Paul Rummell's Blog

Legacy Modernization in Government

Paul Rummell — Sat, 31 May 2008 09:31:00 -0400

A previous era saw the shift to legacy mainframe systems designed, developed, installed and maintained by a then new generation trained or self-educated in these technologies. We are now facing a major skills gap in maintaining these technologies. The Baby Boomers who are retiring in large numbers are leaving with their knowledge. It is essential that the new generation of IT professionals be cross trained… new, younger people in the legacy technologies hand in hand with Web 2.0 (see Mainframe computing jobs vacant as the Baby Boomers who set up systems begin retiring with few educated to fill the spots http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat-tech-jobs-ibmapr05,0,2110029.story).

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. We are seeing the same thing today with the rise of Web 2.0. There is a new generation of people who understand and have been trained in Web 2.0 in all its facets – wikis, Facebook, blogs, RSS feeds, online communities, crowd sourcing and more are going to conceive, install and build the new Web 2.0 environments that will change the way the world works.

It is inevitable that Web 2.0 environments will support or displace the legacy mainframe systems. I’d like to highlight some of the issues that will be important in that transition.

I remember ‘back in the day’ when business started to move from paper-based accounting systems to computerized systems running first on mainframes and later on smaller computer systems. The migration path from one system to another involved keeping both going in parallel until the new environments proved stable and the organization adapted around it. I would suggest that conceptually both environments can be maintained in parallel during the move from legacy systems to Web 2.0 environments, as was done in the past, yet at a far faster rate now. Also it is important to understand that Web 2.0 requires organic growth that can take time in order to build the requisite communities. So the task is to plant seeds, nurture them and allow time to see them grow.

Citizens will increasingly expect more personalization, as well as a more responsive and agile government. Web 2.0 will create healthy competitive tension in government capable of democratizing a sector, meaning giving it back to the citizens, including them in its various processes. As citizens are experiencing major shifts in personalization, data control and accessibility through use of Web 2.0 technologies, businesses will also demand the same from government.

The recent earthquake in China and the use of social networking tools by citizens and their government during the crisis demonstrates the potential for change (see: http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/C/CHINA_THE_QUAKE_ONLINE?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-05-18-13-00-37).

Watch for security issues. Web 2.0 sites are vulnerable to attack by ‘enemies of the state’ and other malicious interests

The move from legacy to Web 2.0-based systems will minimize, rationalize and make things more transparent, which will enable everyone to see the inefficient work of the public sector. e-government is capable of democratizing a sector, meaning giving it back to the citizens and including them in various processes

Governments, like every other employer, are desperate to attract and retain quality staff and ensure that employees work in an environment that is socially and technologically similar to their existing experience of the world. Therefore, instant messaging (IM) and wikis are must-haves for these new workers.

Public servants will increasingly expect a work environment that reflects their interests, networks and ways of communicating with their colleagues and peers. Web 2.0 technologies will influence the internal processes and cultures of agencies as much as interactions with citizens.

Engage stakeholders – citizens, internal users, and IT staff – with standardized Web 2.0 environments using well-founded change management tools to guide the transition out of legacy systems.

The ultimate destination of this transition will support the public interest by preparing citizens for a world of plentiful (and sometimes unreliable) information, and help excluded groups to take advantage of this information.

Envision government agencies with a high level of confidence regarding the identity of the online user. They will be able to place people in control of the transaction and protect their privacy. This is the online approximation of a person presenting a passport or other proof of identity document in-person to an agency.
(http://psnetwork.org.nz/blog/2007/04/29/5-principles-govt20/)

Several ideas were advanced from http://blog.executivebiz.com/government-web20-trends-for-2008/:

Due to the application of Web 2.0 in government, there will be increased interactions among users internal to the government and with citizens. Every interaction is an opportunity to learn of an unmet need, which is an opportunity to fuel innovation.

Enterprise mashups based on enterprise data are already an expectation among the workforce, but the deployment of this capability in government has been slow to take effect. As government organizations see how others do it, the deployment of secure enterprise mashup capabilities should accelerate.

Knowledge workers need ad-hoc and situational data, which is dynamically integrated in small amounts. As more government enterprises deliver secure mashup capabilities, the ability of the government workforce to efficiently and effectively accomplish their mission should increase, which should have a positive impact on retention, fueling additional benefits to the government’s mission.

It is well known that John Kennedy’s vision of getting to the moon was accomplished through the mobilization of thousands of engineers in a huge program using large mainframes. This can be done through the massive increases in computing power woven together with Web 2.0 collaborative tools. Imagine what could be achieved? Tackle something big to harness the power of Web 2.0, such as reinventing provincial health care delivery systems.

This article was written with the assistance of Howard Oliver, CEO of What If What Next™, he is an expert in Web 2.0.

Originally posted on ITWorid Enterprise Insights May 30, 2008 by Paul E. Rummell

http://blogs.itworldcanada.com/insights/2008/05/30/legacy-modernization-in-government/

Putting the Cart before the Horse

Paul Rummell — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:57:00 -0400

Cisco has come forward with a new vision for the data center. This may really be what I have maintained for the last 15+ years. The future will happen when the “computer is really in the network.”

This is Cisco’s first big shot in a war to control the data center of the future. This strategy, Cisco’s Data Center 3.0, envisions switches at the heart of the architecture with service regulated commodity status for the underlying technology. Essentially, the switches become the epicentre for running and controlling all IT decision-making. Cisco envisions the orchestration of infrastructure services from pools of servers, storage, and network resources over Gigabit Ethernet networks.

