Right, so I spent 3 days the other week (well last year now - but I've been busy ok?) in Prague working with circa 70 other people at EMC's annual EMEA Customer Council. So naturally this is a tricky blog to draft, as being under many levels of NDA I certainly can't & won't talk about the content of the sessions and/or the information provided. But I just want to put down some thoughts out of the time spent and work done/started.
1) Firstly yes despite what people may think it definitely is work - sessions start around 0830 and run until around 17:30, and (as the paraphrased F1 saying goes) in these sessions your either giving or receiving information, there is never a relaxing moment. Yes there are 15min breaks dotted around the schedule - but for most of us the breaks get filled up with discussions with peers & EMC staff. And during this you still have to find time to fit in the usual 'day job' conf calls, emails and reports.
2) You meet some great people at these sessions - with a good diversity of views even though a lot of the requirements aren't too dissimilar. Indeed it's the candid & fluid interaction between attendees (employees & customers) that makes the event work and gives the value
3) This really is one of the best organised & structured council/feedback/user-group sessions I've ever seen with any supplier throughout my career - at lot of that must go down to a very professional & high quality team that plan, organise and manage this. I'm lucky enough to have been invited to attend for many years and it's always been more than worthwhile.
4) Despite EMC's somewhat historic arrogant image they really are actively listening, engaging in dialogue, taking feedback and changing approaches & technologies - very positive and rewarding for the time invested with them. In short customer feedback really does make things happen.
5) As is evidenced by their strong (perhaps sometimes slightly too calculated / manipulated at times) use of social media the company culture is also changing to a more open and communicative approach.
6) It's also clear from the past results, the level and qty of mngt attending, level of investment and detail of follow-up actions it's obvious EMC take this very seriously - I'm glad they do.
7) During the sessions there were many points that got my mind racing and raising the odd question or 6, and at least one occasion I was so shocked with the dialogue I was stunned into being speechless (at least momentarily).
Of course Prague is a very nice city - but this year workload & events meant I only really got to see it from a taxi to/from the airport. Unlike MS PDC (http://tinyurl.com/ygajlds) we didn't get any free netbooks - but did get a jacket, plastic pens and notepads (does that qualify as an FTC suitable disclosure?).
I don't believe it's breaking any confidences to mention that it was also great to catch-up with past attendees & friends (eg @stuiesav @chapmancentral @storageanarchy @docderrico - and many others not yet on twitter, or (wisely?) not prepared to share their IDs with me), but also to meet a great new crowd of first-timers who contributed highly to the event. (naturally @storagebod was very much missed, and would be good as a 'guest analyst speaker' at the next session)
A few other suppliers run similar titled events (although it surprises me just how few seem to run them, or treat them as seriously) but seem to pitch the level either too snr mngt (CIO/CTO level vision fests), or too open (300+ people attending user group briefings) or only for their resellers (shows priority focus of training people to sell rather than listening to the customer). They would do well to follow EMC's format and model here - I know I'd find it very valuable.
If you get an invite to such a session accept & attend - but also, please be prepared to contribute, discuss and challenge in the conversations & sessions, the supplier can only listen if we talk (or shout in some cases) and it is the customer responsibility & duty to help the supplier move forward.
All in these 3 days tend to be the most valuable conference / workshop days I spend during the year, I hope they continue, and I hope more suppliers adopt the approach!
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Sunday, 10 January 2010
"StorageBeers On Tour" Motorsport Event?
Ok so there are a few motorsport fans follow this blog - so my thought is that we could have an informal "StorageBeers on Tour" camping, beer & cars meet at one of the following events :-
For Goodwood FOS we normally arrive Thurs night or Fri morning and lave on Sun evening - staying at a local campsite a couple of miles away (with electricity).
These are not a football/stag-do events, but rather relaxed weekends, camping, cooking dead animal, hunting decent coffee, watching cars, sharing beer & whisk(e)y into the night.
So if anybody is up for something please let me know and I'll work out the costs etc :)
Update to add some cost estimates (very estimate - and assuming 2 people per car) :-
SPA
Camping & Ferry etc £169
Race tickets (Bronze 3 day) £160
Goodwood
Camping (3 nights - 2 people per pitch) £35
Passes (3 day roving) £100
Le Mans
Camping (MRI in Maison Blanche) & Ferry etc £165
Race tickets (not grandstand) £70
Add petrol, beer & food, speeding fines etc :)
- Le Mans - 12-13th June 2010
- Goodwood FOS - 2-4th July 2010
- Spa F1 GP - 27-29 August 2010
For Goodwood FOS we normally arrive Thurs night or Fri morning and lave on Sun evening - staying at a local campsite a couple of miles away (with electricity).
