Mark's Blog

Episode 78 – Business Efficiency of Good E-mail Management

“The bane of my existence” loosely defined means the person or thing is “a constant irritant or source of misery.”  In many ways, I think e-mail must be the bane of IT and of many users. The amount of corporate e-mail messages sent and received per person, per day is just insane, growing from 142 in 2007 to an estimated 199 in 2010. On average then, organizations with 10,000 mailboxes handle 2 million e-mails per day, so when factoring in message length and attachments (39% of all corporate e-mail), e-mail management can be a costly, painful requirement for doing business. 

I once did a simple calculation of the corporate productivity that was lost in our organization each time an e-mail was sent to “ALL.”  If it takes, on average, just 30 seconds for each person in a 50,000 person company to open, glance through and then delete or file an e-mail, each unwanted email effectively would cost the company roughly 416 hours of labor costs! Pretty amazing.

With all of this “accumulation” of e-mail content, asking individuals to take the time to manage all of their own e-mail is simply not wise or cost effective. I remember when EMC used to set these small mailbox size limits and everyone would spend hours each week moving e-mails into PST files or putting large files on their laptops. Beside the security and compliance issues, it is simply not cost-effective to ask users to manage this volume of information manually.

Today we launched a new, important family of products aimed at addressing the policy-based information management (i.e. archiving, eDiscovery, retention, deletion, etc) requirements for organizations on all sizes. The SourceOne family enables companies to centrally manage multiple content types for consistent retention, disposition and overall lifecycle management. We’re thrilled to deliver this to the market because it sits at the intersection of hot button topics for executives, namely, reduce costs; mitigate risk; ensure compliance and improve productivity.  SourceOne has all of that covered, and cost savings are especially compelling for these economic times. Initially, SourceOne focuses on managing e-mail.

Recent analyst projections show customers who implement an email management solution can reduce storage costs between 20-30%, improve time to complete backups by greater than 50%, and get an average payback in 2-3 years. All strong stuff, but we have our sights set for SourceOne to dramatically to beat those numbers so payback can come in under 12 months. Of course the size of your environment matters, but we’ve seen a 14,000 user organization achieve payback in just 7 months and 62% TCO savings, so this is impressive, no matter how you slice it.

There are, however, enormous additional efficiencies (that are not even factored yet) when adopting an information management capability like SourceOne .

First, you can increase user productivity if users simply don’t have to manage their email. The system does it for them via policies around retention (and deletion). Additionally, when e-mail and other content is well-managed, it is easier (and much less expensive) to find. Gartner says companies without an active policy and strategy for content archiving solutions will spend 1/3 more on eDiscovery than those without. And since eDiscovery typically involves lots of lawyers; paying extra to try to find information is very expensive.

I encourage you to read more about these solutions.

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge and thank the entire team involved in getting these game-changing solutions to market. In these times, every company needs to insure their information is properly retained and managed but what everyone really wants are more ways to save money. The real win is when you can get both at once.

 

Mark…

Episode 77: Virtual Information

Cloud Computing and Virtualization are clearly a couple in the “Next Big Things” in technology these days. What I would like to do is to take up the topic of what it really means to virtualize information.

Just so we start off on the same page, here are some of MY definitions of the key technologies I’ll likely reference today and in the near future:

Virtualization - Isolation/separation/abstraction between in place resources and delivery of services from these resources

Infrastructure Clouds - An aggregation of resources that can be allocated and delivered dynamically (typically compute and storage resources)

SaaS - Delivery of an application over the network as an on-demand service in which the service can be leveraged across multiple separate “tenants” or clients

Information Virtualization – the ability to manage, protect, secure, and present information to multiple applications while also abstracting where the information is physically located

One problem that is hitting us with full force today is basic information management; mostly because the information (both content and data) is everywhere. It is buried in rows and columns in databases, hidden in proprietary formats and embedded within applications, and in file systems and repositories… everywhere.

If you look at the web today and how we manage information, we improved our ability to manage and find information by simply making copies of the data. We don’t move the data; we simply aggregate and index.  This is what we value from the likes of Google and Yahoo today. We call it search but, really, the technology is just all about making copies.

So now it might appear as though we have a simple model to apply to all information, however this approach presents a few pretty big glitches.  First, the format of the web is fairly consistent (using XML) so it is readable. Second, while there is lot of information on the web, it still dwarfs the amount of private information that exists. Even if we wanted to – there is not enough storage in the world to make more copies of everything. Third, unlike the web, this information is mostly private and needs to be secured.

