Backblog

The reports that the music industry lobby (along with the Entertainment Software Association of Canada and the movie lobby) is seeking the inclusion of SOPA-style provisions into Bill C-11 has generated considerable discussion online and in the mainstream media (CBC, Financial Post). Yesterday, Balanced Copyright for Canada, the group backed by the music industry, fired back with several tweets claiming that opposing their reforms would benefit "illegal BitTorrent sites"and "illegal hosting sites."

Recently had the pleasure of gaining John Holland’s perspectives on the keys to high performing sales teams. The titles of John’s best-selling books, in many ways, nicely summarize his thinking. CustomerCentric Selling and Re-Thinking the Sales Cycle. A summary of our recorded 30 minute conversation:

It doesn’t matter how fancy your ERP system is. It doesn’t matter how closely the system’s capabilities match your company’s needs. It doesn’t matter that the ERP system is SaaS, comes with the latest flavors of business intelligence, or can be used by mobile workforces on their smartphones. No, none of this matters if the system isn’t implemented correctly.

On Tuesday, Facebook annnounced that their Timeline profile would now be available to users worldwide. Although it's currently available only for personal profile pages, many have predicted that brand pages will soon follow.

When old becomes new again, ISVs look to telecom for pricing inspiration. For decades, the telecom industry has been honing what other industries are only now getting into – business models that start with simple subscriptions then add complex pieces such as sign-up/activity/event fees + bundles + add-ons + incentives + promotional products. SaaS operators are evaluating new ways to create multiple revenue streams from each customer by blending limits and usage (usage being the “activities” in which end-users engage in consuming or interacting with goods and services).

For many years, the most prominent critic of the Canadian online music market has been the industry itself. The Canadian Recording Industry Association (now known as Music Canada) has consistently argued that few would want to invest in Canada due to the state of our copyright laws.

Unfortunately, ERP implementations still aren’t any easier than they were 15 years ago when I started in the ERP world. Despite the enterprise software industry’s best intentions to mitigate risk with cloud ERP systems, implementation accelerators, and other tools, ERP failure rates are still high and most projects still take more time and money than expected. For example, our 2012 ERP Report, which will be released next week, shows that nearly half (44-percent) of all ERP implementations fail to deliver at least half of their expected business benefits.

For journalists, bloggers and techies alike, last week passed in a whirlwind of headlines covering the controversy surrounding SOPA, the proposed anti-piracy legislation in the U.S. Some of the powerful language used to characterize the dispute? Protest, blackout, fear and censorship, to name but a few. Some of the bill's opponents, namely Mashable's editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff, have declared that the passing of SOPA, if it were to occur, would be a regression into the "Dark Ages".

While preparing for my recent survey exploring sense of place and location-based services, I wanted to find out the mobile device types and usage patterns of participants.  I have previously offerred my take on the definition of mobile device and blogged on What exactly is a mobile device.

My post this week on the behind-the-scenes demands to make Bill C-11, the current copyright bill, more like SOPA has attracted considerable attention with mainstream (National Post, La Presse) and online media (Mashable, Wire Report) covering the story. The music industry alone is seeking over a dozen changes to the bill, including website blocking, Internet termination for alleged repeat infringers, and an expansion of the "enabler" provision that is supposedly designed to target pirate sites. Meanwhile, the Entertainment Software Association of Canada also wants an expansion of the enabler provision along with further tightening of the already-restrictive digital lock rules.

RIM’s co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis clearly did not want to step aside. Lazaridis laid RIM’s foundation and Balsillie helped him build on it, and what they wrought was wonderful and a beacon for Canada’s tech sector.

If you're local and interested in where mobility is heading in 2012 - and who isn't? - you'll want to join me at the next MobileMonday Toronto event.

TV as we know it is dying, but most people don’t perceive yet the dramatic change that is bubbling below the surface. In a stunning report released at CES, Accenture points to a wholesale collapse of traditional TV viewing. The study found that “the percentage of consumer watching broadcast or cable TV shows, movies, or videos on TV in a typical week plummeted from 71% in 2009 to 48% in 2011.”

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 is a wrap for another year. If you didn’t go, you certainly heard ALL about it.

Deloitte Canada has been running this event for 11 years, and yesterday's TMT Predictions 2012 in Toronto is the biggest one yet.

As much research continues into how we use location based services on mobile devices to access geotargetted information, I've been considering other ways we can access information about place.

You may be a physician, software developer or may just see a business opportunity. Millions of dollars are bing invested in health IT and electronic health records. Healthcare costs continue to climb and the only logical solution appears to be process automation as has happened in other industries such as travel and banking. EMR adoption has stalled in a number of provinces. There must be an opportunity for a new EMR system. Right?

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the largest trade show of its kind worldwide. With 140,000 attendees, all the glitz and hype it’s all too easy to miss some really interesting new products that can be game changers.

It is more than one year since the US HITECH Act was announced, which defined the Meaningful Use incentive program to encourage adoption of EMRs by eligible providers including physicians and nurse practitioners. (Note: The terms EMR and EHR are used interchangeably in the U.S., although in Canada they applied specifically to physician systems vs. regional provincial electronic record systems.) So, what has happened in both countries over the past 18 months and how do the national programs compare against one another?

Would it surprise you to learn that only 30 per cent of Canadians own a smartphone? It surprised the heck out of me.

Leaders across all industries are realizing that product and service quality along with innovation are only as strong as the people and the processes behind it…But, what are the critical components of an effective employee reward and recognition program?…Is there a framework that companies can use to enhance and promote the effectiveness of their current business environment, to drive increased business performance and profitability?

The music industry may be ailing, but the emphasis placed by some on copyright reform may not be the answer. Michael Geist, speaking at the 2011 Nova Scotia Music Week, elaborates on reasons why.

One of the common themes we discussed in last week’s ERP Boot Camp is the ways that companies typically outgrow their ERP systems over time. Organizations change, enter new markets, respond to customer demands, and maybe even acquire other companies, leaving their more static ERP systems misaligned with business operations. In addition, companies also are often guilty of implementing software that is not aligned with business needs at the point of go-live, often because the company’s needs change during the course of the implementation or because the software was not implemented well in the first place. Simply stated, an ERP system that may have been a good fit 10-12 years ago is typically not well aligned from a business perspective later in the organization’s life.

Sometimes I think the ERP software market is a sham. After over 15 years consulting in the industry, I still see far too many overzealous system integrators and VARs hell bent on mismanaging customer expectations in order to close a sale. Worse yet, most that I run to in the industry fail to recognize perhaps the most important fact of ERP implementations: they have very little to do with the software itself. Sure, a good software solution is a prerequisite to a successful ERP transformation, but the reality is the business and organizational issues are hands down the most important things to adequately address when deploying successful ERP systems. Key among those business and organizational issues is user adoption.

What is geosocial and how does it provide ways for people to link products and services?

The “consumerization of IT” – or the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend – has emerged front and center, and a lot of CIOs aren’t very happy.  A recent article in Computerworld calls it a “thorn in the side” of most IT departments, and cites complexity, support, and security concerns.

The past 12 months in law and technology were exceptionally active, with legislative battles over privacy and copyright, near-continuous controversy at the CRTC, and an active Supreme Court of Canada docket. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) takes a look back at 2011 from A to Z:

What does the term ‘Outsourcing‘ mean to you? Do you automatically think of a Slumdog Millionaire call centre, where hundreds of underpaid workers read from a script and barely speak English? Or does it make you mad, assuming that any company that ‘outsources’ is trying to cut corners and eliminate jobs?

This morning [December 15, 2011]  I attended a breakfast session hosted by IT World Canada, and it was a good update on the state of the channel, especially for serving the SMB market.

Why do people use mobile devices? Which ones do they use and is their use growing? Yes it is - tablet use, for one, is growing rapidly - and this offers opportunities explains Nick Jones.

Backblog will be taking a break just after Christmas and we'll be back with fresh news and information in the New Year. We wish all of you a good end to this year and a prosperous and happy start to 2012!

How many physicians are using social media for a variety of communication needs? While the number of physicians with Facebook accounts is likely to be significant, I am quite sure that the majority of use is personal. Some interesting questions are begining to surface regarding the ethics of using social media tools in clinical practice.

After another couple of month’s silence precipitated by some minor surgery, the holiday season and, quite frankly, too much “same old – same old” news, a couple of articles have caused me to, once again, put my fingers to the keyboard. The first, a blog – unfortunately his last with CIO.com, by Thomas Wailgum, IT in 2020: Will it Even Exist?, and the second by Marilyn Weinstein, again in CIO.com, The Power of IT Drives Businesses Forward. While the two titles might appear contradictory, I felt they were both saying the same thing in somewhat different ways, and that what they were saying is important – although not new.

