Steven Zolman

Sep. 1,2010

Fans of so-called cloud computing (or SaaS, if you like) will tout any number of positive benefits of using a network-based, non-locally-installed software program. And, to be fair, there are many: lowered (or no) installation costs, lowered support costs, instant scalability and right-sized usage, etcetera. They'll also usually talk about deployment speed, with virtually turnkey-like timing to go from nothing to everything. But almost never do the fans (or the service providers themselves) mention the downsides, especially the biggest one - death of the service. The logic is simple: no one wants to believe that the service will ever cease ...

Steven Zolman

Aug. 13,2010

As a newsletter subscriber, you’ve no doubt read of NET(net)’s negotiated successes in our services engagements on behalf of our clients. You’ve most likely seen mention of our most attractive engagement method (pay for performance). And, if you’re even moderately skeptical, like I am, you’ve also no doubt wondered how we consistently achieve this success. The answer is simple: practice. We continuously practice our negotiation skills at home, at work, and at play. We also realized long ago that traditional negotiation methods simply didn’t yield the type of results we wanted. So we refined our abilities – focusing on the things that matter ...

Steven Zolman

Jul. 29,2010

"Microsoft Corp. today announced record fourth-quarter revenue of $16.04 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2010, a 22% increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.93 billion, $4.52 billion and $0.51 per share, which represented increases of 49%, 48% and 50%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period." Sounds like pretty good results to me. However, the headlines were "fiscal fourth-quarter earnings ... easily topped estimates, but failed to excite investors." and "Microsoft To Face Tough Questions From Analysts" And, Microsoft recently ...

Steven Zolman

Jul. 26,2010

To draft service levels and manage relationships well, you merely have to remember that they need to be SMART (as made popular by Peter Drucker): Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound, blending the rationality and romanticism as we go. Recall from the first two parts of this series that we were discussing IT Strategic Supplier Management. In this third of five-part series, we’re going to discuss the “A” – Attainable. Attainable – If you’ve never heard of the Myth of the Nines, take a moment and explore. The simple truth is that Five-9 availability is a pipe dream. 5.26 minutes of downtime a year. Just think about how long ...

Steven Zolman

Jul. 26,2010

To draft service levels and manage relationships well, you merely have to remember that they need to be SMART (as made popular by Peter Drucker): Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound, blending the rationality and romanticism as we go. Recall from the first three parts of this series that we were discussing Strategic Supplier Management. In this fourth of five-part series, we’re going to discuss the “R” and “T” – Relevant and Time-Bound. Relevant – Tied to Measurable and Specific is that each of your service level metrics be relevant to whatever service you’re receiving/providing. So if you’ve chosen to measure successful ...

Steven Zolman

Jul. 26,2010

To draft service levels and manage relationships well, you merely have to remember that they need to be SMART (as made popular by Peter Drucker): Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound, blending the rationality and romanticism as we go. Recall from the first four parts of this series that we were discussing Strategic Supplier Management. In this fifth of five-part series, we’re going to put it all together. Now that you’ve considered all five requirements, you should have one or more appropriate service levels in mind. But if you’ve never drafted a service level before or don’t have a lot of experience in writing them, you ...

Steven Zolman

Jul. 16,2010

“The aim of Zen practice is to discover [this] Buddha-nature within each person, through meditation and mindfulness of daily experiences. Zen practitioners believe that this provides new perspectives and insights on existence, which ultimately lead to enlightenment.” –Wikipedia Supplier Performance Management starts with understanding your supplier’s responsibilities in the relationship. The key to understanding those responsibilities is to draft and manage a solid contractual agreement. But if it was that simple and easy to do, NET(net) wouldn’t see so many of our clients disappointed in the service they’re receiving from their IT ...

Steven Zolman

Jul. 16,2010

To draft service levels and manage relationships well, you merely have to remember that they need to be SMART (as made popular by Peter Drucker): Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound, blending the rationality and romanticism as we go. Recall from the first part of this series that we were discussing the “S” – Specific of Strategic Supplier Management (SSM). In this second of five-part series, we’re going to discuss the “M” – Measurable. Measurable – While it might seem obvious, you must be able to measure your chosen metric. Counting alone isn’t necessarily enough. Rather, you might need to be able to track start/stop ...

Steven Zolman

Jul. 9,2010

It's that time of year when Microsoft convenes their annual partner and sales conferences, and announces their marketing themes for their new fiscal year. We can expect a blizzard of press releases and articles about innovations from Microsoft. And that's good for our enterprise clients who are evaluating their Microsoft investments and innovation is a topic that resonates with them. More often than not, our Clients are looking for the value from their Microsoft investments. Our advice to Microsoft: you're not in the features and functions business, you're in the ROI business. Regardless of how many cool new features Microsoft creates, ...

Steven Zolman

Jun. 16,2010

Strategy 4: Defend yourself against Influence Optimize persuasiveness Preparation. Analyze your BATNA – knowing your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, enables you to understand your walk away options. Evaluate the ZOPA – knowing the Zone Of Possible Agreement will help you avoid wasting time evaluating offers that are outside of your consideration. Investigate all issues at stake and know how to position them above the line or below the line. Know when to pull in above the line items on a quid pro quo basis to use as sticks to claim value and/or control the bargaining table. Know when to pull in below the line items on a quid pro ...