Carry the Message to Garcia

January 18th, 2010

How often do you find yourself wishing you could find someone to Carry a Message to Garcia?

Finding people who understand the value of completing a mission without filing a flight plan, without endless questioning, without frivolous interruptions is a mission all by itself.

Initiative, according to Elbert Hubbard who wrote the famous essay had one definition:

Doing the Right Thing without being told.

Hubbard goes on:

But next to doing the thing without being told is to do it when you are told once. That is to say, carry the Message to Garcia: those who can carry a message get high honors, but their pay is not always in proportion.

Next, there are those who never do a thing until they are told twice; such get no honors and small pay.

Next, there are those who do the right thing onlywhen necessity kicks them from behind, and these get indifference instead of honors, and a pittance for pay. This kind spends most of its time polishing a bench with a hard-luck story.

Then, still lower down in the scale than this, we have fellow who will not do the right thing even when some one goes along to show him how and stays to see that he does it; he is always out of job, and receives the contempt he deserves, unless he happens to have a rich Pa, in which case Destiny patiently awaits around a corner with a stuffed club.

To which class do you belong?

I promise you that sometime in your life you will have wished you had printed Elbert Hubbard’s 1899 Essay so that you could hand it to someone and save them decades of excuses!

Find it here and save a copy to your computer for that eventuality:

http://www.nato.int/nrdc-it/about/message_to_garcia.pdf

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General, Lessons Learned

Extraordinary Effort for Ordinary Gain

January 1st, 2010

It’s easy to be cynical if you are an end user who relies on an IT (Information Technology) support organization. How many unplanned outage notices have you wondering if anything is going to be working today?

Frustrated, you send that e-mail to the CEO to get some attention on something that should have been fixed a decade ago. Interestingly, this touches off a pattern of waste that is repeated daily in organizations everywhere. Allowing  pedestrian problems to ignite into full-blown all-hands-on-deck emergencies is completely avoidable.  Sadly, it’s more the norm than the exception.

Even worse, real emergencies often go unrecognized while extraordinary effort is expended for ordinary gain.

If this happens frequently in your organization, isn’t it time to look beyond the fire fighting?

  1. Do you have chronic issues that are never completely resolved?
  2. Do the same people make the same mistakes unable to turn a lesson learned into a lesson remembered?
  3. Are resources stretched so thin that a satisfactory root cause analysis is omitted in order to fight the next fire?
  4. Is Executive Management seemingly oblivious to the perils since they often benefit from extraordinary effort exercises?

Breaking your organization’s dependency on fire-fighting as a normal reaction is not a quick-fix proposition. Finding a way to measure and report the cost of extraordinary efforts and contrasting them against the underwhelming, ordinary results they produce is a good first step.

Getting someone to act on that data is the real trick.

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Assessments, Lessons Learned, Technology

Critical Lessons in Economic Development

August 27th, 2009

Uncertainty and fear are common emotions expressed by executives during my conservations with them about their business outlook. However, those charged with economic development are undaunted in their efforts to raise awareness about their regions. I interviewed a veteran of this process, John Cody, President and CEO of the Longmont Area Economic Council (LAEC).

John-Cody-Web

John has over 25 years of economic experience with a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, a Certified Economic Developer (CED), and prior experience in Louisiana, Wyoming, and Colorado.

Q1.You work with Primary Employers and Longmont has seen some interesting industry clusters develop in the area. What is an industry cluster and how long do they take to develop? What are the main industry clusters and the emerging clusters now developing?

Industry Clusters are basically concentrations of companies in a geographic region within a specific industry classification.  The term was popularized by Michael Porter in his book “The Competitive Advantage of Nations”.  In a classic sense they represent an industry group that is integrated on both a vertical and horizontal basis.  However, outside the classic definition, “clusters” are used to define concentrations of employment that are multiples of the national average.

In that regard, Longmont has four identified clusters: Data Storage, Biotech, Software and Semiconductor Design.  Each of these “clusters” has a high concentration in the Longmont area.  We are also seeing the emergence of possible clusters in the aerospace and renewable energy industries.  In a larger sense, Advanced Technology, as a group of industries, represents more than half of the primary employment in Longmont.  This is many times the national average.

