Working in the Production IT of SaaS companies for some years now,
I have come to realize that there is a strong connection between managing the IT and Supply Chain Management,
In a former post I’ve added the links to a Video introduction to Supply Chain Management course,
Created by the Arizona State University – which I strongly recommend watching  - it’s a total 1 hour and worth your time.

I went through each module and I will try to explain how IT in a SaaS Company should be managed like a Supply Chain.

Module 2 – Buy it: Managing Supply

Like in making a cake – the ingredients used to create the SaaS infrastructure will determined the quality of the service:

• Hardware – which company will you sign with to supply your needed hardware ?
  you will need some if not all of: 
  • Servers – in different configurations to support different functions like web, DB, Propriety applications
  • Switches
  • Routers
  • Storage
  • networking hardware
  • racks to hold all the servers
• you will probably also consider more than one hardware supplier as each company has other supplies to offer
  for each supplier you will need to consider: 
  • quality of hardware
  • delivery speed – and if you work for a Global organization this means different delivery times to different locations
  • supplier flexibility – in delivery time, site, support
  • and of course – cost issues

• Men power – SaaS companies need production personal to run and manage all the servers in the production Farms,
  these are talented, experienced people with the right know how in each field and the will power to invest the time and effort needed to manage support and support a 24×7 Global servers farm who need to be up and available 100% of the time.
  Some of the needed functions are: 
  • Sys admins – for various Operation systems
  • Networking gurus
  • Security experts
  • DB Admins
  • 24X7 Network Operation Center
  • Support
    etc …

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYbtZ0x9_SA

Questions, comments or suggestions are very welcome – post below and I’ll get back to you.

Technorati Tags: saas, Supply Chain Management

Lately I’m reading a lot of articles from the Harvard Business Review Magazine,
which publishes Articles and blog posts and case studies that were created to improve the practice of management and its impact in a changing world.

Most of the blog posts are free to read and some of the Articles from the magazine too,
but the most are sold for a price.

The site focuses on topics like:

• Change management
• Information technology
• Leadership
• Operations management
• Strategy
• Systems theory

or on Management Skills as:

• Becoming a manager
• Career planning
• Coaching
• Decision making
• Delegation
• Developing employees
• Improving performance
• Interpersonal skills
• Interviewing
• Leading teams
• Managing people
• Managing yourself
• Team building

And many other topic, all fascinating and important to read for any new or seasoned manager alike.

I warmly recommend reading everything you can read from there, since you can find a case study or an article that discusses almost all the managerial dilemma that you might face through your working years.

And for those who cannot afford buying each article,
in a former post I’ve showed how to find most of them as pdf files available to download in Google.

Technorati Tags: google, Harvard Business Review, hbr, leadership, Management, Online Tools

The whole list is about 1 hour to watch.

You can view the Supply Chain Management as 1 playlist in this post.

Module 1: What is Supply Chain Management? [8:05]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi1QBxVjZAw

Module 2: Buy It: Managing Supply [3:46]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYbtZ0x9_SA

Module 3: Make It: Manufacturing and Operations [4:23]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncli94xodm8

Module 4: Move It: Transportation and Logistics [3:45]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZpHiMTwOdM

Module 5: Sell it & Service It: Retail Considerations [3:39]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUO2EaJnb-w

Module 6: Supply Chain Integration [4:41]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_yMW2b0kNk

Module 7: Global Supply Chain Management [4:07]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuQ200JAViA

Module 8: Socially Responsible Supply Chain Management [4:33]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdbKvXh6sLU

Module 9: Business Processes [4:13]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUInjQvzIkE

Module 10: Measuring Performance [5:17]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4HPYYR5iLw

Module 11: Quality Management [3:20]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJNVrY_Z2NM

Module 12: Supply Chains and Information Technology [3:53]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXDvHgjRNDQ

Technorati Tags: inspiration, Management, Online Tools, Online Training

The whole list is about 1 hour to watch.

You can view the Supply Chain Management each module separately in this post.

The Modules included in this overview are:

1. What is Supply Chain Management? [8:05]
2. Buy It: Managing Supply [3:46]
3. Make It: Manufacturing and Operations [4:23]
4. Move It: Transportation and Logistics [3:45]
5. Sell it & Service It: Retail Considerations [3:39]
6. Supply Chain Integration [4:41]
7. Global Supply Chain Management [4:07]
8. Socially Responsible Supply Chain Management [4:33]
9. Business Processes [4:13]
10. Measuring Performance [5:17]
11. Quality Management [3:20]
12. Supply Chains and Information Technology [3:53]

Technorati Tags: inspiration, Management, Online Tools, Online Training

A very nice initiative from Volkswagen -
of course a successful Viral positive publication initiative as well - and yet very charming.

Volkswagen tested some theories of how to make people co-operate on tasks which usually get lower support,
by making them fun for the participates.

Here is a short example of how fun makes people prefer going through the harder way up

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=player_embedded

Gaming at work

Another interesting example of this idea is how fun at work improves the working day,
the worker contribution to the work place and productivity,
a couple of articles that I found interesting about this are:

Research proves online gaming at work is good for you – and for your boss

and

Does Gaming at Work Improve Productivity?

Technorati Tags: fun theory, games

I love HBR articles – Harvard Business Review Web site is great, and full with interesting readings,
but I can’t afford buying them for 5$ each,
still they can be easily accessed with an easy to use pdf search engine,
here is a simple example:

Lets say I’ve stumbled over this nice article I wish to read:
“How Leaders Create and Use Networks” by Herminia Ibarra, Mark Hunter.

It looks nice enough and I want to go over it, but I don’t want to pay the 6.95$ HBR are asking for it,
a very simple way to find it would be to search for it in any given PDF search engine available, or even google engine itself.

For example:
Go to http://www.pdfsearchengine.org
and search for:

hbr  How Leaders Create and Use Networks

The First result will send you to:
http://www.tenseattle.org/resources/Documents/Networking-HBR-%2001-07.pdf

which includes the entire article in a PDF version ready for reading

Google search:

just write in the search panel the name of the article you are looking for and “filetype:pdf”
For example, in our case I will search for:
How Leaders Create and Use Networks filetype:pdf

from the results I got,
one option lead to http://www.sail.co.in/Growth_April_June_2007.pdf#page=101
which included a nice reading Article Digest for this HBR article

another option lead to http://www.brittenassociates.com/documents_articles/Leaders%20Creating%20Using%20Networks.pdf
which also included the full article in PDF ready for reading and typing.

Happy reading

Technorati Tags: Harvard Business Review, hbr, pdf search

Here are some Nice Interviews with Yossi Vardi the Israeli Investor done on TechCrunch.

The part is titled: Keen On… Yossi Vardi: Why He Likes To Exploit Child Labor (TCTV)

of course you need to watch for a while to understand that the kids Yossi is talking about are about 21-22 years old

Technorati Tags: interviews

Technorati Tags: funny, Management