Email marketing plays a fundamental role in today’s marketing efforts. Whether it’s attracting new customers, nurturing leads, developing loyalty or transactional messaging, there are standard best practices for email content. Marqui’s email content best practices can be applied to all emails including promotions, e-newsletters, triggered campaigns, drip campaigns, win-back or client education programs.

One of the bigger changes a company will experience during its lifetime is the adoption and implementation of a company wide Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. An ERP system cuts across functional boundaries and departments, and touches every aspect of the operations creating more of a horizontal organizational structure, causing changes in work/business processes. These changes can also have a big impact on how stakeholder groups both inside and outside the business work with each other.

I was invited to attend an update here in Toronto yesterday [December 6, 2011] on Avaya's IP Office, which inluded a preview for Release 8.0, scheduled to launch on December 12. Lots of Avaya folks on hand, along with the sponsors, Smart IP. They're one of Avaya's top 10 Canadian reseller partners, and having started out as a Nortel shop, they know the territory pretty well.

Discussions around cloud security tend to be framed in terms of lonely ships sailing into uncharted waters: “You don’t know what you’re getting into,” we’re routinely warned. Actually, we do.

I had an opportunity to spend some time wandering around Vancouver last weekend and the one store that caught my eye was HMV at the corner of Burrard and Robson. Initially a flagship store for this retailer in Vancouver, HMV has tried to reinvent itself adding electronics and a variety of other mechandise to stave off the hemorrhaging from loss of sales of its traditional business — music. For that it can thank the revolution started by Napster with the final nail in the coffin being the launch of Apple’s iTunes store and a new model for purchasing music in which users were able to personalize their selection and disaggregate the individual tracks from the album.

The CRTC yesterday issued a ruling involving a Telus complaint over Bell's exclusive rights over NFL and NHL content for its wireless services and its inability to negotiate similar rights for mobile carriage. The Commission found that Bell gave itself an undue preference contrary to its 2009 new media decision and ordered Bell to take steps to ensure that Telus can access the programming on reasonable terms. While there are dangers of undue preferences in the mobile environment and of unfair behaviour arising from the vertical integration, it is hard to see how this case qualifies.

It has been established that a team leader's ability to create a high level of trust within their team plays a critical role in team effectiveness and sustained levels of team performance. A leader's ability to develop a culture of trust over time within their team is central to enhancing or impeding the teams ability to work effectively together. Behaviour that supports higher levels of trust should be included as an important factor within the performance review process.

The advent of mobile devices is gaining significant momentum in the consumer space, as evidenced by statistics showing that shoppers are using iPhones, tablets, and other mobile devices to conduct their holiday shopping at a rapid accelerating pace. However, the business world is also beginning to show some signs of early adoption of mobile capabilities in their evaluation, selection, and implementation of enterprise software systems.

Over the past few months, I’ve been exploring how location-based services and geotargetted information affect our relationship to the places we encounter. More people are using these mobile applications, including Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Places, SCVNGR, Layar, and a seeming endless array of apps to help us locate and learn more about everything from where we parked our car to the nearest restaurant.

Can a business that appears to be healthy acutally be dead? Why do we do the same things and expect different results?

The importance of great content cannot be overstated. Without content, there is no marketing. Period. So what is content marketing? To make things simple, let's start with what it's not:

Question: Does it make a difference what Data centre your host uses? Short answer? Yes! But let’s discuss the longer answer to that question.

I don't often write about tech based on what I come across via mass media, but this one caught my attention and has triggered a whole bunch of thoughts around innovation. I'll just speak to the kernal idea here, but this sure could spawn a blog of its own - hmmm....

For most of the past hundred years, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the occasional copyright case with significant cases popping up once every ten or twenty years. That started to change in 2001 with a big case reaching Canada's top court every year or two. While that seemed like a busy schedule, it is nothing compared to the coming week, where the court will hear an unprecedented five copyright cases over the course of two packed days.

With all of the recent marketing hype surrounding SaaS ERP, you might be surprised to learn that it only commands 7% of the 2011 global ERP market share by software sales. According to a July, 2011 report by Gartner Research, this translates to a roughly $1.7 billion (U.S.) slice of the $24.3 billion ERP software pie.

Glen Farrelly did a great job compiling a list of the 15 Canadians who contributed the most to digital media for our November cover story, but I bet many people read the article and said “But what about...?” and “How could you miss...?”

Later today, Industry Minister Christian Paradis will deliver a speech that will provide an update on the government's digital economy strategy. The speech is likely to point to the recently launched Digital Technology Adoption Pilot Program, talk about moving forward with copyright and privacy legislation, describe work on spectrum, and indicate that a decision has still not been made on the removal of foreign investment restrictions. In other words, basically repackage several earlier speeches on the same issue.

Computers are not only getting faster than expected but also smarter. Forecasting the future of technology is difficult, says Richard Worzel, speaking at the CIO Peer Forum in April this year, because in many ways, what the technology will be capable of is not as important as what people will want done.

Earlier this week, I was at a public lecture given by Carolyn Hank, an information professor at McGill University, on archiving considerations for blogs. Archiving isn't a topic that stirs many people's interest (no offense to my archivist friends), let alone those in the notoriously now-oriented world of digital media.

Content is part of the front line of your business which is why you can’t afford not to pay it the attention it deserves. What is content strategy? And what should you do once you've hired a content strategist?

Big news on the open government front where Embassy is reporting that Statistics Canada will make all of its online data free starting early next year.

It's time to get ready for Canada's anti-spam legislation which is expected to come into force early  in 2012. New violations have been listed, strong penalties laid down and a spam reporting centre established to support enforcement of the legislation.

Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission released its much-anticipated usage based billing decision. While the ruling only focused on the use of data caps (or UBB) as between Internet providers, the issue garnered national attention with over 500,000 Canadians signing a petition against Internet data caps and the government providing clear signals that it would overrule the Commission if it maintained its support for the practice.

Do you keep a close eye on your servers…and is it still necessary to do so? We’ve talked to a few businesses over the course of the summer that have experienced serious downtime, outages, information loss and irreparable damage due to this summer’s significant natural disasters.

Napster Canada has advised its customers that it is shutting down operations effective December 16, 2011. The move comes weeks after Napster US became part of Rhapsody and users were assured that Canadians would be unaffected by the move.

Niel Nickolaisen poses the question, "How do we deliver the right products, in the optimal market windows, at the lowest cost, while increasing productivity and meeting customers' changing needs and innovating?"

Learn about understanding channels in terms of your customer, getting marketing campaigns to work together to achieve the outcomes you're looking for and measuring only what is important.

I began to write this blog post using my newly acquired iPhone 4S, but once I had access to my laptop, I reverted to a more comfortable (and familiar) form factor. Until recently, I was a strong advocate for the Blackberry, which I have used for the last seven years; however, the recent network outage did impact me and resulted in missed calls and communications that needed to be acted upon earlier than received.

If moving your organization's communications to digital seems a daunting task, learn from this case study of a successful migration.

In a pair of editorials recently (http://goo.gl/Tv2gE and http://goo.gl/0qSGQ) I discussed the problems at RIM and criticized the company both for its actual performance and for the way it communicated (entirely failed to communicate) with customers during the recent data outage.

Today [November 2, 2011] we published our highly anticipated Clash of the Titans report. Last year’s report, which provided a comparison of SAP vs. Oracle based on our independent experience and research, was our most popular and most referenced research article of the year. This year, we created a new version to not just include updated research data but also add Microsoft Dynamics to the mix.

87% of Canadians support the use of electronic medical records (EMRs) and 9 in 10 people are interested in having access to their own medical records.

As we close out 2011, we’re seeing many companies put ERP implementation projects on their 2012 dockets. For a large subset of these companies, it means wrapping up ERP selection projects and finalizing contractual terms before the holidays kick-in. These businesses are aiming to hit the ground running with implementation when 2012 rolls around.

Great start to Cisco's Collaboration Summit today here in Miami Beach. Having been to a few of these, it's really interesting to see how the overall messaging has evolved, along with all the new offerings that keep coming. I don't say that last point lightly, as Cisco is working very hard to address as many touch points as possible around how people get things done in the workplace. Sure, it all drives network usage, and that's good business for Cisco. There's a higher motive at play though, and there's little doubt that Cisco is trying to be a lead author in the next great American novel, Work 2.0.

Why do organizations spend more and more on IT while questioning its validity at the same time?

