Can you succeed in the mobile market without a million apps

First you need to get your priorities right.  Are you in the market to sell phones, apps, accessories,  ads or development tools. 

Some has a clear strategy, like Apple with all of the above, but at a price, and they did have the first out advantage.  Others like Google spread the different key parts out to partners like Samsung and Admob, and then if the partners become too successful, like Admob,  take them over.  Then we have the not so successful like RIM/Blackberry and Microsoft/Nokia. 

Blackberry tried to keep their stuff proprietary so if you wanted their software you had to buy their hardware.  That could only take them so far.  Look how successful their messaging software was as  soon as they ported it to ios.

When it comes to Microsoft they don’t seem to have cracked the nut on how to do mobile even if they have plenty of samples to follow.  Their intricate system of 3’rd party development paths for the Windows Phone platform is as bad as Apple’s, without having the advantage of being first with anything.   They should have looked at Google and Android instead if they wanted to see how to be  in opposition.    Google controlled the layout but gave away the OS, and  took control of the app store and the advertising where a lot of the money can be made.  They made it easy to subscribe and fast to submit apps. 

Even though I developed my first app for the Windows Phone, It took me a full month to be ok’d by the Windows app store.  A month I used to port it to Android, and it only took me a couple of days to be set up on Google’s store.  From I submit an app to Microsoft’s store it takes 3-4 days to be approved while it takes 3-4 hours on Google Play.  There is something wrong there.   Yes the Windows app is checked more for compatibility, but is it really necessary with such a limited number of hardware options.  In the end the customer download the apps and uses it if it works and complains if it doesn’t – or more likely throws it away.  That’s what you have trials for.

For and Android phone you have a lot more control over the features than for a Windows phone.  You can write apps that run as services, an essential for most movement logger apps, while this is restricted for a Windows phone “to save battery life”. 

Then it comes to cost, even though setting up in the 2 stores cost about the same, you’ll need a Windows 8 pc, a several hundred quid phone,  and most likely the more than 500 quid .net to develop for a Windows Phone.   Comparable to Apple where you need an Apple computer.  For Android you can do with any pc on any version of OS, a 50 quid phone and a 60 quid development tool.   The funny thing is I can write in VB for both Windows and Android, so it should have been easily portable between the two.  But the high start-up cost for the Windows Phone development tools combined with their limited volume, makes it a much higher risk. 

Microsoft could do so much to improve their app availability by a few cheap and simple steps.  Open the OS for more adjustments and buy up a couple of the largest Android development tool makers and adjust their products so apps already made on them can be easily ported to the Windows Phone platform.  That would really kick-start availability overnight.   

Howe is your power infrastructure laid out

It’s time to rethink the way we do power in our offices  and homes.  Time and time again we see how business and private homes is hit by flooding.  And what is the problem.  All electricity start at ground level or below.  Due to the unsigthliness of overhead power lines all such feeds are now buried under ground.  Then just inside there is a power meter and then the main fuseboard, And circuits spread out from there.   But with flooding this is a very vulnerable layout.  Even a foot of water can be an issue if these things are in a cellar, and electricity and water makes a lethal combination as the recent floods on the East Coast of the US proofs.  

In Ireland all houses have to have a water tank installed in the attic to ensure a certain water pressure, and for a certain amount of emergency supply if mains pressure fails.  Your power needs to be arranged in a similar manner.  The main lead needs to be brought fully insulated up to the top floor and the main breakers placed there.  Then each floor need a main switch so they can each be isolated.   That way you can still have safe power even if the ground floor is flooded.  Just switch off  that floor.   This panel needs to be in a place high up tough.  You can’t stand in a foot of water switching electricity.   For extra security you can also have automatic sensors that can switch off each floor as required.  Even better combine it with a complete environment monitoring solution.  The hardware for a solution that measures temperature and have sensors for power outages and flooding and notifies you remotely, can be bought from as little as a few hundred.