In recent years we have also seen the rise of data centers in Longmont, due to our low cost and availability of electricity and because we are located in a relatively “disaster free area”.  While data centers are not specific to a given industry, we are beginning to see a concentration of these facilities.  So far, American Honda, Xilinx, West Corporation and Ongoing operations are here in Longmont.

Q2.Are there any industry clusters Longmont currently hasn’t developed that would be a good fit for the area?

No, not really.  Business, like water, tends to seek its own level.  We look for a presence in the region as evidence that an industry likes this area and then we determine if that industry is poised to grow and how effectively we can compete for expansions and relocations.

Q3.Awareness is a problem for many regions. What kind of outreach are you doing outside of Colorado to highlight the business benefits of Longmont?

As a small community (87,000 population) we rely on two primary vehicles for getting our word out.  First, we work with our regional and state partners to promote this part of Colorado, recognizing we will compete best when this region is selected as a good location by a prospective company.  We participate in trade shows, site selection conferences, trade missions and national marketing efforts by these groups to get the word out about the Denver metro region.

We then begin the process of “coopitition” to try and attract a given prospect that is looking for a community like Longmont.  Second, we use our web page, which has become the standard for initial stages of the site selection process.

In addition to information (demographics, incentives, community profile, industry profile, etc.) we also maintain a comprehensive real estate database that is searchable online and which is maintained completely by our organization.  We are the only organization in Colorado to do this.

Q4.I’m often surprised by Longmont Primary Employers who are unaware of each other. What kind of events does the LAEC sponsor so these companies learn about each other?

We promote our companies in a variety of ways including:  two industry recognition events that have a 10 year history in Longmont, promotion on our web page and quarterly newsletter, promotion through our quarterly supplement in the Boulder County Business Report and news items that are included in our weekly updates to investors.

In addition, we periodically bring together companies that have common issues to facilitate discussion.  Topics have included government procurement, employment law, lean manufacturing, telecommunications, etc.

Q5.What have you found is the best-kept-secret of Longmont that businesses are surprised to learn when you engage with them?

With the advent of the Internet, secrets have become mostly a thing of the past.  What I do notice is that people seem surprised about the caliber of companies we have based on the size of our community.  Names like Seagate, Amgen, DigitalGlobe and Intrado locally and IBM, Ball Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft in Boulder County are usually reserved for much larger populated areas.

Our competitive advantages include the quality of our workforce, the cost of doing business (especially for advanced technology companies), and a business friendly local government are usually uncovered before we talk with them.

Q6.What advice can you give Longmont Primary Employers who are interested in seeing their particular industry cluster develop or grow?

Obviously, no one is better at growing their companies than they are.  What we want companies to know is that when they are ready to grow, Longmont has the right talent, the right tools and the right business environment to contribute to their success.

Q7.Is there anything you’d like to add about LAEC, Longmont, or business development?

Just that the site selection process is complex because there are so many factors to be considered.  Our office has over 50 years of experience in working with companies to find a location and a process that meets their needs.  Not every community is a good fit for every company.

We can facilitate a company’s needs in finding the best location and in the time frame that matches their needs to be operational.  Longmont is a great community for the right company and we want them to know they have an ally in the Economic Council and the City of Longmont.

See these additional LAEC resources if you are considering the Longmont Area for a corporate relocation:

You can contact John Cody and Staff at the Longmont Area Economic Council via phone at 303-651-0128.

About the Author:

Blaine Berger is the President of E-Oasis, a business and technology veteran with over 25 years of experience. You can contact Blaine via e-mail at blaine@e-oasis.com or follow @eoasis on Twitter. You may also leave a comment here.

E-Oasis offers complete data center moving services for the  life-cycle of a data center or computer room move. We help you avoid Complexity Blindness in your data center move planning. Additionally, our workshop series addresses all aspects of data center moving.

About republication:  Contact blaine@e-oasis.com with your republication inquiry about this story.

About your Economic Development organization: Send your pitch and information about your organization to be considered for future stories on economic development to blaine@e-oasis.com .

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DataCenters, General, Lessons Learned, Welcome

Welcome Serious Materials and Video Accessory Corporation to Longmont

July 20th, 2009

Serious Materials, a manufacturer of energy efficient building materials, opened a 36,000 sq. ft. manufacturing and R&D facility in Longmont, Colorado. The Longmont facility is slated to produce super insulating windows and glass for commercial and residential markets. The nearby ConocoPhillip’s research center for alternative fuels was mentioned as one reason to choose Colorado for the facility.