Earlier this fall, I wrote about the return of file sharing lawsuits to Canada as the copyright owners of the film the Hurt Locker obtained a court order requiring three major ISPs - Bell, Videotron, and Cogeco - to reveal the identities of dozens of subscribers alleged to have downloaded the movie. I noted that the targeted Canadians would likely face the prospect of demands to pay thousands of dollars in order to settle the case (or spend thousands in legal fees fighting the claims in court).

The CRTC released its much anticipated decision on usage based billing this afternoon, rejecting the wholesale UBB model that came within weeks of taking effect and Bell's revised Aggregated Volume Pricing model, in favour a capacity-based approach that is closer to that proposed by the independent ISPs and MTS Allstream. The decision is a clear loss for Bell - its hopes to charge based on volume are out (which keeps the door open for independent ISPs to offer unlimited plans) - but the bigger question is whether Canadian consumers are winners.

The CRTC will release its much anticipated usage based billing decision this afternoon at 4:00. There is no shortage of backgroud information for those looking to get up-to-speed.

A couple of months ago I test drove a representative set of tablet computers. My conclusion was that if you want a tablet, buy an iPad. ("There is no tablet war. Apple won").

If you're a B2B company, LinkedIn’s network is the ideal platform to connect your business to over 120 million professionals. Here are five ways you can improve your company’s presence and begin increasing your lead flow.

This last year was another eventful time for the ERP software industry. Vendors continued to consolidate, the rate of ERP failures and lawsuits accelerated, and enterprise software technologies continued to evolve.

I just returned from a meet-and-greet arranged in Kitchener by Communitech to connect early stage technology companies to potential investors. Although tonights event felt a bit like an awkward high school dance, I think that the efforts being made by Communitech in K-W are exceptional.

I find it disturbing how extreme opinions and actions have hijacked the political and economic discourse worldwide since the beginning of the 2007 recession. Since that time the world has seen the polemic rise of the Tea Party and then Occupy Wall Street. A presidential candidate has threatened physical harm to the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve and there have been violent uprisings worldwide from Cairo to Athens and all the way to Oakland. And of course, everyone hates bankers.

I recently attended a conference on locative media and the definition of locative media offered, and one that is often assumed, is that locative media are mediums that address a physical space through digital technology.

Ask yourself this question:

“What can I do today, next month and next year that will change my business?”

Earlier this month I appeared before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, which is conducting a study on the e-commerce market in Canada. A transcript of the hearing is available here and audio of the hearing here.  My prepared opening remarks are posted below. The discussion that followed touched a wide range of issues including copyright reform and competitiveness in the wireless and broadband sectors.

Akamai has released its latest State of the Internet report.  The report ranks Canada 13th worldwide for average broadband speed, down from a tie for 9th in the last quarter.

Bill Buxton opened a half-day conference on locative media this past Friday at Toronto International Film Festival's (TIFF) new building, by noting that it is not just realtors anymore asserting the importance of location, location, location.

Given the uptick in recent ERP failures, executives are looking for ways to mitigate risk and hold their ERP vendors accountable for the success of their implementations. Organizations are well aware of the challenges and pitfalls of implementation cost overruns, lack of vendor accountability, and troubled implementations, so they are looking for ways to leverage the potential business benefits of their ERP systems without the risk. One mechanism commonly employed is the concept of fixed-cost or fixed-bid contracts as part of the purchase of ERP software.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines a hybrid cloud as a “composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability.”

Our firm developed the Milestone Deliverables ERP implementation project management methodology over a 33-year period. It is now used to deliver ERP success in more than 40 countries. This short series of articles is designed to introduce you to the key components of our methodology - the components that are necessary to drive ERP implementation success. This first article focuses on the importance of project planning, business process mapping and system testing.

Medical resident data from the 2010 National Physician Survey was released on September 28 confirming widespread exposure to information technology while in training.

It’s a good problem to have. When you are at a point where you have boxes and boxes of E-waste to dispose of it means you are getting rid of expensive, energy consuming materials from your business.

Technology continues to advance at a pace that few can keep up with. Business owners can certainly have a hard time ensuring that their systems are always up-to-date to take advantage of the latest and greatest. However, despite being difficult to keep up with technological advancement, these advancements are vital to business success – particularly from a system-integration perspective.

Copyright dominated debate at the House of Commons on Tuesday as Bill C-11 was the primary subject of debate. Digital locks was one of the most discussed issues (new levies were the other), with the main opposition parties lining up to oppose the bill due to the digital lock provisions.

Earlier this month [September 2011], Salesforce hosted Dreamforce, its annual conference for cloud ERP vendors. The event drew over 45,000 participants this year, underscoring the significance of the company in the ERP space, and more importantly, the significance of cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) based ERP solutions.

The Supreme Court of Canada today issued its much anticipated ruling in Crookes v. Newton, a case that focused on the issue of liability for linking to allegedly defamatory content. The court provided a huge win for the Internet as it clearly understood the significance of linking to freedom of expression and the way the Internet functions by ruling that there is no liability for a mere hyperlink.

It’s impressive to meet sales leaders with the confidence that they’ve locked into highly repeatable best practices with their sales teams. What we’re seeing with our clients is a vastly different picture. When viewed thru the lens of how much buyer response Reps are earning from their sales efforts, pretty clearly some of today’s practices aren’t nearly as valuable as some might think*.

Enterprise 2.0, social ERP, and other buzzwords related to enterprise software combined with social media are quickly gaining momentum in the ERP software industry. Industry analysts and research firms regularly cover the potential convergence of social applications like Twitter, Facebook, and Yammer with traditional ERP systems like SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics. For example, last year IFS North America and Affinity Research Solutions conducted a study of manufacturing executives to determine their interest and understanding of social ERP.

As debate on Bill C-11 kicks off today, the Liberals have staked out their position, announcing their opposition to the bill due to the digital lock provisions. Industry critic Geoff Regan states:

As service delivery destinations have become increasingly globalized over the years, selecting the optimal location for a sourcing engagement has become a more and more complex process. While the number of possible locations has grown dramatically, each destination is also busy self-promoting, creating a competitive atmosphere that further magnifies the difficulty of your decision.

If you run a small business, it is increasingly important to stay ‘ahead of the game’ instead of just being a player.

My friend Ardath Albee regularly offers sharp perspectives on the effective use of content in sales and marketing via her Marketing Interactions blog. She recently asked a brilliant question: ‘what does a click really mean?’ She and I recently had great fun debating the issue.

Nero (37 AD to 68 AD) is notoriously known as the Emperor who 'Fiddled while Rome burned'. While this idiom is recognized to be erroneous — the fiddle was only invented in the 16th century — it signifies 'doing something trivial and irresponsible in the midst of an emergency'.

As an entrepreneur, start-up or small business owner, do you have questions that constantly keep you up at night? You know what I mean – issues, stressors, reoccurring business questions you just can’t shake! They sit in the back of your head all day, and then keep you up at night.

There has been an abundance of gloom and doom expressed in the media since the “great recession of 2008”. The markets seem to have been irreversibly shaken and the image of the global economy irreparably tarnished. It is in these uncertain times that decision makers begin to make several grievous mistakes. In this post we will address the importance of not losing sight of what is important to business success, regardless of the state of the economy, particularly from an IT investment perspective.

Steve Jobs died too young and with a great deal of promise unfulfilled. Since the announcement of his passing — a shock, even though we should have been prepared for it — industry watchers, partners, competitors, friends and many, like me, who never met him, have offered tributes to the man who reshaped the computer industry.

The stability of the IT services sector and the growth of the service providers has come under debate again due to several developments in the macro economic environment. The unemployment rate in the U.S. is more than nine percent, Standard & Poors lowered the sovereign credit rating of the U.S. on August 5 and in Europe, several European economies are in need of bailouts by stronger economies or measures to cut budgets and curb spending for improving their fiscal health.

The CRTC released its fact-finding report on over-the-top video yesterday.  I'll have more to say on the report in my column next week, but in the meantime the money quote is:

Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore recently granted TVO's Search Engine an interview on Bill C-11 and Canadian copyright reform. The interview demonstrates yet again that Moore is one of the government's most skilled ministers - he knows the copyright file and is able to actively debate its merits. Yet the interview raised several points worth challenging.

Place is no longer a brackdrop for our information seeking, creation, and sharing. As I have blogged about there are multiple location-based mobile apps. Such apps enable information to be customized based on a user’s geographic position. Various commercial applications and research projects have shown users value geographic relevance in their information seeking scenarios.

