My customer experience

Last weekend I was in the hospital as my wife gave birth to our son Zachary.  As I was walking in the hallways of the hospital, I realized that hospitals have changed alot in the the last thirty years so.  When my brother was born in 1980, I remember walking in the hospitals and seeing how the hospital was setup.  It was sterile, white, and frankly boring. It is similar to the scene in the classic movie, One who flew over the cuckoo's nest.  I posted a picture from the movie.  Do you notice the whites and grays in this picture.  

Now here are pictures from the hospital where my wife gave birth to our son


Do you notice the blue & gray carpet, the nice wood floors and the halls have beautiful paintings and pictures.  This is typical of any hospital in the US in the twenty first century.

I liked the change and it made my experience in the hospital pleasurable. The doctors, nurses and the staff are extremely polite and the overall experience was great. 

In March 2012, I was given the opportunity to work for my IT organization's customer service department.  I look at customer requests and enable the requests to get processed to the appropriate IT service delivery group.  I enjoy working in the customebr service department because it has provided me an opportunity to assist in the transformation of an IT organization. 

A few years ago, IT organizations were viewed as a collection of computer geeks who wrote client server software or fixed PCs.  Couple of years ago, I talked someone in the US government who was complaining that typical IT person is an introvert who enjoyed working with technology.  He stated this type of workforce was hurting the overall image of his IT department.

I talked to numerous people in the private sector and public sector and there is a frustration that IT budgets are getting cut, IT functions are being outsourced and most of the time they don't understand how they can join the transformation rather than fight it.

After my experience in the hospital and reading Gartner, Forrester articles, I believe IT organizations need to emphasize customer experience management.  Customer relationship management is key however the relationships cannot become strong without providing a rich customer experience.  If I am a customer, I would like the IT department to be proactive, understand my business and needs and enable me to do my job better.  If I don't enjoy working with the IT department then I won't be able to develop a mutually constructive relationship.  For a rich customer experience, I would like the IT department to be transparent, and provide me good service.  Not service like this:

So whenever I think about customer experience, I think about my hospital experience.  I am sure we can do improve the customer experience in IT.  We don't Peggys like the ad above.
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FB = failureBook.com

I give up! I am planning to get out of Facebook.com.  Yesterday I spent some time trying to limit profiles for certain individuals.  It's extremely hard.  Frankly it is retarded!  This is the first time in couple of years that I tried to configure my account.  Facebook does a horrible job of putting functionality  in their product and they don't remove the functionality when it becomes obsolete.  Where is the part that I can sign up to be in my employer's social network? It's not there.  What happened to limiting profiles.  Now you have to create lists which are highly complicated. They just paid Instragr.am to be part of this dysfunctional family.  Facebook reminds of Microsoft's second cousin who lives in trailer in the backwoods of Ozarks.

Maybe I am harsh but I am definitely frustrated.  I am done! >-|

Are you for real?

For the last couple of weeks, if you ever ran into me, you  would notice that I am usually fidgeting with iPhIone.   Either I must be checking my email, tweeting or simply "four-squaring". Four-squaring?  What is four-squaring?  Well I just coined the term on this blog entry.   If you ever hear the word "four-square" then you can attribute it to this blog entry.  According to "moi", four-squaring is a term that references to a person who is advertising his or her existence on the foursquare mobile app.  Foursquare lets you tell the world that you are in a specific store.  If you use the app alot then you end up earning foursquare badges..  Sounds alot fun right?  Actually I thought I was advertising my shopping trends and my daily routine to the world.  Vendors are now offering special coupons via foursquare to visit their stores.  It sounds like alot fun for the user...BUZZ! You are wrong!  It's sounds like $$$ for the vendor since it is another marketing channel and another data point to consider in their marketing strategy.  In closing I would say,

• 4^2 = $$$$$ for the vendors
• 4^2 = no privacy for the user + meaningless badges.

$ocial Media & Ma$$ Collaboration

Recently Komen Foundation did a 180 when it comes to funding Planned Parenthood.  An organization could be crippled to social pressures. This is the second big story compared to how Google, Wikipedia and other companies and individuals raised their concerns about SOPA.  Some of these individuals worked as contractors for the US government.  I personally did not object to SOPA and frankly I do see merits on how government should control piracy; nevertheless I am impressed by the power and gravitas of social technologies.  They can be used as steroids to gain rapid momentum on decisions on social issues.  There are blogs and social communities galore on issues like abortion, freedom of speech, gay marriage, small government, keeping corporations accountable.  This is a great that folks are exercising their right to express their opinions on various issues.  The reality is that these issues are so complex  and folks have such strong emotional reactions to them that in practicality these issues will remain in the US for a while.

