There is this concept that I’m sure will stick to my head for a long, long, time.  The Information Systems Strategy Triangle which is a very simple framework for understanding the impact of Information Systems (IS) on businesses.  The three tips of the triangle are The Business Strategy, the Organizational Strategy, and the IS Strategy.  Of course the Business Strategy in on top, and the other two have to be in alignment with each other as well as with the Business Strategy.  It’s an easy way to understand that whenever you make changes to any of the strategies, you might need some adjustments to keep the triangle balanced.  For example, I have seen organizations making changes to their systems without adjusting procedures, policies, training materials, etc. which lead them to failure.

Several case studies that we discussed in class had a big impact on me.  In the ChoicePoint case study we learned how our personal information is used, sold, and stolen!, but more importantly we learned how to turn a negative situation into a positive one.  ChoicePoint CEO accomplished this by turning the issue (personal information that got stolen) into a learning experience for everyone; he got the Harvard Business School involved, and brought the issue to Congress.  There are many other cases of course, but the point is that next time I get into a difficult situation, most probably I will associate it to one of the case studies from any of my MBA classes.  To not go that far, I recently blogged about FAA contingency plans which is what I was thinking last Thursday on my way to the airport.

I have to confess that this is the only blog I have ever had.  I didn’t like the idea of blogging at the beginning, but I really enjoyed it, I found it interesting and it was a learning experience.

If your plan is to be a manager, eventually you will have to deal with Business Intelligence (BI) products. I had the chance to work on a BI project a few years ago. I loved it!.  After my training at Cognos (www.cognos.com) I designed and built a business intelligence module for a financial core system.

Based on what I remember, this is what I did:
1. Defined my objectives.  I needed to know where I was going and what managers will need out of this BI module.
2. Met with managers and end-users to understand the current situation and what kind of analytics they needed.
3. Put together a high level design document.  This document included the dimensions and measures that will be available as well as basic screen shots of the multiple queries I was planning on delivering.  The hardware team helped me with putting together the requirements for hardware.
4. Put together a detail design document. This document included the layout of the data repository and specs for the nightly batch process that will feed it, as well as other details on the OLAP cubes.  Be very careful with the layout of your data repository; this is the source of your queries and you want them to be fast. Data redundancy is allowed!
5. Developed the OLAP cubes with all the dimensions and measures according to business needs.
6. Trained managers and end-users in how to use the BI tools.
7. Launched the product.

After launching a product of this nature, get ready to make continuous changes for a few weeks, because once they know what they can do with BI tools, they will want more!BI really fascinates me.  BI tools are so powerful.  They allow you to rearrange cubes’ dimensions and get new results in a split of a second. I just enrolled to the BI class for the Spring of 2010.  I’m so looking forward to learning more about this!

When I called Delta to find out what was going on, they told that the problem was not just with my flight, but with thousands of flights across the country.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had an outage that lasted from 5am to 9am.  According to this article http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575707,00.html, two large computer centers in Salt Lake City and near Atlanta were affected, as well as 21 regional radar centers around the country.  Unbelievable! It makes me question what kind of IT security and disaster recovery measures are in place.  Even U.S. Senator Charles Schumer stated that the country’s aviation system is “in shambles” and that technology at the FAA has to be upgraded.  Obviously, this is a matter that is well known by our government. How vulnerable are our FAA systems? After 9/11, I was really thinking that these systems were the most robust in existence and with the best contingency plans ever.  C’mon, 4 hours to restore service, they should do better than that.

Also, I didn’t like the automated message from Delta.  They changed my flight without checking with me first. The message doesn’t give you an option to confirm the flight they’re sending you to or to speak with a representative for arrangements.  After I heard the automated message I had to pullover, look for the phone number, call Delta, and get a new flight out of there.  To make a long story short, I called Delta and I was able to get a flight from Washington.  I drove a lot, but I made it on time for class.  It was a very intense Thursday.

Online processes as well as software can be protected with patents, trademarks and copyrights, but it really is legally and technically complicated to meet all the requirements. Amazon patented its “1-click” purchase process and Priceline patented its “Name Your Own Price” process model, so nobody can imitate those processes. Barnes and Noble started using the “1-click” functionality, and ended up in court! http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/03/08/amazon.bn.dispute.idg/

Apparently, things are about to change and not to the benefit of process owners. Our congress may change the ruling on this kind of patents making them hard to obtain, invalidating many existing ones, and maybe making them difficult to defend in lawsuits. The ruling defines that a patent can only be issued for actual machines or if something is transformed into something else. This news really caught my attention, because it makes me wonder what the future of technology patents is going to be and how business will be able to create core competencies around their internet processes. Check the news out: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573165,00.html

The 2.0 part is just to indicate that the web application design is taken to the next level.  To my surprise, there’s also a definition for Web 1.0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_1.0.  If it’s not 2.0, then is 1.0.  Simple! =)

I’m glad that my IT Management class has opened my eyes to so many new things and has awoken my interest in some cool stuff that I never knew about before.  Today I noticed there’s a link on my company’s intranet page called “Web 2.0”.  When I clicked on it, I saw a list of web applications where all employees can share stuff with each other.  Some of the apps are Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, a blogging app, community network, you tube, and flickr.  To be honest, I’m kind of reluctant of sharing that kind of stuff with my company.  You never know if something can be used against you.  What do you think?