The current economic climate is causing many organizations to rethink their ERP projects - whether selection, implementation or optimization. Many businesses are now hesitating because they're no longer sure that it's in their best interests to fund the projects or to divert precious human capital resources.

You may have heard some buzz around the notion of gamification. The term has been characterized by some as the next frontier in web and mobile, one predicted to become as central to marketing as social media has become.

Later today, the government will table Bill C-11, the latest iteration of the Canadian copyright reform bill that mirrors the previous Bill C-32. It was widely reported this fall that the government would reintroduce the previous bill unchanged, re-start committee hearings where they left off in March (with prior witnesses not asked to return), and move to quickly get the bill passed by the end of the calendar year. That seems to be what is happening with today's tabling and a new legislative committee to follow.

This year, the explosion of mobile internet consumption has brought with it an unprecedented wave of developments in mobile website design. In just one year, the mobile web landscape has changed dramatically, and the growing popularity of HTML5 and CSS3, amongst other developments, has played a pivotal role in expanding the realm of design possibilities. With that in mind, here are the top mobile website design trends for 2011:

A few weeks ago, ComputerWorld published an article about a recent Epicor implementation failure and lawsuit. The suit alleges that Whaley Foodservice Repairs tried and failed to implement Epicor Vantage after an extended period. One of the key difficulties with the project was that Epicor’s professional services group had estimated that the implementation would cost $190,000, while the actual implementation cost ended up exceeding $1 million by the end of the project. In addition, the company alleges that its wasn’t able to use the system as expected after two years in production, requiring additional work and costs.

This was not a problem 30 years ago. Garbage went out on the bottom of your driveways once a week in a green garbage bag, and was picked up by the friendly neighbourhood garbage men. No fuss.

In the tablet world, the iPad is king. Sony is one of the latest entrants to the tablet market with the release of their new Tablet S, however is the new Sony product an iPad killer (or even an iPad competitor)?

File sharing lawsuits involving the movie the Hurt Locker have been big news in the United States for months as tens of thousands of lawsuits have been filed against individuals alleged to have illegally downloaded the movie. The lawsuits have now made their way into Canada as the Federal Court of Canada has ordered the identification of subscribers at Bell Canada, Cogeco, and Videotron who face similar copyright infringement claims.

As summer draws to an end, people across the country are sending their kids back to school and getting ready for autumn. In addition, CIOs and other executives are finalizing their Q4 budgets and preparing for other end of year activities. For many customers of SAP and Oracle, these winds of change can also signal consideration of switching from one of the two Tier I ERP systems to another.

Industry Minister Christian Paradis gave a speech today [September 19, 2011] at the Wireless Canada Technology Showcase. The talk included references to forthcoming copyright reform, the reintroduction of privacy reforms (formerly Bill C-29), and plans to move forward with spectrum auctions.

Look for interesting news in the TPI Momentum 2011 review of outsourcing spending. We looked at outsourcing trends in 27 vertical and 68 sub-vertical industries throughout 2010 and found that, while overall outsourcing spending increased by five percent, conditions were highly variable across industries – with spending up or down by more than five percent in over half of the verticals.

Earlier this year, I looked at the convergence of social media and mobile library applications. I found this was an area that could have a lot of potential to augment information services, but found little innovation in this area. The intersection of increasing user involvement in creating, finding, and sharing their own information, combined with the direct and ubiquitous access of mobiles has prompted discussion in library literature, but it appears little action - yet.

Our recent ERP benchmark study (soon-to-be-released) points out the obvious relationship between ERP selection success and ERP implementation success, that is: a failed selection project inevitably results in a failed implementation project.

The International Telecommunications Union yesterday released its Measuring the Information Society 2011 report, which benchmarks information society developments worldwide.  The centrepiece of the report is the ICT Development Index, which tracks 11 different indicators focused on access, use, and skills (the eleven indicators are: fixed telephone line subscriptions, mobile subscriptions, international Internet bandwidth, households with a computer, households with Internet access, percentage of individuals using the Internet, broadband subscriptions, mobile broadband subscriptions, adult literacy, secondary and tertiary enrolment).

We’ve been discussing the impact of Cloud Computing on cutting carbon emissions since its inception – but now that cloud services are being fully embraced from individuals to business enterprise, we are really starting to see the overall financial and environmental benefits.

According to the 2010 National Physician Survey, 16.1% of physicians use electronic records instead of paper charts in their main patient care setting. (In 2007, this number was 9.8%.) While we see improvement in the adoption of EMRs over the three-year period, these numbers are not stellar by any means. There is a big difference between implementing an EMR and effectively using the system to enhance the way that care is delivered. The 2010 survey also indicated that 34.1% of physicians use a combination of paper and electronic charts — twice the number that use EMR alone.

As my colleague Bobby Neil and I wrote earlier this year, if you’re looking to buy Software as a Service (SaaS), it takes diligence. It’s important to understand whether you’re buying a true SaaS solution or simply a repackaged, “on-demand” version of the software. The same can be said for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). A true IaaS service can, at times, be difficult to discern from a more traditional managed service.

Horizontal networking often creates dissonance in the vertical enterprise. The vertical structure of knowledge did not foresee the coming of horizontal networking tools now shaping today’s workplace.

How's that for a big topic? I think about it a lot, but its demise looks increasingly inevitable, especially the way the FCC is talking these days. Much like the railroads, when the system becomes too expensive to operate, the operators start making noise and giving reasons why it needs to be scaled back or done away with altogether.

For the past few months, I have wanted to purchase a portable computing device but have been paralyzed by an inability to determine what best to buy. I don't have the budget to buy everything, so I've been trying to decide whether to buy a tablet, e-reader, or netbook. Recently our laptop computer has been gravely ill and so this adds to my purchase dilemma.

ERP systems come in all types of varieties, shapes, and sizes, ranging from the massive Tier I packages like SAP and Oracle, to the smaller, more focused nice point solutions like Salesforce and Workday.

Landing pages are an important aspect of higher education institutions’ conversion tactics, but, if your landing pages aren’t converting your prospects to leads, then they’re most likely not optimized. Your landing pages are meant to prompt a certain action and by make them appealing, targeted and credible you increase your chances of turning your visitors into viable leads. So—how can you improve your conversion rates?

Copyright, U.S. lobbying, and the stunning backroom Canadian response gets front page news treatment today as the Toronto Star runs my story on new revelations on copyright from the U.S. cables released by Wikileaks.

As any sales manager or CFO can attest, improving sales performance is a tough, time-consuming, task. You implement enabling technology. You recruit great sales skills. You gain access to valuable information. Your team uses these resources and tries hard. Yet, still, sales performance lags what everyone senses it could be. If only there were a way to improve the sales impacts of sales efforts.

Just getting the word out about my next webinar with Focus.com. I'll be presenting along with Polycom on the topic of remote workers.

Using computers to facilitate brainstorming sessions has been (occassionally) talked about in academic and management fields for the last two decades, but I have never heard of it actually implemented in a real-life scenario. Back in 2008, I blogged about the potential and problems of electronic brainstorming, but I haven't encountered the topic subsequently.

Canada was scheduled to complete the digital television transition today [August 31, 2011], with stations switching their over-the-air broadcast signals from analog to digital. The transition represented a tremendous opportunity to advance the Canadian digital agenda leading to higher quality digital over-the-air broadcasts, freed-up spectrum that could be used to facilitate greater telecom competition, and the promise of billions in new revenues to fund a national digital strategy.

In our previous ERP planning tip, we discussed routings, the final data set-up requirement for making an item. In this tip, I dig deep into another critical data requirement – the need to maintain timely and accurate inventory counts and movements.

The past year has not been kind to Research in Motion Ltd., Canada’s leading technology company. The Waterloo-based maker of the BlackBerry smartphone has seen its share price nosedive in the wake of less than stellar launches of new products such as the Playbook, disappointing earnings guidance, and plans to cut its global workforce.

By now, you’ve heard about Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility. As the largest deal in Google’s history (a whopping $12.5 billion!), there has been, unsurprisingly, a flurry of debate and discussion. There may be some significant change on the horizon, but what does it mean for the industry?

What a tumultuous week in technology. Almost on the heels of the announcement that Google was buying Motorola, Hewlett-Packard announced the retirement of their recently released Touchpad tablet as well as a potential strategic change in direction from consumer technology products to business software with the spin-off or sale of their computer division. It is no small shift when the largest computer supplier in the world states they are planning on exiting the hardware market. Things are changing and fast.

