SWC Technology Partners was recently featured in the following blog:

A Blog Series for U.S. Partners by Jenni Flinders, Microsoft U.S. Vice President, Partner Strategy and Programs.

As members of the Microsoft Partner Network, you understand the value of “community.”  In a previous post, I spoke about the importance of not only using Partner Network resources for individual growth but also for the advancement of your peers. In a dynamic, thriving community, when a single member prospers, every member wins.

Recently, I witnessed this “win-win” proposition in action during a visit to Chicago’s Alain Locke Charter School.  I visited the school with SWC Technology Partners, an organization dedicated to uplifting the community in which it works.  Knowing that SWC donated considerable time and technologies to the school, I expected to be impressed. Instead, I was awestruck. The educators’ conviction, students’ unbridled enthusiasm, and SWC’s commitment were all simply amazing:

• Conviction. Alain Locke is focused on “closing the achievement gap by energizing urban schools with high-impact leaders.” I observed classrooms with the Alain Locke teaching method in action. The experience plants a seed in students’ minds that each of them will one day attend a four-year college or university and helps them realize their full potential. 
• Accomplishment. Student achievement grew at the school for nine consecutive years, and the U.S. Department of Education recognizes Alain Locke as one of seven schools in our country for their role in “Closing the Achievement Gap.” That’s quite a feather in the cap.
• Commitment. SWC committed approximately $75,000 in service to roll out a Microsoft virtualization solution, which enables the school to use more than 40 older computers that run Microsoft’s latest software and specialized education software. The school is now a Microsoft platform organization, using Microsoft Server, Exchange, Hyper-V, and other stack components to further its educational goals.

The partnership between SWC, Microsoft, and Alain Locke is a natural fit because we all understand that access to an excellent education—and technology that facilitates education—is critical to ensuring the competence of our future community leaders. None of us operates in a vacuum (at least not very successfully), so to serve the needs of an organization or person within your community—professional, civic, or other—is to, in fact, serve your business.

My visit to Alain Locke was an experience that evoked for me intense pride in our partners and a conviction in the power of community. Please consider how you can bring the idea of “community” to life and share those ideas with me on Twitter @Jenni_Flinders.

Sincerely,

Jenni Flinders
Microsoft Vice President, U.S. Partner Strategy and Programs

To access this blog, please visit:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/msuspartner/archive/2012/02/02/partnering-with-precision-serving-the-community-serves-us-all.aspx

To view SWC’s recent video detailing our work at Alain Locke, please visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faeG2ibsSmY&list=UU5mqIEpTGPQCy7Z1qj-nLlQ&index=1&feature=plcp

Microsoft SharePoint can be a great productivity tool.  Its breadth of functionality and its flexibility allows it to be used in a wide variety of ways, and in organizations of all types and sizes. It can help you manage your documents more effectively, streamline your business processes, and build a better intranet.  But, without an extreme makeover, it isn’t likely to win many beauty pageants.

For the sake of illustration, let’s say you walk onto a used car lot, with the intent of buying a car.  You don’t have any specific preferences about what kind of car; you just need the means to get where you need to go.  Now, the used car salesman gives you the old cliché, ‘Have I got a deal for you!’ and shows you an old grey clunker.  It’s nothing fancy, just four wheels and an engine with no air conditioning.  But, right next to the old grey clunker sits a shiny red sports car.  Here’s the question: Which one do you want to take for a test drive?

Personally, I’d opt to put the sports car through its paces.  Despite the fact that both cars serve the same purpose and the old grey clunker may get me where I’m going, I’m naturally more inclined to want to try out the more attractive option.  It’s only human.  Of course, my more practical side (and my wife) may ultimately convince me to buy the old grey clunker, but still…

So, what does the Used Car Lot have to do with SharePoint?  For starters, if your Company Intranet or Portal looks more like an old clunker than a shiny sports car, your users may be less inclined to want to take it for a test drive.  Research has shown that people assess the visual appeal of a website in as little as 1/20 of a second (Lindgaard & Pineau, Human Oriented Technology Lab, Carleton University, 2010).  Whether it’s right or wrong, that first impression impacts subsequent judgments that users make regarding the usability, credibility and ultimately the value of the website (it’s the so-called ‘halo effect’).

Let’s take the car analogy one step further: Having made whichever choice of cars you feel is best for you, you drive out of the Used Car Lot and head towards your destination.  If the car succeeds in getting you where you want to go, you will likely keep driving it.  If it breaks down and strands you by the side of the road, you’ll think twice about trusting in it the next time you need to go somewhere.  Maybe you’ll even abandon it altogether.