Cisco’s comments about the data center can be found in “Transforming Your Data Center One Project at a Time.” The following is a direct quote: “The emergence of the human network is raising individuals’ and organizations’ expectations about how technology, and their IT organizations, can support their objectives and evolving work styles. The data center IP network, as the platform that integrates, protects, and scales other IT resources, is central to the fulfillment of the human network’s promise. A process evolution from transactions to interactions is leading to the emergence of data centers built on network-based service-oriented infrastructures (SOI). SOI softens traditional server, storage, and network operation silos and allows well-integrated IT departments to treat their data centers as single functional units composed of interdependent, virtualized pools of storage, network, server, and application resources to better support applications and meet the challenges introduced by a more distributed interaction model across and between organizations.”

”Why is the network so integral to service-oriented infrastructure? According to IDC (Abner Germanow, “Why Is Networking Growing Faster Than the Rest of IT?” June 4, 2007), “Server virtualization, storage virtualization, and the federation of software applications, to name three examples, are all enabled by the network… As trends in computing evolve from consolidation back to scaling out and scaling up, the potential for the network to participate in the security, reliability, and management of that scale will rise.

”It’s not a bad vision, say industry analysts, and it is shared by server and storage manufacturers. Thanks to virtualization, the server’s role in the data center is increasingly being diminished. Virtual storage, virtual processors, and virtual memory, and maybe even virtual networks, are coming. The major server makers acknowledge that this is the future.

Cisco is saying that because everything converges on the network, network architecture will make the overarching decisions on resource allocation. In other words, the control plane is collapsed onto the network.

Here are some reference points. This announcement can be found at Data Center - Cisco Systems: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns708/networking_solutions_solution_segment_home.html

This announcement shows that Cisco is committed to a full virtualization strategy, which I wrote about in my blog post “Does Virtualization Equal ‘Bullet Proof’?”: http://blogs.itworldcanada.com/insights/2008/01/

Essentially, we are moving away from the era of computing just being an amalgamation of devices in the network. This has been a big break from the status quo for the last 50 years. Cisco’s move is a clever attempt to avoid being displaced and relegated to commodity status.

Other major vendors are following suit. For example, today Nortel released the announcement “Nortel Virtualization Solution Simplifies Network for Instant, Secure Launch of Unified Communications”: http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&oid=100239954&locale=en-US Nortel is trying to capture control of the virtual data center. Here is a quote from that release: “Nortel’s network virtualization solution enables enterprises and service providers to simplify their communications infrastructure by allowing resources to be made available in a collective manner and to be allocated as needed,” said Cindy Borovick, Research Vice President, Data Center Networks, IDC. “This maximizes the capabilities of their network, decreasing wasted resources. It also limits the equipment that needs to be deployed, delivering savings over the life of the solution. The integration with a server virtualization solution gives new options for end-to-end virtualization deployments.”

It will be interesting to see how all these initiatives play out. In later posts, I’ll cover how Microsoft, IBM, SUN, HP and others want to play in this space.

I have to apologize for not posting in the last few weeks, as I have been commuting back and forth from India. It is a very exciting place to work. My experiences there will be the focus for some Enterprise Insights in the future. Once I’m back from my next trip and recovered from another round of jet lag.

Posted on April 30th, 2008 by Paul E. Rummell - ITWorld Canada

Software as a Service: My Own Story

Paul Rummell — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:35:00 -0400

I have a great example of using Software as a Service (SAAS) from my own day-to-day experience. One of the complexities that I have faced in doing consulting work has been the coordination between my desktop PC (which is used for most of my industrial-strength analysis and report writing), my laptop (which I travel with), and my Blackberry (which is with me all the time, much to the chagrin of my partner).

For the last few years, I have been using ISPs and getting my mail via POP services. Using an ISP with a POP service has been prone to breakdowns in getting my mail. For several years, I used Plaxo to synchronize between my desktop and laptop with limited success. Plaxo required me to synchronize my contacts, tasks and notes when I was back at the office through cradling my Blackberry. Normally I made changes to my schedule ‘on the fly’ and would not often get back to my office to do the necessary resynchronization between my Blackberry, desktop and laptop. So managing this whole thing was a real pain! Changes have to be done in real time across my desktop and mobile device to ensure reliable control over my activities.

Recently, I spent some time looking at other solutions: Google calendars, IMAP and other services. None of these approaches really meet the bill for me, particularly with the now-basic requirement to have real-time synchronization with my Blackberry, reliability and extreme ease of operation. None of those solutions offered real-time updates between my three work tools.

Well, I’ve finally found a solution that meets the bill in the coordination between my technologies that I use in my far flung and frenetic advisory work – a hosted exchange server.

Microsoft announced recently that it is launching into hosted exchange server services (reference http://www.microsoft.com/online/exchange-online.mspx). Microsoft Exchange Online is a hosted enterprise messaging solution that provides: “…capabilities to your users with a single sign-on, including e-mail, shared calendaring, and contacts. And it works with Active Directory to ensure that information is synchronized between your local and online directories, allowing your IT department to support a mix of hosted services and on-premise software. Additionally, Exchange Online supports business continuity and disaster recovery with cloud-based antivirus and spam filtering and high data center security standards.”

But the service does not offer a connection to my Blackberry. So after looking at this offering, I did not choose the Microsoft service and elected to go through one of their partners who provide services not only for hosted exchange, but also for BES (Blackberry enterprise server) (http://na.blackberry.com/eng/solutions/types/enterprise/ ).

There are a number of excellent service providers that deliver hosted exchange for a very low price with integration with Blackberry and all the security, backup and support needed. In addition, you can use services from these best-of-breed providers for SharePoint and other software services. Suggested vendors include 123Together, Intermedia and Rogers.