Implementing a multi-provider sourcing strategy across multiple countries requires tight coordination between business units, finance, legal and internal contract management. Success depends on an appropriate commercial structure, well-managed multiple-provider service delivery, smooth invoicing and allocation processes, and optimal service levels.

As kids across the country begin heading their way back to school for the new academic year, CIOs and their respective organizations appear to still be getting schooled on the harsh realities of ERP implementations. In the last week, two fairly high-profile lawsuits made their way into the technology media: one involving a case against ERP software vendor Epicor and the other against Infor.

The term ‘Hacker’ has been rampant around the internet recently. Actually, it has been the dirty word of the internet since the 80’s and the classic hacker movies of the early 90’s. It’s not a word you want to throw around loosely; it scares people because the path of destruction can be crippling. Whether your 15 year old opened a scam email and infected your family computer, or a virus has taken down your entire system at the office – most people have witnessed the effects of an online security breach.

Dwayne Winseck examines the growth of the Canadian network media economy from 1984 to 2010.

Recently had the pleasure of comparing notes with Lisa Nirell, founder of EnergizeGrowth, and a blogger with FastCompany. Following are excerpts from our conversation.

Defined in basic terms, a “benchmark” of an outsourcing deal is simply a comparison of one set of numbers against another, with the objective of adjusting pricing terms to more closely reflect market standards. But benchmarking can and should be much more than a discrete exercise aimed at cost reduction.

Many of our clients hire us when they know they need help selecting and implementation a new ERP system. Often times, these clients know the general direction they want to go with their enterprise initiatives and simply need help navigating the options and implementing their chosen solution. This tends to be the sweet spot of our client base.

Healthcare is extremely political in Canada! No big surprise to anyone who has been involved in health administration or planning, perhaps because healthcare is viewed as a national right under the Canada Health Act.

Paul Lepage, Senior Vice President of TELUS Health Solutions, dicussed the current shift in healthcare in Canada in his presentation The Care Continuum at eHealth 2011 in May.

Stingray today launches a new online Canadian music service having addressed the major issue keeping services out of the country - the high cost of licensing.

In our previous ERP planning tip, we discussed the bill of materials (BOM), which discussion answered the following questions: which and how many components are needed to produce an item. This tip deals with routings, the final data set-up requirement.

One of the key benefits cloud computing promises to deliver is that of flexible, usage-based pricing for IT resources: use more, pay more; use less, pay less.  This model gives businesses transparency into actual consumption and eliminates – at least in theory – the problem of managing insufficient or idle capacity.  The result is optimized efficiency and a more agile enterprise.

We are constantly looking ahead. That’s why we have eyes in the front of heads, giving us the ability to look forward, to see what is ahead of us. This is particularly useful in an environment that changes so quickly, and the line between present and future is often blurred. In business, it is part of the job to look ahead, forecast for the future and be prepared for a changing landscape. The people with the corner offices are paid the big bucks to make these predictions and lead their companies to success. What does the future of your business look like?

To most reasonably informed Americans, there are some really basic things that its representatives in government should do, but lack the political will to execute. Without real reform, the middle class will continue to decline, forcing entrepreneurs to go to other markets, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of an increasingly smaller minority of people will accelerate the decline of the American Empire. Here are a few obvious steps that should be taken:

The federal government has launched a new anti-spam site at FightSpam.gc.ca.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that domain names are property.

Domain name disputes emerged as one of the first Internet legal issues in the mid-1990s as speculators recognized the value of domain names and the potential to resell them to the highest bidder. The growth of "cybersquatting" led to several unsuccessful attempts to establish a dispute resolution system.

Cloud ERP is clearly the talk of the ERP software industry. The marketing engine supporting cloud options such as software as a service (SaaS) and hosted ERP systems is very strong, even reaching into the consumer-facing side of things with Microsoft’s push into the cloud with Windows-based products.

Much is made of the importance of Cloud Computing, the endless options for what can be sourced to the Cloud, and the vast dollars that can be saved by moving services to the Cloud. But very little is said about what consideration should be given to specific financial structures and terms of a Cloud-based services agreement.

We all recognize that customer service isn’t what it used to be. We don’t expect personal attention anymore, we expect to serve and ultimately fend for ourselves – like online banking, or bagging your own groceries!

The following email was received from a private diagnostic facility in Toronto. While it may be tempting to point a finger at the “for profit” nature of private diagnostics, competitive markets tend to drive efficiency and non-performers simply go out of business. As more physicians adopt EMRs, the demand for ways to leverage EMRs and improve efficiency is bound to grow.

In our previous ERP planning tip, we covered time and quantity order-based modifiers to back-schedule supply requirements from demand. This previous tip dealt with the “when” and “how much” questions of planning. In this week’s tip, we cover the “what” questions of planning, which is represented by the bill of materials, or BOM (there is also an element of “how much” in BOMs).

Due to the centenary of media theorist Marshal McLuhan, there has been a flurry of recent coverage and events on his work and life.

As we’ve covered in great detail in this blog over the last several years, ERP implementations can be a grind. It’s tough to finish on time and on budget while at the same time delivering expected business benefits. Whether you are working for a commercial company or are in the public sector, it’s no secret the the odds are stacked against you when it comes to ERP systems.

Funding programs to support EMR adoption have been available in Canada for almost 10 years. However, these programs were never intended to fund EMRs indefinitely.

I've got some not-so-random thoughts to share from the last 2 days of Cisco C-Scape 2011. I'm not your typical industry analyst, so my take here is a bit different, and I just might get you to see collaboration a bit differently. If you want straight up analyst coverage, just mine the Twitter feeds that have been going non-stop.

There comes a time in the lifecycle of every business when it will inevitably hit a turning point. It may come in the form of a large-scale shift in business practices or perhaps as simple as reallocating funds for the next fiscal year. Change is necessary. Even the companies that produce staple products like toilet paper or band aids go through periods of experimentation or a refresh of the brand. Bottom line is that people (the consumer) get bored easily, and if you do not adapt to changing consumer landscapes, you will be left in the dust – ask Blockbuster. Did you ever think that the concept of ‘Video Rental’ would be a story you would have to tell your grandchildren about?

The CRTC's usage based billing oral hearing concluded yesterday [July 19, 2011] with a final decision expected some time in the fall.  This long post focuses on the shift in CRTC thinking on the state of broadband competition in Canada but wonders whether it comes too late to make a difference.

In the late 1980s, the first wave of modern outsourcing realised the promise of specialisation, labour arbitrage, risk sharing and scale efficiencies. From the late 1990s forward, the era of globalisation saw the forming of the second wave of outsourcing with the rise of offshoring. Now, in the era of social networking, are we seeing the third wave of outsourcing with the emergence of crowdsourcing?

Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of Marshall McLuhan's birthday. To commemorate this milestone and recognize McLuhan's ongoing relevance to communication and media theory, various organizations and people have been holding events or writing about McLuhan. Although McLuhan is generally regarded as Canada's preeminent communication scholar and is still well known for his theories and concepts such "The medium is the message" and the "global village", his role as predictor and shaper of digital technology is less well known.

In our previous ERP planning tip, we discussed the importance of feeding an MRP system - or a planning engine - accurate and timely data. In this tip, we start to dig a bit deeper into the types of data that a planning engine needs to make meaningful recommendations.

There is an interesting thread of conversation that is beginning to wage on adoption of EMRs by physicians. This was triggered by a comment made by Tom Closson, President and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA), at the recent eHealth Conference in Toronto.

The second day of the CRTC hearing on usage based billing left the Commission with three fairly divergent views on Canadian networks, traffic management, and the wholesale tariff (coverage from the Globe, Cartt.ca, Wire Report). While Bell focused on network congestion in its presentation on the first day, the cable providers and independent ISPs provided a much different perspective, focusing instead on incentives to invest (cable) and competition (independent ISPs).

The CRTC has issued a warning to Rogers in the ongoing dispute over its alleged throttling of World of Warcraft.

The CRTC hearing on wholesale usage based billing opened yesterday [July 11,2011] with Bell leading off in front of a packed room (coverage from the Globe, National Post, Quebecor, and Wire Report).

Most of the clients we work with grow at least to some degree via mergers and acquisitions of other companies. Either they want to branch into new markets, acquire new customers, and/or leverage operational competencies of other companies. Regardless of the drivers of these M&A activities, there are a number of operational and strategic risks and pain points that unfortunately often aren’t adequately addressed by organizations.

From time-to-time, one reads about security breaches as a result of a computer being stolen containing patient's personal health information or breaches as a result of a network being hacked (as occurred recently to Sony's online gaming community). However, as more information is stored in the 'Cloud', how secure is that data and how worried should we be about breaches?