The big question to ask is how folks can make money of these power technologies. I could write about the next big idea which needs seed funding and technologists to make the big idea happen but in reality no one will really know if this idea will take off.  It's like peanut butter slices.  Do you buy them? If so then please comment to this blog entry.  Unlike the next big idea, what I can write about is how we can use existing technologies to make money.  I am big fan of Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Four Square, Tumblr, and on and one.  What I have not seen is how businesses are successfully using all of these social technologies to sell their brand and simply market their products.  Online companies still use Adwords (Yes! Hail to the power of Google Gods [I say with sarcasm of course) and spend money on search engine optimization but they are struggling how to harness social computing.  At work, I worked on projects where social media and mass collaboration efforts are promoted however no one knows how these technologies will be used in my employer's enterprise.

The reality is that money can be made using social technologies in smart way.  If folks can persuade the masses on how SOPA is bad for you, your kids and you grandkids then I am sure we can use these technologies to sell a product smarter and more effectively.

"Duck Sucker"

When I attended an ITIL class in 2008, I heard a term that perked my interest.  Initially I thought, can ITIL terminology really be unique and "cliche"?  Can "duck sucker" be a french word to describe complex IT service management?  I was brought back to reality like the "lego man" holding a Canadian flag.  The instructor described the term when someone throws a problem or issue over his or her cube and shouts out "Duck! Sucker." This term came to my mind after I read the Gartner paper called, " JavaScript: Past, Present and Future." According to the sharply dressed folks at Gartner, JavaScript is here to stay.  Therefore please don't complain that you cannot debug JavaScript properly or you are tired of your friendly neighborhood, Mr. Alert() function.  The reality is that with more JavaScript routines designed to detect your web browser enable this technology to stay. With web browser developers incorporate more JavaScript rendering capability and computing hardware getting faster and cheaper, it seems it is the right thing to do.  With Verizon and AT&T charging for data plans,  browser based apps will need to cache more information on the device rather than in the "cloud".  Frankly the way OMB and Google are promoting the cloud, it sounds like heaven because everyone will be happy using the cloud.   Folks get used to the word "Duck sucker" because the application developers will try to access devices through the device browser JavaScript calls and the device manufactures are going to build more powerful, smaller and expensive devices.   In the end, you and I, the general consumers, may have to duck those big bills.  There is a cost for a great user experience which is driven by the cloud.  So who is the real sucker in the mobile world? You and I are. :-(

Netflix Phenomenon and Mobility

Three weeks ago, I attended a two day workshop called the mGov Strategy.  This workshop's purpose is to provide input to OMB's mobility strategy for the US Federal Government.  Steve VanRoekel, OMB CIO, sponsored this workshop.  US civil servants from various lines of government joined the workshop. OMB split the working group into five sub-groups.  The sub-groups were:

1. Acquisition - How can US government address acquisition of mobile technologies and services? Can the US government streamline the acquisition process.
2. Security - How to safeguard government information and technologies from hackers.
3. Privacy - How to protect mobile user information from inappropriate use especially when they interface with US government mobile sites and apps.
4. Citizen apps - How to develop a mobile presence to engage US government's biggest customer US citizen.
5. Infrastructure - How can US government address the evolution of mobile technologies and associated technologies like cloud computing, social computing and others.

As the member of the security sub-group, we discussed several policy and technical approaches.  The thing that caught my eye and basically sums up any future technical advancement is the ability to do use any application from anywhere and anytime.  I call this the "Netflix phenomenon"

Even though Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, won't win the CEO of the year award, I still give him credit in taking the movie watching experience from a cinema theater to any possible device which is accredited by Netflix.  I admit that Google introduced this feature with YouTube however Netflix took it to a new level.  I can now start a movie via  my laptop, pause it and then resume it on my iPad.  I like this DirecTV commerical which captures what I am talking about.


To develop this type of an IT service, enterprises need to invest in the following technologies and architectures like:

