Posted on Mon, Jan 23, 2012
As a Google Enterprise Partner, we routinely engage with large customers in connection with their messaging and collaboration strategy. While the primary driver behind enterprise adoption of Google Apps has been the licensing of Gmail, recently we have seen several trends including a growing wave of interest in the collaboration aspects of Google Apps including chat, Google+ hangouts, and other features.
Here is our take on 3 of those trends for 2012:
Collaboration as the Centerpiece
While email remains a crucial communication medium, the increased power of cloud based solutions is diminishing the role of email in work place collaboration. For example, Maven Wave is deploying Google Apps in a 1,000 user environment where the customer is not replacing Exchange. Rather, they are looking at the power of collaboration using Docs, Sites, Chat, and Hang-Outs as a compelling business case for their user community. Collaborating in real-time on the same document means everyone can see, adjust, and agree to the wording and graphics in real time at the moment the document changes. This type of time saving work just isn’t possible with other collaboration frameworks.
Sites for Engagement
Collecting and compiling form based data quickly and easily, has been a stumbling block for business users since the dawn of technology. Of course IT can build an application to serve this need, but the power of Google Sites and Docs makes it so simple that literally anyone can do it. We have a customer in the real estate management space who is very interested in the power of coupling Sites with Docs; where a simple spreadsheet can quickly become a form, and emailed to anyone to solicit feedback that is dropped directly into the spreadsheet. If email isn't the preferred way to collect that input, then it can just as quickly become a website for people to fill out. Because the contributor's email address and date/time stamp may also be applied, this approach can greatly facilitate quarterly audit processes, in which property managers are obliged to confirm they have inspected the site for one or another compliance purpose.
Google+ for Enthusiasm
The increasingly younger, more tech saavy business user expects corporate computing to be as easy as Facebook to use and collaborate with others. Baking social media into the corporate computing experience is a rapidly emerging trend. Google+ offers companies a way to harness that collaborative and collective energy within the four-walls of their organization--bringing to work-topics, the look and feel of collaboration that fits comfortably with their Facebook experience. Where a 90's era IT manager would have simply prevented the interaction through firewall rules, today's savvy IT staff are duplicating the framework in order to harness for the corporation the interactive impulse already there to be leveraged.
We realize and believe there are many trends taking place in this space right now. The above three are just some immediate examples of what we’re seeing today.
We’d love to hear back from you about the trends you’re seeing with cloud services in enterprise or with Google Apps specifically. Thanks!
Posted on Fri, Jan 06, 2012
HR.com is hosting a complimentary webinar January 11, 2012 featuring Jason Lee of Maven Wave Partners and Carl Kutsmode of talentRISE
Human Resources and Recruiting departments, like many other corporate functions, live and die by their spreadsheets. Hours are spent on tedious, error-prone updates to report status or performance for planning meetings, competency validation meetings, recruiting activity updates, etc. In this webinar, Lee and Kutsmode will discuss ways that using the Cloud can bypass the challenges posed by managing the HR function through spreadsheets.
Kutsmode and Lee will share case studies of how low cost or no-cost Cloud-based business applications can move the department beyond spreadsheets to a new world of real-time, anytime accessible data documents that:
1) Eliminate hours of redundant data entry, analysis and reporting
2) Automate candidate tracking and pipeline reporting for recruiters and validate new competencies for those responsible for managing talent
Who should attend? Corporate Technology professionals supporting HR systems, HR and Recruiting Leaders, HRIS and Talent Management Data Management Administrators, HR Generalists, Recruiters, HR Administrative staff and anyone interested in streamlining current manual spreadsheet HR data tracking and reporting practices
REGISTER HERE
Posted on Wed, Jan 04, 2012
This quote, attributed to the Danish physicist, Niels Bohr, reminds us of the futility of trying to accurately predict what’s ahead for the economy as we begin a new year. Following on the heels of the volatility we experienced in 2011, it’s probably a safe bet to say that 2012 will serve up surprises of its own. Overall, however, we remain cautiously optimistic for the year ahead, looking for a slow - but improving - general trend that maybe obscured by the ebbs and flows of the market.