Take, for example, the basic concept of creating a personal health record.  One might think this would not be too hard; just get my health data, put it in a file, and put it somewhere – and voila – we are done.  If it were only that simple… Think about it, our health information is everywhere (blood tests here, MRIs in that system, doctors’ notes somewhere, probably hand-written), and in most cases, it is not going to make sense to ever try to move it.  This is where the concept of “Virtual Information” comes in, for transparent delivery and management of secure content and data, independent of any specific application. This is the real deal because organizations can leverage value of the content and data across multiple applications, and the cost savings through effective policy management can be enormous.

In future blogs segments I’ll share some of Information Virtualization capabilities we’re actively building across EMC. It is really exciting stuff!

Mark…

Episode 76: The Legacy Application is Dead – Long Live the Information

In a year of belt tightening, the likes of which most of us have never seen before, the first (and sometimes only) conversation that I have with a CIO is about how he/she can save money on IT.

At EMC we have many technologies that are focused squarely on efficiency. From tiered storage, to virtualization, to data de-duplication, much of what we do is to help companies do more with less and gain maximum leverage from their information. So we’re well positioned. However, one of the biggest CIO focus areas is managing the overhead costs of the ever-increasing number of applications across an enterprise. As one CIO put it, “new applications never seem to completely replace old ones – so old applications never really die.”

Old applications are the bane of IT. You know the ones. They are running on some hardware platform that was built when most of us were in elementary school,  by people who are nowhere to be found (but are likely at a rest home in Florida), and the one person who vaguely knows how to maintain it is actively planning next year’s retirement. All the while the software and hardware maintenance bills are crushing your budget. Sound familiar?

When I ask what keeps people from simply pulling the plug, the most common answer is “we don’t really use it much but we need access to the data.” In fact, studies show that more than half of the “living dead” applications running today are only used to insure access to information, buried inside a database so turning off the application also means losing the data. 

Well, maybe not anymore.

As I was out visiting customers and spending time with our sales teams, I found a solution that had literally been created in the field, by our customers and partners, revolutionizing how companies can save money. The solution is straightforward – built in a way to preserve the data with access to the information; secure and govern that legacy data according to policy; and repurpose, integrate and mine the data with other content – all while enabling organizations to completely retire the old applications and associated hardware and software.

I think this approach is perfectly-timed for this economic environment. The cost saving derived (retirement of legacy systems, lower maintenance and personnel costs) could deliver a rapid return on the investment. So, I’m happy to report that you can save money on IT, and that old man can still rest comfortably in retirement.

Mark…

 

 

Episode 75: Snowflakes

I went up skiing a couple of weeks back. The snow made for a brutal drive but not for the reasons you might think. I am from Colorado, the snow was the easy part. I just had never been skiing in California before and I learned two things.  First there is only one puny road to South Lake Tahoe and second, about a billion people try to drive up there for the weekend. Needless to say, I had lots of time to think about snow.  You probably know the old story that while snowflakes all look the same from a distance, in reality, no two are exactly alike. To me, selling enterprise software is a lot like selling snowflakes, as it seems that every installation is different.

 

Enterprise Content Management is going through an interesting evolution. As the market originated, the focus was squarely on solving the problem described by the term itself – managing content. ECM technology was valued and a necessary component across many applications and solutions. Like databases, ECM technology was deployed across a myriad of applications.

 

Effectively we have been “selling snowflakes” so far with ECM. Essentially, we have been building customized applications for each individual customer. This is evident in the ECM market overall as, for every dollar in software license revenues, a typical consumer will spend between $5-6 on services for customization and integration. Fortunately for our business and our customers’, we are working to dramatically reduce that ratio.

 

While it is true that custom technology implementations serve unique purposes, over time, many application requirements become much more consistent. CRM and ERP systems are good examples of transactional applications that have become far more standardized over the past decade. This has reduced costs and improved productivity and, in most cases, even delivered greater functionality.

 

Too much customization can constrain both the use of a technology as well as inhibit many productivity improvements that are possible by leveraging the technology. This is why you will see us develop, partner, build and sell more complete content-enabled applications for specific functions (like Accounts Payable) as well as combine our technology components together to form what we call Solution Frameworks. These frameworks become the new application development platform where building applications is mostly simple customization.

 

We will never seek to eliminate the capability to build customize applications as there can be great value when it is done for the right reasons but we do seek to bring a whole new set of Applications to market at completely new price points that we believe will change the market as we know it.

 

Mark...

 

Episode 74: A new beginning

I'm back! A new beginning.

Greetings! As you can see, it's been awhile since my last blog post. Don't take it personally, I've been busy. OK, that is maybe not the best excuse but we have been consumed with working to accelerate our business, so I gave up the blogging for a bit.

