November 2008 Archives

According to data recovery firm Kroll Ontrack, human error is the number one cause of data loss.

Some of the most memorable mishaps:
1. A customer "washed away" her data after putting her USB memory stick through a washing machine cycle.
2. A scientist was fed up with his hard drive squeaking, so he drilled a hole through the casing and poured in oil. The hard drive was completely destroyed, (but he did stop the squeaking).
3. A photographer noticed that ants were living inside his external hard drive, so he sprayed it with insect repellent. The ants died, along with his data.

It's not just about technology;)

You might have seen John Roese's blog, in which he, as Nortel CTO, talked to the transformation of R&D in Nortel.

Most visibly, the R&D program has shifted to what we call "20-60-20"- 20% is late-lifecycle spend, 60% is focused on growth and mature product activity, and a full 20% is directed to emerging and new technologies and markets, such as those in application software. An excellent example of the latter is the Nortel Agile Communication Environment, communications integration software.

Some are asking, whether this transformation is still on track given that John is leaving Nortel at the end of the year and given the state of the world economy.

The answer is absolutely yes.

Last week, Phil Edholm, the enterprise CTO, held his first team meeting to drive forward with the enterprise portions of the advanced research and incubation programs, which John initiated.

The incubation program continues to represent some 3% of R&D, and is targeted at opening new addressable markets outside of the existing business units. A good example of an element of our incubation program is web.alive, a highly innovative e-commerce, e-learning and collaboration application.

I am glad to see that R&D continues to be at the heart of innovation in Nortel.

The moderator/consultant of a recent user/vendor roundtable I attended, asked an interesting question: "What would vendors like customers do to differently?"

On thinking about it, I think that what we want to see less feature-driven RFPs, because
1) Feature lists reflect what can be done rather than what the enterprise needs or is using.
2) Feature lists tend to be backward rather than forward looking, and get in the way of identifying new ways of achieving the same or better results.
Feature lists dictate one particular how, rather than the why or the what.

So what we want to see is more business-driven requirement documents, which
1) Identify the business, application and user needs- the why
2) Identify IT operational and technological/architectural needs - the how
3) Identify the most important business results- the what.

Thanks for asking.

Last week, I attended a user/vendor roundtable (literally, around a boardroom table in a law office) organized by a well respected Canadian consultant. There were some dozen customers, Nortel and Microsoft, and Cisco and Avaya. It was intended to provide insights and practical advice to the attendees.

In general, I think the format was very conducive to a good and generally friendly exchange of information over a 2 hour period.

I found myself agreeing with the Cisco spokesperson more often than not.

To Cisco's comment that in today's climate, saving money was very important, I AGREED.

I then observed that Nortel data solutions could immediately lower your energy bill by 40% and your TCO by up to 50% (as verified by third parties). In addition, UC based on software can also save money by unifying the IT infrastructure, not just the user experience.

Cisco then said that UC was about collaboration. I AGREED.

I said this was a narrow view, stating that while collaboration is very important, UC is all about optimizing business processes, a view that resonated with the audience, particularly when I illustrated the point by giving the example of accelerated patient discharge at Orlando Regional Health.

Cisco then said that integrating Cisco-based communications into business applications would take too long to deliver benefits. I AGREED.

This is exactly the problem with Cisco's network-centric approach which inherently creates bottlenecks for enterprise application innovation. With the Nortel Agile Communication Environment (ACE), we developed an app in 10 minutes while on stage at the Websphere development conference. Now that's the path to business agility and application innovation.

So who says I never agree with Cisco;)

Verizon is basing its managed Telepresence service on a partnership with Nortel. The service provides "complete setup and management of telepresence conferences, including pre-connected and configured video circuits, and the ability for users to make conference reservations online."

Makes sense to me. The service will leverage Nortel's extensive global infrastructure of Multimedia Network Operations Centers.

My guess is that Cisco didn't make the short list, because their solution is a closed system locking the customer and the service provider into Cisco, from cradle to grave. Why would anyone invest millions of dollars in a Cisco proprietary solution?