I have been very pleased with this switch from the problematic use of a POP3 and the constant hassle of trying to synchronize, many times unsuccessfully, between my own work and personal technology. One of the really great things is that it is a no-hassle solution at a reasonable price! Basic price is $9.95 per month for 500 MB of storage. For a small additional fee, I get full integration with my Blackberry.

This is a real boom for the SME sector. Individuals or small or medium-sized companies, who are contemplating using an exchange server and setting up a BES server should seriously think about using a hosted Exchange solution. It makes working on the fly economically possible.

Posted on March 20th, 2008 by Paul E. Rummell - ITWorld Canada

Feeling the Heat

Paul Rummell — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:37:00 -0400

Predictions are that the IT security situation in Canada will worsen

‘Canadian companies are over-confident and lax when it comes to their IT security. Business leaders aren't taking it seriously and IT leaders aren't providing best practices’. This is a recent stunning comment from Vito Mabrucco who is responsible for managing IDC's U.S. based global consulting. In an uncertain world, there is bound to be an unexpected event or failure that will bring it back to ‘top-of-mind’ status for IT and business executives for 2008. I predict a sudden surge in growth managed security services because the security function can now be outsourced. IDC also sees this potential for growth. (Source: http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=46737&PageMem=2)

Why this hesitancy to evolve security strategy? Why are business leaders not taking security seriously? In Canada, legislation has not yet mandated security as a governance issue, except obliquely through privacy legislation. The same holds true in the US. We have Bill C-198 that has legislated reporting compliance for the private sector and has set the tone for quasi-public organizations in reporting, operational, and financial controls. These rules (except for privacy legislation and some security policies) do not apply to the public sector.

Leaders have not woken up to the fact that their organizations use their systems as the backbone for these reporting and control processes. Any major breaches and damage to their IT operations will taint the integrity of their organizations. Many ill informed executives are building walls around their organizations as an afterthought rather than building security throughout all of their procedures, databases and processing.

Should security be outsourced if not properly done in house or if there is a lack of confidence in IT by senior management? The answer is yes! Boards of Directors, Executives IT leaders and auditors must assess the competence of their teams to be absolutely sure they are effectively managing a rapidly changing landscape of IT security. If they cannot afford or do not have a team that can protect them they need to go outside and hire some real talent to manage their IT security. Managed security service providers are a real answer.

What criteria should be used to select a managed security provider:

Does the IT security managed services vendor understand your business and all its’ risks?
Are they ‘on top of their game’ to proactively protect and manage you environment?
Are they cost effective?
Can they work with your executives and team?
Do they have offerings that will fit into all of your environments and be proactive in averting all reasonable treats?
Do they have a good range of products and services?
Can they communicate well on what they are doing and what counter measures they are taking?
Can they lead you and your organization through appropriate transitions and changes to make this effective not just around your systems and process, but embed proper security in all that all you and your organization ode?
What are their best practices for the security domain?
How are they evolving on a day-to-day basis to protect the information assets of their client organizations and their vital information assets?

Who are the up and coming managed security providers? The telecommunications carriers are now offering good managed IT security offerings. These are telecommunications companies, like Bell, Telus, Allsteam , SIs, ISPs, ASPs, security software companies like CA, Symantec, HP, IBM, CISCO, the big 4, offshore providers and specialty IT security firms.

IT security is a high stakes game. Zero day threats require immediate action and there must be constant monitoring of the external and internal environments to be sure there are no intrusions. It is now a fact we have to manage our information assets like ‘Fort Knox’. If it is not done properly you could have huge operational, reputation and financial losses.

Posted on ITWorld Enterprise Insights, March 3, 2008

Trying to Throw the Brick through the Cloud – Microsoft/Yahoo vs. Google

Paul Rummell — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:21:00 -0500

There has been much press and discussion about the potential merger between Microsoft and Yahoo (the brick) in an attempt to become a formidable force against Google (the cloud). Yahoo management does not want to be taken over and they have recommended rejection of the offer, turning this into a potential hostile takeover. The hostile takeover of Yahoo seems to be somewhat probable based upon market reaction and the premiums offered by Microsoft to Yahoo shareholders. Microsoft certainly has the capability, with its’ multibillion dollar ‘war chest’ for huge acquisitions. I am sure Yahoo will put up quite a fight. There are reports that Yahoo is trying to align with AOL and even Google to fend off the Microsoft bid.

Whether the deal does go through or not, as would be expected, Microsoft is laying plans to integrate Yahoo effectively. The word is out that Microsoft’s executive and product teams are mandated to do the integration/mash-up between Yahoo and Microsoft quickly. The integration will be a challenge because Microsoft and Yahoo have very different styles and very different philosophies. Let’s take a moment to explore just how different they are.

Microsoft invented software for the PC as an engine for empowerment. Microsoft enabled the next step in ‘islands of automation’ beyond the glass house of the datacenters. They went on to dominance of the shrink wrapped products (bricks) selling operating systems and suites. Along the way, Microsoft built a reputation for a style of slow development with security loopholes – something that does not work in the security sensitive and integrity sensitive world. Microsoft admits it was late to see the vision of the PC being really more trivial than the power of the network or ‘cloud’. The cloud is really the power of the network connecting all those PC resources and media together into the collective of the web and more importantly Web 2.0.

Yahoo really defined the meaning of the internet portal as a landing and jumping off place to the web and has built a large following for instant messaging, as has Microsoft. Yahoo has not been able to get unstuck from where it was and is not as innovative or creative as Google. So in fact Google is not a leader in Web 2.0 either. Let’s look at Google for a point of comparison. Google’s philosophy works for the impact on People, not for money. That is one of the reasons why Google is so successful. Google has been able to keep up with the redefined web to stay on the curve. There is a great write up about this at: Google - Our Philosophy ‘Never settle for the best’ - http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html . They have also published “Ten Things Google has found to be true” which are:

1. ‘Focus on the user and all else will follow.

