IT is an acronym crazed world. So crazy that sometimes - when running out of
three letter ones - we simply recycle them or add sequence
numbers. Remember MRP, which used to mean Material Requirements Planning,
but then became Manufacturing Resource Planning (called MRP II to avoid
confusion), to only a couple of years - and a few trillion of investments -
later, resurface as ERP.
In that era the term BPR also became popular. BPR stood for Business Process
Re-engineering (see for example Hammer, M. and Champy, J. A.:
(1993) Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution),
a movement that in my perspective*really gained steam from the realization
that throwing new technology (ERP) at existing processes, only offered
limited improvement potential. As Business Process Re-engineering often
resulted in massive redundancies and layoffs, BPR got kind of... (more)
At the end of last month the EU released its plans for "Unleashing the
Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe". But although the document (s)
- just like EU commissioner Kroes in this video - do a good job
describing in non-technical terms what cloud is and why Europe should care
about having a competitive cloud position, it kind of stops there.
Even though it defines three key actions - around Standards, Terms and Public
Sector taking a lead role - most described actions consist of softer
items such as "promoting trust by coordinating with stakeholders",
"identifying best pr... (more)
Ecosystem could be "the word" of 2013, if only vendors, providers, ISVs and
other technology conglomerates stop acting in a "This Town ain't big enough
for the both of us" way.
As an App user* I am increasingly amazed, affected and annoyed by what in my
view can only be described as turf wars between various technology providers.
Increasingly cooperation - that originated by a desire to have a quick time
to market - is being replaced by outright competition driven by a desire to
own the full stack. Some recent examples:
Phone manufacturers replacing perfectly good map application... (more)
Also this year cloud computing was a large topic at Gartner's annual
symposium in Barcelona. It shared the limelight with the other three forces
of the Nexus (Social, Mobile and Information) but managed to pop into most
conversations and presentations.
For those who missed it - and for attendees that did not manage to be in all
parallel sessions at once - video recordings can now be accessed
at gartnereventsondemand.com (highlights available after registration of
email, full sessions for registered attendees).
Personally I did a couple of dozen 1on1's, seven larger sessions
(p... (more)
Even though today's crowning ceremony in Amsterdam enjoyed some modest
sunshine, the temperatures across Europe are at an all time low. A more
reliable indication that spring has started, are the annual Cool Vendor
reports being published.
For the first time this series includes a note dedicated to cloud activity in
Europe. The "Cool Vendors in the European Cloud Computing Market, 2013" note
describes four European vendor making a difference in the local and global
cloud market. The report also points to several other European cool vendors
featured in other notes. Such as in the... (more)