It's a new year, and so I hope you, your family, and your business have a great 2009.
Some might say it is more appropriate to say, "I hope your business survives 2009." Make no mistake – these are tough times, but as I've said before, this down economy provides opportunities for leaders to re-examine their business strategies for new ways to not just survive but thrive and grow during this brutal stretch we're facing. I truly believe times of uncertainty can lead to new opportunities.

So here is my advice for thriving in 2009 – it is pretty simple – just do three things.

CONTINUE TO INVEST – Give your company a "stimulus" done right. Go ahead and make the changes necessary to insure your operations are the most competitive and productive. In fact, there has never been a better time to retool for the future. While I am sure there is a ton of waste in this recent US government stimulus package, I was most pleased to see at least some investments proposed for technology-based productivity and efficiency improvements. These are the right investments that can speed recovery and set us up for long term growth.
    
FIND A FEW STRATEGIC PARTNERS – Now is not the time to take unnecessary risks in terms of partnering - work with leaders (market leaders, thought leaders, innovators), those who are driving and adhering to industry standards. Look for companies who have customers similar to you or ones who admire. Work with vendors you can trust.

WORK BOTTOMS UP (not tops down) – When I turn on the TV today for the latest dose of bad news, it is hard to imagine thriving in this economy, but you can with the right approach. The problem with the tops-down view is that it can paralyze an organization from taking any action at all. A bottoms up view, however, provides countless opportunities to augment investments in customer, employee and products/services functions – they're all still there, ready for positive change. Use this time as an opportunity to view (and review) your business through different lenses. Don't let the ongoing funeral on CNBC freeze up your ability to act!

Within CMA, I am excited about all of the changes we have made to reinvent our business over the past few months. All of this positive activity did curtail my blogging time (which I do consider to be highly valuable, and hope you do as well). In coming posts I will tell you what we are doing to change the face of our industry and how we will help you leverage your information better than ever before.

Mark...

Episode 73: Change

These days, just checking the price of my stocks and mutual funds is depressing. Each time I think “it can’t go any lower,” and… it does. Just when I think that our government is bound to step in and make a difference they seem to just add fuel to the fire.

So rather than spend my time huddled sobbing in a corner mulling over the fact that my retirement age just moved out by at least 5 years, I like to think about the good that can come from the events happening around and to us. What lessons will we learn? Most importantly, as a business, what is the right course to take today.

First, I believe that change creates opportunity. Second, I believe that significant change only can happen during a crisis (real or perceived).  Suffice to say, I guess that means that the opportunities have never been better!

Simply put, while many businesses will “run for cover” and make short-term decisions, many others – I believe the smart ones – will work to determine what they can do now to be ready for the “next” market. This is not about spending wildly; it is about investing -investing in a way that will make your business more successful in the future.

All businesses have areas in which they could improve. Within IT, I see some pretty inefficient and wild stuff. Companies are working on systems and applications that are so out-of-date that an outsider would think they were looking at a system from the 1980s. Some of these applications should be in the Smithsonian – not production. In many cases companies (and governments) are still using paper and manual processes that are so antiquated that I keep looking around for the “wayback” machine.  I must have gotten transformed through time. 

My favorite analogy here is classic cars. I have a 1959 Corvette that looks so cool that folks always say it must be so fast and drive like a dream. “Are you kidding!” I say, Vintage cars drive like crap – I would never use one for commuting or business! For you car buffs the ‘59 Vette is built on a 40s-era solid axle truck chassis. A sharp corner at 20 mph can be a heart throbbing experience!

Suffice to say that I believe that almost all major companies (except the ones we already know about) will make it through this market. Making it through a bad market is not that hard as expectations are lower for everyone. The real game starts on the rebound. Some companies will have invested to improve their competitiveness and will outgrow their competition; others may have a good looking balance sheet as the market starts to rise but soon struggle as they only sought economic savings in the downturn and now lack the competitiveness and ability to scale.

So, my coaching is simply, use this time to make the changes and investments that you need to be more competitive. And besides, it beats watching CNBC all day.

Mark…

Episode 72: The Commoditization of Content Management?

The CMIS announcement signals the end of an era. Some might say it was an era of proprietary software and ECM applications – just like databases or word processors or even operating systems. So, the questions that everyone really wants to ask for an announcement like this are: Do existing ECM products disappear and we all just move to open source? Does enterprise content management software become a commodity?