2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.

3. Fast is better than slow.

4. Democracy on the web works.

5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

7. There’s always more information out there.

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

9. You can be serious without a suit.

10. Great just isn’t good enough.’

This Google mantra is great, but how does it really fit into the enterprise computing world, is this just another security threat or way to defeat the integrity of our information assets?

So what we see is a binary with Microsoft and Yahoo on one side and Google on the other. What about the customer here? It is the CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CIOs and CTOs who are ultimately going to pay the freight for this acquisition. They are going to ask the Microsoft account people, if the deal goes through, ‘what are the new solutions?’

Based on my experience those senior IT people will be asking: ‘How does this fit to my enterprise IT operation?’ How will these merger ‘mash-ups’ fit back into our operations and large complex enterprise databases which we rely on? How does this empower my users and employees, while still integrating into the greater whole of our enterprise safely with integrity? How will Yahoo/Microsoft/Google applications or portals talk to my enterprise platforms? What is empowerment anyway? Is it really a codeword for lax security and impulsive undisciplined behaviour or real breakthrough creativity? Will this end up like herding cats? Does this belong in the enterprise?

If these questions are not answered correctly, Microsoft will be facing a cool reception and that high per share price for the hostile takeover will be a great misstep. The result could be as impactful as throwing a brick though a cloud.

Originally posted on ITWorld Enterprise Insights, February 18, 2008

Paul's Post in the itWorld Canada Blog - Enterprise Insights

Howard — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:35:00 -0500

Does Virtualization Equal ‘Bullet Proof’?

Virtualization has been available to the IT world for more than four decades, yet it has still not really taken off in the multi system environment. Many vendors are pushing this approach to deploying ‘flexible technology’, yet it still has not emerged beyond the ‘glass house’ of the data centers or server closets. IBM invented this technology 40 years ago and Microsoft is pushing this ‘old wine in new bottles’ with their ‘Dynamic IT’ moniker. The Microsoft approach is laid out in “Harnessing the Power of Virtualization for Dynamic IT”, January 21, 2008 by Bob Muglia, Senior Vice President, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft Corporation at http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2008/01-21virtualization.mspx. Still this technology has not taken off for the enterprise. What are the reasons for this deployment stalemate? Some of the reasons and aspects of deploying these virtual technologies are:

Complexity: This technology is too complex for IT architects, development or operations professionals to understand. They are used to developing systems that provide tangible functionality in a tangible way in environments that can be measured and managed. There are not many adequate tools to manage virtual and physical environments together.
Security: Whenever anyone says the environments are very flexible and unconstrained, I know there is going to be a security and control problems. Today, it is so difficult to keep the ‘hatches batten down’ against security, compliance or confidentiality breaches in tightly controlled rigid environments. All the senior IT executives that I work with are under the ‘Sword of Damocles’ to keep their organizations safe and sound. Why would they want to move to this still to be proven technology that can potentially move their computing from the mainframes and servers to across their networks to all the desktops in their organization? Don’t you think there will be some ramifications if a major chunk of confidential client data gets mixed into some ones instant messaging or email stream?
Unified Communications: A large part of this technology relies on unified communication systems. These are most often managed by telecoms without the full integration, and bandwidth and hardening required for industrial strength IT operations and consolidation of all the virtual resources across the organization. This represents a huge loss of control for IT.

While is true that there is great promise for virtualization, its’ time is still not quite here, except for data centre rationalization, storage farms and server consolidation. The dream of running all resources in a ‘big basket’ is not ready for prime time.

Again there is much promise in this technology that will make IT more cost efficient, responsive and flexible… More work is required to assure the IT buyer that this technology is very robust and secure. The underlying complexity and security management issues require better unified management, security and control technologies systems to make virtualization ‘bullet proof’. Enterprise customers really need something that can be taken for granted to make it feasible to run across their large operations.

See: http://blogs.itworldcanada.com/insights/2008/01/29/does-virtualization-equal-%e2%80%98bullet-proof%e2%80%99/

Paul's Post in the itWorld Canada Blog - Enterprise Insights

Howard — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:29:00 -0500

Some sober second thoughts on 2008 IT predictions

The New Year always starts with a bang of predictions on what’s hot and what’s not. Most of these predictions are just more hype to get you going with some new technologies or get some more zip into your conversations.

The best list of predictions I have seen for 2008 is the in the McKinsey Quarterly, January 9, 2007 entitled ‘Eight business technology trends to watch”. To quote this paper, ”Technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value: companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business. … The McKinsey trends fall within three broad areas of business activity: managing relationships, managing capital and assets, and leveraging information in new ways.”

The piece is well written. It describes trends for technology as business or organizational outcomes and objectives and not just technical jargon. You can confidently send this along to your business and IT counterparts whose eyes tend to glaze over from management buzz words or techno-speak.

Highlighted is the ubiquitous move to collaboration, social networking and the new web (Web2.0) is given prominence as a collaborative tool for organizations and individuals:

“Web 2.0 technologies—it has become a more widespread platform for interaction, communication, and activism. Consumers increasingly want to engage online with one another and with organizations of all kinds. Companies can tap this new mood of customer engagement for their economic benefit.”

That is fair enough. Fact is, for many large organizations and financial institutions with very serious security requirements web 2.0ish implementations have to be handled carefully. But there are “sandbox” solutions out there that work admirably.

I suggest getting IT planning, security and communication groups work together to explore the opportunities and evolve new processes that can succeed for companies where reputation and security are core raison d’être.

