Backblog

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.