Confessions of an eBiz Junkie

When Disaster Strikes - A MOZY Story

I'll make a long story short.

My October was completely consumed by the announcement of the VMware, Cisco and EMC coalition. Ensuring all of the digital pieces came together to help ensure a successful launch was complex. What I didn't need was a midstream disaster.

So - now picture me the morning of Friday, October 23rd. It's 5am local time and just about week in front of the announcement.  I'm pounding cappuccinos like it's my last day on earth. The nervous legs are shaking the entire house and even the new puppy doesn't want to be around me in this heightened state of anxiety. It's damned early, but it's time to get to work.

I hit the power switch on my trusty MacBook Pro.

Nothing.

In denial, I try again.

Nothing.

Oh cr@p.

Tips for Deploying Community in the Enterprise

I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at KMWorld 2009 before the holiday. It was an older blog post around the evolution of our corporate Intranet that first put me in touch with the KMWorld management team.

I spoke a bit about the transformation of the enterprise, highlighting our journey in both traditional and social channels. Putting together the story helped me reflect a bit on our journey and recall some of the key decisions that have helped us progress on our path. Some of these things I now take for granted, but based on discussions with other attendees, I realize many have yet to begin traveling this path. To that end, I wanted to share a few of the key takeaways...

The Transforming Enterprise

Things have been a tad busy of late, and I've been neglecting my blogging duties - Sorry for that. If it's any excuse, I've been working all-out with a very talented bunch of folks to help deliver this, this and this. Which reminds, with this now in the past, I really have to start working on my presentation for this.

If you haven't been following, EMC, Cisco and VMware today announced the Virtual Computing Environment coalition. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, and have given me an opportunity to witness firsthand the transformation of the traditional enterprise.

Many definitions of Enterprise 2.0 focus on the software that enables extended collaboration within the corporate world. For me, it's as much about the re-engineering of traditional business processes as it is the enabling tools. The notion of opening traditional walls and enabling greater collaboration with customers, partners and prospects alike is among the most fascinating aspects to me.

I got the chance to witness this firsthand and it was fantastic.

Groups working together across different companies is not a new thing... But this whole effort felt very different. As I began working with new friends from Cisco and VMware, I realized that we weren't simply a bunch of independent teams plugging along to a project plan. Rather, it felt like one big passionate team firing on all cylinders. While we sat in varying facilities all over the world and had different logos on our badges, that's where the differences ended.

It was a really cool experience - watching legions of people put aside traditional thinking and processes in support of a common goal - to do right by the customer while transforming an industry.

It was certainly among the more humbling experiences of my career - and I applaud the brands for thinking different - and thinking big. It's exciting stuff.

I'll share a bit more in the coming days about this whole experience... Including the absolute disaster that happened midstream. But - you'll have to check back for that ;). 

Innovation Day at EMC

I have the absolute pleasure today of participating in EMC's Innovation Conference. It's hard to imagine a year has passed since our last event. As I type this, I sit in our Santa Clara facility (California) watching a live broadcast from Bangalore, India where EMC CTO Jeff Nick is opening the days ceremonies. Santa Clara is but one of 13 satellite sites across the globe participating in the days activities.

Breakthrough thinking, adding value to our customers, adding value to EMC, improving the industry at large and identifying ways to further encourage innovation are all among the criteria for idea submissions. This is a wonderful program that really helps highlight the incredible talent, thinking and creativity that thrives within our culture.

In 2007, this program generated about 400 ideas. This year, about 1500 submissions from across the globe made for a tough competition. Kudos to the team that invests the time to pull this together, those who submit ideas and to the culture that simply feeds on innovation.

As I sit here listening to Jeff review the 100 finalists, I'm struck by two things... Certainly the creativity and breadth of ideas is simply staggering. But the focus on the customer is the most impressive aspect to me. It's evident to me that improving our lives by advancing the digital world is among the core drivers for idea submitters and employees alike.

Also of note, just how much our social efforts are paying off. EMC|ONE is at the very hub of global collaboration for this program. Like any such offering, it connects people and effectively enables innovation on a global scale that was simply not possible a few short years ago.

I managed to spend a few minutes with Dan Campbell. Dan is Vice President of Sales for our Western Division, and is also the executive sponsor for the California based events taking place around the Innovation Conference. Dan provides his thoughts on the importance of innovation to EMC, and to our customers.

New FTC Guidelines and Social Marketing

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission approved revisions to the guidelines it gives advertisers on appropriate use of endorsement and testimonial ads.

The update includes new examples to reinforce the notion that connections between advertisers and endorsers (connections that may not be obvious to consumers) must be disclosed. These are timely updates with the continued emergence of word of mouth marketing via the social web. 

From my point of view, this is a welcomed update. We continually work to understand the online behaviors of our audience. Peer to peer content continues to be among the most trusted sources of information during the buying cycle, regardless of size of purchase. Before purchasing just about any product, I always turn to opinions of others for perspective.

The notion of paid blogging (and micro-blogging) has been an emerging and heavily debated trend for some time. To me, exploiting consumer trust by seeding fictitious or paid 'peer reviews' is simply bad business, and runs the risk of truly damaging the credibility of user-generated content and the social web in general.

There's much more detail in the entire update for those interested.  I look forward to digesting a bit more, but in the meantime, will continue to take the approach of transparency rules... It's the safe and proper approach.