These are not a football/stag-do events, but rather relaxed weekends, camping, cooking dead animal, hunting decent coffee, watching cars, sharing beer & whisk(e)y into the night.
So if anybody is up for something please let me know and I'll work out the costs etc :)
Update to add some cost estimates (very estimate - and assuming 2 people per car) :-
SPA
Camping & Ferry etc £169
Race tickets (Bronze 3 day) £160
Goodwood
Camping (3 nights - 2 people per pitch) £35
Passes (3 day roving) £100
Le Mans
Camping (MRI in Maison Blanche) & Ferry etc £165
Race tickets (not grandstand) £70
Add petrol, beer & food, speeding fines etc :)
Which is the preferred car event?
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
OT - UK Winter Wonderland
Well as no doubt anybody seeing the news will have heard that the UK has suffered a couple of snow-flakes in the last few days, and as a result there is mass reporter hysterial, panic buying & shops, road gridlock, trains running hours late (if at all), schools shut and little work attendance.
So whilst walking to drop my son of to nursery this morning I took a few pictures of where we live :-
The intrepid explorer himself
And it was this pic above where my foot went through the frozen lake ice - gave me a little shock but no harm done.
Might go to the ski challet later to find Gluwine :)
Think I'll be staying indoors as much as possible with a nice warm cup of coffee :)
So whilst walking to drop my son of to nursery this morning I took a few pictures of where we live :-
And it was this pic above where my foot went through the frozen lake ice - gave me a little shock but no harm done.
Might go to the ski challet later to find Gluwine :)
Think I'll be staying indoors as much as possible with a nice warm cup of coffee :)
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
A Christmas message
So it's been a pretty crazy year all round - with more work than I can cope with, lots of travel, 2 months unable to drive for various reasons, lots of new learning, many new products & technologies, plenty of new challenges, good friends and great times with the family. And of course a whole new grumpy blog :)
I'd like to do a roll-call of friends & colleagues, and of the key events - but sadly in my old age I know I'd miss something or somebody out, so rather than that I'll simply like to paraphrase Helen Steiner Rice and say :-
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I'd like to do a roll-call of friends & colleagues, and of the key events - but sadly in my old age I know I'd miss something or somebody out, so rather than that I'll simply like to paraphrase Helen Steiner Rice and say :-
At Christmastime our hearts reach out
To friends we think of dearly
And checking through our friendship lists,
As all of us do yearly,
We stop awhile to reminise
And to pleasantly review
Happy little happenings
And things we used to do,
And though we've been too busy
To keep in touch all year,
We send a Festive greeting
At this season of good cheer.
So Christmas is a lovely link
Between old years and new
That keeps the bond of friendship
Forever unbroken and true
So I'll raise a glass of fine Tactical Nuclear Penguin and say :-
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Monday, 21 December 2009
Dilbert - spot on as usual
As usual Dilbert so perfectly sums up a lot of customer / supplier relationships :-
:)
:)
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Show Me The Money! (information)
Just a short entry today re a some points to take into account if you're ever (un)lucky enough to be trying to sell anything to me, yes that includes technology, products, services, change or ideas :-
1) I expect you to have done your homework on my company - understand my current suppliers, current products, scale, locations, press releases re plans, priorities & focus. If you don't do this, arrive unprepared, arrive late, arrive at the wrong location or spell the company name wrong then don't expect me to pay full attention.
2) Product positioning, definition, differentiator to other products and overall reason for existence - if you can't explain these points to me in 6 slides and 15 minutes expect to go no further. In effect I expect to be presented with at least the internal pitch made to justify the product's creation. Assuming you manage to do this, I also need to get a clear understanding of when / where this product should & shouldn't be used, and compared to other products from the same supplier. Lastly I expect a clear comparison to other vendors products with a strengths & weaknesses competitive assessment.
3) TCO / ROI / CBA - Total Cost Ownership, Return On Investment, Cost Benefit Analysis are the bywords for technology evaluations and procurement. You are expected to provide customer editable models for your products and suggested architectures, including the assumptions and process/org context these models have been built for. Where you don't know input values relevant to my business then use & identify industry averages for me to edit & refine.