Of course, once users move past the initial Intranet home page and actually start trying to find information or accomplish the task at hand, usability becomes paramount.  If people can’t quickly or easily access what they’re looking for, they will be less likely to try next time.  But, if they are successful in their quest, they are more likely to repeat the behavior and adoption will naturally follow.  Satisfied users will continue to visit the shiny new Intranet more often, and will likely share their experiences with their co-workers.  The potential productivity-enhancing value to the organization will actually be realized.

And that means more shiny red sports cars for all!

Mary Beth Rath has managed hundreds of successful projects at SWC. In this blog, she shares some insight on how she effectively manages project teams with different personalities.  

As a project manager we take on the responsibility of ensuring a project’s success. This can involve many activities, like defining project milestones, as well as issue tracking and resolution. However, an area not so obvious is how to work effectively with your team, knowing that each team member is an individual with different personalities, strengths and weaknesses and will succeed in different ways.  How do we as project managers work with different personalities and enable them to perform to the best of their abilities?

I typically start by understanding the team.  This doesn’t require a deep analysis, just some basic questions about each team member.

• Do they need time to reflect about ideas before having a group discussion or do they benefit from brainstorming with the team?
• Do they desire a structured approach or are they more creative and flexible?
• Do they stay focused and deliver tasks as promised or do they get lost in the details of solving problems?
• Do they lead the team or do they follow a defined path?

Typically you will have some sort of combination of these personalities and responding in different ways will help bring together a cohesive team toward success.  Here are a few key strategies that I use:

Meetings – Define Agendas in Advance

• An introvert needs time to think prior to a discussion in meeting. Extroverts will be ready for the team meeting either way. Just make sure both personalities get a voice in the meeting, this might require asking the quiet team members direct questions and pulling them into the conversation.

Communication – Review Expectations with the Team

• Let the team know that saying no is okay. Lead by example, adjust tasks when necessary. This will help avoid resource overload and project delays.
• Let the team know that asking for help should be encouraged.  Identify mentors when necessary and follow-up, to ensure that progress is being made.
• Repeat these messages verbally and in written e-mails, continue enforcing this approach.

Reminders – Constant Follow-Up

• We all have team members that are way too busy or are procrastinators, both can lead to a delayed schedule. E-mail is not effective enough in this scenario; instead talk to your team members face-to-face.  Ask how things are going, remove road blocks when necessary and confirm that they are focusing on the project’s critical tasks. For some individuals, this will be required multiple times a day.

Constructive Criticism – Give Criticism Privately

• Even the best team members are human and we all make mistakes. Project managers should acknowledge mistakes when they occur to avoid reoccurrences. If these situations are discussed in front of the team, the individual might become defensive. Instead constructive feedback should be given in private, this provides the individual an opportunity for dialog about how best to handle situations in the future.

Motivation – Give Credit Publicly

• This will provide the leaders within the team the motivation to keep striving for success.  Doing this with the entire team present or copied on an e-mail will also encourage the other individuals to follow suit.

Are you ready to start your next project?  Give these techniques a try.  With a few simple strategies and consistency you can affect your team in new ways.

No doubt about it – Microsoft SharePoint is getting a lot of press these days.  In all the conversations SWC has had with midmarket organizations throughout Chicagoland, it has become increasingly rare to find someone who hasn’t at least heard of SharePoint.  But, most people still struggle to understand what SharePoint is all about and why there’s so much fuss about it.  The most popular initial question has changed from “What is SharePoint?” to “How can SharePoint benefit our organization?”

Let me tell you a little story: Once upon a time, there was a Big City.  Lots of people lived in the city, and they need to get into and out of it as they went about their daily business.  So, the Big City made sure there were plenty of roads to and from all the places the people needed to go.  In its eagerness to facilitate easy travel (and happy citizens), the Big City wasn’t overly concerned with determining exactly where the roads should ideally be built.  So, a Fat Contract was awarded for the construction of a New Road, from the Big City to the Smelly Swamp.  The workers got busy and built the beautiful New Road, and then they packed up their tools and went home.

Since no one really wanted to go from the Big City to the Smelly Swamp, the New Road didn’t get any traffic.  All the time, effort and money spent building the New Road was wasted, since the Old Trail that previously went from the Big City to the Smelly Swamp was more than enough to accommodate the rare traveller.  Since the road didn’t go anywhere that people needed to get to, no one bothered to maintain the New Road.  After a while, it began to break down from neglect, it became overgrown with weeds, and eventually the once-beautiful New Road turned back into the worn-out Old Trail.