Let me answer the second question first. Any interface standard commoditizes one simple thing – the interface itself. So, if you are making money primarily on a proprietary interface lock in (and not functionality) then you better start looking for your next gig. On the other hand, if your product itself offers inherent value in it features and functionality then this presents an opportunity to reach new customers. It is not a bad thing.

Pundits are often of the belief that large vendors will always try to block or slow standards. While that can happen, in most cases, standardization serves to help the market overall and presents more of an opportunity than a threat. As we defined SQL for databases long ago, it served to facilitate more flexibility for customers, more application development and more opportunities for those developing databases to enter new markets. I believe CMIS will drive a similar evolution for content management.

What now can happen is that developers and ISVs can begin to develop applications and user interfaces that leverage ECM technology based on a common interface and connect  to multiple repositories; in effect, maximizing their market potential. And, ECM suppliers will have more applications that they can run on their platforms just as it happened with databases.  This does mean that application developers that have built proprietary content repositories will be at a distinct disadvantage as businesses seek to leverage their information value by integrating repositories and sharing more information across applications.

So, if you are running a content-centric application using proprietary repositories that will not support CMIS, over time, it is likely that this application will become more expensive to operate and fall behind in functionality. If you are writing applications and not leveraging open ECM technology, then your applications are likely to become more and more deficient. For everyone else, vendors and customers alike, CMIS is a very good thing.

Mark….

Episode 71:The Energy Internet

I have a personal passion about our energy policy, thus, this week’s blog is about storage and networking and how we can take the lessons learned from IT and use them to improve our energy policies.

As I read the comparisons on where our presidential candidates stand on energy policy I am a bit perplexed. What confounds me is not where they stand on the standard issues (tax cuts, offshore drilling, etc.) but that neither candidate seems to have thought through the real strategic ways in which our government can truly help to enable an energy independent U.S.

Let me start by drawing a parallel between the energy and IT markets. IT environments require production (computing), distribution (networking) and storage.  Energy markets follow the same model.

While politicians and pundits spend most of their time discussing computing (energy production), I believe the real economic potential will come from networking and storage (power distribution and energy storage capabilities).

Herein lies the dichotomy -- although we continue to make great progress in solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy, we cannot leverage these technologies to their full extent without significant advances in energy distribution simply because the places where the production of wind and solar energy are most economical tend not to be close to the places where consumption is the greatest.

From a storage standpoint we have a similar problem. The downfall of most of the new renewable energy sources is that they are not continuous or wholly predictable. If we lack the ability to store energy, then the potential for these technologies will simply not be achieved. Therefore, I submit that storage also remains a key to a new state of energy bliss.

I suggest that the real secret to advancing a successful energy policy is the construction of the energy internet – in many ways an initiative similar to creating the Internet. As we build the capability to intelligently distribute power from more sources and across greater distances, more companies and even individuals will be able to generate power and become a part of the overall ecosystem. The wider we can make the grid (energy internet), the more we can balance the peak loads and reduce our dependence on “surge capacity” which is always more expensive and usually has the worst environmental impact.

Energy storage is another area where government investment could yield exponential returns. From improved battery technology to leveraged superconducting, advances in energy storage technology are critical to advancing our energy situation.

There are many parallels between energy and IT and many places where I believe having the right policies, infrastructure, and technology initiatives could dramatically accelerate our ability to become energy independent and generate the bulk of our energy from renewable sources.

This simple fact is that the items everyone (and especially our presidential candidates) are talking about are not all that important in the grand scheme of things. Lowering the gas tax for a few weeks or determining how much extra we tax oil companies are meaningless in terms of solving any long-term issues. It looks to me like the first priority of an energy policy needs to be getting some priorities that will really make a difference.

Simply put, energy creation is in better shape and getting tons of continued investment. Taxation and efforts like offshore drilling are nits – they may matter to the press in an election year but they will not really make any difference. Storage and distribution are the areas where we are lacking because no individual or company can justify the investment. This is where government involvement/investment is needed to advance the current state. I sure hope we can start by setting the right priorities.

Mark….

Episode 70: Brainstorm

I attended my first Fortune Brainstorm conference last week. Brainstorm is an event hosted by Fortune Magazine designed to bring together an eclectic group of folks to discuss the impact, or potential impact, of technology on our lives.

In order to get in the door I had to answer a few questions – just like being back in school. Here are the answers I submitted: 

1. What is the most exciting technology innovation you've seen in the past 12 months?

The most exciting areas of development in the past year have been in the “green technology” sector. Simple economics have dramatically increased the relevancy of every advancement in this space. There have been significant improvements in fuel cell and hybrid technologies. Likely to be the most significant is Nanosolar technology. This thin-film solar technology can be applied onto almost any flat surface at a far lower cost than existing systems and could serve to exponentially increase the use of solar power.

