Competitive advantage

Managing During Disasters Part 2

Although this disaster was not hard to over come, it really alerted me to have a good communication system in place under a bigger disaster recovery plan. I already have a plan to make a solid “disaster recovery plan”, but I never felt the urgency to include a plan on how to keep work flowing while our phone system and internet were out.

We discussed an alternate phone system or internet connection, we can use mobile internet as a back up for our wired LAN. We need to keep good call back numbers for all our clients in case we have to initiate the contact. We will also consider including a mobile phone number in our company contact numbers in the instance of our land line malfunctioning. Also, we designated another location for our technicians if everything else fails.

This was a fast resolution for an unexpected problem; a fully detailed disaster recovery plan is a must for any organization. Many people may think “oh I am sure they have a good back up plan”, but you will be surprised by how many, large and small organizations, who don’t have a solid disaster recovery or back up plan in place.

Managing During Disasters Part 1

You may have the best staff in world, you may have the best technology money can buy, you may have an unlimited budget, but when a disaster strikes, you better be prepared.

I learned a hard lesson when, our phone system and the internet went down, and we were not reachable. Imagine being in the customer service business and your customers can’t reach you, what effect does an issue like this have on your customers and your business reputation.

I wasn’t at all prepared do deal with such a disaster. We called the phone company but more than 24 hours passed and we were still without phones. I thought something like this would be rare in today’s technologically advanced world, but I know now that I have to deal with facts and never assume anything.

We don’t have a disaster recovery plan, so what do we do to get back to our normal operation?

I had to act fast and my staff made huge efforts to keep things in running order.

This incident made me come up with some quick resolutions and put the “disaster recovery plan” on top of my “things to do” list.

We were able to manage by:

1- Making an extensive use of cell phones: although you can never use cell phones to run a business, not yet at least, we had to resort to our cell phones to stay in touch with our customers. We contacted out main clients and informed them about the situation. I asked the site manager to start to call all customers who have pending issues, to inform them about our status and assure them that we are on top of things.
2- One of our managers has a relative who holds a high position with the phone company so we asked him to get his contact involved and try to expedite a fix for our phone system.
3- I made sure all the staff was on location each day with a cell phone.
4- We hired our own electrician to check the phone lines, as we were waiting for the phone company technician to arrive.
5- I was on hand for any extra help.

Managing in an ever changing technical world

*** I first posted this article almost 2 years ago***
In my daily work, I am faced with the same question everyday, what next? Interaction with my staff, our clients, and reading the news, lead me to ask more questions. What new technology that I have to watch for? What skills my staff will need to develop over the next few months in order for them to remain technically competitive? How long the demand for our current skill set will will last?

As a manager, I must always be prepared for the next big technical trend and shift in demand. From my daily observation, I can see which skills will be in demand for few years to come and which skills will be in low demand.

Networking skills will be in high demand for few years to come, demands will include:

1-Network engineers of various skill levels from home networking to large corporate networks
2- Network equipments of various size and functionality from small routers which support few computers to fiber optic cables that span the globe.

Data back up will be in high demand too. I have seen the disasters that were caused by date lose; I have seen it at small firms as well as big corporations. The demand will be more noticeable with small businesses. Since much of the world is going digital, the traditional archiving using paper folders and steel cabinets is giving way to the more convenient digital archiving. Many small business need to be educated on the advantages of having their data backed up digitally, since sooner or later most of their business transactions will be done online 100%

I believe most small business owners will good potential clients for data backup technology if:

1- They were presented with easy to use and understand back up solutions
2- The solution is within their budget, which is possible since the price for backup equipment is dropping rapidly

VOIP is growing rapidly and eventually all phone communication will be done using Voice over IP technology. VOIP will lower the cost of long distance calls to almost nothing. Worrying about your long distance phone bill will be a thing of the past.

In my daily work, I have noticed the momentum the above three technologies is gaining, of course there are many other technical advances that are being achieved in other areas which also worth observing.

As I notice technologies that are gaining momentum, I see the demand is dropping or will soon drop for other technologies or equipments.

The prices of desktops dropped scientifically over the past two to three years. Today you could find a used brand name P4 computer in very good working condition with less than $100. These drops in prices will very soon lead to a drop in demands for desktop PC technicians. It will be cheaper for a customer to buy a new Desktop PC than to repair the not functioning one.

I haven’t used any official statistics in this article; I only reported my daily observations and my feeling about the future in my field.

In a corporate environment, keep a close eye on your Intellectual property

Many of us would love to see our innovative ideas and business process improvements implemented in our work place; any honest and hard working manager would do his best to improve the business he manages. But this enthusiasm not always appreciated by corporate management.

I have faced many incidents where I saw my own ideas and improvements been claimed by the management, I was not giving credits for my own ideas. This may happen to you and it is a certainty in a corporate environment.