It’s hard, for instance, to argue with the consensus that U.S. GDP growth will remain at a positive, but slow, pace of 1.5% to 2.5% in the year ahead. Many of the challenges present in 2011 will persist in 2012: the poor housing market, high unemployment, European debt problems, and slowing Chinese growth. Additionally, with 2012 being an election year, not much is expected of Washington to boost the economy as politicians dig in their heels. However, another U.S. recession is not likely as companies continue to experience strong demand for products abroad, positive earnings growth, and are better positioned than in years past with large cash reserves and stronger balance sheets.
Within the realm of IT, this positive trend is supported by our 3Q 2011 update of the MIT Index (Maven Wave Partners IT Investment Index, a bellwether measure of aggregate spending on information technology) and the MIV Index (The Maven Wave Partners IT Value Index, tracking corporate earnings in relationship to spending on the Information Technology workforce). For 3Q 2011, our MIT model had predicted that spending would be somewhat weaker (down 5%) as companies continued to digest the substantial increase in IT investment made earlier in 2011. In reality, third quarter results were more upbeat as the MIT rose to 142.6, up just over 2% over the previous quarter and driven by sequential quarterly increases across the board with particular strength in hardware sales and workforce spending. The same held true for the MIV Index, which rose just over 8% sequentially to $21.03 (meaning a dollar in IT workforce spending is worth $21.03 in corporate profit). Download the full results here.
With the continued overhang in the European sovereign debt market, a gridlocked US Congress, and a potentially vigorous 2012 election cycle in the US, we remain vigilant for a break in the action, but the numbers seem to bode well for 2012.
Posted on Thu, Dec 08, 2011
Maven Wave Partners recently acquired Triton-Tek, a long-time developer of internet, mobile, and collaborative solutions with headquarters in Chicago and development operations in India. What follows is a Q&A regarding the acquisition, Maven Wave’s strategy, and why we think this deal is great for clients.
How does the acquisition of Triton-Tek fit with Maven Wave’s growth strategy?
Maven Wave’s core strategy from its founding in 2008 has been to provide strategy-led results-driven management, technology, and outsourcing solutions to companies that seek to improve operating performance. That means our responsibility to clients is to apply our skills in management and technology to the task of innovation. No market force in the last 50 years has been more powerful than innovation. The proportion of GDP growth attributable to innovation has grown from 35% at the birth of business computing in the 70s, to 80% over the last decade.
These improvements in productivity have largely been driven by (a) the automation of routine tasks through computerization, and (b) the movement of tasks that can not be automated to low cost labor markets. Its our view that the advent of the cloud computing model promises to again offer substantial increases in worker productivity, at considerably lower cost by increasing automation and easing the movement of units of work to low cost labor markets. In short, increasing the liquidity of computing.
In 2010, Maven Wave Partners became a Google Enterprise partner as clients began moving capabilities to the cloud computing model. Our experience with clients over 2010 and 2011 has shown us that the market is hungry for the lower cost, ubiquitous infrastructure offered by cloud solutions such as Google Enterprise. Often times a client has existing applications that take advantage of existing infrastructure such as Microsoft, or Lotus Notes, that must be replaced or eliminated. Even more often, there are new opportunities made possible by the cloud platform that make business sense, but require application development to execute. These applications are social, collaborative, and mobile in nature, as business people expect the apps they use at work to be as easy to use as Facebook.
Triton-Tek has been a long-time developer of internet, mobile, and collaborative solutions in Chicago. We were already working together on a number of client assignments. By acquiring Triton-Tek’s skills and experience combined with the offshore development capacity, Maven Wave was able to hit the fast forward button. It just made sense to buy rather than build.
How does Triton-Tek’s Microsoft practice fit in to the Maven Wave story?
Maven Wave is, by design, a firm with diverse skills. Our core consulting business has been the engine of our growth since the founding. Our clients include asset managers, broker/dealers, and other financial institutions who benefit from our experience and knowledge of middle and back office trading operations and systems. We assist health care companies with electronic lab notebook deployment and analytics. Our consultants are helping the world’s most well known brands in areas such as customer intimacy and customer analytics. Those examples are only a taste of what we can do. While our skills may be diverse, the uniting definition of our work is that we serve clients where business and technology opportunities intersect.