Effective Web2.0 is not the only issue for beleaguered IT leaders. There is much pressure to get into virtualization, green computing, open source, and a plethora of new approaches. Here are some things I know from my advisory work and experience which must be included on your list for 2008:

• Relentless pressure on cutting costs and contributing to the bottom line
• Improved security that runs throughout the organization’s interactions, people and its systems, not just around them
• Protecting your information assets right down to the attribute level
• Using software as a service effectively and getting it properly deployed
• Further integration of your systems to allow for slicing and dicing your data into business information that can be used to better manage or build new businesses
• Unplugging the mainframe and less efficient technologies which can no longer be efficiently or properly supported
• Getting on track with ‘green computing’ so you continue to minimize your environmental footprint and eventually go at least ‘carbon neutral’
• Start making ‘the cloud’ work, network computing and sharing of resources through virtualization and other techniques really is giving us a headache.

These are some opening thoughts for discussion in 2008 and beyond… I ask for your contributions, comments and insights as part of this blog.

See: http://blogs.itworldcanada.com/insights/2008/01/22/some-sober-second-thoughts-on-2008-it-predictions/

Published in Canadian HealthCare Technology June/July 2007

Howard — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 07:55:00 -0400

Healthcare IT procurement:

Key factors for success
A unique set of issues surrounds the acquisition of information technology by healthcare organizations.
By Paul Rummell Lou Milrad

Do enjoy the enclosed article.

Paul

Paul E. Rummell - CIO at large

Howard — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:55:00 -0400

I was interviewed recently for IT Business. See:

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/ComputerCanada/News.asp?id=42746&bSearch=True

Paul

Security and Privacy “selling to the C-Suite” without just FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt)

Howard — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:25:00 -0500

Paul Rummell speaking notes for an address to the Toronto ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) Annual General Meeting on January ...

Paul's Response to Question 7

Paul Rummell — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 09:22:00 -0400

7. How would you foster leadership from clinicians, CEOs, support staff and administration staff, integrating their efforts to achieve critical results?

The key to leadership is involvement and buy-in... It is making sure that all their interests are served and that they all get benefits, both tangible and intangible. They need to build teams of their peers and build 'spheres of influence' among their colleagues. They have to understand the rewards for the appropriate use of technology are tomorrow not just today... There must be much coordination in this process and there must be overall leadership by the CIO, CEO or 'key advocate" for the technology.

Great ideas don't just happen. Here's how to light up your IT group.

Howard — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 21:17:00 -0400

This article by Mary Brandel in Computerworld caught my eye.

March 06, 2006 - About a year and a half ago, a group of IT directors at Partners HealthCare System Inc. took a look at their 1,200-strong organization and made a bold admission: They weren't as creative as they used to be. Despite pioneering technology efforts in the '80s and '90s, the IT group faced a health care landscape that was more complex and competitive than it was 10 years ago. "One of the things that occurs when you grow in size is you lose a bit of your entrepreneurship and innovation," says Mark Woodward, corporate director at Boston-based Partners. "We wanted to try to get some of that back."

So Woodward researched the concept of innovation -- what it looks like, how it's achieved and how an organization can incorporate it into its culture. "You can't just flip a switch," he says.

His research culminated in the January launch of a 16-week program that takes participants on a carefully planned but ultimately open-ended ride to becoming innovators. The 16 participants are divided into four groups, and each team is handed a challenging business problem to resolve. All are then deliberately exposed to new influences far from the comfort of their cubicles. For instance, they are immersed in the work of users in relevant hospital departments, listen to guest speakers and go on thought-provoking field trips such as a visit to the MIT AgeLab. While in the program, they are completely mobile, operating with just a laptop, a handheld device and a common meeting space shared with other program participants.

The hoped-for result? Individual metamorphosis, the rise of an innovation culture in IT and maybe even proposed solutions to the assigned business problems.

Serious Business

Partners' program illustrates just how seriously some organizations are taking innovation. Although innovation has always been important, there's a renewed emphasis on right-brained approaches to succeeding in today's increasingly global, hypercompetitive, unforgiving business world.

"There has been an understandable focus on efficiency and globalization and outsourcing," says Jim Eichner, vice president of advanced technology at Pitney Bowes Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "But a lot of those things have played out to a large degree. People are wondering how to differentiate themselves, and they have to innovate to do that."

"After the dot-com bust, companies kind of went internal," notes Sally Grant, CIO at the California State Automobile Association (CSAA) in San Francisco. "But efficiency and process are not going to take us to greatness." Or to put it another way, "You can't downsize to success," says Scott Anthony, a partner at Innosight LLC, a consultancy in Watertown, Mass.

But the goal is not innovation for its own sake; a key element of current efforts is to stop reacting to what customers are demanding and start anticipating their needs even before they've had a chance to articulate them.

Examples of this business trend include The Procter & Gamble Co.'s Swiffer, a replacement for the old broom-and-mop routine, and Earthbound Farm's prewashed salad mixes. "It's about changing the status quo and delivering something of such value that users adopt it and thereby change what's 'normal,'" says Tom Andrews, a principal at Stone Yamashita Partners, a consultancy in San Francisco.

What does all this mean for IT? Well, just as businesses need to differentiate their brands, IT also needs to prove its worth, and it can leverage innovation to accomplish that goal. "IT has to think of themselves like a stand-alone business," says Joyce Wycoff, co-founder of Innovation Network, a consultancy in Bakersfield, Calif. "Somehow, they have to come up with a vision that both excites them and creates value for their customers."

But for many IT managers, telling their organizations to be innovative is about as helpful as telling someone to have a nice day. It's pretty easy to imagine a few eye rolls among people who have already watched their organizations jump on other expensive and not-always-successful management theory bandwagons.

