Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Author: Paul Wallbank

  • Twitter could be about to go Google

    Twitter could be about to go Google

    The turmoil at Twitter continues with the directionless service announcing they will lay off eight percent of its workforce – over 300 jobs.

    At the same time, the company also announced Google’s Chief Business Officer,Omid Kordestani, would become Twitter’s Executive Chairman.

    To compound Twitter’s problems payment system Square announced it will have a stock market IPO, given the two companies share the same CEO and co-founder it’s hard to think Twitter will get the management attention it desperately needs.

    It’s hard not to think that Twitter is going to be absorbed by Google, certainly the search engine giant can afford it and they have struggled with social media – although it’s questionable how much Twitter’s star struck management understands its own users, let alone social media in general.

    A combination of Twitter’s ineffectual management coupled with Google’s which has consistently shown it struggles with the concept of social media and has a horrible habit of neglecting then shutting down services it loses interest in would probably prove fatal for the service.

    Should Twitter fall into Google’s arms and then die of neglect it will be the case of a good idea that was monetized too fast and a management that never quite understood what it was doing.

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  • Rethinking business IT

    Rethinking business IT

    Last week at the AWS:Reinvent conference in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to interview the company’s Global Head of Enterprise Strategy, Stephen Orban about where he and Amazon see the direction of the cloud computing market and how business practices are being reinvented.

    Among the things we discussed was Orban’s seven best practices for a company’s journey to the cloud, gleaned from his own experiences in his AWS role of advising clients on adopting and his previous experiences as a technology officer at Dow Jones and Bloomberg.

    Orban laid out what he thinks are the keys to success in a company heading to the cloud in his own blog post and during our conversation he expanded on his ideas which also very much reflect the changing role of the CIO or IT manager.

    Supporting the C-suite

    The first point is the IT department has to understand the business and align technology with the organisation’s objectives.

    “Somebody who understands technology who can merge technology with the business needs” will be better able to win the confidence of management says Orban.

    Doing that is the key to winning support from the executive suite Orban believes. Once CIOs have that trust from senior management it gives their teams the space to experiment with new ways of delivering value to their companies.

    Education 

    “The second thing is to provide training and education,” Orban says. “People tend to get a bit anxious of what they don’t know, particularly when it affects their jobs.”

    In Orban’s experience, having informed staff makes them more open to change within the business, “with the transformation I went through at Dow Jones, most of what we accomplished was because of the people who’d been there a long term. They had the institutional memory but they were very open minded.”

    Foster a Culture of Experimentation

    One of the great benefits of cloud computing is how it lowers the costs of experimentation and development, “gone are the days when it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, to try something.” Orban says.

    Learning what works and fails is essential, he believes. But as long as there is executive support then a tolerance towards unsuccessful experiments will develop in the organisation.

    Working with partners

    Outside parties are essential to most organisation’s IT systems and Orban believes partner ecosystems have changed with the advent of cloud computing. “There’s a whole new breed of partners that have been going through this,” he says in citing ‘born in the cloud’ software developers and systems integrators who are changing how projects are being delivered.

    Build a Center of Excellence

    “Creating a center of excellence is, I think, one of the key practices any organisation should invest in. You want a body of people who can institutionalise best practice within an organisation,” observes Orban.

    As cloud services take away the complexity of computer systems it becomes an opportunity for organizations to rethink boundaries between the IT department and business operations.

    Move to the cloud

    Given Orban’s employer it’s not surprising he sees cloud computing as key to a company’s transformation however he admits that few organisations will make the jump straight into cloud services.

    “Hybrid will be a part of every enterprise’s journey. Any company who’s been doing IT for any period of time will have existing investments,” he says. “Our view is that we will make it as easy as possible to create that bridge.”

    “We do believe in the long run that enterprises will find they become so much more effective over here (in the cloud) they will move in that direction.

    A Cloud-First Policy

    Once an organisation has its cloud strategy and experimentation culture in place then having a ‘cloud first’ policy, “it reverses the burden of proof away from ‘why would you use the cloud?’ to ‘why wouldn’t you?’”

    While Orban is emphasising the Amazon Web Services view of the world where ultimately all business computing will be done on the cloud – preferably their cloud – his views illustrates the change facing businesses as they implement online technologies.

    For most, the availability of easily accessible cloud computing services is an opportunity to rethink their business processes and how organisations can deliver the best products quickly to their customers.

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  • Social Media’s celebrity obsession

    Social Media’s celebrity obsession

    A constant with social media companies is their fascination with celebrities. At the first opportunity they’ll trash their credibility and burn their credibility with users to curry favour with a b-list celebrity.

    The most damaging example of this was Google making an exception of its ‘real names’ policy for celebrity Google+ accounts. In making an exception for pop stars, the company destroyed any argument it had for insisting users had to use their birth names in order to use their service.

    In their quest to be relevant Twitter’s management has consistently made itself look like a simpering bunch of star struck groupies in pandering to celebrities. Which they’ve done one again with their Moments service as Josh Dickson point out.

    Probably one of the worst examples though is the story of Andrés Iniesta and his Instagram account.

    One morning last week Iniesta found his Instagram account had been suspended for breaching the ‘terms of use.’

    Iniesta was baffled and couldn’t find how he’s breached the terms, three times he tried to reach out to Instagram and was ignored. In the meantime his Instagram account started posting pictures of his namesake, a Spanish soccer star.

    Only after posting his story on Medium did Iniesta get a response – and an apology – from Instagram’s PR people.

    It turned out the only breach Iniesta had committed was to be born with the same name as a FC Barcelona star.

    Despite having not actually breached Instagram’s terms and conditions, Iniesta had his account taken with no notice and certainly no process.

