My new Samsung i560

I bought my new mobile phone a few weeks ago now - a shiny new Samsung i560.

What appealed to me was the Symbian OS as I knew it was a widely used operating system, allowing me to install a wide variety of software.

The phone also came equipped with a GPS - a gimmick. It just goes to show I'm not immune to them. :)

I haven't had any success with getting the GPS unit to work and now my 14 day software trial is all over. I don't feel inclined to spend about 40 euros on purchasing the software to drive it.

I've also been disappointed with software availability - there are clearly different installation packages for S60 devices depending on the device. As I use Google Calendar and GMail heavily, I wanted mobile clients for these. To my dismay, they're not available for the i560, though they are for other S60 3rd edn. devices. I'm presently looking for alternatives.

I also use Remember the Milk for tasks and EverNote, for which I'm unable to get clients either. I can tolerate those but I'd love to see Symbian / Java clients. So I'm reserving my disappointment for Google. They're a big company and really should be able to support my device. Though Google isn't part of the Symbian consortium and is developing their own mobile phone OS so maybe they're sulking over it.

Anyway, I'm going to sulk. :(

Thoughts on implementing Enterprise Systems

First up a disclaimer: my only experience with ERP is SAP and it presently amounts to about 6 weeks. So please SAP, don't sue me for defamation.

For me the jury's out on the value of ERP.

One of the major issues with SAP (and similar) is that can force a business process to change to match the software's built-in (ahem!) "best practices." Best practice is a marketing term that helps to sell things. A more accurate term would be "sound practice."

While there are often many things in common between businesses (especially within the same industry), there are going to be differences. Perhaps these can be because of a business's culture. Culture isn't just an overlay; rather it's at the core of a business and it affects the way a company goes about its business.

In the case of ERP systems like SAP, they are flexible to an extent in how their business processes can be configured but ultimately, the business will have to flex too.

Before starting my masters, I thought that if IT gets in the way of the business process, then the IT is wrong. I think I need to revise it, adding that the business process must contribute value to the business or the business process is wrong.

So let's revise this: If IT gets in the way of a sound business practice that contributes value to the business, then the IT is wrong. It will be interesting to see how this view changes over time. As the semester is progressing, I'm finding that this is the key problem that I keep returning to.

So what would be my advice to someone looking to implement ERP? It would be that implementing ERP won't magically turn the Titanic into the QE2. If your business is heading full speed towards an iceberg, ERP won't save you. It will however, give you a real-time picture of your ship being smashed to a pulp by that little old iceberg and will probably give the duly appointed administrator a decent head-start on salvaging the wreck. I would add that the scope of an ERP implementation is so big it's scary and that you need to evaluate carefully whether there is value in abandoning sound business practices for the practices that an ERP system will impose. The extent of the process changes will have a bearing, possibly a large bearing on the short term hit your business will take in the wake of go-live.

Installed Ubuntu under VirtualBox tonight

I installed VirtualBox tonight. VirtualBox is an open source virtual machine environment that runs on a variety of host platforms (including XP Home which I run at home). Set up was easy and working my way around the interface is dead easy.

I also installed a copy of Ubuntu 7 from an ISO that I had lying around to see how it would go. The VirtualBox wizard for setting up the virtual machine was easy, as easy as using Microsoft Virtual PC, which is really pleasing. While much get heaped on MS, it can't be said that their wizards and installers are vague.

VirtualBox supports snapshotting your VM. Snapshots are handy for when you think you might be about to do something that could break your VM. It gives you a backup point.

So far I haven't had success with my USB multi-function unit but there's some stuff on the VirtualBox site about driving USB devices, so I need to check that out properly.

So far so good!

Cheers
Mike

Week 2 at Uni

I've bitten off quite a bit this semester.

Enterprise Systems has a lot of work. My first assignment is due on Friday next week. I need to review 4 webcasts from SAP's SAPphire 2008 and write an additional 1500 words or so to tie them up. Thankfully I'm feeling more confident after today's class. The interface also feels like it's UNIX heritage would suggest. It's built for speed that's for sure. All in all, there's a ton of info to consume here.