That's why jump-starting a culture of innovation goes far beyond pinning slogans on walls. For one thing, it's important to create a process for innovation that's distinct from linear project management efforts, which, as Andrews points out, are optimized for decisions, not for trying out new ideas.

This means replacing familiar steps like planning, analysis, design, construction and quality testing with new ones like problem framing, status quo questioning, observation synthesis, hypothesis mapping, prototyping and feedback-gathering.

Key to the process is directing your efforts at a question or problem that you're trying to resolve. Although you want people to think outside the box, you need to impose some type of constraint or else you get what Wycoff calls the "popcorn effect" -- wild ideas bouncing around with no purpose in sight. "The old mind-set was to create a bunch of ideas, get out of the box and let the creativity flow," she says. "But now we realize it's better to spend a lot of upfront time defining what we want to do and exacting criteria for success."

For instance, when developing Partners' innovation program, Woodward polled directors on long-standing business issues they wanted to address. He came up with four: improving patients' telephone interaction with the hospital, establishing a regional data exchange for hospitals to share information, providing better trend data on chronic illnesses and learning how to commoditize Partners' IT infrastructure.

The best way to know what problems exist is to experience firsthand how customers interact with the products and services you offer. "If you look at a highly innovative organization, the first characteristic you see is awareness -- awareness of the needs that need to be fulfilled and of the know-how that's around you," says Robert Price, former CEO of Control Data Corp. and author of The Eye for Innovation: Recognizing Possibilities and Managing the Creative Enterprise (Yale University Press, 2005).

At Amazon.com Inc., for instance, the mantra is, "Start with the customer and work backwards," says Werner Vogels, CIO at the Web retailer. Technology staffers are also regular users of the site, and most undergo a training program in which they take customer calls and respond to e-mails. At weekly meetings, they review e-mails that customer service has received and address frequent questions. "People have to feel responsible that we're really serving customers," Vogels says.

Similarly, when Pitney Bowes wanted to develop a next-generation call center system to improve interaction between customer service representatives and callers, it had IT staffers spend weeks in the call center, listening to calls and studying staff needs.

In innovation circles, embedding yourself within a community of people to see the world through their eyes is sometimes referred to as "ethnography," and it's highly encouraged. "For the IT department to be motivated by true human insight is a wonderful thing," Andrews says.

The idea for JetBlue Airways Corp.'s "paperless cockpit" germinated from just that type of insight, says Todd Thompson, CIO at the Forest Hills, N.Y.-based airline. "It came from sitting in the cockpit and seeing pilots pull out books from those heavy cases they carry around," he says. And after sitting in on morning meetings with managers while they continuously reviewed operations statistics -- such as average baggage-retrieval or airplane-turnaround time -- IT also developed a dashboard system that pushes that data in real time to their desktops.

After all, Anthony points out, much of innovation is facilitating the jobs users are already trying to accomplish -- not enabling them to do something new. "You need to find stuff that customers haven't raised their hands yet to talk about," says Tom Kelley, general manager of Ideo Inc., a design consultancy in Palo Alto, Calif.

Looking Outside

Users aren't the only place to turn for ideas, however. Companies striving to be innovators also look outside their four walls for inspiration. Not only does this get the creative juices flowing by forcing people out of their usual way of seeing things, but it also may help you find someone who has already tackled a problem you want to solve.

P&G has famously established a practice of "open innovation" by connecting with outside experts and partners, with the goal of getting 50% of its new ideas from outside the company. And no wonder: A late-2005 Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. study of 1,000 worldwide public companies shows no relationship between higher levels of research and development spending and high levels of growth, enterprise profitability and shareholder return.

And it just makes sense. "If you think of innovation as problem-solving and you're the problem-solver, you'll take help wherever you find it," Price says.

Some project teams visit museums or hardware stores or invite in guest speakers and performers -- even mimes -- for inspiration, Wycoff says. Or they look for an example of a company that's facing a similar issue but in a different industry or environment. For instance, participants in Partners' innovation program will visit companies outside the health industry, such as Fidelity Investments, State Street Corp. and P&G, for inspiration. Woodward can also imagine sending people to Google Inc.'s headquarters to help figure out how to commoditize Partners' own IT infrastructure.

"You need to think of your company as an ecosystem," Vogels says. "You want to leverage the intellectual power of the larger community. There might be a student in a dorm room with a bright idea [about] Amazon.com, and we'd like to foster that."

Pitney Bowes has benefited by reaching out to what might seem like strange bedfellows. After studying Web purchasing, the IT department collaborated with eBay Inc. as well as its own product development and marketing groups to carve out a niche for the company's otherwise traditional business. It developed a system through which eBay sellers can download postage and shipping labels. "Great companies get people together," Kelley says.

But diversity can also be found within a company, where hiring practices can encourage a wide range of input. At CSAA, Grant likes to hire staffers who reflect the makeup of the company's membership. "If you have a diverse workplace, you will get excellent input," she says.

At JetBlue, the company purposefully tries to hire at least some people from outside the airline industry, Thompson says. And at Partners, Woodward took pains to choose people for the organization's innovation projects who had no previous experience dealing with the business problem at hand. "We didn't want people to have preconceived notions," he says. "It's a risk and a higher learning curve, but we think it's worth it."

Celebrate Failure

Businesses often find it hard to accept that innovation goes hand in hand with failure. "On a good day, nine out of 10 efforts will fail," Andrews says. "You want the failures to be as good a learning experience as the successes."

But doing that means changing the way companies view and even how they talk about unsuccessful projects. For instance, Andrews says, you might talk about a "failed idea" but not a "failed team." Instead of talking about "killing" an idea or project, refer to it as "putting it on the back burner." And if someone comes to you with an idea, don't point out all the things that are wrong with it; ask the person how they can make it even better for the customer, giving it a chance to morph into something successful. This attitude can promote thoughtful risk-taking because people will be less afraid of presenting ideas without a lot of data to back themselves up, Andrews says.