Our interest in the cloud (and in Google Apps), stems from our belief that cloud isn’t just technology, its a game changing business opportunity and a fundamental shift in the way computing is delivered, paid for, and deployed. The enabling condition for unlocking this shift is the replacement of existing on-premise messaging infrastructure with cloud-based infrastructure.
Reflecting on the progress of technology markets, we see an analogy that seems instructive for today. Microsoft released Exchange in 1996 with effectively zero market share (although they had predecessor Microsoft Mail in the market). By 2003, MS-Exchange owned 53% of the market and today they own roughly 65% of the market. How did they do it? They made a good product, at a lower cost, that better integrated with other products. A powerful (and obviously winning) combination. Google’s introduction of Google Apps at a lower cost than either Microsoft or Lotus Notes, with compelling integration between productivity apps (such as documents, spreadsheets and presentations) and the messaging infrastructure, is Microsoft’s mid-90s strategy redux.
Gartner has forecast that cloud messaging will have 55% of the market by 2020. Today, Google has captured 50% of the cloud mail market. So cloud messaging is likely to be a growth market and since Google started from scratch, it stands to reason that they are likely to be the fastest grower. That said, today Google still only represents 1% of the overall messaging market. Microsoft is the dominant player, and a choice that many companies will make again and again. From the messaging infrastructure, flows the platform choices corporations make for application development and as we discussed in a previous question, we see this as a big growth area as well. Whichever platform a client chooses, Maven Wave’s job is to create business value through technology.
Triton-Tek’s skills and experience on the Microsoft tool set will be valuable both to clients who are happy on their current infrastructure, or who plan to take advantage of Microsoft’s move to the cloud, as well as for clients that move to a lower cost, born-in-the-cloud solution like Google Apps.
Why is this a good thing for the clients of both companies?
Clients will benefit from this merger in two primary ways. First, the two companies have complementary skills that, when combined, allow us to provide clients with an end to end solution from the conception of an idea through technology delivery in the cloud across a broad range of industries. At the end of the day, clients hire consultants for the quality and commitment of the people that work on their projects. Maven Wave’s consultancy has focused primarily on assisting clients with first identifying business, technology, and operational improvements, then defining transformation programs, and finally leading those transformation efforts by combining business, process, and technology concerns into a single chain of execution. Triton-Tek’s strength begins once an application opportunity has been defined and must be executed with industry leading tools and technologies at compelling cost and quality. Working together, the combined company can attack a broader array of business challenges with a more diverse set of skills and abilities.
The second way that clients will benefit from the merger is through more cost effective solutions. Our ability to combine Big-4 style front end consulting (minus the attitude) with leading edge onshore/offshore development capacity will allow us to offer lower cost blended teams to companies that seek the benefits of lower cost labor markets.
Our team could not be more excited about the opportunities we see to serve clients in the future.
Is Maven Wave becoming an offshore outsourcing company?
There is no denying that offshore has become a routine part of the information technology landscape. In general, the offshore market has focused on large scale application maintenance and, in the past 5 years, an increasing focus on new development for large scale applications. Said differently, its a volume business fueled by young college grads in India and China.
Maven Wave does not seek to compete for this sort of volume outsourcing business. One of the things that attracted us to Triton-Tek is their focus on hand-picked talent. We believe there is an opportunity to deliver customized onshore/offshore teams with the same kind of talent selectivity that Maven Wave has always insisted on in its on-site consultants, but in an offshore environment. More to the point, we seek quality over quantity.
For more information you can also review our press release. Thanks for reading and please don’t hesitate to contact us direct for any reason.
Posted on Thu, Nov 17, 2011
Overview:
Google Enterprise offers an incredible opportunity to transform your business, with less cost, in virtually every segment, geography and department by:
- Enabling collaboration
- Reducing time/costs to innovate
- Increasing the productivity of mobile/virtual employees AND decreasing the costs of supporting them
Webinar Topics:Why the Cloud?The Potential For Cloud Solutions
- Enabling productivity gains and new opportunities with an impact comparable to e-commerce
- Increasing the pace, quantity, and potential for new gains due to lower capital costs and lower risk
Why Google?The Google Solution From 30,000 Feet
- Opportunities for any function, any device, and any business use across the enterprise, with more features and benefits
Why Now?Unlocking Value in the Enterprise
- Realizing productivity gains, lower cost infrastructure and mobility
- How the legacy IT investment model will change
What Now?