If you have a ups and or generator  it needs to be placed as high up as possible.  What about in or around the lift room.  Yes it will be a bit noisy but think off that as the positive feedback that its working.

One generator is seldom enough to ensure absolute uninterrupted power.  Because of its mechanical nature and unregular use it will be prone to not starting automatically when you need it the most.  Think of it as your nice weather sports/convertible car that always have a flat battery the day the sun shines.   A good and periodic generator testing regime will help, but If your office don’t have 24 hour onsite personnel that is trained in how to start it in an emergency, you will need a backup.  And with in an emergency I mean the maybe 10 minutes you have before your ups runs out of batteries. 

There is ways of connecting power to make 2 generators cross-feed the same grid, together or one or the other.  It’s complicated and your average electrician is not to eager about it, but it can be done even a reasonable cost.   

Very few companies goes this far unless they have experienced first-hand what a unscheduled power outage can do to today’s vulnerable systems.  Think of however that with more abnormal weather patterns any place could experience a flash flooding, and have you investigated every part of the way electricity take from its place of production to your building.  You wouldn’t want any of those transformers to go off with a bang leaving you in darkness for what could be days.  

What is a servers economical life

In some industries they see it as important that a computer hardware has a long lifespan.  I hear that in the oil industry they are looking to get 7 years out of their servers.  Is this realistic.  In my opinion no.  Anybody that expects the highest possible uptime should not expect more than 3years, at most 4years,  lifespan from a server, or other computer hardware with moving parts. 

There is a reason for that with most manufacturers the 3 year warranty is cheap, year 4 reasonable and the cost of year 5 can be accepted.  Any more than that and there is definitely no economy in it.  It’s cheaper to buy new.  The trouble is in most cases no1 the harddisks and no2 the power supplies.  No amount of guarantees can make them live longer.  All the guarantees do is ensure there is something there to swap them with when they do fail, and failure usually mean some sort of downtime. 

A problem is that no hardware manufacturer will give you a “guarantee to fix”.  Service contracts involve a guarantee to maximum time before engineer is on site, and often a second maximum time until part is on site.  In the old days these where one and the same since the service engineer had a ll the most common parts in the back of his car.  These days stock is smaller and the part might be a flight away.  Not good if your problems is during a volcanic ash crisis, or a 9/11.

I can see the attraction of 7 years if you are in the sample financial industry since there is requirements to keep financial data for 7 years.  It is however better to prepare a migration path early, because it will be needed. 

Another requirement when trying to extend the life of hardware is frequent monitoring.  And here I must insist on the necessity for physical presence in the computer room.  Those blinking lights will for the trained eye give early warning.  They are also much easier to see than a line of log hidden among thousands.  Today we see the opposite trend with many being proud of their dark data centres.  Dark here meaning no light due to no manpower on site.

The necessity to be prepared will increase as more and more backups are online or on secondary storage.  They will expire just as fast as other hardware.  In the old days tapes could last long if they where kept well and tested for failure at regular intervals.  Always keep 2 at least copies because tapes did have a high failure rate due to stretch.  To ensure recovery I always brought 3 sets to the dr centre.  One problem is to find something to restore them on when they are needed after several years. 

A diskdrive is a diskdrive and they will fail eventually due to that they have moving parts inside.   A possible solution can be the ssd that could be written to once and then , which would help against its so and so many writes sudden death syndrome.  Currently however due to its cost its not taken up in any large numbers. 

Ssd’s  is not a solution for the parts of servers/applications/databases that requires frequent rewrites.  It could even shorten the lifespan of the hardware requiring a higher rate of turnover.  There have in use for high turnover database logs been reports of whole shelves of ssd’s failing at once, after less than 2 years of service.

Forgotten about act of day to day IT operations

An important but easily forgotten part of a company is its day to day IT operations.  What create kudos is new stuff, like development.  This is where Executive management has its IT eye in a company whose core business is not IT.  This is a natural progress from that share value is seen to have all current  status built into its current pricing and only new announcements can afflict it in a positive way.