In fact, innovative companies often celebrate failure -- literally. W.L. Gore Associates Inc., best known as the developer of Gore-Tex fabric, is known to end unsuccessful projects with champagne. Others hold "failure parties" in which refreshments are served and managers share with the staff their own failed project experiences.

Some use humor. After a new in-flight snack idea was tested on JetBlue and then quickly jettisoned, "no one was fired or deeply chagrined," Thompson says. In fact, the episode became an entertainment device, as a picture of the innovator was posted on the company intranet, along with a contest to write an essay on why the change was silly. "There's a cultural acceptance that we're going to make mistakes once in a while if we're going to be innovative," Thompson says.

In the end, innovation is a slippery concept, demanding chaos and discipline, process and flexibility, New Age approaches and old-fashioned common sense. After all, the motivation to innovate often emanates from the everyday thought, "There has to be a better way." Says Price: "It's about really giving a damn about something and being determined to find the know-how to help you with that problem."

Innovation Interruptus (2003) Brandel is a Computerworld contributing writer in Newton, Mass. Contact her at marybrandel@verizon.net.

Paul's response to question 6

Paul Rummell — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 08:51:00 -0400

There is a need to attract the 'best and brightest' technology and informatics talent to healthcare. These people should not be just from a technology background, they should be clinicians, technicians, administrators, finance, HR, industrial / management / functional experts and other...

Paul's response to question 5

Paul Rummell — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:53:00 -0400

5. How can a rigorous set of SLAs or benefits related to technology, resources, change management, and other aspects of the whole system be related to patient outcome?

Much discipline is required by the organization to provide adequate sponsorship from the clinical, staff, administrative and executive stakeholders and users. The clinical and statistical outcomes should be to the extent possible setup as quantifiable measurements and made as tangible as possible. Careful planning will have to be undertaken by not just technologist but by end users who will take ownership of the end solutions and new clinical / business processes. There must be strong leadership and their must be buy-in by all to effectuate the changes needed to make the appropriate use of technology succeed. The greatest benefits of technology are not in the first implementation (which is most often very painful) it is in the ability to appropriately share, decimate and reuse information. One of the main reasons health informatics implementations are so far behind this that it is such a painful and complex process to start this implementation process. There are so few organizations who do it 'right' or stick with it to get the integration benefits.

There have to be new measurements - Service Level Agreement's (SLA), charters or contracts put in place between user departments, health administrators, vendors and the government to get long term results which are based patient, clinical and commercial outcomes. These are not just dollar and cents contracts, these are long term performance agreements which are based on subjective and objective measurements, outcomes and results.

Paul's response to question 4

Howard — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 08:13:00 -0400

4. What are the real business drivers for health informatics, when there have been no demonstrated benefits?

Opportunities for vendors, but I’m hearing that a number of them want to abandon the health care marketplace as the opportunity costs and indecision are too at too high a cost.

Paul's response to question 3

Howard — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 15:00:00 -0400

3. Is the EHR the Holy Grail? How would you move the quest for it forward? Are there other areas to concentrate on now?

No – the problem is really not much different than constructing complex spreadsheets or large databases of accounting and transaction records from data. The Banks have figured it out in allowing customers to download critical data into your favorite spreadsheet or accounting program. We really need to look at how similar issues have been handled in other sectors – it’s all about getting back to basics. There has been a solid infrastructure build here in Ontario through the Smart Systems for Health Agency. There must be a strong commitment from all levels and all disciplines to 'make things happen'.

Paul's response to question 2

Howard — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:11:00 -0400

2. You were the first CIO of Canada. If you were offered a similar portfolio for the health care sector in Ontario, would you accept the job? Why, or why not? What would your first 100 days look like, and what could be accomplished six months, one year and three years into the job? What shocks would you send through the system? How would you manage the multiple stakeholder groups that would be involved—how would you build a picture of what they would get?

I would regard this as the ultimate career challenge!

I’d likely spend the first 100 days trying to figure out “who’s on first” among all the interest groups and why public/private health care providers, IT vendors and government are have not for the most part been in a meaningful and constructive dialogue. In effect, a process review and planning, that I personally would lead with input from other results-oriented experts. I’d try and include my 3 co-panelists as the first of the team. I’d look to built partnerships and alliances around existing expertise and products.

Paul

Gardiner Roberts LLP Conference on Health Informatics - June 19, 2006

Howard — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:07:00 -0400

Paul was a panelist at this lively and important health informatics event. To report on the conference and the health informatics sector in general, we posed the following list of questions to Paul, to be answered in a series of blog entries over the coming two weeks. The intent is to communicate a vision to add to the conversation going on about this critical sector. We welcome your comments as well.

Questions:

Paul, can you answer the following questions based on the discussions and presentations at the June 19, 2006 Gardiner Roberts LLP conference on Health Informatics, which you attended?

1. There are some givens, for example we know that:

· “The health system” is a misnomer—there are really islands of automation and function; the system as a whole is quite dysfunctional.

· Strong project management skills are missing in the sector—there are too many inexperienced people in the industry (“kids buying servers as though they were Xboxes”).

· There is a real lack of trained professionals in the field.

· There is a supernal structure that does not lead to anything. Are those huge structural elements being invested at the expense of people and skills?

· Vendors do not play together; it is not in their interest.

· $10 – $15 billion has to be spent on health informatics in Ontario, According to Dominic Covvey.

· Organizations are not investing in people with soft skills.

