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Alternative KM Tools (1 of 3)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 5, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

This will be the first in a series of posts about Knowledge Management (KM) tools that are a bit different than traditional documents, presentations, and diagrams. I’m not talking about mind mapping, wikis, and other web 2.0 tools currently in vogue; these “alternative tools” have been around for a while, but I’ve only just started [...]

Interesting RFID Applications

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ August 26, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

RFID is a challenging bit of Supply Chain technology – depending on your industry. Capital goods manufacturers see a relatively inexpensive solution for accurate asset tracking, while producers of commodity goods see additional costs that are challenging to justify. Many are taking a wait-and-see approach, trusting that the price-per-chip will continue to fall and the [...]

Aggravating Vendor Behavior – Ever Heard of CRM?

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 30, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

I got a call a few weeks ago that put me in a slightly cranky, slightly bemused mood. This is not a recent phenomenon – it has happened at every company in my career. A few of the big-name vendors (including IBM, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, HP, and others) have no problem peppering different people in [...]

Thoughts on Why Tech Folks Need to Sweat the Administrivia Details

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 14, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

As I’ve noted in the past, it really helps to understand the techies‘ way of thinking, especially when trying to get work done on tasks that are decidedly non-technical. Here’s two more recent stories from work, both hinging on the common desire to just “git’er done“. Why do we waste time removing obsolete code? Just [...]

Driving Participation and Contributions on Internal Blogs and Wikis

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 7, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

It’s much easier to install the software than it is to get participation … you need to put some thought into the why? and the who? … Why are we doing this? Jack Vinson posted this list from C.G Lynch (CIO.com): Seven Reasons for Your Company to Start an Internal Blog Your enterprise e-mail applications [...]

Five Key Skills for Successful Project Managers

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 18, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Just a quick post this evening, capturing some thoughts that have been forming over the past week or so. When evaluating people for a role as project lead or project manager (PM), what exactly does one look for? I suppose many will point to PMI certifications, adherence to principles in the PMBOK, “excellent communication skills”, [...]

Marketing a Startup Business (3 of 3)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 12, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

author’s note: 3rd of 3 parts of an essay first published in 2000. Check out part 1 and part 2 … jpm Address the Rest The elevator speech follows rather quickly from the executive summary. The power of this “sound bite” is in it’s clarity and consistency – make sure that everyone involved in the [...]

Marketing a Startup Business (2 of 3)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 11, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

author’s note: 2nd of 3 parts of an essay first published in 2000. Check out part 1 here … jpm Starting in the Middle To get moving on step 1 – capturing the “vision” – we’ll start in the middle with the executive summary. This presentation will help gather the relevant “what”, “why”, and “how”, [...]

Marketing a Startup Business (1 of 3)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ June 10, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

author’s note: I was recently asked about this essay, first published in 2000, so I thought I’d trot it back out as a series of posts. Written near the end of the dot-com boom, it still has some resonance, even with internal IT projects … jpm Congratulations! Getting that terrific startup idea that has real [...]

Deja Vu: Comparing Enterprise Software to Big Pharma from the 90′s

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ May 19, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Eric Savitz posted an interesting article (via Techmeme) reviewing a VC discussion earlier this month, on how the enterprise software business looks increasingly like big pharma. Their focus was the contemporary businesses, but one quote got me thinking: … the salient attribute of big pharma … is the plausibility of a new entrant to raise [...]

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