Apple Bust...

So I'm sure that many of you saw that Apple was going to announce a world changing something on Tuesday. Apple has released so many innovative products over the last few years, and with every technology company chasing Apple, I had high hopes. So I was very disappointed to see that there big world changing announcement was that The Beatles CD's were now available in iTunes. Seriously? Apple changed the home page of their website to announce The Beatles. I could care less that they are now available in iTunes. Besides, anyone that listens to The Beatles has already purchased the CD's and imported them into iTunes. This was a huge bust and whoever hyped that event should be fired! There was nothing groundbreaking or world changing, as the website said it would be, about this announcement.

Planning vs Luck

I think the two cases today showed us two very different views on how to implement ERP. On the one hand Harley Davidson planned extensively and failed, while Cisco didn't plan at all and was very successful. I think it's not just about luck and planning, the important thing is the ability to adjust quickly on your feet. Cisco did not plan well, but through quick thinking and teamwork they were able to work through their ERP issues and get a successful system up and running. Nothing ever goes "as planned", so problem solving and quick thinking are probably the most necessary attributes to ERP.

Outsourcing Panel: Expectations

Today in the panel a key point of discussion was expectations. One speaker discussed how vendors and suppliers expect different things. The software developers from this company were located in Chile and they were trying to prove themselves. This caused a problem because since the software development was outsourced so the managers were not able to clearly define the work environment and their governance plan to the vendors. This poses an interesting problem because you need to have a defined plan in place so that you can get what you expect from outsourcing.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing has really come in to play over the last 15 years. I can remember the most notable thing that was outsourced was call service centers, notably being outsourced to India. Outsourcing can play an important role in keeping a company profitable. As we discussed in class, a company can outsource anything that is not one of their primary roles. This allows them to focus on their core competencies and leave the secondary roles to company that are better suited to perform them.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is playing a key strategic role in many companies today. There is great show on NBC called "Outsource" which really shows us how real this all is. In this show a company that sells products over the phone outsources their sales department to India. The manager ends up having to move to India or lose his job. So the move really shows how Americans that managed those call centers assimilate into Indian culture. It's a great example of outsourcings role in the market today.

Social Sharing

This is a particularly interesting topic because everything these days seems to be leaning towards social sharing. Everyone is familiar with Facebook, but have they heard of Facebook connect? It basically is centralizing social networking so that you can log into other websites by using your Facebook account to log in instead of having to create an account with that website.

We are really starting to see social networking in many aspects of technology. Another big example is the iPhone and iTunes. Itunes has recently released their latest version containing a feature called "Ping" where you can share what you are listening to and so on. Also Apple also recently released game center which basically allows networking between different phones running the same app. It will be interesting to watch this in the future.

Change in IT

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/22/roku-launches-revamped-hd-xd-and-xds-players-starting-at-just/?icid=engadget-iphone-url

The above article is about the introduction of the Roku streaming device. Netflix has been a real game changer in the entertainment business and when they introduced instant streaming of movies and tv shows this furthered their innovation. This box will really be great to introduce people into streaming movies over the internet to their tvs. The people that were resistant to change really have no excuse for not getting into the streaming era now. Originally the devices that streamed movies were fairly expensive running about $300 (like the xbox, original Apple TV), but with this device being $59 there is really no excuse for people to not pick one of these devices up and make the change.

Changing Products to Compete in the Markey

Google has recently announced that it is releasing it's device called google TV which will be a big competitor of the Apple TV. The big advancement of the Google device is that it allows you to search the web, which the Apple TV does not. Since I am an Apple Addict this competition is actually a good thing, because that means that to compete with this device Apple will have to follow this trend. So because Google has web browsing Apple will eventually have to add it to be competitive and that is great for the consumer, me. Apple and Google are two large companies that have very different views on products and software. Google is normally quick to release things that have more features than other products that are already on the market. On the other hand Apple tends to release products that are mind blowing and trend setting, but they often lack basic features that people desire and this is where Google jumps in. So this way Apple can sell you three devices instead of one, because each new device adds a feature the original one should have had, but instead you have to buy a whole new device each time to get the features that Google will put in one product the first time it releases. Anyway, however you look at it the competition in the tech market yields better products to the consumer.

Apple Organizational Structure

Apple is a company that has done a great job with centralization, and organizational structure specifically with product development. They have a great development team that is very innovative. The way they are so successful is by keeping their organization very flat and working in small teams. Many people see Apple as such a large company that their new products must be the work of a bunch of people when in fact a lot of their new products and software are developed by one or two individuals. The way they accomplish this is by constantly moving people around and focusing them on projects that are the most urgent. So the guy, thats right one guy, that writes the most of the Apple Apps you see in the App Store will write those apps one day and the next day he might be pulled off to write code for the next Mac OS X update. By moving people around Apple keeps a very flat organizational structure that has proven itself to be very successful. Don't believe me? Check out Apple stock over the last few years and it will speak to you...

How Technology is Changing Things

The mobile market is definitely changing the way we operate. Now that people are beginning to see what is possible on a mobile platform people they are starting to expect companies to be mobile compatible. Personally I am a heavy iPhone user, and since the Apple platform has grown so rapidly I am beginning to expect more things to be compatible with it. Over the last two years I have gone predominantly mobile, and I am using my laptop less and less. The world is going mobile for computing power and it is moving rapidly.