- How the Cloud is changing the nature of work and what that means for you
Maven Wave is a Google Apps Partner and we've seen many enterprise solutions change the way business gets done: Internet, Mobility, Social and now the Cloud. We've seen organizations reap huge benefits from these revolutions...but also face challenges as they transform their business to embrace change. Please join us by registering here. Space is limited so please register early.See you on the 7th!
Posted on Fri, Oct 28, 2011
By Greg Farrar, Senior Director, Business Intelligence
It’s getting harder and harder to imagine the world before technology brought us many of the innovations we all take for granted these days. The joy of driving to appointments in cities you were not familiar with using only handwritten directions and a paper map possibly printed years earlier. Waiting for your monthly bank statement to come so that with a calculator and pencil you could balance your checkbook. Getting a weather report maybe once a day on the evening news. Oh, the memories!
To our advantage, technology has increased the speed at which we are able to receive important information about our current situation. Today we are able to “Google” pretty much anything we want and have instant results.
The Society for Information Management (SIM) recently released their annual CIO Survey which revealed that “IT & Business Alignment” and “Business Agility & Speed to Market” were CIO’s Top IT Concerns for 2011. Basically, CIO’s are charged with understanding the business intimately and then bringing the advancements we take for granted in our everyday life to the ranks of business executives and line workers they are supporting. So how does Business Intelligence (BI) fit into this situation?
According to SIM’s survey, BI topped the list of top budget areas of focus for CIOs - 50% higher than all other areas.
The reason BI continues to be such an important investment for CIO’s is that a world-class BI implementation helps them to meet both of the top two concerns - IT & Business Alignment and Business Agility & Speed to Market.
In the “early days,” BI was printing out reports of sales transactions and hoping that someone could figure out how things were going with the business, similar to reading a map printed perhaps long ago. Who knows if things have changed in the time since the map or report were generated. As our expectations for obtaining information about our current situation has increased with the adoption of consumer-related technology, so has the expectation that a business executive has at their fingertips (literally) all of the needed facts and figures important to assess, and chart the course for the business. A BI implementation needs to have resources that are deeply embedded into the business in order to correctly provide not only the correct type of information for the business, but also the appropriate delivery method for information.
As each new innovation in consumer technology increases, so too will our connectedness and access to real-time data. We should also expect to see additional BI investment which allows the business to respond more quickly and with more agility to the rapidly changing markets we face today. BI provides the situational awareness to business executives to which they have become accustomed in everyday.
About Greg - Greg is Senior Director, Business Intelligence at Maven Wave Partners. Greg has more than nineteen years of experience in software consulting management, systems integration, and software development. Greg spent the last 10 years at Oracle before joining Maven Wave. If you’d like to contact Greg direct, please mail him at greg.farrar@mavenwave.com
Posted on Thu, Sep 29, 2011
Today you can open most IT trade publications or online outlets and find specific sections about the shift in companies moving to “cloud computing”: CIO, Computerworld, TechTarget, etc.
At Maven Wave, we track media topics (via Google Reader) within the IT industry and “cloud computing” tops the list followed by “CIO”, “Data Management” and “Business Intelligence.”With all of the “buzz,” what really matters to CIOs and IT executives?As a Google Apps Partner, we are in front of enterprise executives who consistently provide us with feedback about their questions and concerns about moving to a cloud-based model. Here are the Top 3 concerns that we are hearing on the street:
- Security, Security, Security - Many organizations believe that moving to a web-based model presents many data management and security concerns. Most are used to having teams sitting in server rooms on their premises physically managing and protecting their data.
- Change Management - For example, one of the fastest growing cloud solutions is the transition to email. Many organizations have long-time users of Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook and want reassurance that the transition to cloud email such as Gmail will be seamless and smooth.
