======================================================================== THE ADVICE LINE: BOB LEWIS http://www.infoworld.com ======================================================================== Wednesday, September 8, 2004
LATEST WEBLOG ENTRIES ======================================================================== * Building and buying, small style * Dressed for perplexity ADVERTISEMENT -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Managing For Maximum WAN Value To learn how to maximize the value of your wide area network and get the most from your bandwidth budget, tune in to our exclusive webcast entitled, Making Sense of WAN Service Options. http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F89:2B910B2 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- BUILDING AND BUYING, SMALL STYLE ======================================================================== Posted September 7, 8:41 AM Pacific Time Dear Bob ... In a recent Advice Line you referred to the "buy when you can, build when you have to" philosophy that dominates IT these days. That's fine for a large enterprise that can afford to implement an ERP system. How about us small shops? Is that still the right way to look at IT architecture - with IT playing the part of integrator more than developer? Or does the situation change when the size gets small? - Grasshopper Dear Minty ... Quite the opposite, I'd think. For the most part, a small business has fewer resources than a large one for custom development. The better news is that small businesses can make use of less-expensive, feature-rich alternatives that large enterprises have to reject because of their lack of scalability. A simple example is Act! - still the most popular sales force automation package when viewed from the perspective of people who actually sell. A small business can base its sales effectiveness automation on it, where a larger one has to go to something larger and more cumbersome. The best news of all is that a small business rarely needs the level of sophistication that a larger one needs with respect to integration. A large enterprise probably needs a combination of ETL (Extract, Translate and Load) tools (for batch, point-to-point integration); EAI (enterprise application integration) software for many-to-many real-time transaction-level integration; and data warehouse/data mining/business intelligence systems for consolidated analysis. A small business, in contrast, can probably do very well establishing a single, consolidated data store. It can feed this batch-mode from its purchased applications (Act! being an example) and use it for all reporting, and to synchronize redundant data fields. The difficult part for IT in a small business is forgetting the ongoing expense associated with development. A programmer in this kind of environment can easily spot a business opportunity for automation and build a solution in Access or some other rapid development tool. The result is very effective and perfectly tailored to the business. Then the programmer leaves, and somebody else has to figure the thing out. It's generally a better idea in the long run to buy something that's close enough. - ... For the full story: http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F85:2B910B2 DRESSED FOR PERPLEXITY ======================================================================== Posted September 3, 10:51 AM Pacific Time Dear Bob ... At the risk of beating a dead horse, more about dress codes. They only exist to inflict the unwarranted judgment of management on the employees who are probably doing a good job anyhow. Those who are far out of line won't change. We officially have a no tennis shoes, no t-shirts, no shorts, and no sweatshirts policy, and no jeans except on Fridays. Except there is a huge sexual gap. Women can wear t-shirts if they have a rolled collar. They can wear shorts if they call them skorts (shorts with a loin cloth). You can't wear jeans, but you can wear a blue denim skirt or dress. They can wear sweat shirts if the call them ..... You get the idea. The idea has been surfaced in our office that the men should file a sex discrimination law suit contending that men's and women's hemlines should be regulated at the same height above the floor. I don't suppose anybody will ever really get around to doing it, but it sure raises some eyebrows when it is brought up. Then there is the case of a 55 year old executive VP, who really should know better. She wears skirts that are so short that they don't extend beyond her palm when she's standing with her hands at her sides. The VP under her wears skirts that are a little longer, they usually make it to her finger tips, but still immodest in most situations. The junior VP under that also wears skirts that are too short. Then they have the gall to complain about the building being too cold. I run a fan under my desk to try and stay comfortable. So if the executive VP wears immodest clothes how is any manager, male or female, supposed to get their subordinates to wear something appropriate for the job? I like your proposed dress code, but that would actually require managers to actively manage their employees. We wouldn't want to have our mangers actually have to do any real work like exercise judgment would we? They're too busy going to meetings and assigning work to someone else to have time to do anything like that. - Separate and unequal Dear Unequal ... Just a thought - since the company has a fairly relaxed dress code, don't sweat the gender differences. It focuses your attention on the wrong issues, namely how other people dress. If the no t-shirt policy includes knit shirts with collars I'd be surprised. A golf shirt is just as comfortable as a t-shirt and generally looks better as well. Again, don't sweat it, unless you think you should be allowed to wear a kilt in the office for ethnic reasons. Put it differently: Fantacizing about a dress-code-based discrimination suit means you and your co-workers are looking for a way to "get" ... For the full story: http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F84:2B910B2 Bob Lewis is president of IT Catalysts, Inc., http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F8A:2B910B2 , an independent consultancy specializing in IT effectiveness and strategic alignment. Contact him at [EMAIL PROTECTED] . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Need more help than you can get from Advice Line? Upgrade to IT Catalysts' new Advisory Service ( http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F86:2B910B2 ). It's an economical alternative for IT leaders who need objective, outside advice and ideas without the huge fees charged by the large IT punditocracies. Or, if you prefer, contact me directly at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================================== ADVERTISE ======================================================================== For information on advertising, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] UNSUBSCRIBE/MANAGE NEWSLETTERS ======================================================================== To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your e-mail address for any of InfoWorld's e-mail newsletters, go to: http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F83:2B910B2 To subscribe to InfoWorld.com, or InfoWorld Print, or both, or to renew or correct a problem with any InfoWorld subscription, go to http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F88:2B910B2 To view InfoWorld's privacy policy, visit: http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=892F87:2B910B2 Copyright (C) 2004 InfoWorld Media Group, 501 Second St., San Francisco, CA 94107 This message was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! 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