• Cloud computing - IT departments need to centralize their business applications and act as cloud brokers to outsource some of their applications to third party clouds like Amazon EC2, Google Cloud, Rackspace and others.  I believe unless OMB makes significant investments in IT infrastructure, agencies will have to act as cloud brokers. It's a cost effective mechanism.
• Smarter Pipes - Where is Mario when you need him?  With all of the data and information streaming back and forth between clouds, user devices, government needs to influence how IT networks should evolve.  Since mobile users are constantly starving for the fastest network, vendors have to realize that simply scaling up the networks is not a sustainable model.  Vendors and research institutes need to look at how data should traverse the network and optimize it.  A good example is that vendors need to develop information caching mechanisms at the network level.  
• Smarter security - One of the best phrases used by the mobile users in the government space is, "brick". Users can call and email on a brick but nothing else.  Security personnel should realize that clamping everything defeats the purpose.  IT risk management should be a key in developing a smarter security posture. Single sign on is key as well. No one wants to sign on with multiple usernames and passwords to do their work.
• Usability - One of the best parts of using Netflix is how intuitive the user interface is.  Ease of use is a key phrase to describe Netflix's user interface.  We need to identify and prioritize what functionality is needed or desired on a mobile app.
• Flexibility - Use sound architecture principles like loose coupling, simple interfaces and architectures.  Simpler is better.  
• Standards based architecture -  Eventhough there is an over abundance of  standards especially XML (frankly I am sick of how folks are misusing it), we still need to emphasize it and design appropriately.  Having a 50MB XML payload in SOA enabled information exchange is NOT smart architecture.  I am not going to expound on the 50MB XML example since it is aggravating.

Even though Reed Hastings didn't make alot friends with Qwikster or jacking up the monthly Netflix fees,  he did build a pretty cool service called Netflix streaming.  As I write this blog, my youngest son is watching Power Rangers in Space via the WII and my oldest two are watching a Dreamworks movie via the PS3.  My third one is having fun the old fashioned way. She is attending a birthday party. Thanks Reed and now bring down the monthly fees.

Day 3 @ Gartner Symposium

I spent the third day attending sessions about Wireless IT capabilities; a discussion between 2 Gartner analysts and Paul Maritiz, CEO of VMWare; and session called CIO Power Politics.

Gartner Sessions on Wireless
The wireless sessions were quite good and they validated some of things I would like to see implemented in the agency I work for. They also highlighted the explicit dependencies associated with setting up an enterprise wireless capability. Gartner also didn't emphasize any variables associated with security when developing a mobile strategy. Frankly I think the IT community is struggling on how to balance with innovation, operations, and security. This was evident on how Gartner is skimming over the security components of mobile technologies. I therefore think that IT departments in general will eventually abstract themselves from system/infrastructure security and interface with the security components using IT risk management. IT system security will exist but it will morph into a security science discipline where software and hardware will be developed and embedded into systems (ala McAfee and Symantec). These components will be combined at the IT DNA level (firmware, network stack, etc, etc) and will be implicitly be everywhere in the cloud stacks and device (mobile, desktop) OS stacks. IT department won't have the resources dedicated to look at explicity system security.

Paul Maritz
This leads me to the next point. According to Paul Maritiz, CEO of VMWare, labelled clouds as software mainframes. The Gartner analysts tried to see if VMWare is going out of the virtualizations and going in application and information tier. Paul answered "No". They want to support application development by producing nooks and hooks into the VMWare stack. He was asked about VMWare's acquistion of DIgital Fuel. Paul answered that Digital Fuel was acquired to provide VMWare's customers tools and methods to monitor their VMWare products. Paul kept emphasising that automation is the key and not management. My favorit quote of the Gartner Symposium was said by Paul Maritz. The quote is, "You cannot put management lipstick on a chicken." During the whole session, Paul reminded me of Pavaoritti, the great opera singer. After listening to the session, I am of the opinion that VMWare is betting that Paul Maritiz will hit the right notes in leading VMWare to succeed in the Opera of Cloud and Virtual computing.

CIO Power Politics
I attended this session with a colleague of mine. Session was an assessment on what it takes to be a successful CIO. I could go into the details but it comes down to common sense. Key tentants are: know your organization; know the mission and vision of your organization; understand your strengths and weaknesses; and work hard. Hard work doesn't mean slaving as a code monkey or developing shell scripts. It means take ownership, be passionate about it and user your common sense. This will inspire your team and create a positive synergy. The other thing that caught my eye is Gartner's mission. What is it? Is Gartner providing information regarding trends and analysis or sessions on what it takes to succeed as a CIO.

In closing I was caught by Mr. Maritz' s analogy of the cloud as software mainframes. In 1970s and 1980s, we had hardware mainframes. In 2010s, we have software mainframes. I believe by 2020, we will have information mainframes. What are information mainframes? They are data and information sets available on the internet and these sets will be avaiable for a cost. Applications of these information mainframes could be for visual analytics, information sharing. These information mainframes will replace architectures like SOA which will never succeed in an enterprise scale. Information mainframes will allow companies to run federate queries, data discovery and data management. To get there, technologies and methodologies need to be developed to increase data quality, semantic harmonization, data security. We are not there yet. Social networks like Facebook, and Linkedin are people information mainframes however we are not there yet for enterprise business information.