There seems to be a tendency, especially among IT folks, to think of SharePoint as a product whose business value is self-evident.  The marketing hype promises to “Collaborate More Effectively” and “Manage Your Documents More Efficiently” and “Streamline Business Processes.”  What organization wouldn’t want all of those things?  The problem is – how do you move beyond the promises and actually make those things a reality for your business?  How do you know when you’ve succeeded?  And even if you do manage to accomplish all of that initially, does it automatically translate into Happily Ever After?

The moral of the story should be fairly obvious – without a defined problem, there is no need for a solution.  If you can’t make a solid business case for the value of a SharePoint-based collaboration, document management or process automation solution – then you shouldn’t build it.  And if you do build it, you must recognize why it’s important to use SharePoint as more of a platform than a solution.  It needs to be configured and shaped into what your organization needs it to be.  It needs to take people where they want to go.

The other key point is that you must tend to and maintain your SharePoint-based solution in the long run.  Even if you develop a great initial implementation, it needs to adjust as people’s understanding and usage of it grows.  It has to evolve with the changing needs of the organization.  It is critical to identify the appropriate people to participate in the initial design and implementation of the SharePoint solution, but it is also important to ensure that the right people stay engaged over time.  Only then can you hope to have the SharePoint Happy Ending that you’ve always dreamed of.

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and its modern variants (RSTP/MST) have been the standard for layer 2 (switched/bridged network) loop prevention in the enterprise network for quite a while. Spanning Tree Protocol is not only a requirement for providing path redundancy, but also for protecting the LAN from accidental loop introduction.

Recently I was working on a data center design and the vendor recommended that the client use EAPS (Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching) instead of RSTP. While I won’t pontificate on the pros and cons of this design, I was quite surprised at this recommendation since EAPS is typically most useful in the Metro Ethernet arena where the ring topology of SONET make it a great fit.

As we look at the layer 2 domain, there are a few interesting technologies emerging and lead me to the question: is traditional STP in its twilight years?

Let’s look at some of the problems with STP. Please note: when I say STP I am lumping STP/RSTP/MSTP into one category.

• STP cannot multipath on the same VLAN across all paths. In other words, in a redundant topology, which is STP’s purpose, certain links will be in a blocking/discarding state.
• Convergence times in networks where ultra-low latency is a requirement, such as the trading/financial industry, can be unacceptably slow.
• Poorly or misconfigured STP is a huge security and performance risk.

So what are some alternatives to STP? The short answer is that the industry has absolutely not settled on anything. However there are a number of emerging technologies that better align with the goals of the modern data center. Here are just a few:

• TRILL (Transparent Redundant Interconnect of Lots of Links): Wow that’s a mouthful! In short, TRILL uses a link state protocol (IS-IS) to find the best paths around the network and provide a map so that a loop-free layer 2 multi-pathing can be achieved.
• Virtual Port Channel (vPC): A Cisco proprietary technology that creates a link aggregation group (vPC Domain) similar to a LACP/LAG bond except that the link may terminate to separate bridges. In other words, the LAG group need not be limited to a set of links between ONLY two switches.
• SPBM: Shortest Path Bridging can be thought of as STP on steroids. It offers significant scalability gains and, unlike traditional STP, can scale to a network span of hundreds of bridges.

So now what? We understand STP to be increasingly less and less relevant in the modern data center, but the industry has not quite settled on a replacement. My advice is to sit tight. If at all possible leverage a properly tuned and configured STP and implementation. Don’t dive into any of these emerging technologies unless you keenly identify one that meets your business needs.

Every once in a while I will read an article that leaves me stunned and reminded that life can be much more intriguing than art. Over the last two months the IT security world has been littered with the kind of headlines that seem more appropriate for a Hollywood suspense thriller than today’s boardroom. With an eerie rhythm headlines have emerged of bold hacking attacks on U.S. enterprises that have led to the theft of highly sensitive information.

• March 18 ~ RSA Hacked, data exposed that could reduce the effectiveness of SecurID tokens
• May 30 ~  Hackers Use Stolen RSA Information to Hack Lockheed Martin
• June 2 ~ Northrop Grumman, L-3 Communications Hacked via Cloned RSA SecurID Tokens
• July 14 ~ Pentagon discloses massive cyber theft

In an acknowledgement of this threat the Pentagon announced a new cyber defense strategy that reserved the right of military retaliation. As one military official said “if you shut down our power grid, maybe we put a missile down one of your smokestacks” 

I love that quote….it lets me imagine some hacker, sitting in his parent’s basement, banging away at his keyboard, empty Red Bull cans scattered at his feet. He hits the Enter key, chuckles for a moment and then, well….you know.