4) I'm not interested in free-of-charge trials, loan equipment or evaluations as sales devices - if you can't sell & prove the value case without this then please hold your breath for an hour and we'll carry on after then... Should you manage to prove value, then I may, at some point in the future, wish to want to validate certain things with either customer reference visits or witness tests in your labs - at your cost.
5) Please understand that any form of change costs money - this will always be factored in to any decision made.
6) A feature does not make a product or a company - look around the IT graveyard and you'll find lots of companies that tried to break this rule. I am VERY unlikely to change product or supplier as a result of a single feature - useful & valuable features will become free-of-charge hygiene factors common across the industry soon enough.
7) I try and measure value & cost over 7 years (to include ingress, usage & egress), not this month's discounted deal - accepting this will be longer than your likely sales role with supplier, please understand you will be impacted by your predecessors sins of the past.
8) I'm more interested in partnership and quality people & relationships than transient discounted deals - trust and credibility is earned through honesty, actions, delivery, quality & consistency.
9) Understand that your sales forecasts, quotas, commission, priorities, timelines, financial period ends etc are of absolutley no interest at all to me
10) Understand that I'll contact you when / if I'm interested or able to - I'm often very busy and if you continually chase, harass me or phone me out of work hours then you'll drop down the list faster than a lead balloon.
11) I make our standards process very clear. If you attempt to avoid or subvert the standards process in any way (including with mngt manipulation, FoC offers,avoiding the truth or clandestine work) then expect your company to be removed from my engagement lists in totality and permanently.
12) If you use FUD or hype expect me to publicly challenge you - also expect me to validate anything you say using me own methods & sources. If you continue expect our relationship to get difficult.
13) I need electronic copies of any & all materials discussed or presented - no exceptions, without this I can't use it as reference material in my internal strategy planning. If you hide behind "it's beyond NDA", or "NDA prohibits" then I'll interpret that as "you don't trust me personally or respect me professionally" and the relationship will be difficult from then on.
14) If I give you questions & actions (and I will, likely lots of lists of questions) then please ensure you deliver upon them or things won't progress well
15) My company is global, I need you to be and to able to map to our account structure requirements globally - service, support, products need to be globally available directly and we need empowered global SPOCs with partners
16) Good enough is good enough - the world is about fit for purpose rather than best of breed or ultimate performance nowadays, let us make the decisions re performance or resiliency by providing all the information
17) I expect industry open performance benchmarks for each product / technology - even if you don't like or believe in them allow me to interpret their use, value, accuracy or relevance.
But most importantly, if you do take the above into account, we will have a good relationship, I will be a loyal customer and together we can do lots of business... And I'll even buy the beer :)
1) I expect you to have done your homework on my company - understand my current suppliers, current products, scale, locations, press releases re plans, priorities & focus. If you don't do this, arrive unprepared, arrive late, arrive at the wrong location or spell the company name wrong then don't expect me to pay full attention.
2) Product positioning, definition, differentiator to other products and overall reason for existence - if you can't explain these points to me in 6 slides and 15 minutes expect to go no further. In effect I expect to be presented with at least the internal pitch made to justify the product's creation. Assuming you manage to do this, I also need to get a clear understanding of when / where this product should & shouldn't be used, and compared to other products from the same supplier. Lastly I expect a clear comparison to other vendors products with a strengths & weaknesses competitive assessment.
3) TCO / ROI / CBA - Total Cost Ownership, Return On Investment, Cost Benefit Analysis are the bywords for technology evaluations and procurement. You are expected to provide customer editable models for your products and suggested architectures, including the assumptions and process/org context these models have been built for. Where you don't know input values relevant to my business then use & identify industry averages for me to edit & refine.
4) I'm not interested in free-of-charge trials, loan equipment or evaluations as sales devices - if you can't sell & prove the value case without this then please hold your breath for an hour and we'll carry on after then... Should you manage to prove value, then I may, at some point in the future, wish to want to validate certain things with either customer reference visits or witness tests in your labs - at your cost.
5) Please understand that any form of change costs money - this will always be factored in to any decision made.
6) A feature does not make a product or a company - look around the IT graveyard and you'll find lots of companies that tried to break this rule. I am VERY unlikely to change product or supplier as a result of a single feature - useful & valuable features will become free-of-charge hygiene factors common across the industry soon enough.