IS Project and Change Management (ISPCM) sounds familiar from my Business Analysis subject from last semester, so should be easier. It should be an OK subject and thankfully not the same amount of work (I think) as Enterprise Systems.

Well I'd better be getting back to it.

Cheers
Mike

Sharepoint Developer Webcast Series

John Holliday blogged about a new webcast series on Sharepoint development with Robert Bogue and Andrew Connell. The ones I've seen so far have been very clear and full of info.

Confluence and Sharepoint

Well the Confluence - Sharepoint Connector went from beta v.0.5 to release 1.0 just like that. Rather a bit different to open source software I've played with (the connector most definitely isn't open source). Apart from having a flaky laptop with from which to run the demo, it went OK. I think I managed not to make a goose of myself in front of my workmates and boss.

The search function works a treat but only works with MOSS. You set it up as a Shared Service and off you go. One gotcha I found was that you need to keep the internal accounts available in Confluence as the search cannot currently work with anything other than Forms Authentication. (The Atlassian folks may have fixed this by now though).

Once you set up the LDAP authentication in Confluence to enable single sign-on, you can then configure Confluence to automatically pass your credentials to Confluence (automatic single sign-on). Doing this means that you lose access to the internally configured accounts. I quickly realised this as I hadn't configured my own account as a Confluence administrator. Oops... Backtrack, fix and re-enable...

For editing pages, the wiki is far easier (and richer) than dealing with Sharepoint and plug-ins allow for HTML content and for Word and Open Office documents to be used as a content editor (though I wonder how good they are). My boss liked the idea that you could roll up content from various Sharepoint lists, more or less creating "dashboard" style pages. I wonder what we'll do with it?

Cheers!

Uni's back for Semester 2 2008

This is my second semester of my Masters in Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. For anyone who asks, I wanted something to do with another 20 hours of the week, so I went back to part time study.

Last semester I only took one subject - Business Analysis Modelling and Design after having been sick in February. I did pretty well and scored first class honours (H1). Not a bad effort.

This semester I've taken two subjects Enterprise Systems and Information Systems Project and Change Management. I'll blog about them here as it will help to get my thoughts sorted out.

I've had classes for both now. Enterprise Systems is the most interesting immediately. It's based on Packaged Enterprise Application Software apps such as:

• Enterprise Resource Management (ERM)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• and others

We're using SAP in order to gain some practical experience. There's little point in just talking about them. I can't imagine we'll actually be much good but will have at least had some exposure to the software.

Project and Change Management I hope will be good as it progresses.

What I'm doing at work - Sharepoint and Confluence

I'm getting to know Confluence an enterprise wiki platform. Ultimately we want to be able to connect it to Sharepoint 2007 using the Confluence Sharepoint Connector, currently at v.0.5.


Using this, you can embed Sharepoint list data in Confluence pages and can display Confluence pages and tree structures inside Sharepoint WebParts. The Confluence content is also fully searchable from within Sharepoint too. So far, so good.

I'm doing up a demo for my team at work and expect to deliver it on Friday. I'll blog about it then.

Cheers
Mike

A bit about me

I'm living in Melbourne, Australia after having spent 8 years in Bendigo in Central Victoria where we were getting whole weeks with the temperature over 40 deg C. My mates and I would retire to one of the local dams just out of town; that is until there was a blue-green algae outbreak in it. At the moment, I reckon it'd be nice to see the sun again as we're in the middle of winter here in lovely Melbourne.

As far as work goes, I've gone from one end of the technical scale to the other: I used to paddle a canoe and take people bushwalking for a living, now I work in info tech. On realising that my body wasn't going to last a lifetime of canoeing and bushwalking, I fell into info tech and I love it to bits.

I've recently managed to land a job developing software full time with Melbourne Business School with (Microsoft) Sharepoint.

When I'm not working or learning more about computers, I love my wine and whisky, cooking, my girlfriend, musicians like Eric Clapton, Rogue Traders, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan (among others) and riding my bicycle.

cheers
Mike