Video Accessory Corporation (VAC), manufacturer of  video and audio distribution and switching products, moved their headquarters into almost 15,000 sq. feet in Longmont, Colorado.  VAC offers over 3,000 products used in audio/visual applications, military command and control systems, and security and survellience systems.

Welcome Serious Materials and Video Accessory Corporation to Longmont!

Is your company considering relocation? Check out our data center moving resources.

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General

Nothing Concentrates the Mind Like a Hanging (at Dawn)

June 23rd, 2009

IT (Information Technology) projects stall for lots of reasons. They also fail spectacularly. Worse, they don’t fail soon enough and organizations bloat staffing in pursuit of a project that should be killed. It’s also common to see unqualified resources stumbling through what an expert can finish with little effort.

Nothing Concentrates the Mind Like a Hanging

A sense of urgency is often missing in IT projects. Milestones are missed with regularity and it’s often unclear who is responsible for deliverables. The expectation that a Google search will yield the technical recipe often substitutes for seeking out experienced help.

It’s not uncommon to hear some imaginative reasoning for why a project missed a deadline or failed to accomplish the objective. Most of these reasons are just fabrications. Sometimes the simple steps such as having clear consequences (the hanging) and an immovable deadline (at dawn) are not sufficient to provoke any meaningful results.

Now what?

It’s no secret that most people inherently avoid conflicts. They know what they should do, but inexplicably can not confront the situation before them. It’s no different with a technology project but there is a twist. You may not be able to overcome the imaginative technical fabrications in addition to confronting the individuals involved.

It’s time to seek out a peer review of the project and place a technical expert in direct conflict with your in-house resources.

What happens next will be the real test of your own leadership.

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Assessments, General, Lessons Learned, Technology

Healthcare’s Glacial Journey

April 9th, 2009

I recently attended the HIMSS09 Healthcare conference in Chicago.  Most of you know that Healthcare is receiving almost $20 Billion in incentives from the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act).  To claim that stimulus, participants must demonstrate the mostly undefined “Meaningful Use” criteria.

Can We Afford Point Solutions?

The Vendor interest at HIMSS09 was apparent, however the physician reaction to the stimulus is lukewarm at best.  A first year payment of $18K in 2011 or 2012 to the physician practice is hardly an economic incentive to deploy a point solution that is unlikely to integrate with anything else.

Speaking with CIOs after the CIO Forum in Chicago, the overall view expressed was one of apathy towards the stimulus changing priorities within their organizations. Some spoke candidly that the stimulus will not affect the current IT initiatives already underway in their organizations. Others wondered if their organizations would be able to avoid the penalty phase of the ARRA.

What Problem Are We Trying To Solve?

Clearly, we’re not trying to fix healthcare with these incentive payments. In fact some view that this program will worsen the healthcare crisis. Absent from HIMSS09 were discussions about a revolution in healthcare with more of the same glacial progress expected in the coming years.

Does Healthcare’s Journey Continue Glacially Down The Same Path?

What do you think? Is the inertia so great that healthcare will not be able to overcome its own coefficient of drag?

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General, Lessons Learned

Connecting the Dots for the Wheatland Wyoming Wind Corridor

March 11th, 2009

As an electrical engineer growing up in the power industry, I was fortunate to be around much of the electrical power infrastructure that most of us take for granted. From coal-fired power plants, hydroelectric, and gasification, I also had the good fortune to learn about high voltage transmission, substations and switching, and SCADA first-hand.

It’s obvious that a major shift is underway for electrical generation in North America. Wyoming, specifically, deserves closer inspection.  Let’s connect the available dots to understand why Wheatland Wyoming is positioned to benefit from wind energy development.

Dot #1: Wind! Wheatland, Wyoming  sits within the windiest point in the nation according to the NREL map, but developers are stuck without available transmission capacity.

wywind5

Dot #2: Trifecta! Not insignificant is the environmental, land use, and siting issues with building new transmission lines.  The fact that Wheatland has the greatest access to existing transmission corridors and the fewest environmental conflicts gives them the trifecta of wind, transmission, and environmental attributes to thrive in the new energy economy.

The Wyoming Infrastructure Authority is actively promoting the Wyoming Colorado Intertie project to find a market for Wyoming wind.  This tie starts at the Laramie River Station just outside of Wheatland.

