The Accountant will harvest the benefits of cloud !

Today I had the honor to address a small focused group of  Chartered Accountants ( the Indian CPA)  on cloud computing.
Their ability to grasp quickly the business benefits, the huge economics by moving to OPEX and  their experience in financing cost and time over run IT projects made them see the benefits of cloud computing adoption.
The local Chapter of ICAI have now decided to include Cloud Computing in their Continuing Education was heartening.

The Accountant will Harvest the Benefits of Cloud !

Many of them were seasoned system auditors and senior professionals in government and corporate in Mumbai. It was indeed a pleasure to see how quickly they could identify the challenges in cloud computing from a legal and data security point of view and its offering as an utility.
They were quick to seize the benefits of cloud computing for business, the accelerated time to market  and the benefits of starting small with a few SAAS cloud solutions and also the need for a Cloud Strategy coupled with ROI and financials and Vendor Risk.
Today's experience has convinced me that the future of computing is the cloud will be transformed into reality by the Chartered Accountants who realize the value of money, measurement and efficiency for business.
These noble souls  are the ones who will Harvest the Benefits of Cloud Computing and transform it into a computing utility.

Will the CIO invite the Cloud Computing Evangelist to the Leadership Team or continue be the Nowhere Man !

The CIO on his own cannot introduce cloud computing in the Enterprise, even if the CIO is a believer in cloud computing his business leadership may not accept cloud computing adoption;  they have bigger risks to handle with higher rewards which takes priority over technology and as a business priority they still believe in the old saying " If it ain't broke don't fix it " when it come to corporate computing.

The CIO needs the Cloud Evangelist to Navigate the Cloud !

Business Leadership look at CIO's as people with high IQ who are a necessary evil in the business ecosystem and are best left to do what they need in their own Ivory Tower.
A smart CIO can use some help from a Cloud Computing Evangelist to convince the business leaders in  on the benefits of Cloud Adoption.
The Cloud Computing Evangelist can work with the CIO to pitch the cloud as a strategic business enabler and as an utility to steer the the Business leadership's understanding and adoption of cloud computing.
The Cloud Evangelist will educate the business leadership on the economic benefits  of the cloud  and more.
The Cloud Evangelist can help the CIO to step out of the Ivory tower and become a true and valued member of the Business Leadership.

Will the CIO invite the Cloud Computing Evangelist to the Leadership Teamor continue be the Nowhere Man !



The Beatles song "Nowhere Man".
( courtesy : http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Nowhere-Man-lyrics-The-Beatles/A47D370E54FB65B348256BC200138D54 )

He's a real nowhere man,

Sitting in his Nowhere Land,

Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody.

Doesn't have a point of view,

Knows not where he's going to,

Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen,

You don't know what you're missing,

Nowhere Man,the world is at your command!

He's as blind as he can be,

Just sees what he wants to see,

Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

Nowhere Man, don't worry,

Take your time, don't hurry,

Leave it all till somebody else

lends you a hand!

Doesn't have a point of view,

Knows not where he's going to,

Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen,

you don't know what you're missing

Nowhere Man, the world is at your command!

He's a real Nowhere Man,

Sitting in his Nowhere Land,

Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody.

Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody.

Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody!

Personalized Cloud Appreciation Courses

I had a wonderful buffet a few week ago and was amazed at the aggressive pricing of the food on offer, a little more thought and it was back to Cloud Computing.  I figured the pricing was based on the philosophy that the customer will pick and choose what they need but overall the price will average out and so will the margins, since no two people have the same appetite or intensity to eat.

More experienced buffet eaters know what to choose and eat and I call them value pickers, if they pay Rs. 300 they will make sure they eat that value of food irrespective of its consequences to their health. The second are the health conscious eaters who will pick healthy food which is valuable in nutrition and good for their health. The last is the one who will eat what they need and leave the rest on the buffet table.  To adopt any one of these strategies one needs to have experience with buffets, I still remember one of my classmates who used to visit a Chinese Buffet on Sundays, on the third Sunday he was declined entry, he was a value and quantity eater whom the eating establishment had identified after two visits :-) and hence was kept out.

You need a teacher to help you choose the right cloud to ride !

I do not want to sound like a Warren Buffet class on investing  on food or a Sanjeev Kapoor's  food article, but the analogy is that  the cloud is similar to the buffet and also warrants an investment strategy. The primary requirement for investing is understanding the underlying asset, in our case the cloud computing utility.

