By Alastair Behenna, CIO, Harvey Nash

We’re reviewing our disaster recovery plans again to see how they fit the latest threats. This time, we are looking at the risk of an Avian Flu pandemic. I’m particularly keen to use the opportunity to review the architecture that makes up our global enterprise. 

This review is an ideal opportunity to reduce latency (in essence - time lag) and move us ever closer to the Nirvana of a frictionless and real-time business. To do this, we need to embrace a program of what Gartner calls ‘a time-based transformation’ that will rip out the latencies in our critical business processes and infrastructure. This effort will result in better customer service, faster time to market, shorter sales cycles and an accelerated ability to capitalize on opportunities as they arise. Win, Win, Win, Win! 

I’ve reviewed a number of architectural models that don’t constrain us through reinforcing rigid incompatibilities and legacy handcuffs. I like the concepts of an earlier four-tier model that meets my aspirations and should be within my budget, as we have already crafted much of the constituent parts over time anyway. The early years of this millennium and its challenging times helped us flatten our infrastructure and remove some of the slowdowns, although we still have some expensive legacy systems to remove.                                         

The first tier of architecture is one of communication, or commonality of protocol, and semantics—both in a physical sense and in the development of a lexicon for strategy and information interchange. Bear in mind that at least 80 percent of a company’s information resides in unstructured data that cannot automatically be processed by computers. The second tier embraces processes and process styles and is the point of direct interaction between IT and the business. Therefore, it is also the point at which the lines must blur the most.

The third tier deals with the logical infrastructure elements like client/server etc. This level of architecture is expandable and reusable while the fourth and final tier consists of the foundation elements of operating systems and databases. 

The fascinating part of this four-tier model is that it consists of separate layers that can be flexed or moved independently. I saw a marvelous analogy that likens this design to a Rubik’s Cube. Each layer spins by itself so you don’t have to modify the whole to address just one tier. And it works the same way as the puzzle: moving any of the dimensions doesn’t compromise the others, it simply lines up the colors in various ways to produce different results. Real-time architecture is the first step toward a real-time business. 

So all, quite straightforward and by the end of this week, please! I don’t think so, but we can’t simply ignore the writing on the wall. We need to begin mapping ourselves and our architecture to the ‘always on’ technologies of the Internet. Real-time business performance is not a matter of choice; it is a matter of necessity. It requires developing an enterprise nervous system that allows us to react and do business in the now—not just when systems catch up.  

There are marvelous things happening out there in the customer’s world that shape the demand for an immediate, coherent response from us. We must be able to respond if we are to survive and prosper in these revolutionary times.  

Let’s take a look at just one example of the real-time capabilities that have an impact on every day life. Weather services around the world are developing and implementing systems for ‘nowcasting,’ not just forecasting. Systems exist today that nowcast lightning strikes via a grid of electromagnetic sensors. These systems feed data via SMS priority channels to Forestry Services and others groups to assist in fire prevention, saving millions of dollars (and many lives). Even sports promoters are beginning to take advantage of the real-time service, receiving buffer zone warnings that nowcast lighting and storm activity within the immediate radius of an event. 

This is all well and good but how does it apply to me and my technology?

Economies are looking up, which means keeping staff members happy is going to become increasingly important over the next 12 months. If IT leaders are to avoid having to replace good people who are tempted to new jobs by promises of better challenges, as well as bigger paychecks, they will have to make sure they can keep their team motivated and ensure job satisfaction.

The IT recruitment market is at its most buoyant since the dotcom boom, and in one recent survey the proportion of IT professionals looking to change jobs in the next six months was well over 50 percent. The message for today’s IT departments: finding and keeping enough skilled IT staff over the next 12 months is going to be a challenge.

One important task for IT leaders will be motivating their HR department before trouble begins. For a long time, the IT job market has been relatively flat, with employees prepared to sit tight for the duration, even if they weren’t particularly enjoying their job. That has changed as opportunities are growing. IT organizations need to look at ways of engaging and keeping their most effective staff and they need to make that effort in cooperation with their colleagues in HR.

While many leaders panic that a retention program is just another word for “big salary increases,” studies have shown that money is not the best way to retain top talent. In fact boosting motivation and improving job satisfaction levels are tremendously effective ways to increase employee retention. In last year’s Harvey Nash CIO Salary Survey, job satisfaction came out as one of the most important factors in changing jobs, illustrating how important providing motivation and workplace challenges is to keeping a happy productive workforce.

More recently, Accenture carried out a survey that found job seekers don’t place as much value on fashionable job attributes like corporate citizenship and diversity as they do on traditional benefits like good rewards and personal growth opportunities. In fact, challenging and interesting work is the most important characteristic – selected by 60 percent of survey takers, with potential for recognition and reward for their accomplishments a close second at 58 percent.

So if your IT teams seem less motivated and lackluster as the year end approaches, you may need to take steps to increase their job satisfaction before their New Year’s resolutions include new jobs. It may be enough to expand their roles and responsibilities and to look for new ways of challenging your staff. After a couple of years of not having to try too hard to keep staff, it’s time to get back in the retention mindset. Get your HR department involved in developing incentive programs or bonus schemes and brainstorming ideas on how to avoid any potential retention problems.

It may also be time to reappraise your own management techniques. Take a look at the way in which you are managing the team and see what you can do to improve employee job satisfaction. Research proves that both CIOs and their staff members are motivated by a challenge, so it makes sense to try to increase the challenges and opportunities available and, wherever necessary, expand roles. However, providing more challenges does not mean providing more work. Drowning employees in work, not surprisingly, decreases retention. The idea is to add greater responsibility and more interesting opportunities to their work.

If expanding roles and increasing challenges is not something your IT department is capable of at the moment, consider team building and motivational sessions. Research into employee motivation shows that paying more attention to your team will likely pay off in higher productivity and effectiveness. The research, which later became known as the Hawthorne Effect, proved that employees are highly motivated by emotional factors, like getting attention, being included and sharing responsibility, as well as improved benefits and salaries.

More Market Challenges for Microsoft
Once again, Microsoft is battling at the local market and this time the venue is South Korea. According to several news outlets, Microsoft may have to pull its Office suite from the shelves. The South Korean Supreme Court on Friday refused a request from Microsoft that patents a University professor be nullified. While the verdict is still out in terms of how Microsoft will proceed, more challenges of the legal variety are definitely ahead for the company as it works to deliver its flagship product, Office, to the Korean market.

Uniting to Reduce e-Waste

The United Nations, a world organization not always known as an IT powerhouse, has turned its focus on the technology world. On November 27, a weeklong United Nations-sponsored conference in Kenya began with the mission to explore ways to reduce the millions of tons of electronic waste (PCs, cell phones, etc.) in the world today. In addition, the conference focused on ways to reduce the use of toxic substances, such as lead, cadmium and mercury, found in PCs and cell phones, and to promote programs for recycling and reusing as many components as possible.

Black Friday Turns to Cyber Monday

For years, retails have looked to the Friday after Thanksgiving as the big kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Now the Monday after Thanksgiving is taking on the same role for e-tailers. In what is known as Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving now marks the kickoff to the first big holiday shopping push for e-shoppers and an early indicator of online shopping trends for the season. The outlook so far from retailers e or otherwise? Should be a strong shopping year!

Catch Crooks before They Can…

In Great Britain, police use data mining to identify suspects before they commit crimes. The Metropolitan Police of London's New Scotland Yard are working to build a list of 100 potential killers and rapists by using information from a variety of sources, such as police complaints, domestic violence databases, and mental health providers. The "criminal network prioritization matrix" is making news in the UK as government and citizen groups call for more improved protection of personal data.