Think of the WORST possible hazard to your business. Is it…

I looked at this blog's stats recently and noticed my post on Canadian Job Posting Sites for Internet Professionals from 2008 is not only my top blog post of all time but continues to be popular every month. I haven't been on the look-out for a job in ages, but I know some of the sources I previously listed are no longer relevant. So I have updated my list and included it below.

The credit crunch and recovery have exposed manufacturers to volatile demand. The earthquake in Japan has exposed manufacturers to volatile supply. The key to effective management of supply and demand lies in a manufacturer's planning activities.

In honour of Canada's birthday, I'm updating my list of Canadian individuals and companies who contributed to digital culture or technology.

Microsoft recently released its Windows Azure Pricing Calculator, adding to the growing list of simple, web-based pricing calculators for cloud platforms. Amazon Web Services, a public cloud pioneer, has had a pricing calculator in place since 2009. Of course, in true cloud fashion, it’s still in beta.

You have likely heard about the business benefits of a strong Twitter presence: competitive intelligence, increased brand awareness and customer engagement, to name just a few. However, if the Twitterverse is still foreign to you and your colleagues, check out these tips for starting and maintaining a meaningful dialogue:

The 2010 National Physician Survey Results are now available online. The numbers tell an interesting story regarding the adoption and use of EMRs.

The OECD has released its latest round of data on broadband services in 33 of the world's most developed countries [update: While today's release [June 23, 2011] is new and incorporates this information into the OECD Communications Outlook 2011, a reader points out the broadband data was first released two months ago].

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada released her PIPEDA annual report yesterday [21 June, 2011] with a clear emphasis on the Internet (Google Buzz & Wifi, Facebook, eHarmony, etc.). The headline grabbing stories included an audit of Staples that found the company had frequently failed to wipe customer information from computers and other devices being resold in the stores and an investigation of eHarmony, the online dating site, that had led to changes to its customer data deletion practices.

It is definitely possible in this obsessively convenient world for you to literally never leave your house and still be completely social, stay current, be entertained, and even build a successful business. Pretty much anything you want to do, you can accomplish from a 10’ x10’ room.

Organizations typically implement ERP systems to help improve business operations, whether it be to increase efficiencies, streamline business processes, or increase revenues. However, our research shows that a full 54-percent of companies have a high level of business risk at the time of going live with their new ERP software.

Given the critical role it plays in communication, culture, and commerce, most people now recognize the importance of Internet access. My weekly technology law column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes a new report for the United Nations Human Rights Council takes Internet access a step further, however, characterizing it as a human right.

Along with millions of others, earlier this week, I watched a very frail looking Steve Jobs address attendees at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. In addition to demonstrating new operating systems for the Mac and the iPhone/iPad, Apple announced the new iCloud service.

The CRTC's vertical integration hearing opens today with fifty groups scheduled to appear over the next week and a half.  I've written a couple of articles about the issue over the past year. Last September, I noted the Canadian consolidation felt like a last stab at a walled garden approach that has consistently failed and argued:

If the last few years have taught us anything about business, it’s that the successful companies adapt to tempestuous market shifts.

This summer, many of our Atum Team members are ‘on the move’ – moving closer to the office, to a newer-flashier location or simply just for a change in scenery. In some cases the process can be exhausting and stressful, worthy of a half-hour special on HGTV. But many times, it is an absolute necessity based on your individual needs… so in the end, the destination should be worth the journey! Right?

This is the time of year when our clients are either in the midst of ramping up their ERP implementations or are on the verge of selecting an ERP system to implement later in the year. While the ERP selection process is critical to the success of an enterprise software initiative, even the most perfectly aligned software won’t make a bit of difference if it’s not implemented effectively. Since most organizations don’t have the in-house capabilities to handle the associated complexities and risks, they often choose to leverage the expertise of an outside ERP implementation consultant.

Apple has once again captured the attention of the Internet world with the unveiling of the iCloud, an online backup system that will allow users to instantly store their content on Apple computer servers so that they can be accessed anywhere from any device.

Recently on LinkedIn, over 150 Sales + Marketing Executives shared their views on the #1 reason for failure in sales. Several things really struck me from the conversation to date. Learning’s gotten little air time. Nor has better coaching. The need for it. The lack of it.

London, UK-based app developers Blippar will soon be launching a brilliant platform for garnering pull-based mobile response to ads by with some ultra-cool augmented reality tools.

TPI has recently concluded its third annual captive benchmarking study in India. To enhance benchmarking results and analysis, in addition to cost factors we included operational and process complexity parameters to identify key industry trends and actionable insights for the participants.

Many companies running Infor Baan ERP software are reaching a crucial juncture. Do they upgrade to Infor's ERP LN software, stick with their current software or expand the search to include other vendors.

Because telecom costs represent a significant investment for a global organization, effective negotiation of telco/service/product contracts is imperative.

Google's new +1 button, released on July 1st (try it yourself above this post!) is Google's foray into social or "curated" search

With the new Parliamentary session set to kick off today [June 2, 2011] with the election of a new speaker, new cabinet members are busy brushing up on the myriad of issues they will face in the coming months. The appointment to cabinet comes with a private mandate letter from the Prime Minister that sets out his expectations and policy goals.

Christian Paradis delivered his first public speech yesterday [May 31, 2011] as Industry Minister at the Canadian Telecom Summit.

Do you have a job opening you would like to post? Job postings are open to anyone involved directly or indirectly in healthcare as a physician, practice manager, program administrator, vendor, or a healthcare IT professional.

Earlier I posted the first installment of a two-part blog on the importance of using a value plan in performing value assessments and acting on their results. Today I address several steps you should take in conjunction with creating the value plan to help bring about a positive outcome for your company and your service providers. If you haven’t already done so, please read part 1 of the discussion here.

“Be careful what you ask for” — it’s fortune cookie wisdom. We have many client situations where they want to know whether they are really getting the value out of their outsourcing relationships. They ask us to look at the situation from all kinds of angles: services, invoice and resource unit accuracy, risk, productivity and so forth. We do these types of assessments from time to time, and they almost always show that there is some value loss in the relationship.

I remember when there was no Google and Yahoo ruled the roost. Google clearly dominates now in functionality and commercial success, but over the years I've maintained a devotion to Yahoo that began even before there was a Google. My experience with Yahoo, however, provides a lesson of how to lose customers and also reflects Yahoo's progressive irrelevance.

At CanadianEMR, we receive information and feedback from many sources: physicians who submit EMR ratings, users’ comments on the CanadianEMR blog, communications from media and industry representatives, feedback from practice managers and administrative staff. As a result of all of this feedback, we function to some degree as an early warning system. Even if comments are not explicit, it is possible to draw conclusions from overall feedback.

Shaw has announced new broadband plans that offer far more data, faster speeds, and better pricing than comparable plans at competitors such as Rogers, Bell, and Telus.

Yesterday, Google announced the launch of Google Wallet, a system that uses near-field communication devices inside of mobile phones to send payments.

At the AA-ISP Leadership Summit, forward-thinking sales leaders compared notes on what best-in-class inside sales teams are doing to improve their performance. Industry leaders briefed attendees on the results of their initiatives + reflections on industry trends.

Sourcing considerations in ERP environments are not that dissimilar from those of traditional Application Development & Maintenance (ADM) environments in many ways. Yet there are also unique challenges and nuances that are especially applicable when sourcing ERP service providers.

Silicon Valley like its metallic namesake is shiny and alluring to those in the tech and digital media sector. In comparisson, Ontario often seems dull and staid. Although Canada has had its share of tech and Net success stories over the years, the news and blogs are saturated with coverage of the happenings in the Valley. Often Canadian tech companies are only covered in mainstream media when they sell out or move down south.

Earlier this month, Bell and Quebecor, two giants in the Canadian broadcasting and telecom landscape, became embroiled in a dispute over Sun News Network, the recently launched all-news network. At first glance, the dispute appeared to be little more than a typical commercial fight over how much Bell should pay to Quebecor to carry the Sun News Network on its satellite television package.

New Treasury Board President Tony Clement has said he's committed to advancing the government's open data efforts. Clement noted that initaitive is consistent with what he was trying to do as Industry Minister on the digital economy strategy.

ERP implementation failure is a pretty easy topic to write about – fresh material is delivered to my door almost daily. Consider, for example, the California County of Marin’s recent $30 million lawsuit against Deloitte Consulting LLP.

During the most recent election campaign, there was no shortage of debate over the so-called iPod Tax, a proposed levy on iPods and similar devices to compensate for copies of sound recordings. While the prospect of an iPod tax in Canada died with the Conservative majority, the existing private copying system remains unchanged.