Dot #3: Transmission! Basin Electric, who operates the Laramie River Station,  already has a transmission line from Gillette at the Dry Forks power plant to Colorado  planned.

Dot #4: Market Access! Xcel Energy  actively participates  in the High Plains Express transmission line  planning. This line starts at Dave Johnson and connects at the Laramie River Station and is expected to bring wind power from Wyoming and Eastern Colorado and New Mexico solar to demand-needy areas.

Every wind developer knows that the closer their project is to a transmission corridor and a major substation to connect to, the more economically viable it becomes for development.

Dot #5: Infrastructure! Wheatland has the existing infrastructure to be the Forward Operating Base for all types of wind development including construction. The town has already benefited from significant improvements in schools, roads, and services during the 1977 to 1980 construction of the $1.6 Billion Laramie River Station (LRS) power plant just outside of Wheatland.

Dot #6: Stimulus! At a recent conference in Denver regarding the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), Nick Muller (Executive Director of the Colorado Independent Energy Association)  stated that Wyoming Wind is ahead of Colorado in areas of wind development. Approximately $3.2 Billion in loan guarantees is ear-marked from the ARRA for the Western Area Power Administration. Transmission line improvements are high on everyone’s list of projects for the Western States.

Dot #7: Stimulus Again! Part of the ARRA includes money to demonstrate carbon sequestering. Basin Electric already has proposed a large-scale carbon capture demonstration project to be done at its Antelope Valley Station. If successful, the implications for Basin’s other plants including Laramie River Station are obvious. Wheatland will benefit from a huge investment in carbon capture at Laramie River Station.

Dot #8: Training and Education! Laramie Community College, located in Cheyenne, WY has been designated as a regional training center for Wind Energy. The University of Wyoming, in Laramie had previously announced in 2008 the building of the UW Wind Energy Research Center.

You Better Hurry

The locals are organized and understand what is at stake. A few of the Wind Energy Associations include:

  • Bordeaux Wind Energy Association
  • Glendo Wind Energy Association
  • Slater Wind Energy Association

It’s clear that Wheatland is sitting favorably within this wind corridor with its nearby Laramie River Station figuring to be the next likely major  interconnection point  for wind energy transmission and the town already possesses the infrastructure to take on the coming boom in wind development.

Platte County is Capable of 2,000 megawatts of Wind Energy

Early adopters will snatch up the available inventory of housing and industrial buildings while later arrivals will spur construction projects. To get an idea of the scope, some estimates place 100-200 construction jobs per 100 megawatts built and 2-6 permanent jobs for the same metric.  For Platte County, that translates into 40 to 100 permanent families and a staggering 2,000 to 4,000 construction families.

All the dots lead to Wheatland as a primary geographical focal point for the new energy economy.

About the Author:

Blaine Berger is the President of E-Oasis, a business and technology veteran with 25 years of experience. You can contact Blaine via e-mail at blaine@e-oasis.com or follow @eoasis on Twitter. You may also leave a comment on this blog.

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Anti-Threat, General, Networks

Welcome Creative Foam to Longmont

March 6th, 2009

Creative Foam, a manufacturing company, has announced plans to open a Longmont, Colorado facility. Among their products are portions of wind turbine blades that Vestas and other wind turbine companies use for their 100-plus long wind turbine blades.  Creative Foam chose Longmont to be near Vestas who is investing heavily in Colorado.

creativefoam-logo

Welcome to Longmont, Creative Foam. We’re glad you’re here!

For anyone involved in moving their company, grab our free Desktop Moving Guide that explains how your computer desktops should be moved properly.

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General

SendItem: Accessing Exchange 2007 with PHP-Soap

February 21st, 2009

This is going to be one of those mostly technical posts to help others who are struggling with using PHP-Soap to access Exchange 2007 web services. Apologies to regular readers who are not familiar with PHP and Exchange 2007. If you find this helpful, please leave a comment below.

Start at the Beginning

To get started, you’ll need to read Erik Cederstand’s HOWTO talk SOAP with Exchange and get the fundamental stuff working.  For some common problems, also check out the ongoing thread http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?p=171001 . Additionally, the MSDN reference at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx is where you need to educate yourself on Exchange Web Services, XML, and error messages.

