Monday, April 14, 2008

Dell RIFs 8,000+ Employees: Does It Make You Wonder About The Value of That Tech Career?

Let's See: Dell is eliminating 8,000+ North American employees in an effort to cut costs and increase shareholder revenue. Most of the newly unemployed are from the U.S. but there are many Canadians in this unfortunate group. Is this a credible socio-economic move by Dell, or just another leap in the international money game?

These conveniently ghostly figures also mean that as many as 8,000 family members are now scrambling to find new jobs--yes I mean simply JOBS--because these folks certainly won't have the creditor grace period to re-establish their careers--so they can continue paying their bills. How many of these people are highly experienced and well qualified? Having met a large number of Austin, TX employees of Dell while delivering instructional programs there, I would guess that these folks are excellent representatives of the American technology work force.

In the coming months, how many of these key American and Canadian technology workers will be forced to take whatever job comes along--or face losing everything they worked so hard to accomplish for their families?

Here's The Rub: I'm sure you will join me in questioning Mike Dell's attitude--if not financially--then ethically. Did these same workers--or did they not--essentially build the company that enables Mr. Dell to wheel and deal on the international level? Is this the way Dell employees are rewarded for their dedication to the company? More interestingly, is this the habitual way that our corporations are learning to deal with enhancing the bottom line: By dumping emloyees (or facilities) in one country in favor or lower priced employees (or facilities) in another country?

For Instance: In what ways does Dell contribute to our economy by removing all these people from the tax base? Is this by any chance the same Dell that pledged to spend $70 million on Chinese hardware across 2008?

Big News, Mike & Friends: Eventually you are going to run out of genuinely dedicated employees and, when that occurs--as it must--you and all like-minded executives are going to be forced to use more costly employment mercenaries who will respond with dedication commentary along the lines of, "Quite frankly, Scarlet..." And Mike, if you're by any chance wondering why your company is having trouble being competitively innovative, you might reflect on the reasons why ANY employee would want to contribute to YOUR bottom line--a bottom line of which THEY are not a key element.

One Might Ask: Would this also be the same Dell that spends around $60 million in executive salaries and perks. In precisely what ways have those of you Enron-wanna-bees served your enterprise--other than cruising the world in the corporate Lear?

Guess What: If it weren't for the talent that helped you grow that enterprise, the enterprise is not going anyplace. You might want to keep in mind that these folks you recently disposed of, their families, and everyone they know are also your customers--for now.

Wake Up America: If our enterprises continue to be dedicated only to their corporate bottom lines and lining the pockets of major executives, our places as world innovators and leader are very much at risk. As long as the enterprise is not dedicated to its employees--truely dedicated to them--those employees are not going to be dedicated to the enterprise.

Oh... And China, India, and all the others who are jumping on the wagon: This kind of corporate behavior is also right there in your future.

By your examples, precisely what are you teaching our kids?

Monday, April 7, 2008

Gartner says 90% of us will use open source in 2012...

In a recent report, Gartner has predicted that 90% of business technology consumers will be using open source software by 2012. When it comes to software asset management, our abilities to identify and pursue cost cutting alternative products is key to the professional abilities of life cycle managers.

Personally, I use OpenOffice for ALL my desktop productivity needs. It does everything I need it to do and the costs is, well, roughly, $300+ cheaper than the most popular alternative proprietary product.

Does your company use open source? Have you used or evaluated such products as OpenOffice? What was the experience like?

Sunday, April 6, 2008

What will we find out?

This blog is all about managing technologies as business assets. Up until now, the vast majority of companies manage their incredibly valuable business technology assets in one of the following ways:
  • They don't manage it at all,
  • They manage technology assets only in an ad hoc manner,
  • They only use periodic software asset management & only when forced to do so by a software audit or software piracy audit,
  • They expect their technical personnel to manage everything...
The day your company begins using formal business processes to manage the entire life cycle of business technology assets is the day you begin reducing costs and risks by as much as 50%.

Failure to do so simply means that you will continue to be exposed to software piracy audits, software license non compliance penalties, font violation audits, graphics violation audits, even copyright violations of MP3 and video products. Also, you might want to check your systems for games. Yep! The gaming industries are also more than willing to dip into your bottom line for copyright violation settlements.


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Read The Contract!

Technology asset management cost and risk reduction concept:
Read The Contract, License or Other Document...
I have been working as an adviser, corporate coach and certification trainer since the mid-90's and I can honestly state that the vast majority of companies have absolutely no idea what the terms and conditions are of the dozens--even hundreds--of legal documents to which the company is bound.

Guaranteed Cost Reduction Idea:
"Begin, immediately, reading and summarizing every software license for every product your company uses."
Why? Because software licenses are permissive documents. They clearly specify precisely how you are permitted to use the copyright protected product covered by the license. If you do not know what the licenses say you cannot possible be compliant with those licenses.

How much could you really save? The average settlement for license non compliance for an American SME is around $60,000 (plus up to 6 times that amount in punitive audit fees). You could side-step this potential loss of vital business revenue by simply matching up your permissions with your actual usage of those copyrighted products.

Kicking Off...

This is the beginning of a personal blog site for Alan L. Plastow. For now, I will be discussing ideas you can use in identifying and implementing effective initiatives in the following areas of technology portfolio management:
  • Software & Copyright Compliance Assurance
  • Software Asset Management / Software Life Cycle Management
  • Technology Asset Management / Hardware Life Cycle Management
  • Technology Project Management
Please feel free to let me know if you have a problem or issue you'd like me to cover. Since this is my personal blog, I will also periodically include personal perspectives and links to areas of interest such as career improvement and professional development.