Research: Low-cost software solutions for small and medium businesses

Small and medium businesses’ (SMBs) needs in terms of information and knowledge management have changed tremendously in the last couple of decades. The generalization of email at first, and then the advent of Web 2.0 with huge uptake in online social interactions, has increased demands in back-office processes to keep up with the speed of making business online. This has put focus on Information Technology (IT) as response to the challenges being faced by businesses, both internally, with demand for more effective collaboration solutions, and externally, with increased needs to manage interactions with customers and suppliers. These factors have placed significant challenges to IT experts trying to control the total costs of ownership (TCO) of information systems while sustaining the growth of the business.

In the last few years, two trends have provided important relief for IT costs in SMBs. First, the increase in solid, credible open source solutions capable of providing the same functionality as full-fledged commercial packages at a lower TCO; more recently, the decrease in price of broadband connections and widespread availability of cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings has enabled solutions with negligible costs for very small organizations and flexible scalability.

This article briefly explores the merits and tradeoffs involved in adopting either of these trends as a solution for a start-up SMB, presents some of the options available in the market to cover the basic needs of an SMB, and suggests the software suite representing the lowest TCO for a start-up business.

Research: Mobile payments

The use of mobile phones to make (and eventually receive) monetary transactions, commonly referred to as “mobile payments”, has been an area of focus for the mobile telecom industry players in the last few years as having strong potential for value generation.

Despite the predictions of significant growth over the next 5 years (the market is forecasted to grow to $633.4 billion by 2014, up from $68.7 billion in 2009, according to a report by Generator Research), implementation of successful revenue models in this area has so far been asymmetric across markets, with most of the success stories occurring in underdeveloped countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, and few solutions gaining significant traction in developed countries, with the exception of Japan.

In this article, written in November 2010, I identify distinct mobile payment models, look at players entering the market and try to identify key success factors and trends in the implementation of mobile payment solutions. Recently however, several rumours surfaced about the iPhone 5 implementing a new payment service based on near-field communications. It will be interesting to see how Apple’s implementation will affect this analysis.

Are you leveraging LinkedIn’s 3 lifelines? (updated)

This article has been updated on November 19, 2010, with secure alternatives to initiate an email or Skype call from your LinkedIn profile.

I am an enthusiastic LinkedIn user. Throughout my MBA I have used it almost daily as a tool for networking, and more recently in my job search as I prepare my post-MBA career. LinkedIn is a great career management tool; there are plenty of articles across the internet, and on LinkedIn itself, providing strategies for job-seekers to leverage social platforms, so I will not delve into that subject. Instead, I’d like to focus on a very simple resource that LinkedIn makes available to all users, and that most users do not take full advantage of: the website links on profile pages.

Invictus, a lesson in leadership

I am back after an intense few weeks on the Lisbon MBA. Financial Accounting, Financial Investments, Business Strategy and Organizational Behaviour provided for an interesting and very, very busy term that just ended.

I am now enjoying some free time before next term starts, and had the opportunity to watch a movie that I strongly recommend to anyone interested in the topic of leadership: Invictus is not only another great movie by Clint Eastwood, but also a fantastic lesson in how leadership can make a difference. Don’t miss it.

The Entrepreneur inside

Seen at Dilbert.com.

Process innovation at Ferrari F1: new wheel cubes and optimized operation allow 4-second pit stop

Seen at Marca.com.

Innovate or die!

Originally published at The Joy of Tech.

Finally the big queue makes sense…

Originally published at PHD Comics.

The formula of happiness and the compound happiness effect

There are lessons to be learned in the most unexpected occasions. Last week Banco Espírito Santo came on campus for a corporate presentation integrated in the Banking industry week organized by the Lisbon MBA Career Management Center. They had a great presentation, led by Pedro Raposo, their Human Resources Director, one of those guys that really makes you want to be on his team. Enthusiastic, poised, candid and to-the-point. He reminded us that in these rough times people should be having a fresh look at their priorities. Then he told us about the “formula of hapiness”:

Simply put, your actual hapiness equals your real hapiness divided by your expected happiness. Your actual happiness will tend to infinite as your expectations of happiness tend to zero. The bigger your expectations… well, you do the math.

This concept is extremely useful from a leadership perspective, as it can be applied to the happiness of the people you lead (and this does not exclusively mean the people who report to you in a job function). The more you understand and appropriately manage their expectations, the bigger your power to maximize their happiness. As a leader, your own happiness is a function of their happiness, so you will be increasing the value of your numerator as well – we may call it the compound happiness effect. Something you can’t get from a bank account.

The Valley of Despair

Anyone who has been through an MBA program will tell you how challenging it is in terms of time and stress management. It is well known that top business schools design their programs to be demanding enough so that they adequately prepare the class to deal with stressful situations and heavy workload in their future careers.

A former Lisbon MBA student, with whom I spoke before enrolling, compared her early experience in the program to being a recruit in the special forces. After these initial 4 weeks I am in a much better position to understand the comparison. Of course I’ve had my share of 100-hour weeks during my life as an IT consultant, and it helps having recently been responsible for a team of 15 CRM support analysts scattered around 4 continents, with back-to-back conference calls with demanding customers in Sydney, Kobe, London, Madrid, Mexico City and São Paulo, an ever-full email inbox and enough air miles to redeem for space travel. Nevertheless, I am now feeling the stress of preparing case studies, homework, playing a real-time on-line inventory management simulation, having group discussions, preparing a marketing plan (all happening simultaneously), and lack of time to read class materials and books required for the end-of-term exams in 2 weeks time. Sleep deprivation is weighting down on me, and on top of it I came forward as a candidate for the students’ committee, which will require some additional effort in case I am elected.

I am fortunate to have worked in enough projects requiring organizational change management to become familiar with John Fisher’s process of transition, or the change curve for short. This is a model partially based on Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief, and often used to prepare individuals to cope with change processes in their function or organization, with the objective of minimizing resistance to change and its associated negative effects.

Understanding the model and being able to recognize the stage at which one is during the change process can be extremely encouraging, as going through the “valley of despair” requires significant emotional support in order to avoid the most common escape mechanisms. I stared at this picture for quite a while this week, and keep reminding myself how great that uphill ride is going to feel.