    For the thousands of ‘social media influencers’ and the brands trying to use these service as channels to connect to a fragmented audience Instagram’s actions are a reminder that all their efforts are built on sand – years of work can be wiped out at the whim of a faceless and unaccountable bureaucrat.

    Ultimately it’s the social media services who lose the most from their high handed treatment of their users, as it becomes apparent to both advertisers and ordinary account holders that everything they post is impermanent then the trust in the service is gone.

    The greatest hypocrites in today’s business world are the social media services – Twitter, Facebook and a host of others which want you to share your intimate details with them for their own commercial use.

    As Andrés Iniesta found, the social media service’s commitment to openness and transparency vanishes the moment a user has a problem.

    For celebrities, or those well-connected, no such problems exist. One instant message or phone call to their contact within Facebook, Twitter or Google and the problem is fixed.

    Ultimately though that insider game and obsession with celebrity will undo the social media services. For the moment though, all their pretences of being identity services or journals of records should be taken with a lot of scepticism.

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  • A day trip to the Grand Canyon

    A day trip to the Grand Canyon

    Las Vegas exists as a fleecing machine for tourists and for the impoverished freelancer stuck in the town over a weekend, the best idea is to get out of it.

    So the Grand Canyon sounded like a good idea, despite being a long day – departing at 6.30am and returning after 9pm – the price of $79, plus gratuities to the driver, sounded like a good way to spend the Sunday.

    The day didn’t start out well with the connection bus not showing up, the Mandalay Bay separate Tour Lobby on a different floor to the main lobby where I was standing. It was apparently beyond the ken of the connecting driver to call my number to check if I were around.

    Adding to the irritation was calling the Grand Canyon Tour company directly, as instructed, five minutes after the scheduled time only to be told ‘he’s running late, just wait”. Twenty minutes later on calling the company again I was told I wasn’t there for the pickup, something they could have told me earlier.

    Panicking, angry and anxious about missing the bus I jumped in a cab to get to their depot. Fortunately my hotel wasn’t too far from the company’s depot and the fare was only $15, for other passengers it could have been substantially more.

    Long check in queues

    It turns out there was little need to be stressed about missing the, the tour company’s shuttle buses drop passengers off at a central check in place where the queue was literally out of the door. After check in you can pick up a complimentary breakfast Danish and a coffee of tea and buy bottles of water before boarding the bus.

    Bottled water isn’t available in the Grand Canyon park area so bring your own container, or buy some for a dollar each at the Las Vegas check in terminal, you can refill them in the park or at Williams railroad station at the lunch break.

    The right hand side of the bus is best for views, particularly in the desert during the first two hours before a refreshment break just outside of Kingman, Arizona. Castle Peak Bar and Grill is the quirky desert truck stop that acts as a refreshment stop and the food isn’t recommended.

    Running commentaries

    As the tour continues, the driver gives a running commentary of the sights on the way accompanied with videos on the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. If you’re doing the Hoover Dam journey another time, it’s worthwhile to do it after this tour as one of the videos is a documentary on the building that will help you appreciate the project even more.

    The videos help while away the ten hours of travel and the bus also has Wi-Fi although you’ll probably find a better signal with your own mobile device. The seats also have power sockets available although I didn’t get to test them.

    One thing to remember when booking the tour is gratuities are not included and the driver expects a tip. Budget for five or ten dollars each.

    After Kingman, the next step is Williams, Nevada, a tourist town that features the oldest diner on Route 66 and the terminus for the privately operated Grand Canyon Railroad where the company puts on a complimentary lunch.

    Enjoying a lunch

    Lunch is a surprisingly good buffet featuring soups, salads and hot dishes with a soft drink thrown in, the swirl icecream cones are nice touch. If you have a water bottle to fill, there’s a filling station outside the restrooms at the other end of the station from the restaurant.

    Williams is an hour from the Grand Canyon and the tour stops twice. It’s worth getting off the bus at Mather Point, the first stop, and then taking the Rim Walk around to the main Village which is the collection point. If you do this, let the driver know and find out the time he expects to leave.

    In our case the bus was late due to several people being lost. This is a problem when the return to Las Vegas is well into the evening. There is a dinner break at the Kingman Carls Jr on the return leg.

    Good for a quick tour

    Overall, the Grand Canyon tour is a good trip if you’re in Las Vegas and on a short schedule. However it’s certainly better to give the canyon more time and stay overnight.

    If you can find accommodation in the main village – when I attempted it was fully booked – then taking the tour company’s one way option each day or hiring a car would be far better given the National Parks runs evening tours and both sunset and sunrise are spectacular times with the opportunities to see more wildlife.

    Should you have several days, having a car to explore Boulder, the Hoover Dam and Williams along with spending one or two nights in the park would be highly recommended.

    For those time poor and based in Vegas, the Grand Canyon tour is a good option, however the big gripe with Grand Canyon Tour Company is its organisation. To avoid future customers having the incredibly irritating experience of missing the shuttle due to being in the wrong place, the company could do with more streamlined procedures and even a better use of technology – such as SMS notifications.

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  • Fading giants move to support each other

    Fading giants move to support each other

    Two struggling tech giants are reportedly set to merge with persistent rumours that Dell is about make an offer for storage provider EMC.

    Both companies have been hit by shifts in the computing industry with cloud computing undermining both businesses, Dell was also hit by the collapse of the Windows upgrade cycle which changed the buying patterns of computer purchasers.

    A combined company offers some theoretical advantages in bringing together one of world’s biggest server companies with a storage business, however it’s difficult to see how the two businesses combined would slow the decline of the segments both are strong in.

    Mergers can slow the decline of companies like EMC and Dell, but without innovating and finding new opportunities to exploit it’s unlikely they can recover lost ground.

     

     

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