In contrast, Nortel's solution leverages partnerships with industry leading Polycom and Tandberg, to deliver a broad range of desktop and room video interworking. This is a much better fit with what customers really need.

Previously, I asked the question "In which sport, is human endurance pushed to the limit (athletes have died), and does Internet Hyperconnectivity trump TV?"

Thirty solo racers (including 2 women) left Sunday in an around the world race (the Vendee Globe) in their 20m/60 foot 'formula 1' racing yachts. A good portion of the 27Km trek will be in the southern ocean culminating in rounding Cape Horn, sometimes reaching speeds of as high as 40 knots (roughly 80 kph or 50 mph!). They aren't allowed to touch land, or get any assistance.

Four years ago, the #2 boat came just 5 hours past the leader, while the #3 bought limped in a day later having lost its keel.

Why do I call this extreme sport hyperconnected? While TV camera crews stay home, you can follow the race over the Internet, getting video and audio, podcasts, emails etc from the boats.

This was effectively the headline that greeted me in the local paper.

The sun rose this morning and the sky hasn't fallen.

So time to ponder yesterday's announcements.

Much of the press focused on the $3.4B loss announced. I'm no accountant but I'm told that these charges have no bearing on our current cash position ($2.3B in cash).

Personally, the announcement of 1300 layoffs hit me closer to home. It's very sad when the friends and co-workers find themselves out of a job, after working so hard for something they believed in. But hopefully those in Ottawa will find a job quickly. Consider that in 1997, there were 900 knowledge based companies employing 50,000 workers, while today there are over 1800 companies employing 80,000 workers. And Ottawa is not unique. Good luck and thanks for your contribution to Nortel- the press may not know it but I know our customers do.

The next element of the announcement was the departure of a number of senior executives, among them John Roese, our highly outspoken CTO. I had a lot of time for John. His blog shoes will be filled by Phil Edholm, the Enterprise Corporate Strategy Officer. Phil is no less opinionated and already has his only blog.

John's year-end departure marks an aggressive shift highlighted in today's headline that moves head quarter roles such as the CTO/CMO into 3 lines of business, one of which is enterprise. For me, this establishes the strongest enterprise focus I have ever seen in Nortel (and I've seen a lot over my 36 years here), with sales, marketing, R&D, operations and services under one president, Joel Hackney. This along with great people, strong technology, and discerning customers aligns our stars--- we now have to deliver.

Let me end by highlighting a recent win. HSBC, about as technology and business savvy a customer you can find, chose a Nortel UC solution based on the Nortel Agile Communication Environment. This is a great endorsement of our strategy of becoming a software and services company, or as Joel says "a Communications Integrator".

The sun may have come up, but Nortel, our customers and the industry at large have a storm to weather. I think Nortel is better prepared than it was even a few weeks ago to come out stronger in the end.

In which sport, is human endurance pushed to the limit (athletes have died), and does Internet Hyperconnectivity trump TV?

Someday, your neighborhood politician will walk up to, and even though you've never met, will greet you by name. Someday, politicians running for office and heading into debates, may be tested for this 'banned substance'.

Researchers at the University of Washington and Sandia National Laboratories have developed the latest in heads-up displays, combining a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights! So far only tested on rabbits, but future versions may have integrated 2-way wireless, and solar cells for power. Ever focused on something up close- no problem, micro-lenses will make it appear further.

You could link to face recognition software and have a name display appear before your very eyes when you walk up to someone. Opportunities galore- you could say "the eyes the limit".

I haven't heard anyone talk about incorporating a touch sensitive display so that you can interact with it!

If you are an American, your challenge is separating facts from rhetoric. Hard as this may seem, please make your choice and vote. If you are not an American, you will be watching with great interest on the sidelines.

But in IT, there are no sidelines and there are hard facts!

Who offers 7x better resilience?

Who offers 20x better performance?

Who offers up to 50% lower TCO?

Who offers 40% lower energy consumption?

Who is tightly integrated with Microsoft's OCS? Or with IBM's Websphere or Sametime?

Who offers multi-vendor communications integration software and services?

In IT, you have a choice.