In brief, virtual reality is a computer assisted simulation of a real or imaginary environment that enables users to perform operations and show the effects in real time.  The closest I have been to a virtual environment is in my wild thoughts and my vivid dreams, but since they are not computer assisted, they do not qualify as virtual reality =).  This technology is popular in the entertainment business.  In video games for example, you basically put a helmet on and experience that imaginary environment which might look or feel real, but it is just virtual.  You might remember also two popular movies that show what the future of this technology could be: The Matrix and Minority Report.  Great movies!

This technology is broadly used across industries. It is extensively used for training personnel in operating expensive equipment or risky situations. For example in training pilots and surgeons.  It is also extensively used by the government to train soldiers to drive heavily-armored vehicles, parachuting, and in battlefields.  Virtual reality is used in manufacturing companies of farm equipment, car seats, mufflers and other products to speed up their product design, train workers, and configure factories and stores.  Virtual reality can also be used to improve people with disabilities’ quality of life, for example they can be trained, using this technology, to control an electric wheelchair. 

I’m sharing this ahead of my presentation to see if there is something in particular about this topic that you might be interested in or have a question or suggestion.  Please post it here, so I can incorporate it into my presentation.

When you obtain your PMP certification you have demonstrated to have in- depth knowledge of leading and directing project teams and in delivering projects following, of course, the PMI approach for project management.  So, what do we have to do to get one of those? First, join PMI (www.pmi.org).  And if you really want to do it, do it while you’re a student, so you pay the student fees which are a lot less!.  Second, you have to meet certain educational and professional requirements (bachelor degree, experience as a project manager, and 35 contact hours of Project Management education).  And third, you have to take the exam (by the way, it’s not easy at all).  For more info on the certification process visit: http://www.pmi.org/PDF/pdc_pmphandbook.pdf.

I always regret not having obtained my PMP certification a few years ago right after my company sent me to PMI for training. I came back from that training trip and “filed” my PMP Handbook.  Not a good move! and now I wonder: is my MBA degree going to be good enough, or should I also get my PMP certification? When is school ever going to end? I need a break!!! =)

Did you know that…

3 million manufacturing jobs outsourced since 1998.
400,000 to 600,000 professional services and information sectors jobs have been outsourced in the past few years.
104,000 information technology jobs lost between 2000 and 2003.
At least forty states contract out administration of electronic benefit cards for the food stamps program offshore.

And this is just a sample of how jobs and sectors are being affected by outsourcing overseas….now, do you want to know what’s coming up?

* U.S. employers will move 3.4 million white-collar jobs and $136 billion in wages overseas by 2015.
* The number of service-sector jobs moving overseas each year will hit 588,000 by 2005.
* 14 million jobs are at risk of being sent offshore.

I can probably go on and on with numbers, but I think you got the point. Isn’t it scary? If you are also working on your MBA, aren’t you glad you are doing it and will probably help in managing these outsourced jobs instead of being a statistic?

Source: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/exportingamerica/outsourcing_problems.cfm

I was working in the IT area of a small bank with about 20 branches. The bank just upgraded their systems from S/36 to AS/400. The AS/400 mainframe was already operating for a few months, but the bank had never arranged a fixed and secured space for the mainframe and even the packing box was still on the floor. I guess they had other priorities.

So, it was a normal day at the bank and all of a sudden the AS/400 started beeping. Of course everybody panicked and tried to decipher what the message code they were getting was about. There was also a timer, I don’t remember if it was on the actual mainframe or on the console, but I remember that somebody was announcing how much time was left while people were looking at the manuals and making phone calls to IBM. After about 15 minutes, the computer shutdown bringing down the service of the 20 branches.

IBM was doing some troubleshooting on the phone and after exhausting many of the various alternatives to discover why the AS/400 shut down, they read the next one which was to verify that the AS/400 was plugged in. People laughed, but amazingly that was the reason why it shutdown. Somebody had walked over the cables behind the AS/400 and accidentally kicked the plug out. Who was going to imaging that such a robust mainframe was just unplugged and such a silly accident was the reason of 30 minutes of interrupted service.

Next thing on the agenda was to install the rack and secure all the cables!

The case study on iPremier that we had in class awoke my curiosity on this topic. The case is based on a business that sells luxury, rare, and vintage goods over the internet that was hit by a denial-of-service attack. In this case there were many signs of negligence. But what happened with Twitter? Is their security measures weak or what? I don’t really know, but I can’t imagine what new stuff attackers can come up with every day. There must be thousands of attackers out there trying to steal passwords and personal information or simply sabotage websites.

By the way, Amazon and ebay were also hit by the same type of malicious malware. See more on this CNN video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2009/08/06/dcl.ostrow.twitter.meltdown.cnn