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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.

Management Information Systems, a bit of history

In the early days of business applications programming, there was little interaction between programmers and other IT staff with the rest of the business units. The business people didn’t understand IT and IT folks didn’t understand the business process.

Business people wanted programmers to come up with the ultimate solution for their problems and programmers had hard time explaining to management what is possible and what is not, technically, possible. This created a gray area between management and IT.

The solution was to design a course of study where both IT and Management courses are taught. The idea was to turn-out future managers who start their carriers in IT and move up the corporate ladder to take managerial occupations. These managers will have backgrounds in both IT and business which will help bridge the gap in communications between the two units.

Today, increasing numbers of companies are requiring their IT managers to have business skills since IT is increasingly becoming an integral part of the business process.

Software Developers must look at the global market

“Think about a borderless market”, this what one Microsoft executive said upon establishing a new operation for Microsoft in Dubai. It’s true, we live in an increasingly borderless world, a product that once was designed for a particular market now can be marketed in other parts of the world.

What gave me the idea about this article is the problem I have been facing for quite sometimes finding a good CRM or HR software for my company. I am not looking for solutions provided by major software vendors; I just want something that can be used in the small business environment.

While doing on-line search, I found few good software but the problem was that most of these software were designed to work only in the US or most of their features were set for US work environment.

I tried to search the local market where I work now, Doha, Qatar, for good HR software that fits our business needs and I was very disappointed by the results, most of the software I found were either too expensive or were not well developed and lacked customer support.

I believe there is a huge market in the part of the world, Asia and the Arab world, for small business software, with little customization and localization, many business software that were developed for the US market can be sold in the part of the world.

Phone customer support is getting worse and worse

Imagine this scenario: you call the United States Postal Service to check on a lost package, here how the system would process you:

First; For English press “one” and for Spanish Press “two”

Next; for tracking say “tracking”, for location say “location”, for supply say “supply” and say “other” if you need more services. So you say “other” and the systems comes back to you and says “I think I heard you said “tracking” please say “yes” or “no”. So you say “no” and system goes “hmmm, I think I heard you say “supply”, please say “yes” or “no” and you say “no” and the system comes back and say “lets start all over again”,
for tracking say “tracking”, for location say “location”, for supply say “supply” and say “other” if you need more services.

This time you try to outsmart the systems, or you think you can, so when the system prompts you, you say “other” and you hear the magic word “ I will now transfer your call to a representative” and just when you are about to kick back on your chair, you hear the system “but before I transfer you, I need more information so I can route your call to the right representative” and again you hear the system goes: for tracking say “tracking”, for location say “location”, for supply say “supply” and say “other” if you need more services.

The above scenario is not an imaginary one, this is really happened to me today while I was trying to track a package with USPS, and the story didn’t finish there, I also had to call my bank, the former “Washington Mutual”, and the same scenario.

I told myself, these guys are either afraid to talk to me or they have too much faith in their technology.
The bottom line is: customer service is getting worse.

Management lessons from Apple

The latest news coming from Apple Computers indicates that Steve Jobs may take medical leave from his job as the CEO of Apple Computers. The news caused Apple stock price to fall by 7.3 percent.

Steve Jobs is the brain of Apple Computers and it seems that all Apple’s creativity is centered on him.

As a manager in a small company, I see the problems that we face when our CEO is away, most of our decision process based on his vision, and when he is not around we struggle with our day to day operations. What to do to solve this problem?

We have to think about the danger of having the company revolve around one person and I don’t mean only the CEO, but any employee of the company. In certain companies, some employees are giving so much responsibilities that the company can not survive if they leave the company.

In my current position, I am trying, albeit its bit hard, to limit the responsibilities of each employee to certain areas but at the same time have every employee understand the business process of the company, so if a particular employee leave the job, the company will not suffer.

I am not trying to compare my small company with Apple Computers, I am sure Steve Jobs vision is behind Apple success, but the lesson is: the company must survive even if the CEO or the founder of the company leaves.