2. What is your biggest hope or fear for the future, and how does tech relate to it?

We live in a unique time where access to information is now possible anywhere and at anytime. I am confident that we will use information technology to collaborate more effectively and advance the state of both knowledge and technology even more rapidly. Hopefully this "mass collaboration" will also bring the world closer together and even serve to reduce global conflicts. 

3. What should be the top priority for the next U.S. president?

While the economy remains top-of-mind for most in the U.S., I believe that we only can address the economy through a means that will provide sustainable growth and permanent economic improvements. To me, this simply means that our two top priorities must be to, first, invest in our people by better educating our children and, second, to invest in sustainable energy technology specifically so that the U.S. can achieve a self-reliant and largely renewable energy policy. Real progress will not be made through short-term tax cuts or consumption incentives; we need to act now with complete focus on a sustainable outcome. This should be our next "put a person on the moon" challenge.

Phew – I was now wondering if there was going to be a test afterwards….

Conferences like this are thought-provoking because they force us to step away from the day-to-day concerns of our immediate business and take time to appreciate the major technological shifts going on around us. If I have one key takeaway from this event….it is that successful companies are the ones that have found ways to leverage technology to engage their customers in completely new ways.

Customers are now engaged in every phase of a product/offer lifecycle — from innovation and development all the way through to support. This may sound obvious as most companies solicit customer input through customer councils, surveys, etc. The real innovation is that companies are opening up more and more of their internal collaboration tools, design plans, and support networks directly for customer access.

I was particularly impressed by a factoid from Brad Smith, the CEO of Intuit. Intuit recently incorporated their online support tool directly into their product giving customers access to all support questions. As is turns out, Intuit customers now answer some 40% of support questions (at the same or higher accuracy rate than their own support team).

More and more, our customers will play a greater role in not only shaping our products but helping us throughout the innovation and design process, even to the point of engaging directly in design and support elements. 

To do this, companies will need to leverage many of the social collaboration technologies that exist on the web today. Gone are the days when companies can fly-in their biggest customers to a fancy hotel, quiz them, and run canned ideas past them for several days. I believe that the most successful companies will be those that build the largest “virtual teams.” As with social networks, where their value is based upon getting a critical-mass of members, a company’s success will be more and more based on the size of their virtual team.

Virtual teams can make small companies more effective. But, in a way, these teams have the potential to be equally, if not more effective, for large companies. To me, the secret is finding the right ways to engage the widest audience in the most cost-effective and productive manner. 

We are on the threshold of some very interesting organizational innovations that will fundamentally change the way companies operate – yes, we still live in interesting times.

Mark….

Episode 69: Documentum 6.5 -- Up Front and Center

We just launched an exciting new set of products under the banner of Documentum ECM 6.5.  From the title you might think this is just a dot   release of our base ECM platform but it is much, much more. Documentum ECM 6.5 is a launch name for a new suite of products and capabilities that will change the way content management platforms can be leveraged.

First, we added a whole bunch of “Web 2.0” capabilities. Yeah, that is a great buzzword but I believe there are some really interesting things here. Put simply, this integration will allow companies to leverage more and more Web 2.0 development environments and applications while still maintaining secure and effective content management.

There are many interesting new products in this announcement. One of the most interesting is Documentum CenterStage. This is a cool new product for content-centric collaboration with all sorts of great new ways for users to interact with information and each other, but the really cool thing is that the base product will be released in beta for no charge.   It comes out initially as an online beta for anyone to try out.   To me, it only made sense that we have a base client that broadens the use of ECM -- we made that happen.

My personal favorite is “My Documentum”.  Simply put, this product will let me work with my content when I am offline. Even though I am traveling less on planes these days, I still like to just pop open my laptop and start working.  That is even if I can possibly find a WiFi connection.   Still if I have a connection when I am traveling, it usually takes so long to connect that I spend more time setting up the network than I do actually working.

For the “creative” crowd, we introduced a new collaboration tool specifically designed for rich media called Media WorkSpace. With design efforts going global, these tools are a ‘must’ for effective collaboration.

We also did a number of things to make ECM more efficient for both high volume (large number of files) and high capacity (very large files) use. This is a key element of delivering an information infrastructure that truly can handle all types of information.

So, if you think this release is just a dot upgrade, I suggest you look again. There are a bunch of new capabilities and products in Documentum ECM 6.5 that we believe will really change how companies can leverage content management capabilities more effectively across more areas of their business.

Mark…