At SWC most of our clients are mid-market organizations, so we typically do not recommend airstrikes. More often than not we find ourselves on a more pragmatic level; helping our clients evaluate and improve their security posture.

In the end, most of cyber security is about the fundamentals, both technical and human. It’s about understanding and addressing the points of vulnerability. As I spend time with our clients I try to focus their attention on three areas: systems management, security configuration and the human element.

Systems Management and Security Configuration can cover a lot of ground but there are areas of disproportionate return. Making sure that your environment is current on software and patch updates, instituting and enforcing a strong password policy, and designing and managing appropriate authorization rights and privileges can go a long way in developing the building blocks of an effective security posture.

Of course, at times, it is the human users that are the weakest link of any network. Too often the most sophisticated environments get hacked because a network user was scammed into giving the wrong person access to sensitive information. In fact, if you get a chance to read the article links above you will learn how much our users’ actions can affect the security of our systems. Part of any security effort is communicating to the users what their responsibilities are as part of their technology community and furthermore understanding how to monitor and manage those behaviors.

Over time SWC has developed a rigorous approach to security assessments that consistently help our clients understand their current security posture as well as the changes they need to make in order to improve their position. As you may imagine, in some cases, we find ourselves engaged after an attack has occurred. These attacks are not at the size of the RSA hack but for our clients they are significant. Our goal is to get there before the attack and to prevent any from being effective in the future. The last thing we want is to see our client’s name in the next headline.

It’s happened to all of us. The project makes sense. You know in your bones that it’s the right thing to do. You’ve chosen the solution. You’ve identified the project team. You even have a go-live date identified. Then some muckety-muck asks the question: “Have you calculated the ROI for this?”

Return on investment. Simple. The increased revenue or decreased cost compared to the cost of the project. You get out the calculator and add up the investment side in minutes, and then you turn your efforts to the R side of the equation. You start with the easy ones:

• Save time manually compiling data
• Eliminate report creation costs
• Eliminate those license costs (if you are replacing a more expensive BI solution)

This used to be good enough. In 2007, when money was free and a project could pay back over 24 months, the above return was more than adequate. Then bubbles popped and now project payback timelines are measured in single digit months. Time to do the real work.

Turns out, the big return for BI projects isn’t in efficiency, at least not the analysis efficiencies outlined above. The real return for business intelligence lies in better decisions. It is driven by the insight that comes from analysis that never would have been done without these tools. Insights like:

• Discovery of debt collection strategies that, when broadly applied, increase your collection rates by 5% (Example: Annualized commission increase of $120,000).
• Identifying and eliminating excess raw material scrap on the night shift by 2% (Example: $400,000 annualized cost savings).
• Eliminating mismatches between project forecasts and temporary worker requirements allowing for a 7% decrease in temporary labor (Example: $1,300,000 annualized savings).

This is the kind of return that shrinks the payback period to a few months or even weeks with a single insight. It is the kind of return that moves BI projects forward. Most importantly, it provides the direction to the project team to focus the scope on what matters. 

So how do you find and define this kind of return? That’s my next post.

I’ve been married since 1995, and dated my wife for five years before that.  Over the last 20+ years, our separate lives have become one.  We own our house and our cars jointly.  We share bank accounts, furniture, children.  We share most of our friends.  Sometimes it seems that we share thoughts and opinions (although that’s mainly because, like any guy, I’ve devoted an enormous amount of effort to answering correctly when Sara asks “What do you think of that color?” and other critical questions.)  We still have our own tooth brushes, but how much longer can I really expect that to last?

When my single friends (there are still a couple out there) date, they keep the commitments to a minimum.  Even when they move in together, they tend to keep it clean in case things don’t work out.  One friend can stand in his condo and can tell you, object by object, what belongs to him, and what belongs to his girlfriend (although there seems to be a bit of ambiguity about the toaster oven). 

So what does this have to do with BI?  Marry your database.  Date your dashboard. 

Your database and the other critical components of your data architecture like ETL tools and cube development tools require a long term commitment.  You’re going to have to invest in that relationship, make compromises, play to your database’s strengths.  You’re going to be married to that data architecture for a long time (hopefully forever) so take your time to make sure that your choice is a good one.  Find out what her long term plans are.  Agree to fight through the future for better or for worse. 