Panorama Consulting Solutions, an independent ERP consulting firm, today announced its annual ERP benchmark survey to compile qualitative and quantitative data regarding actual results from across the globe.

I had a discussion earlier this week [original blog post dated May 4, 2011] with an EMR vendor who described an interesting trend. It is his impression that as we move along the adoption curve for EMRs beyond the early adopters and early majority into the late majority, it is becoming more difficult to implement EMRs in medical practices.

The Hill Times is reporting there is speculation the government is considering splitting the Minister of Industry position into two - one to focus on innovation, science and technology and the other on the rest of the Industry portfolio.

MicroSkype? - clunky, but there's a fit here. I've been traveling, and haven't been able to comment on this news til now. It's too late for news, and you've probably read enough about this already, so I'll just add a few thoughts here.

Social media in healthcare is big! By that I mean big in terms of its impact on patient behaviour and expectations of their healthcare providers, and big in terms of how broad reaching and pervasive the social media phenomenon is.

Last year, Seattle-based comedy bloggers Cheezburger Network (ICanHasCheezeburger, IHasAHotDog, FailBlog, MemeBase) introduced "Cheezburger Collectable Trophies" to an already extremely active member community.

Moving to the downtown core of a large city from my semi-suburban hometown, I felt impressed by - yet detached from - my urban surroundings. I enjoyed the heterogeneity of the architecture and historical roots of my new city and also appreciated the diversity of civic and citizen cultural locations – so unlike my hometown. Although I had visited the city before moving there and was familiar with the prominent buildings and main streets, I lacked a sense of the place. As a newcomer, I did not have the personal contacts to receive the insider knowledge from my neighbours.

The Sirius Decisions Summit is an annual opportunity to get a fresh take on what best-in-class firms are doing to improve their revenue performance with the help of their marketing + sales teams. Sirius Decisions’ analysts brief attendees on the results of their on-going research. Their clients share their tactics + experiences improving their own revenue performance with Sirius Decisions’ assistance. Attending vendors share their latest product innovations + client achievements. Over coffee, everyone shares their impressions, concerns, + improvements they’re looking to achieve. It’s a remarkable assembly of growth-focused folks looking for ways to improve their businesses and overcome their barriers to doing so.

The CRTC issued its universal service decision this week, which included analysis of funding mechanisms for broadband access, broadband speed targets, and whether there should be a requirement to provide broadband access as part of any basic service objective. Consumers groups and many observers were left disappointed.

The uproar surrounding the partial outage of Amazon’s EC2 cloud services platform got some new life last Friday, when the company released a detailed post mortem of the incident. The summary includes a surprising level of detail into the root cause of the outage, information on a service credit for impacted customers, and, finally, an apology from Amazon.

Imagine waking up one day to find out that your company's supply chain has ground to a halt, making it impossible to fulfill $100 million worth of orders. For Hershey's confectionary manufacturing and distribution operations, this nightmare came true in 1999.

This recent TED talks video, featuring Wadah Khanfar, the Director General of Al Jazeera, entitled, “A Historic Moment in the Arab World,” discusses the ways in which a young tech-empowered generation have inspired a democratic revolution and offers and optimistic view on the way that media, especially social media, has helped this group create a new reality where they can walk out their fronts doors and affect change.

Last night's election results have left many online speculating about the future of digital policies in Canada. I think it is hard to project precisely what will happen - we don't even know for certain whether Tony Clement and James Moore will remain in their portfolios or move elsewhere (there are a fair number of open cabinet positions which could mean changes). Assuming they stay the course, however, the Conservative positions on digital policies are strong in a number of areas.

“The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite books of recent. In case you haven’t read it, the premise of the book is to provide sociological and sometimes non-conventional ways of explaining why change happens. For example, he cites a theory that the decrease in crime in the US during the 1990s had more to do with Roe vs. Wade than it had to do with increased law enforcement efforts. In short, the author examines why and how changes happen in general.

With the launch of the new BlackBerry Playbook in Canada this week, the choice of tablets for physicians just became a little broader. However, despite the more portable form factor in comparison to Apple’s iPad2, there are a number of reviews that have been highly critical of the Playbook.

Got an interesting item about what's been happening with all those Nortel customers out there. Avaya's acquisition of their telecom business is old news, but I have some current insights from long-time local colleague, Henry Dortmans.

Multiple reports focus on the massive Sony breach involving more than 75 million account holders with PlayStation Network. Account holders have received a warning that:

When it comes to social media content, it’s important that you can catch your key audience’s attention immediately. There is so much content available to social media users that not being able to instantly engage their interest means that they won’t choose to interact with your content.

Digital policies may not have played a starring role in the current election campaign, but neither have they been ignored.

Here’s a challenge: Go to any enterprise software vendor’s Web site and try not to find a reference to the terms “Cloud” or “Software as a Service” (SaaS). These terms have become so pervasive that they are almost indistinguishable from the software itself.

It’s as important to measure the success of your blog as it is any other aspect of your online presence and there are several key data points that can help you track your blog’s effectiveness accurately. When it comes to blogging metrics, meaningful ones are generally related to how many people come to your blog and how engaged they are once they get there. 

I've been examining e-learning methods over the past two months for a client. As a student and teaching assistant I have experience from both ends of e-learning. I've found that there are a lot of ways to online educational opportunities. But e-Learning platform appear to be gaining popularity as a comprehensive and integrated solution.

The OECD published its latest comparative broadband Internet data last week, confirming yet again that Canadian consumers pay more for less when it comes to Internet access.

By now, most of the wired population have heard of Foursquare (I've certainly blogged about Foursquare enough). Foursquare may be the most popular location-based mobile application, but it certainly not the first or only.

The World Economic Forum has published its Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011 that ranks countries on a wide range of information technologies metrics.

As practices convert from primarily paper-based process to technology-based systems, what are the occupational impacts of these changes? How much does the ergonomic design of examination rooms, areas designated for document scanning or the use of desktop, laptop or tablet based computers impact the health of workers?

The Conservatives have launched another campaign over the iPod Tax today [April 12, 2011] complete with website, video and Twitter account.

When people think of ERP systems, most think of SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics as the leading solutions.

Effective demand generation is crucial for building interest in your organization’s products and services but many organizations are confused about the key elements of building demand.

Some pretty interesting research that Skype has just released. They call this "The Living Workplace", and it explores how technology is changing how we work, how we view work, where we work, when we work, etc.

The Liberals released their election platform yesterday [April 3, 2011] and for those anxious for digital issues to occupy part of the policy debate during the campaign (myself included), we got our wish.

The Liberals have released their election platform and included within the section on the economy is the outline of a digital economy strategy.

When Panorama Consulting engages in ERP systems projects with our clients, a key first step in the implementation process is to define a business blueprint. Most ERP vendors claim to do some form of blueprint or system design, so we are often asked to explain the difference between the two.

At the recent South by Southwest (SXSW) conference which wrapped up last Saturday many new and emerging technologies were discussed, not the least of which was QR codes. We’ve talked about what these codes are in the past and what they can do for your mobile marketing, but SXSW really highlighted the popularity of this technology, especially through the marketing at the event itself.

The term "mobile" is used all the time in media, business, academia, and by users without a common and precise definition of the term. A definitive sense of the terms is complicated by the rapid expansion and evolution of portable devices connected to the Internet. Smura, Kivi, and Toyli (2009) believe a mobile device must meet three criteria:

When the usage based billing controversy grabbed national headlines last month, I posted several long pieces on the issue. My first post attempted to unpack the issue, focusing on the some the misleading claims about the supposed need for UBB at the wholesale level and putting the use of data caps in Canada in context.

When helping clients evaluate and select the right ERP systems for their organizations, choosing the software is just one piece of the puzzle. The next steps are to develop a comprehensive and realistic implementation plan and to identify the best ERP implementation partner to help make the selected software work for your business.

During a recent vacation I had an opportunity to test my own decision making with respect to the value of consumer ratings. Deciding where to dine out is always one of the pleasant challenges of any holiday.

Yesterday was the deadline for parties to the CRTC's hearing into usage based billing to submit their comments. Bell stole the show by dropping its wholesale UBB proposal and substituting it with a new acronym - Aggregated Volume Pricing (AVP) - that should allow independent ISPs to retain some flexibility when it comes to their Internet service plans.

I'm not afraid to admit it I haven't had cable tv in over 8 years - until recently that is. Partly this is due the ubiquitous crap on tv and it's partly due to the fact that I'm a horrid tv addict.