These ideas point to a lack of coherent strategy. What strategic vision could you start to sketch out to deal with these related issues? What project management capabilities would be required for an investment of that magnitude and complexity?

3. Is the EHR the Holy Grail? How would you move the quest for it forward? Are there other areas to concentrate on now?

4. What are the real business drivers for health informatics, when there have been no demonstrated benefits?

5. How can a rigorous set of SLAs or benefits related to technology, resources, change management, and other aspects of the whole system be related to patient outcome?

6. Could you sketch out the project management skills that hospital-based HI professionals should be bringing to their work? What would the soft and hard skills be? Would you include clinical skills, industrial and management engineering?

7. How would you foster leadership from clinicians, CEOs, support staff and administration staff, integrating their efforts to achieve critical results?

8. How are we going to relate to technology optimists or pessimists in health care?

9. There is not a cohesive health informatics strategy for the Province of Ontario. How might one come about?

Health Informatics - The Next Five Years

Howard — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 21:03:00 -0400

Paul Rummell will be part of an executive panel at an Executive Leaders’ Breakfast Round-Table on Health Informatics, June 19th, 2006, 7:30 - 10:00 a.m., at The Toronto Board of Trade, Downtown Centre.

See the enclosed brochure.

Career Highlights

Howard — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:49:00 -0400

Paul is working with several major organizations as an Advisor to help them build their business development capabilities, and to strengthen their sales and marketing operations. In addition, he is providing advice on critical large projects, procurement opportunities and other issues. Paul is also, serving as an independent Director for several corporate Boards.

As the first Chief Information Officer for the Government of Canada, Paul established a new strategic direction for information technology in government, managing a budget of $4 billion per year and a professional staff of 16,000. During his term as Federal CIO, Paul developed a strategic technology implementation plan for Canada, recruited 1,000 information system professionals, managed IT investments and operations, and created information policies, while achieving economies in the IT and IM infrastructure and operations across the government.

Paul has substantial experience with ERP/CRM, including 16 SAP installations and 28 PeopleSoft installations. In addition, he has experience with Siebel and Pivotal CRM systems and has extensive knowledge of and experience in e-business, internet/intranet, networking, telecommunications and all underlying technologies.

Paul was the Director of Information Systems for Vancouver General Hospital, a leading North American health care centre and the second largest hospital in Canada.

Paul was President of the Technology Subsidiary and CIO of one of the top Global Performance Management firms. He revitalized the business, putting together a new management team, sales force and administrative staff, prepared business plans and secured financing.

As a Senior Partner of KPMG Consulting Canada, Paul was responsible for establishing the Financial Services Enabling Technologies Practice for KPMG Canada. He recruited a focused financial services team, secured and delivered consulting assignments to major clients, and completed projects using electronic payments and other leading edge technologies.

Paul was a Partner/Practice Director – Pacific Region for Ernst & Young. He restructured and focused the IT consulting practice on major corporate, institutional and entrepreneurial clients including financial institutions, utilities, government and health care. He managed the deployment of systems and business process improvement methodology and achieved record profit levels for the practice.

As a Partner for KPMG Peat Marwick, Paul was responsible for the Vancouver Technical Services Practices. He secured and managed a major series of consulting engagements and led the practice in marketing, profitability, services and product planning.

Background

Howard — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:37:00 -0400

Paul Rummell is one of the leading IT professionals in North America. He is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States and is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Paul has over 30 years experience as an IT strategist, innovator and project manager in the financial services, e-government and health care sectors. He is the former Chief Information Officer for the Government of Canada and has testified before the United States Congress on establishing a federal CIO.

Paul is a highly skilled business leader with a proven track record of managing all phases of complex IT initiatives from conceptualization through implementation, while delivering the best return on investment. He has successfully managed many $100 million plus projects, and has been responsible for an IT and e-business budget of $4 billion. Having worked extensively on a global scale, Paul understands the international and technology issues of global operations and installations.

Paul has extensive experience in applied information technologies in major organizations. He has had a broad exposure to technology strategy, governance and management, program / project management, training, quality assurance, testing, security, hardware, software and network technologies. He is proven in applying new technologies and managing a wide variety of complex business and systems environments.

He gets results and achieves high performance.

See Paul's formal resume and bio for more detail.

Service Offering

Howard — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:09:00 -0400

· Developing strategic marketing approaches to secure major projects and contracts

· Establishing effective technology functions at the executive level

· Transforming organizations onto new directions

· Providing strategic management

· Providing governance to a technology company

· Completing investment due diligence

· Delivering electronic commerce and payments processing

· Reviewing critical infrastructure and management

· Evaluation, design and implementation of telecommunications and networks

· Management of very large programs / projects

· Management of project risks

· Planning for contingencies

· Development of security architectures

· Planning and analysis for business resumption

· Reductions in cost for the organization

Results Focused

Howard — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 09:46:00 -0400

· An outstanding, innovative business and technology leader with distinguished career in helping world class companies, consulting organizations and governments deliver service excellence and commercial success leveraging technology to influence operational and financial performance.

· Consistently delivers value in high-profile executive roles, steering enterprise-level strategies, making high-stakes decisions and overcoming complex business challenges.

· Gets results for his clients to improve sales performance, reduce risk and lower costs.

· Versatile performer who can lead both technical and line operations teams, who excels as a self-starting senior account executive and who exceeds expectations in internal/external technology and business consulting roles.

· Uniquely qualified by combination of high-calibre management qualifications, strong business acumen, technical proficiency and proven leadership talents.

· Expert in global business.

· A seasoned public speaker and outstanding corporate ambassador.

· A committed, hard-working and adaptable team contributor and leader recognized for big picture strategy skills and hands-on delivery.

· Strong interpersonal skills.

· Quick study.