7) I try and measure value & cost over 7 years (to include ingress, usage & egress), not this month's discounted deal - accepting this will be longer than your likely sales role with supplier, please understand you will be impacted by your predecessors sins of the past.
8) I'm more interested in partnership and quality people & relationships than transient discounted deals - trust and credibility is earned through honesty, actions, delivery, quality & consistency.
9) Understand that your sales forecasts, quotas, commission, priorities, timelines, financial period ends etc are of absolutley no interest at all to me
10) Understand that I'll contact you when / if I'm interested or able to - I'm often very busy and if you continually chase, harass me or phone me out of work hours then you'll drop down the list faster than a lead balloon.
11) I make our standards process very clear. If you attempt to avoid or subvert the standards process in any way (including with mngt manipulation, FoC offers,avoiding the truth or clandestine work) then expect your company to be removed from my engagement lists in totality and permanently.
12) If you use FUD or hype expect me to publicly challenge you - also expect me to validate anything you say using me own methods & sources. If you continue expect our relationship to get difficult.
13) I need electronic copies of any & all materials discussed or presented - no exceptions, without this I can't use it as reference material in my internal strategy planning. If you hide behind "it's beyond NDA", or "NDA prohibits" then I'll interpret that as "you don't trust me personally or respect me professionally" and the relationship will be difficult from then on.
14) If I give you questions & actions (and I will, likely lots of lists of questions) then please ensure you deliver upon them or things won't progress well
15) My company is global, I need you to be and to able to map to our account structure requirements globally - service, support, products need to be globally available directly and we need empowered global SPOCs with partners
16) Good enough is good enough - the world is about fit for purpose rather than best of breed or ultimate performance nowadays, let us make the decisions re performance or resiliency by providing all the information
17) I expect industry open performance benchmarks for each product / technology - even if you don't like or believe in them allow me to interpret their use, value, accuracy or relevance.
But most importantly, if you do take the above into account, we will have a good relationship, I will be a loyal customer and together we can do lots of business... And I'll even buy the beer :)
Sunday, 6 December 2009
UK iSMF - The hidden jewel
To the music of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyz_2DEah4o...
The best way to contact this shadowy group is via the "UK Independent Storage Management Forum" - with an online presence at http://www.linkedin.com/groupInvitation?groupID=166408
If you're in the UK, a storage customer, and want to meet like minded storage admin peeps then sign the NDA, request to join and get ready to contribute on a 2-3 times per year basis...
If you're a vendor or reseller then you certainly can't do sales / marketing pitches - but, if you're lucky, maybe you can engage with the team to review your product, give feedback and sort your RFE & roadmaps...
[Disclaimer - the forum used to have facilities & logistics funding (repairs to the team van, all the cigars & gold chains costs you know!) and assistance from EMC (I'm currently unsure) - but certainly no sales pitch or content control]
[Double disclaimer - my terrible time & diary mngt has meant I've been a very underground figure for too long in this forum]
In the late 1990s a crack storage admin unit was sent to a data-centre
by senior mngt for a issues they didn't create. These men promptly
escaped from a maximum security site to the UK underground.
Today, still wanted by the vendors, they survive as admins of fortune.
by senior mngt for a issues they didn't create. These men promptly
escaped from a maximum security site to the UK underground.
Today, still wanted by the vendors, they survive as admins of fortune.
If you have a storage problem - if no one else can help - and if you
can find them - maybe you can contact : The (storage)A-Team.
can find them - maybe you can contact : The (storage)A-Team.
The best way to contact this shadowy group is via the "UK Independent Storage Management Forum" - with an online presence at http://www.linkedin.com/groupInvitation?groupID=166408
If you're in the UK, a storage customer, and want to meet like minded storage admin peeps then sign the NDA, request to join and get ready to contribute on a 2-3 times per year basis...
If you're a vendor or reseller then you certainly can't do sales / marketing pitches - but, if you're lucky, maybe you can engage with the team to review your product, give feedback and sort your RFE & roadmaps...
[Disclaimer - the forum used to have facilities & logistics funding (repairs to the team van, all the cigars & gold chains costs you know!) and assistance from EMC (I'm currently unsure) - but certainly no sales pitch or content control]
[Double disclaimer - my terrible time & diary mngt has meant I've been a very underground figure for too long in this forum]
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