Backblog

I've posted several pieces on the recent Supreme Court of Canada copyright decisions, including an immediate overview, a piece on why Canada has shifted to fair use, an analysis of the inclusion of a technological neutrality principle, a discussion on the implication for Access Copyright, and a high level look at the key issues. This final post in the series tries to provide a broader context for what just occurred as the decisions mark the culmination of a ten year transformation of copyright at Canada's highest court.

If you’ve followed our blog for any significant period of time, you have probably picked up on the fact that we view ERP implementations as business initiatives rather than software or technology projects. While this concept may sound esoteric on the surface, it becomes very real when companies experience ERP failures or see their implementations negatively impact their financial results. For example, recent years have seen high-profile failures from companies such as Lumber Liquidators and Shane Company – both of which publicly stated in their quarterly financial statements that their ERP implementation woes had adversely impacted their results.

In a few weeks, we’re getting ready to launch a new service called CleanMyCRM. We started the service at the request of customers who needed a smarter way to research incomplete contact records. They told us append services are expensive and they were looking for ways to clean smaller batches (1000 records).

Once the initial euphoria of having just selected a new ERP system wears off and your team realizes that the real work is just about to begin, one of the first orders of business is to define your implementation phasing strategy.

I have posted several pieces on the recent Supreme Court of Canada copyright decisions (an immediate overview, a piece on why Canada has shifted to fair use, an analysis of the inclusion of a technological neutrality principle, and a discussion on the implication for Access Copyright).

Start spreading the news, EidoSearch is one of the most promising financial tech entrepreneurial companies in New York, New York. Selected as one of six top North American technology innovators in the financial industry, EidoSearch just finished an extensive 12-week program with the FinTech Innovation Lab.

Elections Ontario recently lost two USB data keys containing confidential information on as many as 2.4 million voters in about 25 ridings. The two employees using the thumb drives did not bother to encrypt the data nor use password protection. It seems the data keys were not even locked in a drawer. Presumably, someone walking by just grabbed them off a desk.

The paperless office is a misnomer! There is a constant flow of paper into every medical practice from multiple sources including hospitals, consultants, and other non-automated service providers. In many cases, clinical information is digitized in the form of Word documents and other digital formats printed and re-digitized by scanning the documents into the EMR. In the distant future, medical practices may become completely paperless when all data and documents are delivered electronically into EMRs or are transmitted from EMRs through information exchanges to other parts of the healthcare system.

Inter­esting tidbit (and relevant for internal audit) from an article in the latest Economist on how taking time to make decisions results in getting the ethics right:

Physicians are mobile workers. Some may work in more than one practice location; others may use multiple examination rooms in a single clinical setting. However, one feature common to all physicians is that they move around during a clinical examination. Unless a physician has an administrative job, they are usually not restricted to a desk and a single computer. This creates certain challenges when it comes to hardware in the examination room and throughout a medical practice. A good needs analysis is necessary to determine whether one should have a wireless or wired local network, or a combination of both.

Today, Avaya announced a major update with Office 8.1, with a particular emphasis on giving SMBs more options and flexibility.

Building the right balance is important to start-ups. Work-life is talked about often, but another big challenge is balancing between the future and the here and now. Especially as they become more successful, start-ups need to maintain a high focus on not just what’s important now, but in the months and years to come.

Today we published Clash of the Titans — our annual study of SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics ERP implementations — which has become our most widely referenced and downloaded piece of thought leadership. In addition to being a favorite of CIOs and CFOs across the globe, it is my personal favorite for a number of reasons. First, it’s just plain interesting to see how the leading ERP vendors compare to one another in terms of implementation duration, benefits realized, total cost of ownership and a host of other metrics that we evaluate for the hundreds of ERP implementations across the world included in the study. Second, it’s always intriguing to see how these leading ERP systems differ from one another and, just as importantly, how they are the same in many ways.

Have we got a deal for you!

RIM has been much in the news lately. The company is cutting almost one-third of its staff, about 5,000 people; it again delayed the release of its much-vaunted BB10 operating system; shares which sold one year ago at $30 closed July 10 at $7.44; and sales of its phones fell 41 per cent in the recent quarter. All of this has investors, analysts and RIM fans justifiably worried. But the worst part isn’t what is happening now. Rather, it’s what will happen eights months from now.

Professor Michael Carrier has published the results of a remarkable initiative on copyright and innovation that uses the music industry and Napster as the case study.

In late June, the Royal Bank of Scotland experienced one of the biggest enterprise software failures in recent memory. As a result of their botched upgrade implementation, customers were unable to make or receive payments for several days, which resulted in significant customer service issues, to say the least. While most ERP software failures are more moderate in nature – either because they take longer than expected, cost more than expected, or fail to deliver expected business benefits – RBS demonstrates the extreme consequences of a troubled ERP implementation.

In 2012, we have seen mobile and social become effortless and fluid; new apps, tools and networks have adapted to the way we live, and we have shaped our lives around them. Sharing and mobility, or rather, mobile sharing is how we communicate, build relationships, shop and market to one another. The result is a perfect synergy that is only going to become more innate to us in the coming years.

The term “work-life balance” is so inviting. It suggests you can have it all: success in the office, success at home, all while being centred. But finding that magical place is tough for those running growing start-up companies, even in a week of back-to-back national holidays.

Up-front admission: I have not yet had a chance to see and work with Google’s new Nexus 7 tablet, manufactured by Asus. That means, for now, I have to rely on American reviews. But those reviews are unequivocally positive.

Dozens of civil society groups have issued a Declaration of Internet Freedom that focuses on five principles: expression, access, openness, innovation, and privacy.

Twitter has issued a transparency report that discloses government requests for user information along with copyright takedown demands. The report indicates that there were 11 Canadian user information requests in the first half of 2012, behind only the U.S. (easily the most requests) and Japan.

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

Business mentors help start-ups in major ways, like forming successful go-to-market strategies, but they also offer counsel on the sometimes-presumed “little things” that keep the lights on. As Kevin Teur, managing director of the Canadian Digital Media network, pointed out, mentorship is fundamental to the success of early-stage companies.