So how does one understand cloud computing, my lament to my friend who shared the buffet with me was I have been evangelizing the cloud for years, I have spoken in conferences, conducted cloud technology training, shared the cloud computing learning  material and spoken at business schools to evangelize cloud and entrepreneurship. Not to mention my regular posts in my blog cloudbus.blogpspot.com. which is well received as per the statistics provided by Google but I cannot gauge its outcome and usefulness to the reader. Having  spent more than two years on Bharat Badal the India Cloud, the Cloud for the SME in India, The cloud for business and more, but I still see dismal adaption rates.

My friend across the table came up with a wonderful insight, something I had missed, he told me what I need to focus on was on was personalized cloud computing education.  People cannot appreciate something they have not understood, it is like looking at flawless Chola bronze without understanding how it was made the intricacies used in creating this piece of art and its value in the art market.  The wise go to an art appreciation course before being  pieces of Art to make sure that their  investments in art appreciate and also add joy to their existence.

The same is with cloud computing, users use Facebook, LinkedIn, Google  Twitter, Pinterest and more without understanding what lies behind it, no wonder business is reluctant to adopt social media.  They are users who are clueless about how to leverage on social media in the cloud for their business.

Just like an art appreciation course there is a need to conduct Cloud Appreciation Courses and based on the feedback to this article I will be launching this program as my next stage of cloud computing  education.

Like the buffet the Cloud Computing Program  will be segmented based on the audience, and can be tailored for the audience, it will be delivered in person or through the cloud :-) with a suitable SAAS solution :

      Cloud Computing for the  Board of Directors

·       Cloud Computing for the Regulator - For the Regulators of sectors like Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Financial Markets

·     Cloud Computing for the Corporate - For  the CMO, Chief of HR, CIO, CTO, CXO & SBU heads

·      Cloud Computing for Start-ups - This is for entrepreneurs and start-ups who can benefit from the cloud.

·      Cloud Computing and Golf - A blending of Cloud Computing  with the game of golf, in collaboration with a recognized golf trainer.

      Cloud Computing for the Doctors - The people who heal us . 

To sign off the lunch buffet was wonderful, my friend and I agreed we had a value meal for the money paid, I benefited from the sagacious advise from my friend and I hope you like this post   which was an outcome of the post lunch well-being.

Are your ready for the Cloud Computing Appreciation Program, if you are send me an email at lssubramanian@niseindia.com .

Is SAP losing its Sheen !

Is SAP losing its Sheen !
I have had three calls this week to attend the SAP India Forum in Mumbai but have not qualified since my turnover as a consulting company does not meet SAP India's requirements !
The fact that their agency repeatedly calls me to register and follows it up with an email and again turnover verification is the show stopper.
It is clear that SAP wants only customers who have significant turnover in their business and not consultants who are vendor agnostic .

Is it Sunset for SAP !

I am no new comer to SAP and have seen it swallow companies and enforce inflexibility in its process and stifle innovation ! I have had a few consulting stints where I have had mixed success in making SAP usage flexible and user friendly, but companies still finalize their forecast and balance sheets on data downloaded from the SAP and then used in Excel Sheets. Of course those companies who can afford the connector can directly connect into SAP through Excel.
I know of a company who get repeat orders from its customer  because the SAP system makes it cumbersome to add new vendors, thus depriving the company on introducing new vendors and realizing competitive pricing.
SAP's offering on the cloud was aggressive but the same inflexible systems as a SAAS model has not made much headway !
The best definition of SAP is buy a bundled solution and then pay to get it work in your organization, most often the SAP code gets customized  in many Indian companies that one large group had to make a special deal with SAP for version upgrades which were no longer supported.
In the world of cloud computing SAP may be just blown away as a dinosaurs and businesses look for agility and flexibility and cost effective solutions.
India is one of the largest potential markets for SAP given its low adoption of computing in manufacturing and distribution, but will SAP be able to compete with SAAS vendors and Oracle and Microsoft in India ?
SAP may not be geared for the battle and could  be one of the first victims to the disruptive technology of  Cloud Computing! RIP - the dinosaurs  ruled the world once upon a time !

Boston - How Big Data Analytic's of Images could help

It is a sad day for the runners and their friends and relatives who participated with joy in the Boston marathon only to meet with disaster at the finishing line.
Analysis of the Images using Big Data Analytic's could help  in finding a pattern and help in pinning the culprits.
First is creating the unstructured data of the images by collecting as many images and videos in every camera or mobile that ever captured anything before during and after the marathon run.

