Monthly Archive

In the last weeks we’ve been thinking about energy consumption.

 As a company (www.qhuba.com) we’re nearly CO2 neutral, but we’ve a long way to go to eek out the last parts of CO2 and even further if you consider all waste issues.

Talking to someone from the Dutch government focussed on the environment, it has become more clear that the political solution will wait for itself, and is not likely to help us with innovative ideas on how to become more environmentally sound.

My understanding has changed my views from ’cut down on this and that’ to ’replace what you take’. This is a fundamental difference. It’s helped me understand why we as a company have many hectares of forest which compensates for our CO2 use. We’re not actually cutting down on CO2, we’re replacing what we use.

So now on to the waste mangement part: We initially thought we’d start cutting down on what we use once we understood what that meant. I’ve heard an estimate of 140 litres of water begin required to make 1 cup of coffee. Would good stewardship then mean I have to give up my coffee? If so, what do I replace it with? Water?

 The solution lies elsewhere. Replace what you use, don’t try to cut down on stuff unless there are clear other benefits (e.g. cost).

So how do we translate this to IT?

Is there some way that we can say “replace old CPU power with new CPU power, but only to the extent you actually use it?” Hang on, that sounds a lot like consolidation through virtualisation.

Maybe there is something in this idea at all.

What about “only open ports that you actually use”. Wow, we’ve just described one of the key security policies.

And I suppose now, in the face of all the new wealth in features coming with new products, we should take a really good look at what we’re using, and determine if there is actually a need to move.

IT devices are not necessarily old washing machines. Just because they’re older, the documents you edit and the transactions you do using your IT are not of lesser quality.

You decide.

I’m on the move again. This time it’s not a lifhgt to Rome or the US, but I’m relocating my weekday home to another city in holland.

Why? Traffic.

Incredible really to have this as a reason in todays’ world where we have incredible possibilities for telecommunication. This got me to thinking. We work increasingly globally, and are more electronic-interrupt driven than process driven. So much so in fact that when we find there are interrupt not included in a process, we formalise the process so far that we can be sure the next time it’s required, the correct interrupt will be generated causing us to do some work.

Let’s up the abstraction level for a moment to create a little understanding around the point.

Think about your yearly planning cycle. In large companies nowadays it’s an incredibly scripted process, with the dates of starting, drafting & delivering known well in advance, frequently even the year before. It’s become such a massive process we’ve automated as much of it as possible. In many cases an e-mail reminder goes out automatically to remind people that it’s that time of year again, and they’d better get going with the plans.

Works right? Well…. yes, BUT, is it the best way, or just the way we’ve gotten used to doing it?

Go back to the reasons WHY you want to review your plans. It’s all to do with maximising business benefits whilst minimising costs and associated effort. Off course I’m glossing over a number of other reasons to do it here. But basically it’s just good business (sensible) practice to do so.

So why wait until the year is over until you do it? There is no good reason.

If we can identify things now that would benefit us, then why not weigh up the pro’s & con’s now and cut to the chase? Why wait until just before review time to review how it is you’re doing and what it is you’re doing?

Just as any auditor knows, waiting until the end of a major project to do an audit will only lead to a pat on the back or a flaming of the project, but NEVER to an improvement of the outcome itself. Doing an audit at the start and during however, reduces the risk of the flame, and increases the value of the outcome.

For those who disagree, I challenge that you don’t have enough understanding of your audit departments’ capabilities, and are not getting value for your money in doing so.

So here’s the advice: Let’s move away from scripted business, and move to a much more fluid way of working in which continuous improvement is the driver, not our pre-programmed interrupts. I don’t mean we don’t set goals anymore; goals are essential, but I DO mean we check more frequently (but don’t script this part either) how we are achieving them, if we are achieving them, and if we should still strive to achieve them.

Maybe it’s a process politicians can take when half-way through a war as well. If your objectives have changed, or the outcomes needs to be something different, just stop doing what you’re doing and go and do the other.

Easily said. Easily done?