- IT Governance - This includes topics like legal and regulatory procedures, transparency, service levels, indemnification, notification, and portability. This is particularly the case with organizations considering moving to a “public cloud.” An organization might, for example, freely allow personal devices to access corporate email but put in place mechanisms such as tokens that add a layer of security to that access.
We help address many of these and other concerns with our clients through educating them about the cloud solutions and best understanding their particular strategy and needs. Here are links to recent posts that might help address these and other concerns you might have about Google Apps in particular:
Posted on Wed, Sep 21, 2011
Gartner recently touted Google’s role in the enterprise and “cloud” forecasting that "cloud email" would represent 55% of the enterprise email market by 2020.
Maven Wave became a Google Apps Partner in 2010 and focuses on helping the enterprise understand and achieve the benefits of adopting the Google platform.
Last week, TechTarget covered Google Apps and profiled Maven Wave partner Jason Lee in, “Going Google? Follow these steps, CIOs, and ante up, consultant says.”
To supplement, here are the 7 Tips CIOs Must Consider When Moving To Google Apps that Tech Target didn’t have the space to cover:
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Web Brower Readiness - Are your people and systems ready with your current browser? The poorer performance of older browsers will hinder adoption.
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Involved in the Business - Pilots of web-based solutions are often too focused on evaluation from an IT perspective. There needs to be buy-in from the business side not just IT. Business users may reject the technology if they feel it’s being jammed down their throat.
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Evaluate Network Readiness - Although it wouldn’t seem like a leading factor, adopting SaaS-based technology requires sufficient access to the Internet to reach the application. If networks have insufficient bandwidth, or proxy servers do not have adequate performance, the user experience for SaaS applications can be affected, while having nothing to do with the solution itself.
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Determine User Readiness - Similar to network readiness, you have to ensure that your workforce is ready to take on the challenge of moving to a cloud solution in place of a traditional client-server application. User adoption of a technology is affected by a myriad of factors, but if users feel prepared, and that others around them can help them prepare, then it’s a big leg-up on the implementation.
- Confirm Cost Effectiveness - In the end, the implementation of a cloud or SaaS-based technology has to make sense from a cost perspective. License costs alone do not capture the cost of supporting an application in-house. Server space, IT personnel, data center usage, rollout-costs all have to be factored into the equation.
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Research Data Readiness - The best CRM tool (on-premise, or SaaS) can fail immediately if the data required to seed the system is not available. When evaluating organizational readiness, ensure that the data needed to make the system effective on day 1 is available. If it’s a messaging platform then Mail, Contacts and Calendar data must be immediately available for the migration. If it’s a collaborative content management system, then the documents needed to seed the system must be organized, and clearly identified.
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Evaluate Legacy Integrations - If the implementation of a cloud solution is aimed at replacing a current system, you need to carefully evaluate whether there are integration points exist with other on-premise solutions, and whether you have the resources, knowledge and tools to be able to re-establish that integration with the new cloud-based technology system.
We’d value your input on this subject - are you considering Google Apps? Why? Why not? Thanks in advance!
Posted on Wed, Sep 07, 2011
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported unemployment numbers that were released by the Labor Department showing that for the first time in 11 months, our unemployment rate did not improve but remained the same for August at 9.1%.
With continued skepticism of the economy and our employment outlook, there is a “silver lining” for those of us involved in the IT community.
Earlier this year we released our initial Maven Wave Partners IT Spending & Investment Study looking at the direction and focus of IT spending and its potential effect on corporate earnings through 2012.
Last week we were able to update this Study through 2Q. One of the more surprising findings was a 9.1% increase in spending on the IT workforce which resulted in our Maven Wave Partners IT Investment Index (MIT Index) growing by 6% and outpacing our previous estimates for the quarter.
For more background on the results of this Study, please take a look at the article that Computerworld just published - "IT Spending Holds Up Well, Study Says" - or don’t hesitate to contact us at info@mavenwave.com.
Have a great week!
Posted on Mon, Aug 29, 2011
In late 2010, Maven Wave became an official Google Apps Authorized Partner focused on working with Google to help deploy solutions and drive real business value for enterprise-level organizations. Google’s “Official Enterprise Blog” does a great job summarizing how enterprise organizations are leveraging Google’s solutions including Journal Communications, a client in which Maven Wave is now working with as a result of this partnership.