This often leads to the attitude that IT operations is just “your job” and achievements is treated thereafter.   Sometimes for a CIO the only way of getting cudos for the operations part is through saving money by outsourcing it.  No wonder 90% of their attention is on development.   

Problem is that today IT operations is at the core of every business.  Few can handle even the simplest task without their backend computers, networks and core infrastructure running perfectly.  When you outsource it you lose part of the control on a vital part of your business success.  It’s not until it goes wrong, and sometimes very wrong ref Ulster bank, that top management takes an interest.  This often leads to a negative aspect.  Every time IT gets attention it’s because something went wrong.  And since rewards are only given for positive news, day to day running of IT becomes a neglected non rewarding area.  And the most neglected part of all is often Disaster Recovery.  A part of IT that will always have a certain stigma over it, due to it’s need of negative thought.  An important key element non the less since its what prepares you for what every IT manager now is  inevitable;  a major system let’s call it hiccup.

    

It is sad that many non IT executives in businesses whose core activity is not IT related, almost takes pride of their lack of knowledge of IT.  They couldn’t express it so openly if it was about any other side of their business they lacked core knowledge.  

This leads to that the CIO/IT Directors role becomes a buffer between IT and the top executives.  And since it’s the top executives that hires said CIO they often end up with a “talker” rather than a doer  with real knowledge.  

Building downwards from there, the “talker” CIO will see too that he don’t hire anyone in lower ranks that can upstage him/her.  Alternatively will feel a need to ensure that anyone able to do such a thing has no channel of communication with the executive level.  Often an easy solution since the executive level has no interest anyway.

This is the type of scenario where massive problems eventually will bubble to the surface.  It also makes for an unhappy company with resentment growing through the lower ranks.

To avoid more pitfalls in the future the executive level  needs to get a better understanding for what makes their business tick on a day to day level.  Unless you have your core right, future success can not be assured, and even the new stuff will only give temporary success at best.   

The losers in the long run will be the shareholders. Long term the company that do not have control of their day to day operations, and IT operations is a vital part of this, will lose out, or fail spectacularly. 

Mass marketing via email

An effective way of marketing to an established set of customers has for a time been mass marketing via email.  You should always encourage your customers to include the email address when they register.  If you include clauses (with opt out buttons) that let you utilize 3’rd parties it will increase the value of your list.  Be careful though, you don’t want it to be a list of people that has banned you from sending to them.    

Genuine offers are required.  And they will feel extra good about it if they receive it before everybody else.  Like sending the email the night before the general release of the offer.

How to send to this list you have collated is a matter of choice.  If you are a regular mailer with knowledge of emailing I would recommend a self run packages due to its lower cost in the long run.  It also leaves you in control of the list.  A list that can have a value in its own.  If you contract out, be careful to have clauses in the contract that expressively say the list of email addresses is yours and yours alone, and is to be handed back if the contract ends.

A good one for self hosting is Listmanager form Lyris http://www.lyris.com  A very high capacity and fast mailer with response tracking facilities. Couple of hundred thousand an hour should be no problem.  It also handles spam filters very well. An important consideration for repeat mailing. You don't want all your efforts to be filtered away. A problem with free and cheap mailers. 
Lyris also has good support.  

Always send from a domain that can be looked up via reverse dns. This is the first test from most filters.  Also set up a real reply address where you can handle automated verification responses from spam filters, and answer spam complaints from the likes of gmail.  Be careful with having a opt out link at the end of all sent emails.

You need to carefully monitor your sending’s.  A good system should track the progress and put non successful conversations on hold.  However a general problem in the transfers can lead to a list where all is on-hold.  See to that they are not wiped off your list to quickly.  I would also recommend subscribe confirmations via email to verify genuine email addresses and sort out the mischievous.

Integrate your emails with your website so you can track the responses and uptake/sales from each mail.  A good package should have this included.

Creating a regular stream of similar emails can be a chore.  Some packages also offers automated help with the composing of the emails, allowing a daily marketing becoming somebody’s part-time job.