What to do? You have one of two options:

1- Keep your ideas to yourself unless you are 100% sure you will be credited for them or;
2- Share your ideas if your goal is to show improvements in your department rather then to be individually credited for them

If you think, sometimes down the road, you will be able to have your own business and use your intellectual property to benefit you, then wait for that moment, it may come faster then you may think.

This Sector of IT will remain strong

With layoffs affecting each industry, IT is no exception. IT had its share of layoffs, but one sector in IT remains strong. IT services which are directly related to the modern office functionality. Services such as (network setup, hardware repair and setup, phone systems setup, office application support, on-line or on the phone support, etc.)

These types of services are an integral part of any modern office setup; in fact they are part of many home offices setup. Imagine a day of your life where you can not have access to your e-mail or your LAN connection is not giving you access to the internet or to the rest of your office network, can you, as a business, afford it?

Big part of IT services became an integral part of our lives, they became a necessity, just like transportations or health care, we can’t afford a day without them.

I strongly believe that a need for a good technician will remain strong despite the economic ups and downs.

Cloud Computing and the future of hardware

Reading so much about cloud computing these days get me thinking about the future of hardware. Which type of hardware will have sustained demand and which type will gradually become obsolete?

If I can make a small list, I would see it as follows:

1- Demand for large capacity hard drive will start to slow, since many applications will be hosted online
2- Demand for more memory will remain strong, since working in the cloud environment will require great deal of RAM
3- Demand for faster processor will always be strong although some of the processing will be done in the virtual cloud environment
4- Demand for flash drives and other storage devices will start to slow
5- Demand for network equipments will remain strong
6- Demand for printers and copiers will remain strong
7- Demand for larger screens will remain strong

One of the major advantages of cloud computing is to provide a secure data backup location, the demand of storage devices will start to slow. I don’t see any other type of hardware sales will be affected.

Is India the best place for low cost computing initiatives?

We heard about the $10 laptop that the Indian government is planning to launch,

Now, Airtel India is launching a cloud-based Net PC, the system will cost about $165 and it will consists of a 15 inch flat screen and plug and play system. It will be connected to the could environment via a backend Linux run server for storage and application.

Considering the addressable market size in India and the ever growing middle class population, the Indian market has all the ingredients to make such project a success.

Many users are still worried about the safety of their data in could computing environment, but in a growing economy where people are trying to get the best of what technology has to offer, I think this and other similar projects will succeed.

Data Ownership

Who owns the data that was created while at job? Does the company have rights to all data or intellectual property that was created by an employee? For example, can an employee keep the company’s clients contact list?

Currently, I am working in the State of Qatar and the local laws here state that after a foreign employee finishes his contract, he must leave the country for five years before he can come back and work for another employer, the businesses community argues that if an employee switch jobs, he may take trade secrets with him to the new employer and that will cause them to lose competitive advantage.

I think there is no one standard policy a company should follow; it all depends on the job situation and the total compensation package being offered to the employee for his services.

If you work from home, do you really have a weekend?

With the advancement in communications and the fact that large number of people can afford to buy communications devices made it even easier to get work done while away from office or even work full time from home office.

I have started to work from home since 2003 and needless to say, I work everyday even in weekends. The conventional office hours has no meaning when you work from home; your office is only feet away and you don’t need to get dressed to go to work, you can work in your Pajamas.

This new work style is changing how people work, its changing the traditional work habits and with this change the concept of weekend is changing.

If you look at outsourcing, its very clear is that someone is doing your work away from office. In reality, outsourcing is nothing more than doing office work away from office, either that work done at employee home or done half way around the world, the idea is same, office work can be done outside the office.

Since people can do office work at home, many will start to use the weekend to finish the work of the week ahead or do some catch up.

What is COBIT?

1. What is the purpose of COBIT?
The purpose of COBIT is to provide management and business process owners with an information technology (IT) governance model that helps in delivering value from IT and understanding and managing the risks associated with IT. COBIT helps bridge the gaps amongst business requirements, control needs and technical issues. It is a control model to meet the needs of IT governance and ensure the integrity of information and information systems.
2. Who is using COBIT?
COBIT is used globally by those who have the primary responsibilities for business processes and technology, those who depend on technology for relevant and reliable information, and those providing quality, reliability and control of information technology.

Can I use COBIT as a statement of criteria for specific audit conclusions?
Yes, basing the IT Assurance Guide firmly on the control objectives takes the auditor’s opinion out of the audit conclusion, replacing it with authoritative criteria. COBIT is based on more than 40 standards and best practices documents for information technology from standards-setting bodies (public and private) worldwide. These include documents from Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and the United States. Because COBIT contains all pertinent worldwide standards identifiable at the time of publication, it is all-inclusive with respect to IT controls standards. As a result, COBIT can be used as an authoritative source reference document, providing IT controls criteria on audits.

The above information and more FAQ about COBIT can be found at:

 http://www.isaca.org/Content/NavigationM…