Then comes the task on getting the best minds in the world to build the analytic engine to scan every image available to analysis the various clues that it could generate.
Though it may be like finding a needle in a haystack, with today's Big Data Analytic tools there is a good probability of even identifying the eye of the needle in the haystack.
Those who work in the area of Big Data Analytics' should come together and analyse  the images and also any other data that could be useful like mobile calls, sms and device tracking data available with telecos to pin the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

A business school mourns the passing away of Baroness Margaret Thatcher

The passing away of Baroness Thatcher on 7th April 2013 and will be laid to rest on 17th April 2013 is significant to SP Jain Institute of Management and Research

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

http://www.spjimr.org/discover_spjimr/discover_spjimr.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahu_Shanti_Prasad_Jain

Baroness Thatcher laid the foundation stone for SP Jain Institute of Management and Research. on April 17th  1981. The speech at this function can be found at http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104629

It was the culmination of the efforts of  S. Ramakrishnan, the then Director General of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,(http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/culture/indology/vidya-bhavan.asp )  and his team in garnering support from  Bennet Coleman and the UK Prime Minister's office for its inauguration in founding the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in the Bhavans campus in Andheri.

In the old SP Jain campus we used to have this foundation at the entrance of the building and would see it every day when we trudged our way to our classroom above the chemistry laboratory, today I am sure it is enshrined somewhere in the new campus.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS was a British Conservative Party politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. Wikipedia

The growth of the SP Jain Institute has been phenomenal but the institute  & students owed credit for its National & International recognition without much history & credibility to Ms. Thatcher.

Thirty two years one cannot  recollect any other Management Institute in India that was inaugurated by a head of State, much less from a head of state of a leading advanced country like UK at that time or even in recent times.

My alumnus Akhil Chaturvedi remembers as a Management Trainee meeting the Swedish expatriate MD of Wimco who had no idea of SPJIMR, when he told him this is the Institute Mrs Thatcher inaugurated and he was from the  6th Batch his reaction was  "WHO?? Mrs Thatcher, REALLY in India??" That set the tone amongst the rest of the corporate hierarchy to look at us as students beyond Bombay University MMS.

SP Jain has grown global today but one should not forget its origins and its connection with Baroness Margaret Thatcher in a era when there All India Radio was the only means of connecting the country and most roads were bullock cart worthy.

EDP CFO & Cloud Computing

EDP was the origin of computing in business, it was the acronym for "Electronic Data Processing",
The  EDP department was a busy factory during salary computation, closing of the financial books and also month end sales and inventory management and finally MIS (Management Information System) .
There were no Microsoft workstation in those days, no lotus 123 just reams of printout in high speed printers which were transferred neatly into transparencies with marker pens !
The EDP was always under the control of the CFO - the chief financial office and EDP manager was a powerful person who had to be reliable and accomplished in technology.
EDP began with punched cards, then tapes and so on ; today they are relics, but the EDP department was the temple of information, it was the knowledge bank of the business and access to it was restricted.
The CFO was the lord and master of the EDP department because the first baby steps of data processing was accounting, later on it moved into costing, inventory management and subsequently into sales and marketing analysis.

CFO will lead Cloud Computing Adoption 

The EDP department was a centralized data processing center and the staff were some of the best paid for their knowledge of computing skills, even if it meant punching cards :-).
The Cloud Computing solutions today will need to be driven by the CFO and the CIO's role may diminish to that of the EDP manager if the CIO is not innovative and willing to adopt cloud computing in the organization.
The CFO community can beecome cloud evangelist, with a little education and they are the future  champions of cloud computing adoption, CFO's understand the value of utilities, operating expenses (opex), risk and finally economic value and often hav a seat in the Board or at least the attention of the Board.
Cultivate and educate the CFO  and the  Board of Directors if you want cloud computing adoption.
Welcome the new avatar of the EDP Manager, the Cloud Computing Director (CCD) also known as the CFO.
Fresh coffee and action is brewing for the new avatar of the CFO - CCD !
Welcome aboard to Cloud Computing CFO's of the World !
Your coffee mug embossed with the message "Future of computing is the Cloud" awaits you.

P.S. I offer training for CFO's and Board members on  cloud computing adoption if interested contact me at subramanianls@gmail.com

You see the Ball when you hit it right !

I was in the putting range this morning and the sun was just rising in the horizon and I could not see where the yellow colored balls were going.
I complained to my fellow golfer at the range I cannot see where the ball is going, it is because of the bright sunlight ?

He told me "you see the ball when you hit it right !

And guess what as I concentrated and focused on my shots, presto the BALL  was clearly visible as it went into trajectory.



My strokes were getting better and I could see the Ball !

I told my fellow golfer you are my ZEN Master, you have unraveled the secret  of seeing the ball .

It is the same about life, when we do not concentrate and focus on our goals they slip and you lose sight of them.

Your life becomes miserable because you cannot achieve what you set out to do and you go about blaming the world,even the sun!

When we accept our limitations and work on overcoming them with focus and concentration we will see the light (ball).

Try this out in whatever you do and do share the difference it makes to your life !

Remember " You see the Ball when you hit it right !"