We decided to provide some additional value in this growing conversation, “how can enterprise organizations benefit from Google Apps?” through sharing some insights from one of our Maven Wave Google Apps specialists, Adam Plummer.Here is a summary of our recent interview with Adam:Q: Overall, what can companies get by deploying Google Apps within their organizations?
Google Apps can lower costs, decrease risk, achieve better enabling collaboration. It may sound trite but consider this:
Lowering Cost: Companies will no longer the need to have manpower dedicated to the upkeep of "boxes" (servers) that provide those messaging and productivity applications. For many companies where these solutions are not centralized in terms of equipment, there will be servers in multiple locations that need to be maintained, potentially meaning staff at multiple locations to manage that infrastructure. From a cost perspective, there is no longer a need to provide backup solutions for these services, another huge burden, both from a manpower perspective and a services one as well.
Decreasing Risk: Eliminating the on-site (and often, on-computer) risks associated with storing and managing data. Whether it's data loss due to hardware failure, or data loss due to prohibitive retention policies that are in place due to cost constraints, or data loss due to an individual employee, all of those risks are significantly reduced. Increasing Reach: Today, IT shops consistently need to play offense AND defense to keep up with changes in technology. IT groups must be nimble to continue providing services and functionality for an often large and geographically dispersed user community. With cloud-based solutions that are designed with ubiquity in mind, that are platform and device "agnostic", IT can provide better reach of service to the employee base without shoehorning everything into the “standard”. Additionally, it lessens the need to rely on VPN technologies to secure access to content, and potentially thwart employee access from remote locations. With cloud-based technologies like Google Apps, companies then don't need to be worried about how big they have to make their "pipes" in order to facilitate remote connections back to HQ.
Enabling Collaboration: Cloud has the potential to redefine “collaboration” from an antiquated serial approach (sending information to a coworker, waiting for an update to come back, going through a potentially complicated merge process), to a parallel process where stakeholders work together in real time. With a platform like Google Apps, users have the opportunity to leverage a familiar tool-set (documents, spreadsheets, presentations) from anywhere on any device, and to work simultaneously with that colleague on the same document in real time.
Q: What are the top Google tools that many companies might overlook when considering Google for their business needs?
Google Docs - Yes, I know, it sounds crazy. But, some companies look to make their implementations of Google Apps all about Email, Contacts, Calendar and Chat. While those tools are great, the power of the platform is more than the messaging tools. Organizations should identify use cases for several groups, to demonstrate the power of Google Docs and make that part of their implementation. Another thing that people overlook, even within Docs, is the ability to distribute forms/surveys for data collection right into Google Spreadsheets. We recently showed a client how interview feedback could be captured directly into spreadsheets, and now they’re going to be doing it that way for all interviewing. Simple and effectively zero-cost to implement.
Search - Everyone knows of Google as a search company. But when they think of Gmail, they just think email. In implementation after implementation, we hear the feedback : “I just couldn’t believe how powerful the search was. I was able to search email, contacts docs and chats, including the 10 GB of email archives I uploaded.” Google provides great search capabilities even in email, it’s a powerful part of the tool set.
Q: There are a number of NEW Google tools being rolled out on a monthly, weekly if not daily basis - what does IT management really need to know about?
Probably the top thing for IT management to know about is the “What’s New In Google Apps” website at http://whatsnew.googleapps.com/. Google provides two release tracks for updates, where customers can either get new functionality the minute it "hits the street" or on a 2 week delay. The other area is Google Apps related, but not necessarily Google engineered. Take, for example, a project management / Gantt chart application we’ve been “trying out” called Smartsheet. We found it on in the Google Apps Marketplace (note that the Marketplace is wide open, so caveat emptor).Q: Finally, what is the biggest business challenge you are seeing Google solve for companies today?
The biggest challenge Google is helping companies solve is to provide the requisite level of business functionality when business users need it (today, not in 2 years), from anywhere (home, office, client site), on any device (PC, tablet, smartphone, kiosk), at a reasonable cost._____________________To learn more about what Google Apps might do for your company, please feel free to contact us or just join this conversation on our blog - we’re always anxious to be a part of this conversation!