Facebook recently patented “Curated Search”  , which is expected to use algorithmic search results similar to Google or Bing, then weight those results by what users in or near your Facebook network have shown interest in.

Later today, it appears certain that the government will lose a non-confidence motion, spelling the end to the current Parliament and sending Canada into yet another election. There have been some legislative and policy successes since 2008 including the Anti-Spam law (C-28), a law involving ISPs and child pornography (C-22), and the recent launch of open government and open data initiatives.

One day after formally launching a Canadian open data portal, the federal governmental on Friday unveiled a new Open Government initative.

The 2011 ERP Report shows some interesting trends that began last year and continue into this year. For example, the accelerating adoption of SaaS and the increased focus on business case and benefits realization are both trends that aren’t too surprising in this economic environment.

I was offline yesterday and thus missed the official launch of the federal government's open data portal.  Like many, I think is great that the government has finally moved on this issue as Canada has trailed far behind many other countries in making government data openly available for reuse for far too long.

Several weeks ago I posted the first installment of a 2-part blog that explored what the proliferation of Cloud-computing solutions means for contact center services, and I touched on the array of appealing offerings on the market today. Can the many potential Cloud-based solutions be beneficial for contact centers? Are truly virtualized operations achieveable? I encourage you to read part 1 if you haven't already.

With new fiscal budgets and renewed momentum in place, the early part of the year is when we see a lot of demand for our ERP negotiation services.  Over the last two weeks in particular, I have been helping a number of companies negotiate contracts with their ERP vendors.

(Republished from the CanadianEMR Newsletter March 9, 2011) Once you have selected an EMR, signed your contract with the vendor, applied for funding according to provincial protocols (if you qualify), and scheduled a date to implement the system, the real hard work begins. Implementation can be a smooth and streamlined process if you are well prepared or it can be disruptive and difficult.

A simmering battle over governance of the Internet is set to take centre stage in California this week as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California-based non-profit corporation charged with the principal responsibility for maintaining the Internet's domain name system, holds one of its regular meetings in Silicon Valley.

In the wake of social media’s influence on the political events in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, social media has now stepped up again to help inform the public about the situation in Japan since the tsunami hit last week.

Issuing a request for proposal (RFP) and selecting a service provider partner is a big deal, especially for services that can materially affect the way — or even whether — you do business. You want the investment in time and focus to be worthwhile, resulting in the right services with the right partner at the right price.

Interesting launch today from Rogers here in Toronto. You don't usually associate wireless business services with cable companies, but Rogers is no ordinary cable company. They've long been one of Canada's major cable operators, but they got in the mobile game very early, and are #1 up here. Cable is a regional business by nature, but wireless gives them a national footprint, and that's where things get interesting for SMBs.

I've been quiet lately - but busy. Busy is good, but sometimes that means no blogging. Gotta make a living, and I'll have updates as things move along. One item to quickly share - Fonolo had some nice news yesterday with Sirius Canada. Aside from my being an Adviser - gotta be transparent about these things - this is good news on a few fronts.

It was chilly today so I didn't feel like getting out of bed to attend the conference I registered for. So I didn't. I just turned on my computer and laid back in cozy warmness. Yes, the Internet has truly allowed me to not only stay in my pajamas while working, but now to not even get out of bed. Most enjoyable conference experience ever.

According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a community is defined as, “an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location.”

In this podcast, Steven Forth and I discuss our respective takes on the importance of improving the effectiveness of sales conversations and pricing negotations.

One of the common misconceptions of ERP systems is that they provide out-of-the-box best practices that can be easily implemented.  In other words, the idea is that there is no need to re-engineer business processes when you can simply use the pre-configured best practices and let those drive new workflows.  As a CIO looking for ways to simplify your ERP implementation and mitigate risk, this is exactly what you want to hear, so it must be true.  Right?

Two articles published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (February 22, 2011) bring into question Canada's national health IT strategies.

Yesterday I blogged about how the Canadian Recording Industry Association has broken with creator groups and the Canadian Independent Music Association on the issue of an iPod levy.  While the creator groups continue to express their support for the levy, CRIA's Graham Henderson told government officials on September 27, 2010 that he disagreed "with some creator groups who are advocating for an associated levy on digital media storage devices."

Most organizations likely place social media responsibilities primarily (or solely) with marketing, but a recent interview with Cisco’s Marketing Director on WebWorkerDaily, now part of GigaOM provides some insightful tips and makes the case for spreading it throughout the company, especially to customer service:

From what I can tell, Backbone is Canada'a longest running magazine focused on technology, especially in terms of how we use in everyday life, both at work and home. Last night they hosted a 10th anniversary event here in downtown Toronto, and I was an invited guest.

Over the last year, I have been researching and contemplating usage of the location-based mobile application Foursquare. A one-time avid user, my own usage has lessened significantly over the last few months. This is due to the loss of novelty for me, a lack of critical mass of my friends using it, almost non-existent financial incentives, and Foursquare's interface limitations.

Industry Minister Tony Clement told a University of Alberta audience yesterday that "We asked (the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) to review their decision, and if they come back with the same decision the cabinet would overrule it because it wouldn’t be consistent with government policy...promoting competition and choice."

Despite the fact that social media is rising in popularity and sophistication, most businesses still have some common misconceptions about the basics of social media marketing. Social media isn’t right for all organizations, but those that aren’t taking part because they have the wrong idea about certain aspects may be selling their online marketing short.

The topic of location-aware mobile applications are certainly a growing area. Whether an application used more for fun and reviews such as Foursquare or to find nearby businesses such as the Yellow Pages app, I believe this type of technology will become increasingly ubiquitous and embedded in an increasing number of applications and online services.

As public frustration with the state of telecommunications services such as Internet access and wireless competition mounts, a relatively obscure government consultation on spectrum deserves far more attention.

Peter Nowak has a terrific post that responds to ten frequently heard myths about usage based billing.

Over the last two months, we have facilitated a number of our ERP Boot Camp sessions to train clients how to select and implement ERP software in a world-class fashion.  One of the topics that consistently stimulates great discussion is when we look at executive and employee satisfaction for the leading ERP systems.

I was talking with a colleague last week about EMR adoption. He expressed his frustration at the lack of coding and interoperability standards between different EMRs available in Canada.

I’m sure that most internet marketers have heard of the lead nurturing process and can recognize its importance to pushing leads through the sales cycle. One of the most overlooked parts of this process, and, in my opinion, one of the most important is content mapping.

Kevin Davis' new book, Slow Down, Sell Faster, thoughtfully explains how sales people can speed up business-to-business sales by slowing down to get into synch with each customer's buying process. The key to this, in Davis' view, is to match the focus + timing of sales efforts to each buyer's needs.

Managers of contact center operations as well as their counterparts in information technology and other areas are looking to the next big horizon in service delivery: Cloud Computing. As they look to take that next step, the key question is whether the “rainbow” on that horizon is true virtualized reality for contact center operations.

As is often the case with House of Commons committee hearings, yesterday's Industry Committee hearing on usage based billing saved the best for last.

Dr. Rob Schertzer is an opthalmologist in Vancouver and regular contributor to CanadianEMR. He is passionate about the use of technology to improve patient care and will be a guest blogger on CanadianEMR in the future.

Blog posts should be optimized just like any other content on your website and that includes making sure that your blog posts are search engine friendly.

I've been a member of the Internet Society for a few years. They sponsored my participation in the Internet Governance Forum at Hyderabad, India. The Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit, international organization that helps develop and promote Internet standards and policy. They work actively with governments to ensure that the Internet remains free and open.

Just as we released some initial data from our 2011 ERP Report showing that ERP implementation costs declined again in 2010, ERP lawsuits continue to proliferate through the industry. For example, Marin County filed a lawsuit against their system integrator in 2010 and Lumber Liquidators blamed a botched SAP implementation for their financial woes late last year.

My colleague Kevin Smilie recently wrote of the importance of an integrated, centralized IT Service Management (ITSM) system dedicated to demand management, capacity management and service integration in order to maximize the benefits of Cloud Computing. These elements will become even more important in the future as the very nature of Cloud Computing enables the growth of healthy new “tensions” in the sourcing landscape.

Yesterday [February 1, 2011] was a remarkable day for those following the usage based billing and bandwidth cap issue. In the span of 24 hours, an unlikely political consensus emerged that left little doubt that - at a minimum - the CRTC's UBB decision will be reconsidered.  Prime Minister Harper expressed his concern with the decision, Industry Minister Tony Clement hinted at overturning the decision, and both the Liberals and NDP expressed strong support for overturning the decision.