This has real-world implications beyond the selection process.  You should invest in the training for your staff and the long-term vendor relationships that befit your newly-married status.  Invest in the data architectures that will scale with you.  Make sure that your ETL process are rock solid.  When you amortize the cost of those new windows over a fifty-year marriage, the decision gets easier.

Dashboard and analysis tools are a whole different story.  They come, they go.  They’re flighty.  And let’s face it, you might decide in a year or two that you want that newer model.  Your lack of commitment to your dashboard tool comes with its own implications.  The licensing model needs to assume a short-term commitment.  The learning curve on these tools needs to be short and sweet.  In addition, when designing the dashboards and analysis assets, remember to solve complexity in the data architecture rather than the user interface. 

No 30-year mortgages with that girl you just met in a bar, although it’s probably OK to buy that toaster oven together.

Transition IPv6: The Elephant in the Room…Or Is It?

Many of us in the networking world have been hearing Y2K-esque doom and gloom prophecies that the current Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) will face. In fact, Network World recently hosted an online debate about this issue. Most of this is based on the fact that the availability of address space derived from its 32-bit range is dwarfed by the global demand.

What I have rarely heard is a non-technical discussion on the issue that is relevant to the technology decision makers. I would like to offer a balanced look at the issue and what it means for the SMB and your technology needs.

1. The biggest problem with IPv4 is that it does not have enough IP addresses to meet the global need. This issue is mostly for non-U.S. based Internet Service Providers and larger organizations that will be required to migrate new BGP Autonomous Systems to support IPv6 operation. The private IPv4 address range used for your internal network is not likely to be going anywhere for the foreseeable future.
2. IPv6 support is robust and there are several migration/co-existence strategies. In fact, most modern network hardware and operating systems support IPv6. This means that a monumental and expensive transition may not be necessary.
3. IPv6 is really cool but, in my opinion, there is no “killer feature” that provides a business justification for most organizations to migrate their entire internal network to IPv6. In fact, some applications may not yet fully support IPv6, so this may not be an option.

You may be curious as to what IPv6 actually provides over IPv4. Here is a spec sheet of what I believe are the key IPv6 features.

• Larger Address Space: IPv6 has 128 bit format (versus the 32 bit format of IPv4). I can confidently say that this means we will never run out of addresses again. The address space provided by IPv6 is enough for every person to receive millions of addresses and have room left over.
• Native IPsec Support: While not perfect, IPv6 supports built in data authentication (verify the sender), encryption (prevent prying eyes) and integrity (prevent tampering). This means that security in IPv6 is “native” to the stack allowing for end-to-end security.
• Advanced Packet Handling: IPv6 supports a multitude of packet traffic options and technologies that make IPv6 very versatile and more efficient than its predecessor. This paves the way for more dynamic and resilient network infrastructures.

Don’t get me wrong, Excel is great for things like data tracking, budgets, spreadsheets, etc. But what Excel can’t do is provide insight into the story behind the numbers. What little insight you do gain is only as accurate as the data entered – and with manual data entry in Excel, errors are inevitable. What’s worse is that manual data entry is labor and time intensive. If it takes that long to enter the data, imagine how long it takes to analyze it, let alone see the insight behind it?

What’s missing: business intelligence that reveals the true, accurate story behind the numbers without the manual Excel data entry and analysis. Let’s look at a real world example.

Real estate investment firms must be able to monitor, analyze and act on portfolio data. They must be able to:

• Perform analysis and prepare reporting for investors
• Monitor and identify trends across geographies, markets and time
• Make informed decisions quickly

Manual Excel data entry and analysis can lead to inaccurate information and make it difficult to see trends and patterns over time. But a strong business intelligence solution can enable a real estate investment firm to perform robust portfolio analyses as well as dashboards that quickly and easily show the true story behind the numbers.

Unlike an Excel spreadsheet that takes many hours and resources to complete and verify, a business intelligence solution allows you to access accurate data when and how you need it. It’s simple and fast, and our clients can answer strategic questions like: which property managers are managing occupancy best? From there, you can answer even more questions like: which of those property managers are best managing base rent in comparison to market comps?

There is a misconception, particularly in the real estate industry, that business intelligence solutions come in two sizes: standard out of the box with little room for customization or highly customized with a steep investment price to match. Today, that’s no longer the case.

If you’d like to discuss our Business Intelligence solutions in more detail or to see a demo of RealAnalytics, call me at 630-286-8155 or contact me at jeff.hoffmann@swc.com. We’ll help you say goodbye to Excel spreadsheets and put business intelligence to work for your bottom line.