sector
- E.g. multiple organisations/units can share the same resources with increased utilisation of resources. This applies to both public can private clouds.
- This leads to increased utilisation of the systems and less waste
- Organisations can avoid large scale capital spend and depreciation on hardware such as servers etc.
To learn more about cloud computing download a pdf copy of “Collaboration in the Cloud” go to link below. For Hard copy request at info@sogeti.ie.
http://www.sogeti.ie/Resources--Downloads/Publications/Literature/
Public Sector Transformation
Q: There is a lot of talk about transformation in the public sector, how can we in ICT contribute in a positive way to a debate that is often about pay scales, flexibility of deployments of workers, etc.
A: [DK] Transformation in the public sector is a strategic imperative for our nation and has been identified by all parties in the Dáil as necessary. Its about efficiency and effectivness in delivering the public services to the citizen. Athough the emphasis has been on necessary reductions in PS costs and past benchmarking value for money, at the end of the day the reality is there is broad acceptance for transformation. Therefore, when setting the vision, strategy and plan for this transformation ICT should engage with the stakeholders so that personnel, teams, and the entire organisation see the benefits from the start.
ICT in the public sector is likely to be part of the change and also a key enabler for change. Some areas that are for consideration and promotion by the ICT champions in the public sector are as follows:
- Promotion of IT centre (s) of excellence that provide critical mass, careers, economies of scale and efficiency who provide world class ICT solutions in a stable and consistant manner to the state and the citizen. (see our upcoming webinar on ‘Transformation through Share Services’ a case study of Northern Ireland’s IT Assist Group.
- Consolidation on the spend, sourcing and procurement of ICT Assets, whether People, Hardware, Software, Advice and Services. (see also white paper “How can IT assist in the economic recovery”
- Rightsourcing including Rightshore®. There are organisations locally (including Sogeti) who can provide real value add competencies and capabilities locally while leveraging global assets in a transparent manner including the use of low cost locations. The win –win here is the ICT organisations can really focus on the business’s IT needs, specialist technical knowledge while partnering with suppliers who have greater specialism and scale in ICT.
- Social Media and Collaboration solutions are instrumental in facilitating transformation in the public sector.
Changing the culture and the way people work to drive up innovation, productivity and engagement with stakeholders, will not be solved by re-organisations, re-profiling roles and structural change. In fact, the times to value for these types of change are long. The deployment of social collaboration platforms which enable communities with common goals, overlapping responsibilities and low productivity can be a quick wins. This changes the way people work and enhances collaboration, knowledge re-use and innovation. Similar platforms can be deployed to engage more effectively with citizens and citizen stakeholder groups.
- New Technologies. There are many stakeholders that influence how the public sector (PS) derives value from the deployment of new technologies. ICT leaders in the PS play a key role in research, education and awareness for the stakeholders as to what is possible and why they might be good for its business. Of interest in today’s transformations are:-
- Cloud Computing - SaasS, PaaS, IaaS
- Mobile Computing
- Social Media & Collaboration
Industrialisation of software production
Q: How do you view the link between the Industrialisation of software solutions with business transformation, business change methodologies such as systems thinking, lean methods, etc?
A: [DK] Not sure whether I can address every aspect of what this question is addressing. I always go back to basics on questions like this. I’ve been involved in the IT industry for more than 25 years now, initially in Hardware side of the business.
Every few years there is are new Buzzwords/Hot Topics/Tools etc. Some examples might be Total Quality Management (TQM), Just in Time (JIT), Quality Circles etc. What we’re doing is applying a new title to what I would call ‘Continuous Improvement and Change’. Applying new learning, tools and techniques to make our organisations more innovative and to deliver more value to stakeholders.
If we look at the Industrialisation of software solutions, it has many aspects including specialisation, division of labour, productivity, waste elimination etc. All of this is happening in organisations. It’s also happening on a holistic scale, where we gradually develop highly effective ways of building software, hardware etc. Once these methods become established some of these activities migrate to lower cost locations while our organisations endeavour to move up the value chain.
This effort to move up the value chain is very much what is happening in the Irish economy at the moment. The lower value, highly established activities are moving abroad whereas the higher value activities such as R&D and development are beginning to grow here. This movement up the value chain is key to the industrialisation process.
Social Media and Collaboration
Q: Do you know of any large organisations adopting social media?
A: [DK] There are a number of examples including Aviva and indeed Sogeti.
Aviva recently launched an enterprise social media system based on Microsoft’s Web 2.0 platform. This is for collaborative in-house use. Read more
Sogeti recently launched TeamPark our collaborative platform which uses social networking tools to share knowledge and collaborate virtually around technology, services and clients. TeamPark provides tools such as personal profile, communities, blogs, wikis, discussion forums, file share, bookmarks and activities.
The goal of the platform is to harness social media techniques to enable easier collaboration amongst the Group’s 20,000 people spread across 200 offices in 15 countries.
The UK Government are viewed as leaders in the adoption of Social Media. For more information, watch this interview with John Suffolk, UK Government CIO (from webinknow.com).
As recently as this week, we are seeing more examples of the mainstream application of social media. For example, on 27th Feb the US Department of Defence approved the use of Social Media by US Military. http://socialmedia.defense.gov/index.php/2010/02/26/dod-official-policy-on-newsocial-media/
Register now for the next Sogeti Ireland webinar which we are hosting on 25 March from 11am-12pm. This webinar will examine some best practices, challenges, and benefits for IT departments in both the Public and Private sector that are seeking to support timely and effective business transformation.
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