Know what XML you are forming

The Microsoft Developer’s Network is the place to start for XML examples. Here’s the XML we’ll form for our CreateItem example:

/*

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?> <CreateItem xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema” MessageDisposition=”SendAndSaveCopy”>

<SavedItemFolderId xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages”> <DistinguishedFolderId Id=”sentitems” xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types” /> </SavedItemFolderId>

<Items xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/messages”>

<Message xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/services/2006/types”> <ItemClass>IPM.Note</ItemClass>

<Subject>YOUR SUBJECT</Subject>

<Body BodyType=”Text”>YOUR BODY TEXT</Body>

<ToRecipients> <Mailbox> <EmailAddress>SOMEONE@e-oasis.com</EmailAddress> </Mailbox>

</ToRecipients> </Message> </Items> </CreateItem>

*/

Use PHP-Soap to form the XML request

Debugging Soap errors can be frustrating, but if you “stare and compare” against your XML you can typically find the problem. Here’s the PHP code to form the XML request. Note how the attribute of BodyType is passed within the Body tag using Body['BodyType'] and the content of the Body tag is passed with Body[_] = “YOUR BODY TEXT”; .

//CreateItem Sends e-mail through Exchange 2007 $CreateItem->MessageDisposition=”SendAndSaveCopy”; $CreateItem->SavedItemFolderId->DistinguishedFolderId->Id = “inbox”; $CreateItem->Items->Message = array();

for($i = 0; $i < 1; $i++) {

$CreateItem->Items->Message[$i]->ItemClass = “IPM.Note”; $CreateItem->Items->Message[$i]->Subject = “YOUR SUBJECT“; $CreateItem->Items->Message[$i]->Body[_] = “YOUR BODY TEXT“; $CreateItem->Items->Message[$i]->Body['BodyType'] = “Text“; $CreateItem->Items->Message[$i]->ToRecipients->Mailbox->EmailAddress = “SOMEONE@e-oasis.com“;

$CreateItem->Items->Message[$i]->IsRead = “false”;

}

$result = $client->CreateItem($CreateItem);

Was this helpful?

If you found this helpful, we’d appreciate a comment or other PHP-Soap examples that can help others.  Until PHP-Soap access to Exchange 2007 becomes more common-place, these examples will be huge time-savers for everyone.

E-Mail blaine@e-oasis.com or twitter @e0asis

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General, Technology

Diagnosis Twitter – Listening at the Flash-Point of Need

January 19th, 2009

It’s difficult to write a post about Twitter without defining it. The problem is that Twitter is a work in progress. None of these elements will be explored in this post:

  1. Will Twitter find a way to make money? (Apologies to Fred Wilson)
  2. Is Twitter useful for <insert favorite use>?
  3. How does Twitter <help><hurt> me <my business>?
  4. What the heck is Twitter anyway?
  5. I <hate><love><don’t care about> Twitter.
  6. You should not use  Twitter for <insert-your-favorite-rule>.

Ignore the fail whale, the fanboys/girls,  and the crowd-based do’s and don’ts. Even Captain Obvious can see that Twitter is a work in progress as evidenced by the good folks at Twitter explaining they will scale first and seek revenue second.

Suppose instead you conduct this thought experiment:

Every Person on the planet with a wireless phone or computer is a Twitter user.

And these millions of Twitter users are all talking at once all in the same room.  Some in small groups and some in large. Some organized and most ad-hoc. Some talk is polite, some is rude, and most is seemingly without context.

What then becomes important when you realize these conversations, occurring in real time and possessing the possibility of crowd consensus, are about your brand?

About your industry? About something you care about? Maybe even about you personally?

What becomes important once Twitter scales?

What will matter when the discordant din from Twitterville is loud, overwhelming, and impossible to manage with the current tools?

Listening.

Not eavesdropping, but really Listening.

Listening at the flash-point of need.

Responding is an entirely different post.

But Listening is something you can start right now. This reason alone may not be compelling enough to compete for your time at this point in Twitter’s development.

Maybe there’s plenty of time and you can relax while Twitter is the rock your competitors break themselves against.

Or maybe others have the Listening part down and they’ve moved on to Responding?

Diagnosis Twitter: Relevant, not yet at scale, and ignored at the expense of your brand.

What’s your story about listening at the flash-point of need?

####

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General, Lessons Learned, Technology